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By Pastor Glenn Pease
CONTENTS
1. INTIMATE COMMUNICATION
MARK 1:35‑39
2. PERSISTENCE IN PRAYER Based on Luke 18:1‑8
3. HELP! I CAN'T PRAY based on
Rom. 8:26‑7
4. EMPOWERING OUR ACTIVITIES
WITH PRAYER Based on Eph. 6:10‑1
5. THE PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING
Based on Phil. 1:3‑6
6. THREE KEYS TO A BETTER
PRAYER LIFE. Based on Col. 1:3
7. SPONTANEOUS PRAYER Based on I Thess. 5:12‑28
8. PATRIOTIC IN PRAYER Based on I Tim. 2:1‑
9. ASKING GOD based on James 1:5‑8
10. CHRISTIAN CONFESSION Based on I John 1:8‑9
11. SEEKING GOD'S FACE Based on II Chron. 7:11‑22
12. THE PERPETUAL PREPARATION
OF PRAYER Based on II Chron. 7:11‑22
13. UNANSWERED PRAYER Based on Matt. 6:1‑14
14. THE PLEASURE OF PRAYER
Based on Psalm 84:8
1. INTIMATE
COMMUNICATION MARK 1:35‑39
If we had
as many answers to prayer as we have books on prayer the battle would be
won. Unfortunately it is easier to
write a book on prayer than to pray effectively. It is easier to preach a
sermon on prayer than to pray. It is
easier to give a lecture on prayer than to pray. It is easier to do just about anything concerning prayer than to
actually pray well and wisely.
The reason
this is so is because we have not taken
Christ as our guide to prayer, and have tried to follow men who claim to be
experts, but who have made the matter of such complexity that it is too
discouraging, and we lose our motivation.
If we went into a library and found a dozen volumes on how to order a
hamburger, we would probably figure it is too complicated, and never brother to
order one. So it is with prayer. There are books galore, and seminars, and
special retreats, and so many people trying to teach us how to pray, that we
automatically assume that it is in the same category with learning brain
surgery and international law. So we
lose hope, and just accept the role of being poor at prayer.
People
who are good at saying prayers only confirm our despair. We say, come Lord Jesus be our guest, let
this daily food be blest. They can give
a lesson on Bible history, and give guidance to government leaders, and a
challenge for world missions, all in a prayer of thanks for a hamburger. It makes
the rest of us feel like we are not even really thankful for our hamburger, and
also feeling like we just don't know how to pray.
The vast
majority of Christians would list as one of the weaknesses of their Christian
life, their prayer life. We do not
spend enough time in prayer. We don't
pray for enough people. We don't pray
as fervently as we ought, or as persistently as we ought. There is hardly any aspect of prayer that we
do as adequately as we ought. Christian
guilt feelings about this make them easy targets of manipulation. They can be
made to feel they need to go along with some prayer gimmicks to get back into
God's favor. Maybe it's an all night
prayer meeting, or some kind of prayer chain, or large group prayer service, as
if the length of your prayers or the quantity of them is the key to God's
reluctant heart.
All of
this Jesus put into the category of paganism in Matt. 6, where He said the
pagans think they will be heard because of their many words. Jesus taught that God already knows what we
need, and so a short and simple prayer is all that is necessary. He never told His disciples to get a big
crowd together, but said get alone in your own room and close the door. He didn't give them a manuscript of hundreds
of prayers when they asked Him to teach them to pray. He gave them a single prayer of about 50 words as an
example.
My point
is, the reason that prayer is so hard for Christians is because they have made
it hard. The Bible doesn't. Jesus didn't. Christians have so complicated the simplicity of the Bible with
pagan ideas, they have put a satisfying life of prayer beyond the reach of the
average Christian. One Christian writer
said she could visualize the millions of prayers hurtling toward God at
mealtime, and so she decided to do her praying between meals when the prayer
traffic was not so thick. She also got up early to get her prayer in before the heavy breakfast crowd. Of course, this is silly, but so is every
aspect of prayer that implies God is not omniscient. Jesus said in Matt. 6:8,
"Your father knows what you need before you ask Him."
If that
is the case, then being eloquent is no big deal, for we do not have to persuade
God. It is not as if we have to be
intellects, and be able to speak with great logic to get through to God. Neither the quantity nor the quality of our
prayers are the issue, for God already knows what we seek to communicate. This puts all God's children on the same
level. So what if we can go on for a half
hour with flowery words of oratory, and another can only say thank you Lord for
today, give me guidance for tomorrow?
The
Pharisee in the temple was no doubt better at prayer than the publican. If we took a vote among men after hearing
them both pray, the Pharisee would win on both length and eloquence, but Jesus
said the publican went away justified, not the Pharisee. "God be merciful to me a sinner,"
was his prayer, and on the cross the thief said, "Remember me when you
come into your kingdom." And the
father of the demonized boy prayed, "Lord I believe, help thou my
unbelief." When you look at the
prayers that Jesus answered in his life, you can't help but be impressed with
their brevity and simplicity. They are
little more than cries for help.
When the
disciples were caught in the storm, and feared the ship was going down, they
woke Jesus and their prayer was, "Lord, save us! We are going to drown."
When Peter was going under his prayer was, "Lord, save
me!" All these prayers were
answered. Of course, they were emergency situations where
eloquence and length are not only irrelevant, but potentially deadly. But what we want to see as we examine the
prayer life of Jesus is that even the normal prayer life of the believer is to
be simple and not complex. Our text
reveals three simple truths about prayer that can make effective praying
possible for all of us. First‑
I. THE
PRIORITY OF PRAYER.
Notice
Mark 1:35 says Jesus got up to pray very early in the morning while it was
still dark. Prayer was a priority in
His day. It was the first thing on His
list. Prayer was not reserved for some
crisis, or great need out of the ordinary.
Almost everybody prays when they
come to their Gethsemane. When there is
a terrible time ahead, or one faces problems that are overwhelming, then prayer
becomes a priority. But for Jesus
prayer was a priority when all was going well, and there was no great
opposition, or huge obstacles to hurdle.
This
text comes early in His ministry when people were delighted, and even His
future enemies were not yet sniping at Him.
Yet, Jesus made prayer a priority in His life‑style. From this we need to see that prayer is not
primary a tool for crisis. A hammer can be used to fight off an attacker, or to
break through a wall to rescue someone from a fire. But this is not its usual function. It is usually used just to pound nails, to fix things, and
to hang pictures. Prayer has its crisis value, but like all
tools, prayer has its usual commonplace function as a tool of
communication. We need to make prayer
habitual and not situational.
Look at
your relationships to people, and what you will see is that some of them are
based on habitual communication, and some on situational communication. I have people I relate to once a year
because we communicate through Christmas cards. There may be a crisis that leads to more communication during the
year, but basically this is it‑crisis or Christmas. Some of these people were at one time very
close friends or relatives. There was a
lot of communication, but times change.
They moved, or we moved, and new relationships developed, and the old ones
got pushed to the back burner. They no longer have a place of priority.
The ones
that have priority are those where there is habitual communication. You talk to these people on a regular
basis. There does not have to be any
crisis or occasion, you just open the lines of communication, and you relate to
these people. Now the point is, the degree of intimacy you experience in any
relationship is determined by the priority you give to communicating with
them. What happens in life is that we
lose intimacy with those we love because we let communication slip from a place
of priority. Husbands and wives do this
all the time. It does not make them
cease to love each other. But it does
mean they have lost their intimacy, and it can only be restored by renewed
communication.
I had a
friend many years ago who was a book fanatic just like me. Every time we got together we could go on
endlessly about books, authors, and ideas.
Talk, talk, talk. We were the
best of friends. But he moved away, and
then I moved, and we just lost touch with each other for many years. I still have fond memories, and would
consider him a friend, but he has no priority in my life at all, for lack of
communication has ended all the intimacy we had.
This
happens with people, but it also happens with our relationship to God. We drift away from God. We do not necessarily love Him less or trust
Him less, but we cease to put communication with Him on the front burner. It is no longer a top priority, and the
result is we lose intimacy with God.
There's no longer that closeness that we call fellowship.
Every
relationship of life faces this same struggle of keeping intimacy alive. In every case the only way to do this is by
means of communication. That is why
prayer was a priority in the life of Jesus, and why it has to be in the life of
every Christian. A growing relationship
to God can only take place in a life where intimacy is developed. And intimacy can only be developed by
communication. You cannot get close to
people who will not talk to you, and God has the same problem. If we do not spend time with God our
relationship with Him will cool.
We have
had neighbors we only see out in their yards a few times a year as we go
walking, but we get into a good conversation and share who we are, and what we
are about, and when we go away from these talks, we feel we are closer to these
relative strangers than we are to relatives that we never talk too. Communication is the key to every degree of
intimacy. If God is going to be a
priority relationship in our lives, we need to talk with Him. Forget the idea that prayer is bringing to
God a shopping list. You can ask God
for all you need in a few minutes, and you can intercede for all the needs you
know in a few more minutes.
The
reason we often get bored with prayer is because we have such a narrow view of
it. Frank Laubach said, "If your
prayers are boring to you, quite likely they are boring God too." Get out of your rut where you just list your
needs. I can't imagine that Jesus got
up before sunrise just to say, "God bless Peter and Andrew, and James and
John, and John the Baptist," and on and on through all His disciples. Jesus had a relationship to the Father. It was His most intimate relationship, for
their was no one else that could understand Him and His mission. I imagine Jesus sharing with the Father, and
telling of His problems, and seeking insights for solutions. I think we often forget that Jesus had to
live a human life. He did not use
miracle power to make all the bad things go away. He had to endure the limitations of His flesh, and cope with
crowds, criticism, quarreling
disciples, and a host of the same problems that plague us all. Jesus needed someone to talk to, and to
think through strategy with, in order to sense the direction to go.
Thomas a
Kempis says of prayer that it is, "Pondering a matter with reference to
God." To think, to plan, to
question, and wrestle with issues in God's presence, is all part of
prayer. You are most intimate with
those with whom you talk most. If
prayer is not a priority than we have put God in a category like those to whom
we write just once in awhile. He may be
very important to us, and we acknowledge His love and influence, like we do
good old uncle so and so, but we only communicate situationally and not
habitually. The result is loss of
intimacy.
We need
to see this truth. You can love someone
greatly, and yet lose intimacy with them.
I have relatives and old friends I love dearly, but I have no intimacy
with them, because I have little to no communication with them. This can happen with God as well. God never moves away, but we do. We let life change our priorities and let
God be pushed to the side lines. We do
not change our theology, and we love Him as much as ever, but we lose
intimacy. This is a simple but vital
issue in prayer. We need to make prayer a priority to maintain intimacy with
God, as Jesus did. Secondly, look at‑
II. THE
PRIVACY OF PRAYER.
Notice,
Jesus left the house and went out to a solitary place to pray. I am not aware of a single occasion when
Jesus called for a public prayer meeting.
He condemned the Pharisees who prayed in public to be seen, and He told
His disciples to pray in secret in their closet. By both precept and practice, Jesus made it clear, prayer is
primarily a private matter.
