Praying for Life, Praying Toward Vision Part 3 (Eph 6:18)
• Eph 6:18 The emphasis here is actually on the word perseverance
o NIV has always keep on
• NASU be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,
• Paul is calling the church to persevere in praying for itself against the attacks of the enemy.
o Remember the whole context here was spiritual warfare.
o Putting on the full armor of God in defense of the enemy’s schemes.
• What are some of the barriers?
1. Delayed answers to prayers
• Sometimes it’s just hard to keep praying when it seems like the answer is a long time coming.
o Daniel 10:12-13
Verse 12 The angel says that from the moment you began to pray your prayers were heard.
• Even when it doesn’t feel like it, God hears our prayers right from the beginning.
Verse 13 We see that prayer can be delayed for reasons that may not be known to us.
• We see that not only can answer prayers be delayed, they can be delayed by other spirits.
o Most bible scholars believe this is the governing evil spirit for the Persian nation, a territorial spirit
o But then the angel tells Daniel that Michael the chief angel came to his rescue.
It reminds us of the spiritual battle that rages around us, that we may not always be aware of.
2. The Spiritual warfare itself
• The Spiritual warfare, the thing we are praying against can wear us out.
3. Praying without vision
• When we pray things that are from the heart of God, our hearts naturally align with that.
o And it’s much easier to sustain and persevere in prayer
4. Spiritual amnesia
• It’s hard to persevere if we don’t remember
5. Disappointment
• We can quit praying pretty quickly or lose faith for prayer if we are disappointed.
o This is always an issue of a conflict between our flesh and the sovereignty of God. See Isa 46:10
6. Others:
• Recent article sited the two primary reasons for not praying: No time and lack of faith
o Lack faith is rooted in a poverty mindset.
• Middle voice certainly helps to answer these two as well
• These two also come back to me our message on relationship
o Jesus is our friend, we make time for our friends and we trust our friends.
