After describing the pieces of the armor of God, Paul adds another important part of spiritual battle: prayer. This is essential to winning spiritual battles because prayer connects us to the power of God, which is necessary to defeat spiritual enemies. Our study will follow the outline below 

1. The Call to Prayer (v.18a)
2. How to Pray? (v.18)
3. What to Pray? (v.19-20)

John MacArthur in his commentary on Ephesians 6:18-20 says, “Ephesians begins by lifting us up to the heavenlies, and ends by pulling us down to our knees.” The Christian life is not about making ourselves happy and comfortable. It’s a battle with the unseen forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. To fight for God against this evil enemy, we must be people of prayer! 

Getting Started                          

1. What was/is your relationship like with your principal at school? Did you have direct access? Was your principal approachable and were you able to engage in a casual conversation? Share your experience.     

• Read Ephesians 6:10-20

2. What insight, principle, or observation from Sunday’s sermon did you find to be the most helpful, eye-opening, or troubling?

Digging Deeper

3. What does Paul mean in verse 18, “pray at all times”? How is this possible if we have to drive a car, make a living, or go to school? How can we pray at all times?” 

4. What does it mean to “pray in the Spirit” (see also, Jude 20). 

5. What does Paul mean when he says pray "with all perseverance"? The Puritans used to say “Pray until you pray.” How is this connected?

• Read and discuss this article: https://www.glennamarshall.com/2021/11/16/until-you-pray/ 

The Heart of the Matter

6. In our text, the reason Paul repeats the word ‘prayer’ and uses synonyms for it (‘petition’ is repeated twice), is to emphasize the priority of prayer in spiritual warfare and perhaps also the fact that there are different kinds of prayer that we are to use in the battle. Read the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6 and try to identify the different kinds of prayers used there. 

7. What do you think John Bunyan meant when he said, “You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed.” ? 

8. Paul highlights the importance of praying for the needs of other believers. What are some needs your group can be praying for you?