Again,
we go back to intimacy. You can talk to
someone you love in public, but you can never be as intimate as you can in
private. When you are alone you can
develop a deeper intimacy. This is even
true with people you just meet. I
counsel every once in awhile with people who are strangers. If we are in the presence of others, the
conversation stays general, but when we come apart and are alone, we get to the
real issues that are bothering them.
Privacy and intimacy go hand in hand.
So it is
with our relationship to God. It has to
be private to be effective in developing intimacy. Jesus could not pray in public, "Father help me to figure
out how to cool off these sons of thunder, James and John, and help me to teach
Peter not to be so quick to judge and take foolish actions before he thinks
things through." There were all
kinds of issues that Jesus had to talk to the Father about in private. It is
not that public prayer is not legitimate.
It is, but it is not intimate.
It is not that aspect of prayer that enables us to get closer to God.
Too
often I think Christians worry about their ability to pray in public. I don't think the Bible gives any support to
this kind of anxiety about public prayer.
In 28 chapters of the book of Acts we do not have a single prayer of any
apostle recorded. It is the public record of their deeds and not of their
private devotions. We know they were
men of prayer, but we do not have great examples of their prayers. Why not?
Because prayer is a private matter between them and God. Like their master, they did not do a lot of
praying in public, but developed a private prayer life where they talked with,
and shared intimately with their heavenly Father. We are told that they prayed, but not what they prayed. So it is with our Lord, and for most of the
prayers of His life. They are private,
and known only to God.
Don't
worry about public prayer, for it is a minor issue compared to the importance
of private prayer. This is where you
develop intimacy with God. It is in
private sharing with God we can unload our burdens, and tell God of the
struggles we have with temptation, resentment, hostility, envy, or any other
evil that plagues us. We can be one
hundred per cent of who we really are, and still be loved in spite of it. A friend is one who knows you, and still
loves you. God can be our greatest
friend if we enter into the closet, and open ourselves to Him. Total exposure to God leads to the ultimate
in intimacy. You can share with God
things you can't share with anyone else.
In the privacy of prayer we reach the level of infinite intimacy where
we are totally known and totally loved.
Thirdly, look at‑
III. THE
PURPOSE OF PRAYER.
Look
closely at this text. Peter and the
others found Jesus, and told Him, "everyone is looking for you!" The implication is, what are you doing off
here praying in secret when the needs of the world are clamoring to be
met? People need the Lord, was there
song to the Lord. So come on they are
saying, let's go meet the needs. But
Jesus replies in verse 38, "Let's go somewhere else‑to the nearby
villages
so I can preach there also. That is why I have come."
This
response reveals a profound purpose that Jesus had in prayer. There was no end to the needs to be
met. There was always more to do than
anyone could do. He needed to get away
from the crowds, and the constant needs they had, for the purpose of sensing
God's guidance.
In a
world where nobody can do everything, we need to get alone with God in prayer
to sense which things to let go, and which things to go for. Jesus needed this same guidance. Without prayer you just keep responding to
the needs that present themselves.
Jesus did not do that. He knew
when to move on to give new people a chance to respond to His preaching, and
feel the power of His healing ministry.
The purpose of prayer was to stay in touch with God, and develop an
intimacy that enabled Him to know the will of God for His life. Prayer is private, but it has a great public
impact, for it enables you to know where God wants you to go to accomplish His purpose. People in villages all over Galilee experienced a public impact
because of the private prayer of Jesus.
This
clearly implies that Jesus did not just ask God for things. He listened and thought though the point of
His being in history, and what was the wisest strategy to follow to fulfill
that purpose. The purpose of prayer is
to help us get the guidance of God that we need to fulfill His purpose.
We often
think prayer is to get God to do our will.
Do this for me, and after that do this and this and this. The whole idea of power in prayer which is
so prevalent revolves around the idea of getting your will accomplished by the
power of God. Prayer power can make you
rich, popular, and healthy. All things
can be wrought by prayer, and we are urged to get our hands in the grab bag of
things available to us if we only pray right.
It is
not that there is no truth in this, it is just that it is so perverted that it
seems like a primary purpose of prayer is to figure out how to make God your
servant. Whereas the prayer life of
Jesus teaches us the purpose is to help us become more effective servants of
God. There is considerable difference
in these two approaches.
In the one we follow the Savior, and in the other we
follow the self.
Jesus
could have done anything and gone anywhere, and He would have touched people,
but He did not come just to do His own thing.
He came to do the will of the Father, and the Father wanted Him to cover
the villages of Galilee. Jesus prayed
in order to be sensitive to the leading of His Father. He had to get away from the voices calling
Him for help to hear the Father's voice.
The bottom line is, prayer is to help us know the will of God. In a world of clamoring voices, how can we
do what is right and best? The only way
we can even be close is to listen to God.
We need to make listening to Him a priority so that we can get our other
priorities of life in order.
If Jesus
would have gone by the pressure of the events of life as they unfolded, He would
have followed Peter and the other disciples to the people who were looking for
Him. But Jesus had a more intimate
awareness of God's will, and He thus, led Peter and the others to minister to
people who were not looking for Him because they did not know He even
existed. Because of prayer Jesus heard,
not the voices, but the Voice of God that gave Him directions as to the purpose
He was to pursue. Prayer helped Jesus
stay on the track God laid out for Him, and not get sidetracked by pursuing the
good at the expense of the best.
Jesus
could have done all sorts of good without prayer, and so can we. We do not need God's guidance to do
good. We are moral agents in the world,
and can chose to do good in many ways.
So the non‑praying Christian can still do much good in this world
for the kingdom of God, and to meet human need. Prayerlessness does not mean nothing gets done. It means there is a loss of intimacy, and
what does not get done is the best. The
good gets done, but not the best, because we are not in touch with God's
will. We do not know His will
intimately enough to choose it. Jesus
had an intimacy with the Father that enabled Him to do God's perfect will. He had that intimacy because He was a man of
prayer. That is the purpose of prayer,
and that is why it is to be a priority, and that is why it is to be private,
for it all comes down to intimacy.
The
person you talk to most, and the person you talk to most privately, and the
person you talk to in order to know their will most completely, is the person
with whom you have the greatest intimacy, and that person for Jesus was
God. To live the best Christian life
that we can we need to be like Jesus in practicing prayer as intimate
communication.
2. PERSISTENCE IN
PRAYER Based on Luke 18:1‑8
A
fisherman's experiment is described in a tract. It tells of how he caught a large black bass and instead of
putting it in the frying pan he put it in a glass tank. Each morning he would bring a minnow to the
tank and drop it in. The bass would
make a dash for the minnow and soon finish him off for breakfast. After a number of days of this he placed a
glass partition in the tank, and then dropped the minnow in the side opposite
from the bass. The big fish made his
usual lunge but bumped his nose against the glass. He did not give up easily, however, but kept ramming the glass
over and over again. Finally the blows
were too much and he ceased to try.
After a few days of this separation the partition was removed. The minnow and the bass swam freely
together. The minnow was now available
for food but the bass made no attempt to get it. Frustration had conditioned it to accept failure, and it just
gave up.
The
same thing happens with people. When
Lord Chamberlain was asked why so many people failed he responded,
"Because they come to the point where they stop." Like the bass they get their nose bumped
against obstacles so often that they just quit. They give up, lose heart, and do not have the courage to go on
trying. This is a primary cause for the
high casualty rate in the battle of light against darkness. Prayer is a basic weapon in this battle, and
believers are often disappointed in prayer at sometime. You've prayed and prayed and it seems to do
no good, and so you begin to wonder what is the use of it. Some even conclude that it is no use, and
so, like the bass, they let their disappointments bring them to a state where
they no longer try. Jalouddin Rumi, and
Eastern poet describes the process:
He prayed, but to his prayer no answer came,
And choked within him sank his ardor's flame.
No more he prayed, no more the knee he bent,
While round him darkened doubt and discontent.
I prayed he said but no one heard my prayer,
Long disappointment has induced despair.
Jesus
knew that this could happen even to his own disciples, and that is why He
sought to prepare them for what was coming.
He had just been telling them about the trials ahead for Himself, and
the judgment to come. He told of the
indifference of the people on the day of Noah, and again in Sodom before its
destruction. He said that history will
repeat itself and God's judgment will again fall on man. Meanwhile life for His followers will not be
a bed of roses. That is why He tells
them this parable. The unique thing
about this parable is that its purpose of clearly stated so that none can miss
it. There is no mystery at all, for as
one has said, "The key hangs at the door." It was told to the end that his own should keep on praying an
never lose heart. It is told to prevent
Christians from becoming discouraged and giving up on prayer.
Jesus
would not bother to tell such a parable and have it recorded for all
generations if it did not deal with a very real and serious danger. You do not tell your children about the
danger of playing with radium because you know they are not going to be playing
with any, but you do warn them of the danger of fire because you know it is
likely they will have the opportunity at some point. So also Jesus does not waste inspiration on the impossible or
improbable, but deals only with the probable, likely and certain.
He knows
that prayer will often seem like a fruitless weapon on the battlefield of life,
and that His disciples may often feel like relegating it to the museum of
religious relics, and seek more effective methods of combating the enemy. He knew this and that is why He told this
parable. He wanted to stir them up to
press on and not lose heart, and to stick to their guns and persist in prayer
at all times, and under all circumstances.
This is the stated purpose of the parable. How then does Jesus accomplish this end? He does so by following a simple but
effective method of teaching involving three steps.
I. A CONTEMPORARY ILLUSTRATION.
In
verse 2 Jesus draws a verbal picture of a typical situation in His day, which
is not really much different than what we have today. Here was a public servant who had to be pressured into doing any
serving of the public. He was self‑sufficient
intellectual who neither feared God nor regarded man. Practical atheism is nothing new. Jesus saw plenty of it in His day. He had no superficial view of man's nature. He recognized the reality of depravity and
the existence of godless men in high places.
Here was a man whose duty it was to administer justice, but he had not
absolutes, for he feared not the God of all justice, and had no deep concern
for the rights of men. He was motivated
by neither conviction nor compassion, but only by his own pleasure. He is the last person to go to for mercy,
and the last person who would go out of his way to help a poor widow.
Jesus
is purposely portraying a pessimistic picture to try and match the feelings
that overwhelm a person in a very unfavorable situation when they desperately
need help. If the man was a good judge
there would be no problem, but Jesus wants a problem. He wants to portray a setting in life with a great obstacle to
overcome to compare with what His disciples will often face. Some are bothered by the fact that Jesus
would use such a godless man to illustrate a godly truth, and make him stand in
parallel with God the Father. This is
no problem, however, when we see that the contrast of this judge and God is the
main emphasis. Pure yellow corn can
come up from the dung heap uncontaminated by its source of growth, and so also
can a precious truth grow out of an examination of a foul life, and be no less
precious because of the corruption of its source.
In
verse 3 Jesus introduces the persistent heroin who kept coming to this villain
of a judge and asking him to protect her rights and do her justice against her
adversary. She is not looking for
revenge, but only justice. This had
been a serious problem for centuries. A
widow was at the mercy of those who would take advantage of her weakness and
try to get possession of her property. Even
the Pharisees had a hand in the legal plunder of getting widow's houses away
from them. A widow needed professional
help or she was sunk, and here is one who is not going to tolerate injustice,
but demands that her rights be protected.
