What Paul Prayed For: Grace

It’s hard to talk about what Paul Prayed for in the epistles without mentioning the subject of Grace. It seems to me that every epistle of his gospel opened with this particular prayer. And indeed other apostles like Peter seems to also take that approach and I can readily call to mind, Peter’s prayer in 2 Peter 1: 2 where he prayed, “Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, 3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:”. It is in this same manner that Paul opened most of his epistles.

1 Corinthians 1:3, Paul prays: ‘Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, 2 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours: 3 Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ’(it’s the same opening you will find in 2 Corinthians 2:1)

Galatians 3:1, ‘1 Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;) 2 And all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia: 3 Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ,’.

All of Paul’s epistles opens and sometimes closes with the prayer for grace. Similar scriptures you will find in Galatians 6:18, Ephesians 1:2, Ephesians 6:23-24, Philippians 1:2, Colossians 1:2, 1 Thessalonians 1:1b, 1 Thessalonians 5:28, 2 Thessalonians 1:2, 1 Timothy 1:2, 1 Timothy 6:21, 2 Timothy 1:2, Titus 1:4, Philemon 1:3. Indeed every time at the end of our worship service when we chorus these words ‘let’s share the grace’, we are simply praying the prayers of Paul from 2 Corinthians 13:14, ‘The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.’

It’s a short prayer but a prayer that captures succinctly all that the gospel made available to us! It captures all that the Godhead made available for us. Through love, God sent forth his only begotten Son to mankind (John 3:16) that whosoever believeth will not perish but have everlasting life! And then the Son came manifesting to us as grace. For John tells us in John 1:12-16, ‘But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. 15 John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me. 16 And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace’. And when the son would leave he wanted this grace to continually abide with us and so he sent forth the communion, the fellowship of the Spirit of God to continually minister to us both the love of God and the grace of Christ!

The prayer for grace reveals the fullness of God made available to mankind! And this is what we spiritually tap into when we ‘share the grace’ as we normally say. Now it’s good to have that spiritual understanding when we pray that prayer, it is not a spiritual cliché or creed for closing the service. It is a prayer that provides a spiritual gateway to access the fullness of God!

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Peter Adeshina Babalola
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