Prayers of Paul 02

Philemon 1:4-6
4I thank my God, making mention of you always in my prayers, 5hearing of your love and faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints, 6that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.

Romans 10:1
1Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.

Paul prays! He prays for believers in churches he planted like the Philippians as we saw last week; he prays for individual believers like Philemon; he prays for unsaved people groups like the Jews. As we continue looking at the prayers of Paul, I want to focus on his prayers for Philemon and his prayer for the Jews. Both of these prayers are expressions of Paul’s heart for evangelism.

Although Paul was known as an apostle to the Gentiles, he never lost his passion to see his own people, the Jews, come to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. He longed to see them freed from the burden of legalism and released from the trap of self-righteousness.

Paul also prays that Philemon will be effective in sharing his faith with others. According to Paul, the key to releasing Philemon’s evangelism potential is “the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in [him] in Christ Jesus.” In other words, when Philemon really understands all that he has as a result of following Christ, he will not be able to stop himself from sharing his faith. And he will be more effective in sharing because he will be able to testify first-hand about God’s goodness.

This week, let’s pray that love for the lost and our love for God would motivate us to share our faith effectively. Think of all we have in Christ and how many others need what we have. If God has put a burden on your heart for a particular people group, pray for them. It might be a particular community, city, tribe, or nation. As you pray, open your heart and mind to the possibility that God may have laid this group on your heart for another reason. Consider the possibility that He not only wants you to pray for them, but He has also chosen you to go and be His ambassador to them.