In
verse 4 the judge is not impressed with her enthusiasm, and he refused to help
her. She is equally unimpressed with
his refusal, and she persistently pleads with him to help her. Her persistence compels him to reconsider,
and verses 4 and 5 tell us how he reasoned within himself. He first of all protects himself from the
charge of getting soft, or turning religious.
He reaffirms his indifference to God or man. He is consciously and deliberately godless, and he glories in
it. He doesn't want anyone to get the
impression that if he does good that it is because he has any principles of
human rights or equally before God. A
self‑centered man needs no reason for his actions outside of himself, and
that is what we see in verse 5.
He is getting tired of hearing her, so he
decides the best way of getting rid of her pestering is to help her out. Nagging is not virtue, but one thing you can
say for it is, it often gets the job done, as it did in this case. She gave this judge a clear impression that
she would not cease until she got some results. He didn't care about her rights at all, but he did care about his
own nervous system, and so he took her case.
The illustration comes to a happy ending with the assumption that the
widow was vindicated. Next we see‑
II. A CLEAR APPLICATION.
In
verse 6 Jesus says to listen to what that unjust judge said. Here is an evil man who cares not for God's
plan or man's rights, and yet he helps out this widow and does her justice
because she was persistent in her pleading.
He was a godless man compelled to do God's will because of a persistent
request. This is a truth you do not
often consider. We would do well to do
less complaining about public servants and follow the wisdom of this widow, and
begin to put pressure on them to do what is right and just. Even a corrupt public servant will work for
what is just if the public persistently demands it. If they do not, it is because people are indifferent, and this
leaves them free to do as they please.
This
unjust judge was not going to be going around looking for needy people to help,
and we ought not to expect that such a man would. We ought not to expect any godless servant to be concerned about
justice. Such persons only do justice
when it is to their advantage, and it is the Christians duty to make it
advantageous for all public servants to do what is right. This is not what Jesus was getting at,
however, but it is just a truth that grows out of this parable. Jesus is not dealing with politics but with
prayer. But the fact is, a bad man will
do good if good people demand it.
Jesus
makes the application of the parable to the subject of persistence in prayer,
and says, in effect, if even a godless judge will finally yield out of selfish
motives to a persistent request for justice, can you question for a moment that
God, the author of all justice and Father of all mercies, will not do justice
for all of His elect who persist in crying to Him day and night? If a character like that will even do
justice, it is an absolute certainty that God will. Life shows us that persistent persistence works in many realms.
Jesus
says that the elect cry day and night, and, like the widow, they are not
answered immediately. God delays as did
the judge, but for different reasons.
God lets injustice and oppression of His own continue even after they
plead for justice. It is because of His
long suffering, and not because of His indifference and lack of concern. He is not slack concerning His promise, but
is long suffering and not willing that any shall perish. He will vindicate His elect, and all
injustice will be judged. No evil will
go unpunished, but the delay is due to the fact that God's plan includes mercy,
even for the oppressor.
Jesus
did not teach us to pray for our enemies, and then reveal God the Father to be
one who seeks vengeance at the drop of a hat.
If God did not show patience and bear with those who oppress His people,
the Apostle Paul would have been struck dead on the Damascus Road rather than
awakened to newness of life. Those Auca
Indians who killed the 5 missionaries in Equador would have been cut down also
instead of having the chance and hearing the Gospel and becoming children of
God in Christ as they now are. Many of
the elect through the ages would be writhing in the flames of hell if God
judged sinners immediately. Better to
never be born than to be born into a sinful world where God stands impatient
and ready to send judgment on every occasion of sin.
Jesus
said that God will avenge them speedily‑that is as fast as His infinite
wisdom and mercy will allow. For that
day God delayed until 70 A. D. before His wrath fell on the nation of Israel
for its unbelief. Rome martyred and
persecuted the saints even longer before it fell, and many nations since have
persecuted believers, and God has not
answered the prayers for help immediately.
He delays because He operates also with eternities values in view. His elect are already saved, and if they are
killed they lose only a few years of temporal life, but if their oppressors are
killed they lose eternity. The judge
delayed because he did not care, but God delays because He does care.
Persistence in prayer means that when God does not answer as we think He
should, we seek to find a way of praying more consistent with His will. George Washington Carver told of how he
prayed for God to show him the meaning of the universe, and God gave him the
feeling that he was asking for things too great for his mind. So he changed his prayer and asked God to
show him the meaning of the peanut so he could use it for good. God heard that prayer and enabled him to
discover many useful products for the peanut.
Persistence means that you never give up, but keep approaching God from
a new angle when a certain prayer is not answered.
Praying
is like any other area of life. If we
do not persist in it, we will fail. If
you only played tennis, or any sport, when you were great at it, and gave up
when you did poorly, you would soon give up all sports. If you quit playing any instrument because
you made mistakes, you would soon be through with all music. If you quit communicating with you children
because they did not hear, or misunderstood you, you would soon be reduced to
permanent silence. We fail in prayer as
we do in every other area of life, and we are often frustrated, but Jesus says
that we are to never give up, but keep trying and keep learning. Persistence will make you a winner in the
long run.
It was
a cold February morning when a snail started up the trunk of a cherry
tree. As he inched his way painfully
upward a wise guy beetle stuck his head out of a crack and said, "Hey buddy,
your wasting your strength. There ain't
no cherries up there." The snail
replied in confidence, "There will be when I get there." Persistence is a necessary ingredient in our
relationship to God, both because of our slowness to get where we need to be,
and because God has a respect for the freedom he has given to man. He will knock at the door, but He won't
break it down. Our prayers are often a
request that He break it down, and that is why they are not answered.
Jesus
is saying to His disciples that they should never stop praying for God to
act. They should persist in prayer and
never give up, for He will certainly answer in His good time, and according to
His will, and judgment will come, but they ought not to let the delay lead to
discouragement. If a widow persists
with a man who has no concern and eventually gets her answer, how much more can
we persist with God who cares more than we can measure? Prayer will yet be the victorious
weapon. Next we see that He asks‑
III. A
CHALLENGING QUESTION v. 8.
Jesus
is saying that the question is really not, will God triumph; will He finally do
justice and answer the prayer of His people, but will His people persist in
prayer believing this? When that day
comes for His return to judge and be glorified in the saints, will there be any
who have endured to the end faithful and confident in God's plan? Or will men be defeated by the delays of
God, and give up in despair concluding that prayer is useless? Jesus implies here that it will be sometimes
before He returns, and the test will be great for many. It will be likely that many will lose faith
in prayer and cease to pray.
Ungodliness will thrive, and injustice will fill the earth, and only
those with unshakable faith will persist in prayer believing that God will yet
answer.
Jesus
does not answer the question because it is a question that only each disciple
can answer for themselves. What about
you? Can you answer and say, yes Lord,
there will be faith on earth when you come, for I believe? Injustice may be all around me, and the evils of life overwhelm me, but
with Job I will say, "Though He slay me yet will I trust Him." Can you say, "I am not so foolish Lord
that I think the only hope in a sinking ship is to throw my life preserver
away. I will persist in prayer and
labor in patience knowing that however long the delay your justice will
triumph."
When the anchors that faith has cased
Are dragging in the gale,
I am quietly holding fast
To the things that cannot fail.
Author unknown
When
Jesus comes will there be faith on the earth if you are still here, or will He
come and find you like so many have been before? Will you be disappointed and have lost your faith in prayer? Will you be conditioned like the bass by the
frustrations of life, or will you stand fast and be persistent in prayer?
One of
the perplexing of all life's paradoxes is the fact that God often answers our
prayers by refusing to answer our
prayers. One of the greatest examples
of this in history is that of Monica praying for her son Augustine. All night in a sea side chapel on the North
African coast she pleaded with God to keep her son from sailing to Italy. She wanted her son to be a Christian, and
she could not endure the thought of him going to licentious Italy with its
manifold and alluring temptations.
"Please don't let him go," she pleaded, and while she prayed
the ship set sail with Augustine on it.
God in apparent cruelty had ignored her earnest plea. In Italy, however, Augustine heard the great
preacher Ambrose, and was persuaded to become a Christian in the very spot from
which his mother's prayers would have kept him. God denied her request that her prayer might be answered. Sometimes the only way God can bless us is
to ignore our prayers.
Paul
knew what he was saying when he said we know not how to pray as we ought. We can't depend upon prayer. We need to depend upon God. Prayer is not the answer, but God is. Prayer can even be a danger to the best in
life. Prayer can be a curse because we
are so pathetically poor at praying. We
do not know what is best for ourselves, and the worst thing that can happen to
us sometimes is to get what we pray for.
The Jews in the wilderness were not thankful for their daily manna, and
they complained for flesh. God granted
them their desire, and the result was a plague that killed many of them. Psa. 106:15 says, "He gave them their
request, but sent leanness unto their souls."
What
these people most needed was a good case of unanswered prayer. What a blessing if God had only ignored
their foolish desire, but he gave them their request to teach them a lesson
that what is most wanted is not necessarily what is most wise. Thank God He does not grant all foolish and
dangerous requests. Thank God for
unanswered prayer. What this world
needs is more unanswered prayer which comes from the desires of men, and more
answered prayers which come from the impulse of the Holy Spirit who prays
always in accord with the will of God.
The
point we want to make clear is that prayer, in and of itself, is not
necessarily good. There is a negative
side to prayer, and it is important that we become aware of this negative
side. Awareness of the negative will
keep us from relying on our own weakness, and guide us to rest in the positive
strength of God's Spirit. In verses 26‑27
Paul speaks of both the negative and positive of prayer. He speaks of the negative of self, and the
positive of the Spirit, and we want to look at these two sides of prayer. First‑
I. THE NEGATIVE SIDE CONCERNING THE SELF.
Anyone
who pretends to be an expert at prayer is deceived, for Paul, the great Apostle
of prayer, who urges us to pray without ceasing, includes himself when he says,
"We do not know how to pray as we ought." Paul knew from personal experience that he did not know how to
pray for what was best. He asked God 3
times to heal him and remove his thorn in the flesh, not knowing that it would
have been a curse to him had God answered that prayer. Paul needed that problem to help him
maintain his humility, and fight off pride.
Paul learned that he knew only in part, and could never know for sure
what was the best thing to pray for in the long run.
All
Christians need to be aware of their limitations and weaknesses. It is presumptuous on our part to think we
can tell God what is best for us. As
long as we think we are wise enough, and self‑sufficient enough to
determine what is best, we will never cry out to God‑Help! I can't pray! We need to recognize our need for help before we will surrender
to the help of the Holy Spirit. Blaise
Pascal, the great French scientist and theologian, revealed what the Christian
attitude should be when he prayed, "O Lord, I know that I know but one
thing, and that is, that it is good to follow Thee, and evil to offend Thee! After that, I know not what is better or
worse in anything; I know not what is more profitable for me, sickness or
health, wealth of poverty, nor any other of the things of this world."
Ignorance is one of our major limitations when it comes to prayer. We
don't know how to pray as we ought, says Paul. We just do not know. This is why
it is hard for us to be bold before the throne of grace. You can't be bold and
zealous when you are not sure. That is
why we often pray, if it be possible, or if it be thy will. In our ignorance we may plead for what is a
negative thing for our life. Lin Yutang
tells of how prayer is what alienated him from Christianity.
