What Does Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones Teach About Intercessory Prayer?

What does Lloyd-Jones emphasize as the most important aspect of prayer according to Ephesians 6:18-20?

According to Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the most important aspect of prayer in Ephesians 6:18-20 is intercessory prayer - praying for others. He notes that while we should start with praying for ourselves, we shouldn't stop there: "The main thing that he emphasizes is what is called intercessory prayer, that is to say, prayer for others. We start with ourselves, but we don't stop with ourselves." Lloyd-Jones stresses that the apostle Paul urges believers to pray "with all perseverance and supplication for all saints."

Why does Lloyd-Jones say we should pray for all saints?

Lloyd-Jones provides several reasons why we should pray for all saints:

1. We are all engaged in the same fight: "We are participators, as Jude puts it in his epistle of a common salvation."
2. We all face a common foe: "We are all subject to the same problems and the same difficulties."
3. Failure at any point affects the entire church: "Failure at any one point is something that is going to affect the entire army."
4. We are members of one body: "No man liveth unto himself, says Paul to the Romans. No man dieth unto himself. We are absolutely independent [interdependent], whether we know it or not."
5. It helps those in positions of "peculiar difficulty and trial and stress and strain and trouble."

How does Lloyd-Jones say intercessory prayer benefits the one praying?

Lloyd-Jones teaches that intercessory prayer provides significant benefits to the person doing the praying. He calls it "the sovereign remedy for many of the ills and the diseases of the soul":

1. It's "the sovereign remedy for introspection"
2. It cures "morbidity and a morbid self concern"
3. It helps combat self-pity: "One of the best ways of getting rid of all that is just to pray for other people"
4. It helps you forget yourself: "When you feel you're in a kind of vortex and you can't get rid of yourself...Get down on your knees and pray for them, and you know you'll get up, finding that you've forgotten yourself"

What specific prayer does Paul request for himself, and why is this significant?

Paul asks for prayer "that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel." Lloyd-Jones finds this significant for several reasons:

1. Paul doesn't ask for personal deliverance from prison or healing from sickness
2. He focuses solely on the preaching of the gospel and the spread of the kingdom
3. He acknowledges his own weakness as a speaker, saying "the apostle Paul was not a good natural speaker"
4. He asks specifically for boldness in speaking - "without qualification," "without fear"
5. He wants to be delivered from "the fear of men," including fear of their learning, their money, or their power

Lloyd-Jones sees this as a crucial prayer for preachers today: "Pray that we may be delivered from a spirit of compromise... Pray that we may be guided rather by diplomacy, by expediency."

What final message does Lloyd-Jones emphasize about the purpose of preaching boldly?

Lloyd-Jones concludes that the ultimate purpose of preaching boldly is the salvation of souls: "Let us therefore look beyond men to their lost souls, and let us be concerned about nothing but the glory of God and the salvation of men and women." He emphasizes that the truth "is the only thing that can save men," which is why we must contend for it without compromise while maintaining "hearts full of love and mercy and compassion."