Praying the Book of Ephesians With A Twist

Over a year ago, one of my dearest friends began the vigorous journey of memorizing the entire book of Ephesians.  I thought, wow you are incredibly brave and way smart!  Shortly thereafter during one of her visits by the house she fearlessly handed me a stack of pages bound together in the corner by a staple.  My eyes gazed over the title and it read, An Approach to Extended Scripture Memorization, by Dr. Andrew Davis.  http://seekinghim.net/docs/scripture_memory_booklet.pdf   Knowing how much she had already gained by pursuing this wonderful task, I eagerly went on and read through the method.  It seemed pretty straight forward and much to my surprise quite simple.  After  quieting the loud voice shouting in my head,” you could never do this”,  I then took Dr. Andrew’s advice, asked God for help and off I went to begin with verse one.  With great joy and delight I can say, by God's awesome strength and abundant blessing upon us, we both memorized the whole book along with a few others who joined us along the way.  It was a wonderful experience and really a lot of fun!

 So these days, we are in the retention part of the memorization method, where you are to quote the whole book every day for 100 consecutive days.  My 100th day actually lands on Christmas… how fitting. 

Well all that introduction to set the stage so I can talk to you about praying the book of Ephesians.   Chapters 1 and 3 of Ephesians hold two of the most wonderful prayers and while quoting them we have learned to pray these passages for ourselves as well as others.  So recently my friend told me while out for her daily run she has begun praying the entire book of Ephesians for her husband. Wow! The whole book… I love that!  Then a few days later she told me while praying she became a little perplexed with chapter 6 verses 1and 2.   “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right honor your father and mother which is the first commandment with a promise, so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth.”  Since she has only been married a few years with no little ones yet, who was she to pray this for?   All of the sudden she felt the Lord say, “I want you to pray it for your children.”

  So now I picture one of the most beautiful scenes in my mind, my dear friend out jogging the canal, sun on her face wind at her back, quoting the book of Ephesians while her heart prays it for her husband and the children whom will join their family one day.  Is there anything sweeter?  It sure puts a smile on my face and a song in my heart!  Praise God! 

Ephesians 6:18

“With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.”