What St. Paul Teaches Us About Prayer

By Sr. Bernadette Beamsley

The secret to Saint Paul’s profound apostolic ministry is the depths of his conversion, which is considered the greatest in Church history.  His encounter with Jesus  on the road to Damascus was only the beginning of Saul’s transformation into the great Apostle Paul.  His radical response was to withdraw for three years to Arabia. (Gal 1:17) It was there, alone in prayer, that Paul began “to grasp the length, the height and the depth” of God. (Eph 3:19)

   In this desert time, Paul pondered God’s love “poured into his heart through the Holy Spirit” which he received when he was baptized by Ananias. (Rom 5:5)  Paul recognized God’s special favor in choosing him while he was still a sinner (Rom 5:8), considering himself to be the greatest of sinners having been a persecutor of the saints ( 1 Tim 1:12-17)  His response to God’s overwhelming unconditional love is one of deep gratitude and continual praise.  He tells us”…pray constantly; and for all things give thanks to God,” (1Thess 5:17) and to “Rejoice in the Lord always.” (Phil 4:4)  Paul demonstrates by his life that he praised the Lord continually in all circumstances.  We read in Acts 16: 22-26 that after being flogged and thrown into prison, “Paul and Silas were praying and singing God’s praises”  late at night.  The result of their sacrifice of praise was an earthquake, the conversion of the jailer and his household, and their release from prison!

   Paul also reflected on God’s divine call for him to preach the Good News to the Gentiles.  (Gal 1:16)  This required such a radical change in 

his understanding of salvation and the Gentile’s part in it.  How jarring this must have been for him!  God’s ways are not our ways and He does challenge us to “be transformed by the renewal of our minds” (Rom 12:2).

Relationship and Surrender

   Our Christian life and prayer is about relationship with God, as our Father.  Paul expresses this in Romans 8: 15-17, “The Spirit you received is not a spirit of slaves bringing fear into your lives again; it is the spirit of sons, and it makes us cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’” When we see ourselves as children of God, we are freed from the slave mentality that creates an unhealthy fear of God in us.  Paul encourages us to have childlike faith in God by “casting all cares on Him, knowing He cares for us.”   He tells us in Philippians 4:6, “in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God:  Paul exhorts us to “persevere in prayer” (Rom 12:12, Col 4:2) and to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess 5:17) because he knows that prayer is life to the soul, just as food is to the body. 

   Paul responded to his deep relationship of love by imitating the One  he loves.  He sought to crucify all his self-indulgent passions and desires in order to belong more fully to Jesus (Gal 5:25), and “…to share His sufferings by reproducing the pattern of His death” (Phil 3:10-11) He emptied himself of all pride, power, prestige, title, or position and saw himself as an unworthy servant of Jesus Christ. 

He passed on to us the “Christian formula for greatness” in his letter to the Philippians 2: 5-11 by exhorting us to have the same attitude as Christ Jesus, who totally emptied Himself, even unto death on the cross.  Paul had made so much room for God in his heart that he can declare, “I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” (Gal 2: 19-20)

Boldness

   Paul’s one aim in life was to proclaim “Jesus is Lord” so that all would be saved. (Rom 1:9) This proclamation of the Word was not really separate from his life of prayer.  For him to lift Jesus up was an act of worship:  “The God I worship spiritually by preaching the Good News of His Son…” (Rom 1:19)

   His apostolic ministry was a form of praise as Paul extolled the goodness of God.  His love poured out from him so that he could not help but preach the Gospel because it was such good news!  “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel.”

   The light that enveloped him on the road to Damascus now became the blinding Truth that has shown through him wherever he went.  He allowed the burning love of Jesus to so penetrate his heart that he was a man on fire who could boldly exhort us, “Be imitators of me as I am of Christ.” (1 Cor 11:1).

Used with permission from: Praise Him!  July/August 2021.  www.disciplesofthelordjesuschrist.org

Sr. Bernadette Beamsley is part of the Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, a Franciscan charismatic community based in Texas and was one of our Jubilee conference speakers in October 2017.

As we approach the conference in October, pray to live and walk with boldness as Paul  did.  Let’s look forward to being IGNITED by the POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT so we can go forth as disciples of our Lord Jesus.