A
relative of his fervently prayed for God to give fine weather for a
funeral. He began to think about this, and
he wondered if God was really at the mercy of everyone's wish and whim
concerning the weather. It disturbed
him to think of a God becoming a servant of man's desires for fine weather. The self‑centeredness of prayer led
him to abandon it. Both he and his
Christian relatives could have benefitted by an awareness of this text. If we are aware of the weaknesses of
Christians, we will not let the folly of much of their self‑centered
prayers cause us to forsake prayer all together.
Many
Christians are like little Willie. The
pastor asked him if he said his prayers every night. Willie said, "No sir, not every night. Some nights I don't want
anything." Without the help of the
Holy Spirit the Christian is basically self‑centered in his prayer
life. It is legitimate to make self‑centered
requests of God, but much of such prayer will be ineffective because it will be
based on our human ignorance. C. S. Lewis wrote, "The essence of request,
as distinct from compulsion, is that it may or may not be granted, and it an
infinitely wise being listens to the requests of finite and foolish creatures,
He will sometimes grant and sometimes refuse them."
This
puts prayer on such a hit and miss level that it leads to discouragement, and
to a tendency to forsake prayer completely.
Many Christians goes through periods of forsaking prayer. As long as we continue to think of prayer as
a method of getting God to do our will rather than being a means by which we
become instruments of His will, we will be weak and disappointed with
prayer. In our weakness, ignorance, and
selfishness we even try and use prayer to help us escape the laws of God which
declare that we must reap what we sow.
One of
the reasons we are so poor at knowing how to pray is we don't know what we
want. We are told we should want to
read the Bible more, and so we pray for the Lord to help us read the
Bible. But it is not a craving of our
heart. It is not a deep desire, and so
it is not a true prayer. Your real
prayer is something like this:
"Lord help me know the Bible without all the bother of reading and
study, and the getting together with others to know it." In other words, our real prayer is trying to
use prayer as magic. We are trying to
use prayer as an escape the hard work it is to really understand God's
Word.
Chester
Warner said in 1939, "For religious leaders to call on men and women to
pray for world peace today is comparable to a farmer praying for a harvest of a
different nature from that of the seed he has sown." God does not bail us out of every jam. Even forgiveness of sin does not eliminate
the often cruel consequences of sin.
Criminal blunders cannot be undone by prayer. Prayer cannot change winter into sudden spring. God will not allow prayer to become a magic
wand by which His universe of law and order is turned into a capricious servant
of the desires of men. When we realize
this, and become aware of the limitations of prayer we can make one of two
responses. We can let prayer slip out
of our life as being ineffective and impractical, or we can cry out to God‑help!
I can't pray! If we follow this ladder
alternative we will enter into the other aspect of prayer that Paul
describes.
II. THE POSITIVE SIDE CONCERNING THE SPIRIT.
The good
news is that men do not need to be alone in their weakness and ignorance. The Holy Spirit is also a helping
Spirit. He helps us overcome all of the
weaknesses that make prayer ineffective. He helps, but he does not do the job
for us. He is not a substitute, but a helper. He becomes our link with divine
reality and intelligence so that we can pray as we ought. C. H. Dodd defined
prayer as, "..the Divine in us appealing to the Divine above us."
This means the Christian has two intercessors‑the Son in heaven, and the
Spirit in our heart.
Christ is our Advocate on
high;
Thou art our Advocate
within.
O plead the truth and make
reply
To every argument of sin.
We
don't have time to compare the ministry of these two Advocates, but basically
we can distinguish them by pointing out that the ministry of Christ is
external, whereas that of the Holy Spirit is internal. The ministry of the Son is primarily
concerned with sin. John says, "If
any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous." The Holy Spirit is
concerned with helping the Christian in those areas which are called
infirmities or weaknesses. Not all
failure to comply with God's will is sin.
If it is due to weakness or ignorance, it is considered a defect rather
than a sin. Much poor Christian living
is due, not to deliberate sin and defiance of God's will, but to ignorance and
weaknesses of the Christian makeup.
This is where the Holy Spirit comes to the aid of the Christian. Without his help we could seldom do anything
just right.
The gist
of what Paul is saying is this: In
spite of our ignorance and inadequacy in prayer we still receive the benefits
of effective prayer if we cooperate with the Holy Spirit. The indwelling Spirit intercedes for us
according to the will of God. The
result is that God works in everything for good with those who love Him, even
when they do not understand what is for the best. God is answering prayer for us that we don't even know
about. Prayer plays a major role in our
lives even when we don't receive our answers, and it is because we are
constantly receiving answers to the intercession of the Spirit. That is why the prayer, "Not my will
but Thine be done," is the supreme prayer.
The manner
in which these prayers are expressed, says Paul, is through groans which cannot
be uttered, or as the RSV says, "With sighs too deep for words." When Monica, the mother of Augustine, prayed
for God to keep him from going to Italy, her groans and longing of her heart
was for his salvation. Her words were
ignored, but her prayer was heard. It
was the prayer of the Holy Spirit, however, that was heard. We often confuse prayer with words. We can rattle off the words of the Lord's
Prayer, and not even pray at all.
Prayer is not words, it is the soul's sincere desire. It is that deep
inner longing of the soul. It is the aspiration of the heart to climb higher in
obedience to God. Any such deep feeling
for a greater spiritual life is the intercession of the Holy Spirit within us.
We cannot call God Father apart from the Holy Spirit, nor can we have any deep
longing to live for the Father apart from the help of the Spirit.
Fenelon
said, "The Holy Spirit is the soul of our soul." We need to keep it clear in our minds,
however, that the Holy Spirit does not work independent of us, but directly
through us. Augustine wrote, "The
Divine Spirit does not groan or intercede in an by himself, as God, as a person
of the Trinity, but he intercedes by his influence upon us, and by leading us
to aspirations which language cannot express." This means that if we never are eager to grow in grace, and never
aspire to climb higher, and if we never groan with deep longing to be free from
the limitations of our flesh and ignorance, we are quenching the Spirit. The Holy Spirit helps us to want desperately
what God wants to give us. We quench
the Spirit when we are so busy clamoring for what we want that we never listen
to the deep sighs within telling us what God wants us to want.
If we
let the Holy Spirit help us, we can learn to pray with a sense of assurance
that what we are asking God will be willing to grant. Paul says in Eph. 6:18, "Pray at all times in the
Spirit." Jude in verse 20 also
says, "Pray in the Holy Spirit."
There are two kinds of prayers:
Those in the Spirit, and those not in the Spirit. When we pray in the Spirit, we pray
according to God's will, for the Spirit never prays anything that is not in
accord with God's will. This means we
must be enlightened by the Spirit of truth as to God's will in order to pray
effectively. Even if we do not fully
understand, Paul indicates in verse 27 that the Spirit knows us better than we
know ourselves. When God searches our
hearts He know the mind of the indwelling Spirit, and so knows us at a depth
greater than we can even know.
If we
learn nothing else from this text, we will be eternally benefitted if we just
learn the importance of the Holy Spirit in our prayer life. This Infinite Indwelling Intercessor is the
key to assurance of salvation, abundant life, and power in prayer. Charles Finney said to the Christians of his
day, "I want you to have high ideas of the Holy Spirit, and to feel that
nothing good will be done without his influence. No praying or preaching will be of any avail without him."
We are
hung up on a false issue if we say I wish I could pray like so and so. So and so, however eloquent, does not know
how to pray as he ought anymore than the rest of us. Beautiful words and ease of flow have nothing to do with
effective prayer. In fact, it is the
wordless groanings of the Spirit that are most effective. The cry of an infant can be interpreted by
the mother, and the sigh of the sick patient can be interpreted by the
nurse. So the groans of the saints can
be interpreted by their heavenly Father.
What
this means is that true and effective prayer is really a matter of deep desire
and longing. The Holy Spirit makes
prayer very simple so that no one is left out.
Back in verse 15 we see that the Spirit helps us address God as Abba
Father. Abba is the first word a child
would learn, just like papa or daddy in our culture. We address God in ultimate simplicity, and now Paul says our
prayer content is also simple. It is
simply a matter of deep desire for the fulfillment of His will. The only prayers that go unanswered are the
prayers that the Holy Spirit does not inspire, and these we would not want
answered, for they would be out of God's will.
In the
light of our ignorance in not knowing how to pray as we ought, and in the light
of the help which the Holy Spirit is willing to give if we surrender to Him,
the best prayer we can pray is simply to cry out to God, help! I can't pray! May God open our eyes to see our need for help that we might open
our mouth and call for help to the end that our hearts would be filled with the
heavenly help of the Holy Spirit.
4. EMPOWERING OUR ACTIVITIES
WITH PRAYER Based on Eph. 6:10‑18
Bernie May, the United States Division Director of Wycliffe
Bible Translators, for many years tells of his conflict with other Christians
in a major book publishing deal. Chet
Bitterman was shot to death by a terrorist group in Columbia, because they
wanted the Bible translation he was doing to be stopped. Steve Ester wrote the book Called To Die
about this 20th century martyr.
40,000 copies were ordered from Zondervan. Everything was going great until Christians in Columbia saw the
jacket that was to cover the book. They
sent an urgent message to Bernie that the language made the book more exciting
to American buyers, but it could provoke the terrorist down there to more
violence. Murders and bombings could be
the result.
Bernie got on the phone to Zondervan and said the wording had
to be changed. The editor said it was
impossible for the jackets were printed and scheduled to be bound the next
day. And argument developed over
rights. The editor insisted on his right
to print the cover, and Bernie insisted on his right to protect the people who
could be hurt. They were unable to
resolve their differences, and so they agreed to let the president of Zondervan
hear their problem and decide. That
night Bernie could not sleep, for he hated conflict with other Christians. The next morning the president of Zondervan
called and said he understood his problem and would scrap the jacket and start
over. He thanked him and hung up, and
sat there amazed. A major conflict had
been settled.
The phone rang again.
It was Cora Frederick a multiple sclerosis victim confined to a wheel
chair. She said she woke at 5 A. M. and
felt a need to pray for him. She had
been praying intensely for hours, and then she felt a sense a praise that the
crisis had passed. Bernie could hardly
believe his ears. He told her of the
impossible situation that had just been resolved. Cora laughed and said, “Before I came down with M S I never had
time to pray. Now God has called me
into this ministry of intercession. I’m
just thankful I can have a place in the ministry.” This true story illustrates so perfectly our theme, for we see
here the conflict between seeking the power of busyness and the power of
prayer.
The Christian editor of a major Christian publishing company
was seeking the power of busyness. He
had a job to do to make money for his company, and he was not going to waste
time and resources because of some supposed fear. His busyness blinded him to the more vital concerns of the lives
and security of other Christians. Cora
was in the same boat, and she was too busy to pray until her ability to be busy
had been taken away. Then she had to
learn of the power of prayer. God used
her prayer power to do what busyness could not do, and the story had a happy
ending.
This conflict between
busyness and prayer power is one that every Christian faces.
Dr. James Denison, pastor of First Baptist Church of
Midland, Texas wrote this prayer that deals with the conflict between busyness
and prayer.
“Lord, forgive me-I’ve
failed you again.
Some believers wouldn’t
consider it a failure, but I know better.
