When we think of prayer requests, most of us think primarily of problems that we want God to resolve, but that does not seem to be the apostle Paul’s approach. For example, here is what Paul wrote to the Ephesian church: “because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him…” (Eph. 1:15-17). Paul was focusing on their active faith and thanking God for it, asking Him to build on it with more of the same.

Surely the members of the Ephesian church faced daily challenges, including life-threatening ones. Yet Paul did not start by praying about the predicaments and emergencies, he started with the Solution: God Himself. Because the Ephesians were already inclined to rely on God, Paul prayed for more strength to do so: “… that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might” (Eph. 1:18-19).

Instead of being sidetracked by the “tyranny of the urgent,” Paul prayed first for those eternally significant concerns. We can learn to do the same.

Mike Deering