Introduction
We should love the fact that we serve a God who loves us and cares about our needs. It’s pretty incredible that when work is hard, we can pray. It’s humbling to know that if my friend’s child is sick, I can take that to the Lord. However, we can get caught in a prayer life that consists only of personal requests for ourselves and others. While this isn’t wrong, what about praying for God’s desires? What about praying for God’s plans and interests in the world? What does God want us to pray for, rather than what we would like to pray for?

Today’s Scripture
Ephesians 6:18-20, New Living Translation

"Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere. And pray for me, too. Ask God to give me the right words so I can boldly explain God’s mysterious plan that the Good News is for Jews and Gentiles alike. I am in chains now, still preaching this message as God’s ambassador. So pray that I will keep on speaking boldly for him, as I should."

Explanation and Reflection
Paul's heart is God’s heart. Here, Paul is praying God’s prayer requests rather than his own. This teaches us a lot about the nature of prayer.

1. The time of prayer
   As Paul closes out his letter, he discusses the life of a Christian in prayer. He uses the term “at all times” to describe the level of investment we should have in it. A life of prayer is marked by prayer all the time. The idea here is that prayer is worthy of continuous engagement. Why? Because prayer is relational. Prayer is not a to-do list or an obligation. It is the primary means to grow interpersonally with God. It takes the concept of “God out there” and moves our idea of God to “God here with me.” The very nature of prayer is intimate and relational, so it should be ongoing.
2. The place of prayer
   If prayer is supposed to be continuous, it should go with us everywhere. The vast majority of us would never leave our homes without our phones. Let’s face it—our smartphones have become an appendage. Why? Our phones are power—power to stay in touch with loved ones, get work done, watch our favorite shows, and keep up with the latest news. Prayer is more powerful than your phone, so why would you leave it behind? Paul envisions God’s people using prayer everywhere to advance the Gospel. We cannot leave prayer behind.
3. The people of prayer
   Ephesians says, “Be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere. And pray for me, too.” The “me” here is Paul. Let me encourage you. You can pray for the “world” in a generic sense, but this can be overwhelming because it seems like a lot. It can also be uninspiring because it looks so generic and depersonalized. I don’t think overwhelming or uninspiring is Paul’s goal. Rather, think of the term “world” as the people in your life—your local church, family, missionaries you know, other churches in your city, etc. Systematically think through who labors for the Gospel around you, make that your personal world, and pray for them. The believers in your life need prayer.
4. The content of prayer
   Let’s explore a radical idea. We often pray for people's relief in the midst of their hardship. What if that’s not always the best prayer? Please hear me out. I am not claiming we should pray for hardship for people, nor am I claiming that we shouldn’t pray for relief for people who are going through hardship. But what if someone’s hardship is God’s primary means to advance the Gospel? The content of Paul's prayer request is not that he gets out of his chains. Instead, his prayer request is that he stays on message (the Gospel) and on target (the Gentiles). He was not asking for his life to get easier. He was asking people to pray for his capability to focus. As we pray for ourselves and others, perhaps we need to pray more to stay on message and target, rather than praying for God to remove pain and problems.
5. The tone of prayer
   Notice the word “bold” is used twice above. At the heart of Paul’s prayer life was a desire to pray boldly for boldness. Let’s face it: living out and proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ has never been easy, and Jesus never promised it would be. With religious consumerism in North American churches, we sometimes get into the bad habit of thinking that the Gospel should be easy, fun, and comfortable. It’s not. The Gospel in our lives should be bold. It should ask a lot because Christ gave a lot. The Gospel is radical, and we shouldn’t be “babied” with it. The revolutionary movement of the first-century church was bold. It was filled with bold leaders who made bold moves that involved bold sacrifices, which led to bold change. Underpinning all of this were bold prayers.

Good prayer has many essential ingredients. It involves a lot of healthy dynamics and diversity. Sometimes, we need long periods of isolated prayer alone with deep focus. Other times, we should pray as we go about our day, praying all the time and everywhere. Sometimes, we need to lay before God our personal problems and the problems of others in the smallest of things. However, there are times when our problems or others' problems are not the point of prayer. We should instead pray for the growth of God’s kingdom. Finally, there are times when our prayers should be humble, quiet, and soft. Every good relationship has moments where partners talk in whispers. But there should also be moments where we pray boldly and cry out loud, pleading with God for His kingdom to come and His will to be done.

Question of the Day
Here’s a question for you to think about and apply:
Is your prayer life more about your personal prayer requests, or more about praying for God’s desires and interests? Are your prayers bold like those of the first-century church?