It’s not prayerlessness, nor
evil thoughts or vain imagination.
No, I’ve failed you in a
much more subtle way.
I’ve become the ugliest of
all things-a busy person.
It’s okay for a while. The long hours, the constant pressure-
Administration,
decision-making, unrealistic expectations, relentless demands..
I loved what I was
doing. I was committed, creative,
energetic...
Like a quick-change artist I
switched hats, changed roles,
Tried to be all things to
all people.
There was not time for
solitude or day dreaming.
Too many deadlines had to be
met.
It was exciting and
demanding.
I was out to change the
world.
But there was not rhythm in
my life.
No balance between work and
rest, worship and play.
Now I’m not just a busy
man. I’m an angry man, too.
I’m tempted to resent the
people I love and to dread
The responsibilities I’m
committed to.
Forgive me, Lord, for
working too hard and playing too little.
Let me become a child again,
at least for a time each day.
Help me, Lord, for I am a
busy person.”
Our culture equates busyness and success, and so Christians
feel they need to be busy to be successful.
The problem is that too much of a good thing becomes a bad thing. Jesus was busy and under enormous pressure
to minister to the needs of the crowds that came to Him continually. He had a hard time getting away from the
pressure, and was sometimes so totally exhausted that He fell asleep, even when
in a boat in a dangerous storm. But
Jesus fought for balance. He escaped to
commune with His heavenly Father early in the morning. He made a time for the quiet and reflective
side of life. There are 40 times in the
Gospels where His prayer life is mentioned.
The disciples knew He had a power in prayer that they did not have, and
that is why they asked Him to teach them to pray.
Jesus rebuked Martha for being too one sided and just being
busy, busy, busy. He commended Mary for
her balance in learning to let go of the active side of life, and just quietly
reflecting, listening, and growing in the inner life. The Christ like life is the balance life where the power of
busyness is balanced out by the power of prayer. Busyness is what you can do for God, and that is good, but prayer
gets you involved in what God can do for you, and that is better.
In our text Paul ends this marvelous letter to the Ephesians
with a focus on the need to be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. We need the Lord’s power because we are
fighting battles of spiritual warfare, and the weapons of the flesh will not be
effective. If all you have going for
you is the busyness of the flesh, you will suffer many defeats and celebrate
few victories, for your armory lacks the fire power needed to overcome the
forces of evil. You need to put on the
whole armor of God, and after Paul lists this armor he concluded in verse 18,
“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 saints.”
Then Paul goes on in the next two verses seeking for personal
prayer support. “Pray also for me, that
whenever I open my mouth, 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.” Paul, the great Apostle, every
busy in reaching the world for Christ in these few verses reveals where his
power lies. He is not filled with any
illusion that his success is due to his busyness, but rather that every victory
he has is due to the power of prayer.
Twice he prays that he will be fearless in his preaching the
Gospel. It is clear that Paul had the
same problem we all have, which is the fear of man. We do not witness for fear people will think we are some kind of
religious fanatic. We fear to be
rejected and ridiculed. We fear to be
different. Paul had these fears also,
and he needed the power of prayer to overcome them. Without the support of other Christians in prayer Paul felt he
could not be what God called him to be.
Paul was a busy man, but he was also a man of prayer. He recognized the source of his power was in
prayer and not busyness. He knew this
was true for all Christians, and that is why he urges them to be prayer
warriors, for even all the armor of God will not be adequate for victory
without prayer.
The armor does not make you independent of God so that you
can win the battle on your own. It just
makes you a more useful soldier of the cross if you are empowered by prayer. Calvin said on this verse, “Having put armor
on the Ephesians, he now enjoins them to fight by prayer. This is the true method. To call upon God is the chief exercise of
faith and hope, and it is in this way that we obtain from God every
blessing.”
Prayer is like the wall switch. You flick it and power flows to produce light and energy for many
uses. The power is there, but it will
not do anything until there is a connection.
So it is with the power of God.
God is always present and His power
is always available. There has to be a contact for it to flow,
and prayer is that contact. That is why
the Christian needs to pray without ceasing, for every step of life calls for
power to be like Christ, and to be fulfilling God’s dream.
Note the emphasis of Paul in this verse on the word all. Pray on all occasions, and not just some, or
even most, but all occasions, and with all kinds of prayers. Not just petition, but intercession, confession,
adoration, and all kinds of requests.
We are not to be specialists
in prayer, but generalists, and using every form of prayer on all
occasions. And also not just for some,
but for all the saints. In other words,
if we take these alls of Paul seriously, we are to be in a constant state of
prayer at all times, and praying for everyone who comes into our
awareness. We are to be prayer fanatics
recognizing that all our busyness will not achieve a thing without the power of
God. Paul says to pray always, and in
every way you can think of, and for everyone you can think of.
Let’s be honest and recognize that this is not the way the
majority of Christians operate, and this includes Christian leaders. We are just too busy for this kind of prayer
life. Thomas Merton, a leading author
who has devoted his life to spiritual contemplation, laments the fact that
Christians are more a part of the culture than a part of the kingdom of
God. He writes, “Those who are caught
in the machinery of power take no joy except in activity and change-the
whirring of the machine! Whenever an
occasion for action presents itself, they are compelled to act; they cannot
help themselves. They are inexorably
moved, like the machine of which they are a part. Prisoners in the world of objects, they have no choice but to
submit to the demands of matter! They
are pressed down and crushed by external forces, fashion, the market, events,
and public opinion. Never in a whole
lifetime do they recover their right mind!
The active life! What a
pity!”
This reality not only hurts our relationship to God, but it
hurts the family. We don’t have time to
talk to God; no time to talk to mates and children. Communication dies in the world of busyness, and the end result
is a breakdown in all relationships, and everyone is the weaker for it. We get addicted to busyness. We learn to love the excitement in being in
a hurry with many things to do and places to be. We are like people on drugs, and we can’t see how destructive
this is to the relationships that mean the most to us. The balanced life with a focus on prayer and
contemplation will not only enrich your relationship with God, but with all
whom you love.
If you are praying for your mate and your children
frequently, this is going to alter your behavior so that you do not neglect
these relationships. Prayer empowers
your activities. If you are praying for
your children to have a happy home life experience, you are going to give up
something else to see that they get your attention, and actions on their behalf. Pray on all occasions says Paul. When you come to church do you come praying
for God to meet a need, or is it just another part of your busy life that you
have to get through? Your prayer will
empower your experience, or lack of prayer will weaken your experience of
worship.
Ann Ortland in her book Up With Worship writes, “Christian,
it’s up to you, when you come to church, to worship. Nobody can do it for you.
All those helps-hymns, prayers, sermons-lead you to the water, but they
can’t make you drink. You, personally,
must lift your heart to God. How can I
please you today, Father?”
Worship is not a passive
thing that you wait to happen to you.
It is active, and only you can do it.
Pray that you will be empowered to worship. A prayerful spirit will enable you to worship even if the music
is not to your taste, and the message does not fit your life at the
moment. Prayer is the key to making
every occasion one for fulfilling the will of God.
It is popular to say that prayer changes things, but that can
be misleading. Prayer does not always
change things at all, but it can change you, and this is the key to being what
God wants you to be. Prayer will not
change the fact that you live in a fallen world where the news will be filled
with sin and folly of man. You won’t be
able to pray that away, but you can by prayer make sure you are not a part of
the bad news. Prayer will not change
the fact that you have limited resources in time, talent, and treasure. But prayer can change how you use what you
have so that it is used wisely for God’s glory. Prayer may not change the behavior of your neighbor, or your
boss, or anyone else who is adding negative pressure to your life, but it can
change how you respond to them, and this can be a great victory.
The point is, it is prayer that can always have a positive
impact when you are open to interchange regardless of what external
circumstances are. Paul does not pray
that God will make the world of His listeners less harsh and critical, but that
He will be bold in spite of what they will do.
His prayer is for inner change in himself, and not for outer change in
the world. He knows it is futile to
pray that the world will not be the world so that even a chicken-livered,
yellow belly, wimp of a Christian can tell the world they are lost without a
Savior. His prayer is that he would be
a fearless proclaimer of the truth even though he be stoned for his audacity. Prayer may not change things, but it changes
me is Paul’s point, and that is why we never cease to pray on all occasions,
for we need to be constantly adapting and changing ourselves.
The most important part of
the present ministry of Jesus at the right hand of the Father is His
intercession for us. He finished His
work on earth with His death on the cross for all sin, and His resurrection to
conquer death and liberate all people so that all can have eternal life. But His work is not done in heaven, for
there He prays for His body the church to carry on His work on earth. Heb. 7:25 says, “Therefore He is able to
save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to
intercede for them.”
We all need saving more and more. We need to be saved from our sin, and the painful past and all of
its consequences. We need to be saved
from bondage to our comfort zones. We
need to be saved from our prejudices.
We need to be saved from our narrow vision that robs us of being world
class Christians. We need saving from
all the busyness that keeps us from God’s best. How are we being so saved?
By the prayers of our Great Intercessor the Lord Jesus we are
saved. When we join our prayers to His
the channel is open, and we can experience the flow of God’s power to change
our spirit and behavior to conform to that of Christ.
Prayer is how we are saved in the first place. We pray and ask God to save us, and for
Christ to enter our lives as Lord and Savior.
The sinner’s prayer, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” is the beginning
of our walk with God. But that is just
the beginning. We are then to continue
to pray for wisdom, guidance, forgiveness, protection, and as Paul says, on
every occasion for everything under the sun, and for all the saints. Prayer is
not to be a minor part of the Christian life-a mere, in the sentence of life
that is not missed if omitted. It is to
be the verb in the sentence of life that empowers the whole sentence, and which
gives it movement and life. James 4:2,
“You do not have because you do not ask God¼”
God wants to supply all our needs, but we stick with busyness rather
than seek to meet our needs in prayer.
Heb. 4:16 says, “Let us come boldly unto the throne of grace that
we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” The power you need to meet every need is
available if you make the contact, and you do this by the power of prayer. No wonder Paul is a prayer fanatic. He knows that all the busyness in the world
will not make God’s dreams for us come true without the power of prayer. Pray on all occasions says Paul, and Dr.
Ernest DeWitt Burton expanded on those words to say:
“Pray in the morning and in
wakeful watches of the night;
Pray on your knees in the
silence of our own chamber, in
the noisy solitude of the
thronging streets where cross the
crowded ways of life, and in
the great congregation; pray
in the language of the ages,
in the language of childhood’s
prayer, and in the
spontaneous utterance of gratitude or
desire; pray for ourselves,
for our friends and companions,
for the nations across the
seas, and for the coming of God’s
kingdom in all the earth.
“Pray for the possible and
the impossible, and the possible
impossible, for with God all
things are possible. Pray,
encouraged by the answer to
our prayer and undiscouraged
by petitions that in divine
wisdom and grace are ungranted;
pray undeterred by our
inability to trace out a possible course
of cause and effect between our
desire and its fulfillment.
Pray, for all that in the
consciousness of God’s presence we
desire, but always most
earnestly, pray that His will, not ours,
be done.
Obey the impulse to pray,
and cultivate the habit of praying,
till every thought is touched
with prayer and we live in the
atmosphere of prayer and in
the consciousness of God.”
