EPHESIANS 6:18

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

TO PONDER

I have met people who will pray all day on a regular basis, those same people would take trips to “IHOPKC” (International House of Prayer Kansas City, Missouri) to spend a week at a conference on prayer and be excited about signing up on the 24 hour prayer roster and they would sign up for more than the 1 hour time slot.

I had been invited on several occasions to join them and would always be busy at those times, really, I was busy...

Today’s verse is encouraging the Ephesian church to pray “on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests” and to “be alert” in their praying for the church (remember church is not a place/building we go to but who we are as a community). On all occasions sounds like a lot, especially when I’m busy and life is good. I will of course agree to pray for someone when they are going through something, when they have an occasion they need God's intervention and most of the time I will at least say a quick prayer soon after I had been informed of their need.

But when the “occasion” is something personal to me, something I am going through, a family member, or a close personal friend my prayers become desperate, frequent, passionate, as I long for the church to pray with me. I can’t but help feel convicted by today’s verse when Paul admonishes us/me (the church) to “be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people” especially when reading the verse in the context of spiritual warfare, which is what Paul was writing about.

“The Lord’s people” are my family and deserve more than just a tossed out prayer.

PRAYER: Almighty God, I ask for your forgiveness for the times when I don’t love my neighbour as myself, when I don’t pray for my spiritual family’s needs and requests as fervently as if they were my own. Amen.

Today's devotion written by Danny Brock, LifeWay Westside