INSPIRATION FROM PAUL

How did you learn to pray? Do you have a specific style of praying? Have you ever changed the way you pray? One way to examine how you learned to pray is by thinking of the people in your life that prayed aloud. Quite often our styles reflect the Christians that surround us. We can learn so much (good and bad!) from how others pray. We’ve examined a little bit of how Jesus prayed, but there are also many other praying people in the Bible. Taking a look at other prayers of people in the Bible can help us establish good prayer styles and habits. Let’s take a look at the prayers of the Apostle Paul.

The first thing that I noticed is how often his prayers just spontaneously pop up in his writing. The Bible includes 13 of Paul’s letters to various churches and people and throughout his letters, prayers just spring up in the middle of his doctrines and admonitions like in Ephesians 3. The way Paul slips in and out of prayer is a great example of praying without ceasing. When requests come to mind, he prays for them (Romans 10:1). When Paul is overcome with joy, he takes a moment to praise and thank God (2 Cor. 9:15). Have you ever sidetracked a conversation by taking a moment to praise God? Have you ever included a prayer for a person in the middle of a text message? Why not? Paul made prayer a lifestyle, not just something reserved for a specific time of the day. Which leads me to my next point.

Paul made prayer a lifestyle,

not just something reserved

for a specific time of the day.

Paul often talked about praying for the saints constantly, always, at all times, night and day, and without ceasing (Rom. 1:9; Eph. 1:16; Phil. 1:3-6, Col. 1:9, 1 Thess. 1:2; 3:10, 2 Thess. 1:11; 2 Tim. 1:3). He prayed not just in his letters, but all the time. He definitely wasn’t one to say he would pray for you and then totally forget to pray. He probably wasn’t constantly murmuring to himself, but he was in a habit of praying for others. Paul had requests and thanksgivings on his mind all the time. That’s probably why it was so natural for him to burst into praise in the middle of his letters. He was spontaneous because he was also planned and disciplined in his prayer time which is all part of making prayer a lifestyle.

Because his life was saturated in prayer, his prayers are often joyful and thankful. Of the 42 prayers of Paul that I examined, fourteen began with thanksgiving, three more with praise, and three more verses included thankfulness. So half of his prayers include praise and thanksgiving. Prayer time is not just for requests. In fact, if our prayer time is focused only on requests, we can be guaranteed we’ll give up the discipline of prayer. Being joyful through praise and thanksgiving will help us continue to pray because it helps us focus on glorifying God and that’s a never ending adventure.

If you’ve never read through all the prayers of Paul, I encourage you to do so this week. Paul is such a wonderful example of making prayer a lifestyle, not just a ritual or a duty. Reading and praying through his prayers is inspiring and convicting. What a great reminder that we can come before God with any request or praise at any time!

Here’s a list of links to Paul’s prayers by book:

Romans 1:8-10; 10:1; 12:12; 15:5-6, 13, 30-33 * 1 Cor. 1:4-9; 16:23; 2 Cor. 1:3-7; 2:14-16; 9:12-15; 12:7-9; 13:7-9 *  Gal. 6:18 * Eph. 1:3, 15-23; 3:14-21; 6:19-20 * Phil. 1:3-6, 9-11; 4:6-7, 23 * Col. 1:3-14; 4:2-4 * 1 Thess. 1:2-3; 2:13-16; 3:9-13; 5:17, 23-24, 28; 2 Thess. 1:3, 11-12; 2:16-17; 3:2-5, 16 * 1 Tim. 1:12; 2:1-2; 2 Tim. 1:3-7, 16-18; 4:22 * Titus 3:15 * Philemon 4-7, 25

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