There are thousands of books on prayer. It is one of the largest sections you will
find in any theological library. The
Bible is loaded with prayers and admonitions to pray. We are to pray without ceasing, and yet the fact is, it is
confessed by clergy and layman alike to be an area of weakness in their
Christian life. Dick Eastman called his
book on prayer-No Easy Road. Some poet
put it-
There’s no easy path to
glory.
There’s no easy road to
fame.
Prayer, no matter how you
view it,
Is no simple parlor game.
But it’s prizes call for
fighting,
For endurance and for grit;
For a rugged “I can do it”
And some “Don’t know when to
quit.”
E. M. Bounds, whose books on prayer have been printed by the
millions writes, “Spiritual work is taxing work, and men are loath to do
it. Praying, true praying costs an out
lay of serious attention and of time, which flesh and blood do not
relish.” In comparison it is easy to be
busy, and to try and fulfill God’s dream by the exercise of your own
energy. But this is in reality a
barrier to God’s best. Let us join the
disciples and make it our prayer, Lord teach us to pray that we might empower
our activities with prayer.
5. THE
PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING Based on Phil. 1:3‑6
My earliest childhood memories of being in church are of the
rope that I could ride. The thick rope
hung down through the ceiling in the church entry way. I was so little that when the rope was
pulled to ring the bell in the belfry, I could hang on to it and get a ride as
it would pull me up off the floor, and then set me down again. It is a pleasant memory in my mind, and my
earliest thoughts of being in church are memories of church being a fun place
to be. This memory was brought back to
my mind when I read this statement by Christmas Evans, the great Welsh
preacher. He said, "Prayer is the rope up in the belfry; we pull it and it
rings the bell up in heaven."
For the first time in my life this image linked prayer and
fun. I had never given it a thought that prayer and fun could be compatible
partners. After all, prayer is a solemn and serious business, and that is why
we tell children to be quiet, and stop having fun and clowning around. Bow you
head and close your eyes and knock off anything you are doing that could be
construed as having fun. From this childhood lesson we move on to a life time
of having it drilled into our brain that prayer is anything but fun. It is a
chore; it is a challenge; it is such a burdensome labor that it is one of the
hardest aspects of the Christian life
to develop.
C. S. Lewis, one of the greatest Christians of the 20th
century, describes the feelings of millions of Christians when it comes to
prayer.
"...Prayer is
irksome. And excuse to omit it
is never unwelcome. When it is over, this
casts a feeling of relief
and holiday over the
rest of the day. We are reluctant to begin.
We are delighted to
finish. While we are at
prayer but not while we are
reading a novel
or solving a cross‑word
puzzle, any trifle is
enough to distract us....
The odd thing is that this
reluctance to
pray is not confined to
periods of dryness.
When yesterday's prayers are
full of comfort
and exaltation, today's will
still be felt as, in
some degree, a
burden."
We could quote many others who feel the same, and all the
evidence indicates the majority of Christians feel that prayer is a hard part
of the Christian life. Seldom to never
does anyone relate prayer and fun. I
must confess I certainly never did until this past week when I saw, for the
first time, that for Paul prayer was fun.
It was a time to be joyful, and a time of happy memories, and
thanksgiving to God for His abundant goodness and grace.
Let me show you what has been before my eyes for years, but
which I never saw until the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to see. Now I want to be the instrument to illumine
you on what is clearly revealed in God's Word,
but is also hidden because Satan does not want God's people to discover
that prayer can be fun. Look at the
facts. Paul says in verse 4, "I
always pray with joy." Then in
chapter 4 Paul goes all out to make it clear that prayer is to be surrounded
with positive joyful feelings, and the negative feelings of life are to be
eliminated. Listen to 4:4‑7,
"Rejoice in the Lord always, I will say it again, rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer
and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all
understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
Paul is clearly
revealing a life of prayer full of joy and thanksgiving. Eliminate the negative and accentuate the
positive. Prayer is to be a fun and
enjoyable time, and not a time we dread as a duty we have to be dragged into.
Paul lived the way he wrote for others to live, and he demonstrated these words
in his own life. When he was in the
prison there is Philippi, having been attacked, beaten, flogged, and locked in
stocks in a cell, we read this of Paul's attitude in Acts 16:25, "About
midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God..."
It was one of the most miserable days of his life, yet Paul is
enjoying his prayer time, and he is singing hymns to God. In the midst of pain he is finding pleasure
in prayer. He is singing songs of
thanksgiving, and rejoicing in the Lord with the peace that passes
understanding. Paul demonstrated the
power of a thankful heart to overcome enormous negative circumstances. Prayer is not the dark garment of
despair. Prayer is a bright garment of
praise that will dress up the soul even on the dreariest of days.
It is not that there is never a time for lament and a pouring
out of the poison in our soul to God.
This is a legitimate aspect of prayer as well, but the dominant note of
Paul in prayer is the high note of joyful thanksgiving. This enabled Paul to look any direction in
his life and see reasons for being and optimistic Christian. We want to focus on each of the directions
Paul could look: The past, the present, and the future, and see how his
thankful spirit made prayer a fun time.
First look at‑
I. HIS THANKFULNESS FOR THE
PAST. V. 3.
"I thank my God every time I remember you." Paul had fun in prayer because his prayer
was full of gratitude for memories of the past. When Paul says later in this letter that he forgets what is
behind, he was not referring to his past blessings, but to the burdens he
bore. His past was not all good at
all. It was loaded with bad things like
being falsely arrested, and kept in prison.
He was treated like dirt, and humiliated. He had to suffer great injustice, but Paul says I forgot all that
of my past, and I press on to the future, and the prize God has for me in
Christ.
What Paul does not forget is all the good things and blessings
he had in Philippi. We have a choice as
to what we bring on to the screen of our mind from the computer‑like data
bank of our brain. Some Christians
chose to remember the hurts, the failures, and the bad stuff of the past. That is why you have Christians who are
neurotics of all kinds, and depressive type people. They have legitimate records of life's injustices, and damaging
negatives. There is no question they
have had some, and even many, raw deals, but they let these bad memories
dominate their memory. The result is,
they seldom feel joyful and thankful, for you cannot have these positive
emotions when your focus is on pain.
Imagine how depressed Paul would have felt if he would have written to
the Philippians, "I can't help remembering how miserable it was to be in
that damp moldy prison. I still wake up
in the night remembering the stench of the other prisoners, and the unsanitary
conditions of the jail. The injustice
of it all still burns me to the core as I languish here in Rome incarcerated
for doing good. It truly is a rotten
world, and hell is too good for the scum who treat people like this." All of this would be authentic reality, but
it was not the reality Paul chose to remember.
Paul was thankful for the past, not because it was free from
evil and hurts, but because he forgot that bad stuff, and remembered instead
the goodness of the Philippians, and the grace of God in his life. Everyone of us could look back and pick out
bad things in our past. People who did
us wrong, and events that were unfair are in everyone's past. Everyone has their own personal copy of,
when bad things happen to good people.
Some feel it is their gift to be able to recall the negatives of life,
and remember every terrible detail.
Then they wonder why the Christian life is not making them happy, and
why prayer is a laborious chore.
We need to see that the only way to be a happy Christian, who can
even make prayer time a fun time, is to forget the bad past, and remember those
things that fill our minds with a sense of gratitude. Precious memories for which we can thank God are the key to
joyful praying. Tom Landry, the
Christian coach for the Dallas Cowboys for many years said, "I suffer over
a loss like everyone else, but its how soon you forget it and get going again
that's important." If your
thankometer needle gets stuck on the negatives of the past, it will not work,
and you will be locked into a non‑thankful mode letting life's burdens,
rather than life's blessings, be the dominant influence in your life.
In the book Tiger Of The Snows by Tenzig Norgay, one of the
two men, who on May 29, 1953 reached the top of Mt. Everest said, "What I
felt was a great closeness to God and that was enough for me. In my deepest heart I thanked
God." All the fears and
frustrations, and the pain and struggle, were forgotten. All that mattered was
the blessing. Only those who learned
this can live like Paul with a perpetual thankful spirit.
Examine your memory bank, and ask yourself which memories do
you tend to focus on in the past. If
you find you tend to remember the negatives, you need to listen to Paul, and
follow his instructions. He practiced
what he preached, and that is why he is our guide to a thankful spirit for the
past, and a fun time in prayer time.
Listen to the focus he gives to the Philippians in 4:8,
"...Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely, whatever if admirable‑if anything is excellent or
praiseworthy,think about
such things." If this is the kind
of stuff you bring to the screen of your mind from your memory bank, you too
will, like Paul, be a person full of thankfulness for the past. Next look at‑
II. HIS THANKFULNESS FOR THE PRESENT.
The same principle applies here as to the past. Which present realities are you going to
choose to focus on? The fact that you
are in prison unjustly, or the fact that God is using this bad thing for the
advancement of the Gospel? The fact
that you are separated from your good friends in Philippi, or the fact that in
spite of that separation they are still supporting you in prayer, and by means
of gifts. In the end of this letter
Paul is so grateful for their renewed financial support. He says he has learned to be content in both
plenty and want, but he was thankful that they met his need, for even Paul
found life easier when he had plenty rather than being in want.
Notice here in verses 4 and 5, the real source of his joy and
thanksgiving and prayer was their partnership in the Gospel from the first day
until now. Right now in the present
moment Paul felt not alone, even though isolated in prison. He felt like a part of a body of people who
cared for him. Paul was thankful for
the present because of his partnership with people. Thanksgiving is a relational thing. If there are no people in your life adding to your joys and
comforts, then you are living a deprived life.
You have got to have relationships to be a thankful person. Paul was a million miles away from these
people, but they were still partners, and that oneness gave him a joyful and
thankful perspective on life.
Paul was thankful for their gifts, but more thankful that he
had partners who cared enough to give gifts.
In other words, Paul, like all of us, enjoyed physical comforts, and was
not opposed to having some cash in his pocket.
But the real source of his gratitude was not the gifts, but the giving
people. Sometimes we get so excited
about good things that we forget they are relatively insignificant compared to
good people. Paul had his priority on
people, and not their possessions. We
often forget that almost all of our blessings in life come to us through other
people. If we are thankful for the
blessings, but fail to see the value of the people they come through, we will
be operating on a lower level of thanksgiving.
The Jews have a story that illustrates this lower level of
thanks which ends up being a no thanks spirit.
"Rabbi Jacobs, I need $50.00 to get out of debt," sobbed
Gottlieb. "I keep praying to God
for help but He doesn't send it!"
"Don't lose faith," said the rabbi. "Keep praying."
After Gottlieb left his house, the rabbi felt sorry for
him. "I don't make much
money," he thought, "but that poor man needs it." I'll give him twenty‑five dollars out
of my own pocket."
A week later, the rabbi stopped Gottlieb, "Here, God
sent this to you!"
Back in his home, Gottleib bowed his head. "Thank you, Lord!" he said. "But next time you send money, don't
sent it through Rabbi Jacobs‑that crook kept half of it."
Because he did not recognize
God works through people to bless him, he had a bitter spirit rather than a
thankful spirit. If you don't find
yourself thanking God for other people often, you are taking the low road
rather than the high road of thanksgiving.
