Ephesians Prayer Guide - Day 7
Give thanks for all those who have spurred you on and encouraged you in the faith.
Read and pray Ephesians 1:15-16
Because of this, since I first heard about your strong faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and your tender love toward all his devoted ones, my heart is always full and overflowing with thanks to God for you as I constantly remember you in my prayers. TPT™
My guess is that there is one or a few particular people who have paved the way for your being where you are in your faith today – whether they prayed for you, encouraged you, spoke truth to you or trailblazed ahead of you when you didn’t even know there was a way.
For me, I am overflowing in thanksgiving for my grandparents who took me to church and for the youth pastors who were faithful to pour into a broken, young girl words of life and truth. They offered acceptance, belonging and hope. I am beyond grateful for a scholarship to a Christian summer camp, where I was first presented with the Gospel and an opportunity to make a decision that would change the rest of my life! (Did my mom know what she was applying for? I don’t know about her, but I know that God used it to begin a good work!)
Spend some time thanking the Lord for those who helped set your life on a course where eternity was marked on your heart. If you have some time this week, send a note thanking them!
What about those in your life today – pastors, friends, teachers… – who have forever changed your trajectory of walking with the Lord?
I think about two women who walked with me through the darkest journey of my life – they held my hand, listened to my cries and stayed in the place of faith when I didn’t know if I could “do it”. I think about two different groups of prayer warriors who know when and how to raise the battle cry. I think about the mentors and women of faith I have looked up to – who taught me, fought for me, and challenged me to never settle. I think about those who dream big dreams with me and those who challenge me and are not afraid to call me out.
Thank the Father for those who have encouraged you to dig deeper, reach higher and want MORE in the Lord. Thank God for those who keep you accountable and don’t let you grow passive or lazy in your faith.
Pray the following passage over those you have thanked God for today (personalize it with their names). I also encourage you to pray this specifically for those pastors and leaders that pour into your life and your churches, today.
I am always thanking my God for because he has given you such free and open access to his grace through your union with Jesus, the Messiah. In him you have been made extravagantly rich in every way. You have been endowed with a wealth of inspired utterance and the riches that come from your intimate knowledge of him. For the reality of the truth of Christ is seen among you and strengthened through your experience of him. So now you aren’t lacking any spiritual gift as you eagerly await the unveiling of the Lord Jesus, the Anointed One. He will keep you steady and strong to the very end, making your character mature so that you will be found innocent on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is forever faithful and can be trusted to do this in you, for he has invited you to co-share the life of his Son, Jesus, the Anointed One, our King! 1 Corinthians 1:4-9 TPT™
Thank God for those who model the life of walking out in faith, for those who walk out tragedy with grace, for those deal with turmoil – knowing God will make a way, for those who are steadfast in believing when all seems dead… And pray for those who are struggling and need someone to help pull them up. We have all been there at some point in time – hopeless, fearful, believing that God doesn’t see or care. Pray for divine intersections, pray for laborers, pray for faith… Pray for how God might lead you to be a part of someone’s story.
We feel a personal responsibility to continually be thanking God for you, our spiritual family, every time we pray. And we have every reason to do so because your faith is growing marvelously beyond measure. The unselfish love each of you share for one another is increasing and overflowing! We point to you as an example of unwavering faith for all the churches of God. We boast about how you continue to demonstrate unflinching endurance through all the persecutions and painful trials you are experiencing. 2 Thessalonians 1:3-4 TPT™
PRAYER: Thank you Father for my history. Thank you for the pieces of my story that have brought me to my faith today. I thank you for the people who spoke life into me – I pray for your blessing upon them. I thank you for the way you intersect our lives with exactly the people we need – whether to speak into our lives or for the way we will get to speak into others’ lives. We pray that we would always be at the ready to give an answer for the hope that we have. We praise you that you are in all the details. We pray for more intersections and more nuances to our stories – and we pray also that we would get to be a piece in others’ stories. Let us be a people who are overflowing with thanksgiving – let that overflow status be the place in which many strangers walk into our church homes to find LIFE. We pray for a spirit of THANKSGIVING to fall upon Your Church – may we always press into the place of giving thanks and offering up praises for who You are! In Jesus’ name, Amen!
Scripture quotations marked TPT are from The Passion Translation®.
Copyright © 2017, 2018 by Passion & Fire Ministries, Inc.
Used by permission. All rights reserved. ThePassionTranslation.com.
