This is essentially the end of Paul's letter to the Ephesians. His encouragement to them is to remember to pray and remember him in their prayers.
Many people think that praying at meal time is weird. I have to agree, but here is my perspective. When Jesus was at the last supper, he took bread, broke it, gave thanks and shared it with his disciples. He did the same thing with the wine. Then he said, whenever you eat and drink in this way, remember me. While the elements are used to symbolize his body and blood, the command to remember has forever been set in my heart.
So as I approach a meal, you may or may not see me pray, but typically before every meal, my mind will remember Jesus and the sacrifice he made on the cross. That makes it easy for me to be grateful for the tremendous blessings I have in my life. So in that moment of hunger, I remember the blessings of my life and who gives them to me.
Second, Paul is asking for prayer. I find that the scriptures are not filled with 100's of Gospel Warriors (if you will) it has a handful of Heroes. Paul being one of them. I'm not a hero of the faith. I'm a guy just pressing into what I find in the Bible and really, all of life. But I do find when I serve in the Church, I get worn down. When I am weak, I'm vulnerable. And that's when I typically screw up.
So I totally get Paul asking for prayers. I also totally get him encouraging everybody to remember all the Lord's people. We all get worn down from work, parenting, lack of sleep, heartaches, relationships, etc... We need to depend on Him to become our strength when we are feeling weak.
Ephesians 6:18ff And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.
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