In 4:6 Paul says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but
in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your requests
to God." Paul has a high view of
what the Christian is capable of doing.
He feels the Christian can choose where to focus his mind. Life is full of things to be anxious about,
but he says, you don't have to give them your attention. You can choose instead to focus on things
for which to be grateful. Easier said
than done, but he did it, and so can we.
Chuck Swindoll says, "Worry forces us to focus on the wrong
things." If you are anxious, you
are focused on the things that are wrong, or could go wrong. But if you are thankful, you are focused on
the things that are right, or could go right.
We all have a choice as to where we focus our minds, and which choice we
make determines whether we are anxious or thankful Christians.
Paul says if we choose to focus on what is right so that we
rejoice with thanksgiving, this will lead to a peace that guards our hearts and
minds in Christ Jesus. In other words,
thanksgiving is like a spiritual body guard that protects our emotions and
thoughts from being captured by the negative spirit that Satan would love to
get us ensnared with. The Christian who
is ever focusing on the negative that makes them frustrated and anxious is a
Christian with no security system. They
are sitting ducks for the devil to rob them of their joy in Jesus. A safe Christian is a thankful
Christian. If you want to live
dangerously, and risk losing your Christian testimony, just leave thanksgiving
out of your life. It is the equivalent
of a layoff notice to the Spirit of God.
It is like saying, your services are no longer needed. I can take care of myself.
When you hear a Christian locked into the negatives of life,
full of bitterness, frustration, and resentment, you know they have laid off
the Holy Spirit, or as the Bible puts it, quenched the Spirit. They have lost the attitude of gratitude
which enables them to see the present blessings of life in spite of the
burdens. Paul looked right past the
negatives all around him, and focused on the pleasant blessings of the support
and partnership of the Philippians. He
was not going to wait for all to turn out okay before he was thankful. He was thankful right now in the present,
for the bad things of life cannot rob you of the good things of life, if that
is where you focus. Next we see‑
III. HIS THANKFULNESS FOR THE FUTURE.
Paul was thankful every direction he looked, because God is
same yesterday, today, and forever, and He does not leave any good work
unfinished. What He starts He
completes, and the result will be a truly Christlike people to enjoy for all
eternity. Paul writes in verse 6,
"Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry
it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Paul was joyfully thankful because never
stops working in us, and through us. He
never said the Philippians were perfect.
They had their weaknesses and faults that he had to deal with. He never said he was perfect. In chapter 3 he says he was not complete,
but keeps pressing on, for the best is always yet to be.
Nobody knows better than Paul how poorly Christians can
reflect the light of Christ. He knew of their sin and follies, and all the ways
they fell short of the glory of God. He never wore blinders, or rose colored
glasses. He was as fully aware of Christians sins as any human being has ever
been, but this was not his primary focus. He had to deal with sin in Christians
often, but his confidence and thankful spirit thrived on his vision of the
future. This is the perspective of all the Biblical writers. The hope and
expectation of the Christian is a future where all in Christ will be what He is‑the
perfect example of what God had in mind when He made man in His image. When God
completes His work in us, we will be like Jesus.
It is true, the vision of heaven that John saw in Revelation
was filled with delights for all the senses. The golden streets, the jeweled
walls, the glorious light and music that thrill the eyes and ears, plus the
fruit for taste, and incense for smell entice all of the senses to anticipate
the ultimate in pleasure. But the fact is, all of this would be meaningless
without the people out of every tongue, tribe, and nation that praise the Lamb
for ever and ever. The bottom line is never things, but always people. Jesus
lived for people, and he died for people. They were the treasure he came to
seek and to save, and when this focus of God becomes our focus, as it was of
Paul, we will be able to praise and thank God for the future.
The future in Christ is loaded with people who are like Jesus.
They love and care and share, and make the future a paradise. The first paradise
was no big deal without another person to relate to. Perfection, beauty, and
abundance do not fill the bill. God made man so he cannot be complete without
relationship. People and paradise are linked as necessities. If you could have
the New Jerusalem all to yourself, you would be miserable, and soon realize it
is nothing but glorified hell without other people. Someone once said that hell
is other people, but the fact is hell is the lack of other people. Paul had a thankful spirit about the future
because he knew he had a future filled with Christlike people.
Paul was thankful for the past because of these people, and
their response to the Gospel. He was thankful for the present because these
people were his partners in the Gospel. She was thankful for the future because
these people would be with him as perfected saints. Lets face the reality of
this. Much, if not most, of what we have to thank God for comes to us through
other people. They are the primary tools of God to achieve His purpose in history.
Consider our American heritage from the Pilgrims. Governor
Bradford of the Plymouth Colony wrote in his diary of a man he called, "A
special instrument sent of God." He was referring to the incredible Indian
named Squanto. His story, and how God used him to save the Pilgrims from
certain destruction is one of the great providence's of history. Squanto was
kidnaped and sold as a slave and taken to Spain. There he was trained in the
Christian faith, and then sold to a merchant in England. He sent him with an
expedition back to America. He was back in his native land just six months
before the Pilgrims arrived. Here was an Indian who knew English. He helped the
Pilgrims communicate and form friendly relations with the Indians. He lives
with them and taught them how to plant corn, and to fish, and to use them as
fertilizer. It is not likely they could have survived without this gift of God.
They thanked God often for this man.
An artist painted a picture of an old church with its time
worn steeple. The bell is there and the rope hangs down to the earth. Beside
the bell sits an owl suggesting that the bell had not been used for a long
time. People are running by it as the street is full of hurrying people, but
the motto under the picture says, "Why don't they ring?" Why don't we
have fun in prayer by ringing the bell of heaven by thanksgiving to God for
people in our past, present, and future? The opportunity to ring the bell of
heaven by means of the joyful prayer of thanksgiving is ever available. May God
help us to pull the rope, and add to the harmony of heaven, and the mirth on
earth, with the prayer of thanksgiving.
6.
THREE KEYS TO A BETTER PRAYER LIFE. Based on Col. 1:3
Dietrich Bonhoffer was a leader in the church of Germany at
the time of Hitler's rise to power. He opposed Hitler and was imprisoned in
1943. He did not cease to influence people, however, even in prison. He
inspired others by his courage. The guards were supposed to be his enemies, but
they so respected him that they smuggled out his writings that have influenced
millions since.
One of the men who was in prison with Bonhoffer was the
English officer Payne Best. He survived the war and wrote this account in a
book. I want to share it with you because it represents the kind of example of
Christlikeness that we see in the Apostle Paul, who wrote the letter of
Colossians from his prison cell in Rome. Best wrote‑ "Bonhoffer‑was
all humility and sweetness, he always seemed to me to diffuse an atmosphere of
happiness, of joy in every smallest event in life‑‑He was one of
the very few men I have ever met to whom his God was real and close to
him." Then after Best describes a service that Bonhoffer held for the
prisoners on Sunday, April 8, 1945 he wrote, "He had hardly finished his
last prayer when the door opened and two evil looking men in civilian clothes
came in ;and said 'prisoner Bonhoffer, get ready to come with us.' Those words,
come with us‑for all the prisoners they had come to mean one thing only‑‑the
scaffold. We bade him good‑bye‑he drew me aside‑this is the
end, he said. For me the beginning of life. Next day, at Flossenburg, he was
hanged."
This courageous optimism in the most negative of circumstances
is one of the characteristics we see in the Apostle Paul. In his prison
epistles we do not hear any whining or complaining, but only words of joy and
thanksgiving. Paul had indeed learned to be content in every state of life. He
too faced death at any time, yet he wanted to use his time to write and
encourage others. His negative experience has led to positive results in the
lives of millions through history.
George Jackson, in a tribute to Robertson Nicole, the editor
of the British Weekly said, "He flung down a bunch of keys for me, and has
set me to opening doors for myself on every side of me." This is what Paul
has done for the Colossians and for the whole church of Christ. He has thrown
down a bunch of keys that enable us to open doors to God's best on every side.
As we focus on v.3, we can see that Paul has given us three keys to a better
prayer life. The first key is‑
I. THE PARTNERSHIP OF PRAYER.
Notice Paul says, "We always thank God." He does not
say I thank God, but he included his partner Timothy. The idea of a prayer
partner is very Biblical. Jesus said prayer is more powerful when two agree on
what they desire from God. In Matt. 18:19‑20 we read, "Again, I tell
you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be
done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my
name, there am I with them."
It seems as if God has designed prayer to be a promoter of
unity, fellowship and brotherhood. He has promised to answer more effectively
those prayers that come from a partnership. This is a key to a better prayer
life, but it is often neglected. We have potential power in prayer that we
seldom use. Cabeza deVaca tells of how he and his companion explorer went from
Florida to the Pacific between 1528‑1536. On one occasion they were lost
and starving and in a state of despair when they were found by Indians. The
Indians felt that since they were white men they should have the power to heal
some of their sick. They were miserable themselves and now they were expected
to heal others or die. He wrote, "We prayer for strength. We prayed on
bended knees and in agony of hunger." Then they blessed the sick Indians,
and to their amazement the ailing redmen said they were made well. DeVaca
wrote, Being Europeans, we thought we had given away to doctors and priests our
ability to heal. But here it was, still in our possession. It was ours after
all; we were more than we thought we were."
The fact is, all of us are more than we think we are. If we
form partnerships in prayer we will have a key that will open many doors that
otherwise might never open. When Jesus
taught the disciples to pray, He made it clear he expected them to pray in
partnership. He used only plurals. It was our Father, give us this daily bread,
forgive us, and lead us not into temptation.
Every believer needs to develop some relationship with another
believer where they feel like true partners in prayer. In prayer, the loner is a loser. We may pray much alone, but we need to know that there is someone
else who is one with us in our praying.
When Lavonne and I began to hold hands each night, and talk over
requests, and agree on what we desire to bring before God, it lead to so many
answers we stopped keeping track of them.
We are convinced any couple would be enriched if they would begin this
practice of partnership in prayer.
Learn how to enjoy the we of prayer.
In verse 9 Paul says again, "We have not ceased to pray for
you." A we prayer is a better
prayer than an I prayer, and so the more you pray in partnership the better
prayer life you will have.
II. THE PERSISTENCE OF
PRAYER.
Paul says, "We always give thanks." Always refers to the persistence of Paul's
prayer. The modern language Bible puts
it, "We constantly give thanks to God."
In verse 9 we see this
emphasis again, "and from the day we heard of it we have not ceased to
pray for you." Paul did not just
say prayers, he prayed, and there is a world of difference. I can say a prayer in a matter of seconds,
but to pray takes up a part of my consciousness, and becomes a real concern of
my life. This kind of prayer does not
cease, for it is a persistent factor in ones life. Paul wrote this letter as a part of his prayer concern. Prayer is not only asking God for His
guidance, it is the listening and responding to His guidance. Paul's response in writing this letter is a
part of the circle of prayer. It is
Gods answering his prayer for them through him by writing to them the things
they need to hear.
Persistence in prayer means there is some listening and follow‑up. It is not just flashing a telegram to God,
but a listening for an answer, and putting feet to your prayer by doing what
you can to be a part of the answer.
This is another partnership in prayer, for it is a partnership with God.
God does not want to work alone any more than we do. He wants to work with us
and have us work with Him to achieve His purpose in history.
