For this reason I kneel before the Father. (Eph. 3:14)
IDA LEWIS was a lighthouse keeper’s daughter who was credited with saving eighteen lives. Her first recorded rescue occurred in 1858, when she was sixteen. Four boys went out for a sail, and one of them decided to show off by climbing to the top of the mast and rocking the boat. It capsized, and the four youths struggled to hold on to the overturned hull. Ida rowed over and pulled each of them into her dinghy. In a later rescue, she pulled two men into her boat during a snowstorm.
Unlike Ida, we may never have the opportunity to save someone from physical death. But when Christian friends and relatives are drowning in doubt and worry, we can hold them up with our prayers. That was the reason Paul knelt before the Father in today’s Scripture reading. He asked God to strengthen the faith of the Christians at Ephesus and to fill them with God’s love.
Only the Lord Jesus Christ can rescue those who are perishing spiritually, and He already did everything necessary by dying on the cross and rising again. But God wants us to pray for those who are struggling. Jesus set the example during the Last Supper by praying for His followers and asking His Father to protect them from Satan (John 17:6–26). So let’s follow His example.
Pray for fellow Christians who are struggling in their faith.
Kathryn Page Camp enjoys photography, reading, and sailing Lake Michigan with her husband of thirty-five years.
