Five Things I Pray for You
An abstract of TBC Missions & Leader Development Jim Congdon’s sermon on October 26, 2025, in the Book of Ephesians series. Watch the sermon video here.
Have you ever wondered what to pray for the people you love? It's easy to pray for someone's health, safety, or success. But the Apostle Paul had something deeper in mind when he prayed for his friends.
In Ephesians 3:14-21, Paul offers one of the most beautiful prayers in all of Scripture. It's a prayer that focuses not on external circumstances, but on internal transformation. These aren't quick fixes or shallow requests—they're prayers that can change someone from the inside out.
Why Am I Praying?
Paul begins by explaining his reason: "For this reason I kneel before the Father." He's not praying to impress people or to get something for himself. He's praying because God is building something—a family, a church, a people. And Paul wants to join in what God is already doing.
The best reason to pray for someone isn't so they'll like you more or so their life will be easier. It's because you want to participate in God's building project. God has important things He wants to do in their lives, and through your prayers, you get to be part of that work.
How Am I Praying?
Paul says he kneels before the Father. Now, your physical posture in prayer doesn't matter as much as you might think. People in the Bible prayed standing, sitting, lying down, running, and even hanging upside down from a roof. If God cared about your exact posture, He would have told us.
What matters is your inner posture. Are you coming before God like a servant before their master or a citizen before their king? That reverence, that humility, that sense of awe—that's what counts.
Still, there's something powerful about kneeling when you pray. When you physically kneel, your prayers often become a little more reverent, a little more focused. If it's been a while since you've knelt to pray, try it this week. You might be surprised how it changes your conversation with God.
To Whom Am I Praying?
Paul prays to "the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named." This reminds us that when Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He told them to start with "Father."
God has built Himself two families—one in heaven (the angels) and one on earth (us). One day, these families will be joined together. When you pray, you're talking to the Father who created both families and loves them deeply. You're part of His family, and that changes everything.
What Am I Praying?
Here's where Paul's prayer gets really powerful. He prays five things for the people he loves:
1. Strength
Not physical strength, but inner strength—the kind that helps you defiantly endure your trials. Paul prays "that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit."
We spend so much time worrying about external strength—going to the gym, eating right, staying healthy. Those things matter, but inner endurance matters even more. Inner guts. Inner resilience. The ability to keep going when life gets hard.
Think about Christians around the world who face real persecution. They need this kind of strength—not to avoid suffering, but to endure it with faith.
2. Faith
Paul prays "that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." But wait—doesn't Christ already live in every Christian? Yes, but there's a difference between Christ being present and Christ being at home.
It's like inviting someone onto your property but never letting them into your house. Christ wants to come in, sit at your kitchen table, and have coffee with you. He wants to walk with you through your day and live His life through you.
This is what Paul meant when he wrote, "I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me." It takes faith to believe that as you go through life, you don't have to respond out of anger or fear. Instead, you can let Christ live through you—responding with His compassion, His patience, His love.
3. Love
Paul prays that you would "grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ." From the earliest days of the church, people have seen in these dimensions a picture of the cross.
The vertical beam stretches toward heaven—showing how high God's love reaches. It goes down into the dirt of our sin—showing how deep His love goes. The horizontal beam extends in both directions—showing how wide and long His love is for all people.
This is a what-Christ-did-on-the-cross-for-us kind of love. This is the love we celebrate every time we take Communion. Paul prays that you would truly grasp this love—not just know about it, but experience it in a way that changes you.
4. Knowledge
Here's where things get interesting. Paul prays that you would "know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge." Wait—how can you know something that's unknowable?
Think of it this way: If you're married, do you know your spouse? Well, yes... and no. You'll never completely know them, even after a lifetime together. But that doesn't mean you can't grow in knowing them.
The same is true with God's love. You'll never exhaust it, never fully understand it, never reach the bottom of it. But you can keep learning, keep discovering, keep finding out more about how great His loving heart really is.
And here's the secret: You learn God's love most deeply not when life is easy, but when life is hard. When you're going through trials and you discover that God is still there, still good, still loving—that's when you really begin to understand.
5. Completeness
Finally, Paul prays "that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." This might be the strangest prayer of all. How can a finite person be filled with an infinite God?
The picture Paul has in mind is like the Old Testament temple. When God's people welcomed Him, His glory would fill the temple completely. Paul prays that the same thing would happen to you—that you would be filled to the brim and overflowing with God Himself.
Here's a helpful image: Imagine trying to clean a dirty water trough by scooping out each piece of debris one by one. It's exhausting and never quite works. But if you just put a hose in and let clean water flow, eventually the rising water pushes all the dirt and debris right over the edge. The trough becomes clean and pure simply by being filled.
That's God's method for changing you. He doesn't ask you to pick out every bad habit one by one. Instead, He invites you to be so filled with Him that there's no room for anything else. Be filled completely with God, and watch how your life transforms.
Can These Prayers Really Be Answered?
Paul knew some people might think these prayers were too big, too impossible. So he ends with this powerful statement: God "is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us."
You've got it backwards if you think your prayers are too big. God is bigger than any prayer you can pray. He can do what you ask. He can do what you imagine. He can do more than you ask or imagine. He can do immeasurably more than you ask or imagine.
These five prayers—for strength, faith, love, knowledge, and completeness—are exactly what God wants to do in the people you love.
Take Your Next Step
This week, give someone you love a secret gift: Pray these five things for them. Pray that they'll have strength to endure their trials. Pray that they'll invite Jesus to live through them daily. Pray that they'll grasp the Calvary love of the cross. Pray that they'll discover more of God's unknowable love. And pray that they'll be completely filled with God Himself.
Want to learn more about prayer and growing in your relationship with God? Join us this Sunday at 9:00 or 10:30 a.m. We'd love to meet you and pray with you. You don't need to have everything figured out—just come as you are.