In verse 9 Paul says he has prayed for them to be filled with
the knowledge of God's will. He asked God to do this for them, and then he
wrote this letter to tell them the will of God and thus, he was an answer to
his own prayer. He was a partner with God. Much unanswered prayer is due to our
not persisting in prayer until we see how we can be partners with God in
answering it. Persistence is a test of our sincerity. Much prayer is a matter
of routine and can easily be superficial, but if you persist and thank God
always for certain aspects of life you demonstrate a true and deep interest. By
his persistent prayers Paul proves he really cares about the Colossian
Christians.
Paul makes it clear that he expects them to also pray for him.
In 4:2‑3 he writes, "Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and
thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our
message....." Paul wants their partnership in prayer too, and we thus can
conclude that the number of people caring about a matter enough to persist in
seeking God about it makes a difference with God.
Persistence is a principle that is necessary for success in
any area of life. The more you use things the more they wear out and become
useless, but the more you use the things of the spirit the more they develop
and become more useful. Professor Phelps in his "Autobiography with Letters", tells of how he hated
his first concert of classical music. He decided to keep on trying to enjoy it
and the day came when the symphony became one of his greatest pleasures. The
first time he read Browning he was not impressed, but he persisted in reading
until he came to almost idolize the man's writings. If we keep at something and persist in seeking its value we can come
to love and value what we did not care about at all. This is the point of
persistence in prayer. We give up to soon and lose the joy of answered prayer that would make it a greater
pleasure rather than a chore. What do you pray for always?
III. THE POSITIVE OF PRAYER
The prominent part of Paul's prayer was thanksgiving. That is
the positive aspect of prayer that is so easily neglected. Lack of thanks in
our prayer is not a sign that we are not close to God, however, for this is a
common lack toward those we care about. We seldom thank our mate or children
for their acts of love and service on our behalf. We tend to take them for
granted, and so it is with God. His goodness is so common that there is no end
to the things we could thank Him for daily. But the commonplace is soon taken
for granted and we forget to be grateful for the blessings all around us.
Paul had the amazing ability to be ever grateful for the
commonplace. Paul would have made a marvelous husband. Imagine a wife who is
thanked and praised every time she does as act of love and service. Thank you
dear for making that meal, and for making the bed, and for cleaning the house,
and for getting the kids off to school, and thanks for washing my shirt, and on
and on it could go. Paul could be giving thanks without ceasing. It was not as
if he had no problems to struggle with, for Paul had perpetual battles and
needed plenty of help and encouragement, but he never neglected the positive
aspect of prayer, which is thanksgiving.
Because prayer was positive for Paul, it was not a bore and a
chore. He could hardly wait to thank God again for all His grace. Have you ever
felt so grateful to someone you could not wait to see them and express your
gratitude? You can't be satisfied until they know how much you appreciate them
and their acts of love. Paul felt this way toward God every day, and all day of
every day.
Prayer is basically the desire to be in touch with God. That desire
is stronger when you want to express your gratitude to Him. There is no bad way to pray for any prayer
is better than no prayer, but there is a better way to pray and that is with a
positive attitude of thanksgiving. Come to God thanking Him for what He has
already done before you plead for Him to do more for you. The best reason God
has to answer your prayer is because you are so grateful for His previous
answers. Lack of thanks is the best reason to deny further blessings. Thanks is
the one thing we can give to God to express how we feel about all He has given
to us. God is to gain in this two way communication of prayer too, and the only
way He can and be pleased is by our being positive in thanksgiving.
Paul was always a positive thinker and, no doubt, the reason
he could be, in spite of all his trials, was because he was always looking for
the things he could thank God for in his every day life. If we look for them
they are everywhere in our lives too. If you will be positive in how you see
God's blessings all around you, you will be positive in your prayer life by
being ever thankful, and this in turn will make you more aware of your positive
blessings.
The prayer here is all positive. Most of the time we spend in
prayer we are praying for problems. It is almost embarrassing not to have a
problem for then what are people to pray for in your life? Like the 8 year old
boy who was in Sunday School and all the class was sharing prayer requests and
as an 8 year old he had to come up with something significant, and so he asked
for prayer that his father might give up drinking. He had a can of beer he got
from somewhere that sat in the frig for 7 months. The word spread, and finally
got back home. Now he had something to pray about. He began to pray he would
make it to nine.
This story illustrates the paradox that faces Christians. If
your life is too good, you get little attention. You are not on anyone's prayer
list. It is problems that get you on the list. The more problems you have and
the more struggles with life and sin, the more attention you get. Get it
altogether and you are ignored. The Christian who is always sinking in some
quicksand who gets all the attention. The wheel that squeals gets the oil.
The longest letters of Paul are to those churches with the
most problems, and most sinful behavior. It is a universal principle. It is the
sick who get the attention of the doctor. It is those in trouble who get the
attention of the lawyer. It is those with car problems who get the attention of
the mechanic.
Yet, in spite of this, the goal of the Christian is to press
on to perfection and have such a positive life that there is no need to be on
the prayer list for many problems. We all need to be on the list for the
positive, however, and be lifted up in the way Paul does for the Colossians.
7.
SPONTANEOUS PRAYER Based on I Thess.
5:12‑28
George Buttrick in his large book simply called Prayer tells
of why the Acoma Indians in Colorado chose to live on the mesa. The rock gave them safety. The Apaches on the South and the Navajos on
the North made them sitting ducks down on the plains, and so they headed for
the rocks. A narrow path up the steep
rock‑staircase made it impossible for an enemy to get to them. A few men could defend against an army, and
so they felt secure on the rocks.
The rocks provided natural cisterns to store water, and soil
carried up to the rocks was kept cool, and so the flowers bloomed in
splendor. They had security and
beauty. They could watch the drifting
clouds above ever changing, and the shifting sands of the desert below were
being blown by the wind into new eddies.
Earth and sky in ceaseless change, but they stood on the solid rock that
did not change.
Buttrick says this is the longing of all men to have a
solid place on which to stand and live.
They long for permanence in a world of change, and that is what prayer is
all about. Prayer is about connection
with the Rock, and with the God who is permanent and changeless. Prayer is about security and stability in a
world where there is so little solid ground.
Prayer is our link to the Permanent.
He quotes Henry Francis Lytes famous hymn Abide With Me.
Abide with me: fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord,
with me abide!
When other helpers fail, and
comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O
abide with me.
Swift to its close ebbs out
of life's little day;
Earth's joys grow dim, its
glories pass away;
Change and decay in all
around I see;
O Thou who changes not,
abide with me!
This prayer for the permanent presence of the Rock in our
lives is based on the conviction that there is no solid ground in this world on
which to live and stand. Prayer is
saying that I must reach out to a world beyond this one or be forever trapped
in the shifting sands of time. Prayer
is the conviction that there is another realm above time, which is the realm of
eternity, and it is determined to get in touch with that higher realm which is
permanent. So prayer is not just the kid's stuff of gimme, gimme, gimme. It is the stuff of deep philosophy and
theology, for it deals with the essential issues of the meaning of life and the
purpose for our existence. Prayer is so
amazingly simple, and yet so awesomely profound that both children and scholars
deal with it everyday. It is to be a
perpetual part of every believer's life.
Any day that we do not pray we disobey for Jesus expects
that we will give thanks for our daily bread as we make our other
petitions. The Lord's Prayer is quite
short, and so Jesus does not imply that we must all become mystics who spend
many hours in prayer. But the fact is,
he does expect that His followers will be people that maintain daily contact
with the heavenly Father. Jesus had His
quiet time, and often we are told He got up early and went off to the hills to
pray alone. But prayer for Jesus was
not limited to any time or place. He
was ready at any time to pray. For Him prayer
was just including God in His daily activities.
In Luke 10:21 Jesus, just all of the sudden, stops in the
context of a busy day to acknowledge God.
It says, "At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit,
said, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden
these things from the wise and the learned, and revealed them to little
children. Yes, Father, for this was
your good pleasure." We think of
prayer so often as being limited to some formal setting, and we miss the joy of
Jesus in just spontaneously saying, "Thank you Lord," when we feel
something positive about life.
Spontaneous prayer is much more meaningful and real than
planned prayer. Planned prayer is
usually locked into formulas, and we repeat the same requests over and
over. This kind of prayer gets dull,
and it is seen as a duty rather than a joy.
If you want to improve your prayer life, do not assume you have to add
more to your formal times of prayer.
Instead, add the spontaneous prayer that we see in the life of
Jesus. He had His formal times, and He
said grace before He ate, but the informal times are what most of us need to
develop to add new life to our prayer life.
This kind of prayer is developed by practicing a perpendicular
perspective. This means learning to see
how heaven relates to earth, or how God is involved in the things we experience
all around us.
Our horizontal or humanistic perspective causes us to see
only the physical reality, and we miss the reality of the unseen. We miss the things all about us that should
lead us to praise God. For example, I
read of three men who stood gazing at Niagara Falls. One was a mechanical engineer, and he said, "What a waste of
power. I could turn the wheels of
industry with all that wasted power."
The second man was an artist, and he was positive. He saw great beauty and he longed to
reproduce it on canvas. The third man
was a man with perpendicular perspective, and he said, "What a great God
is ours!" All three could have
been Christians with equal commitment to Christ, but the first two were weaker
in their prayer skills because they did not see in power and beauty a reason to
praise God first of all.
Start practicing your perpendicular perspective. Set a goal of seeing reasons to praise God
for seven things in your daily life. If
you only get two, that is better than missing them all. This will help you see prayer as more
enjoyable, and not just as a duty that you have to do. This kind of prayer is also a form of
witnessing. When you see God's hand in
life, and you thank Him and praise Him, you display a spirit that is seen by
those around you, and this is a witness.
Jesus used prayer this way at the tomb of Lazarus. John 11:41‑42 reveals Jesus again in a
spontaneous prayer: "Then Jesus
looked up and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I know you always hear me, but I said this
for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you
sent me." Here is Jesus using
prayer as a tool for witnessing. Prayer
is offered to God, but you limit prayers value if you think it is only for God. Prayer is for people to hear also. Jesus prayed so people could hear Him
thanking God, for He wanted His relationship to God to be known so that people
could see and believe He was from God.
Public prayer is for men to hear. Public prayer communicates the faith of the one praying to other
people who are listening. It can communicate
knowledge, wisdom, joy, and a host of other values. Most of us do not have many occasions to witness by prayer, and
Jesus is not revealed to be doing this often either, but we need to be aware of
the potential of prayer to touch men.
When I see people praying in a restaurant before they eat I experience
their witness of faith. Verse 45 shows
that the prayer of Jesus was answered.
It says, "Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary,
and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in Him." Back up your prayer with a life that
impresses people with your faith, and you have the potential of winning them to
Christ.
In Jesus we see also that prayer is a tool of self‑persuasion. Counseling is 90% listening to other
people. People talk about their
problems and trials and in so doing they get them out of their sub‑conscious
into their consciousness, and they deal with them. The counselor may say little, but they go away helped, for they
come to some decision about how to deal with what is disturbing them. Prayer is counseling with God. All He may do is listen, but as we pour out
our needs, frustrations, and desires, we come to see the way we need to respond
and deal with them. Jesus did this in
Gethsemane. In Matt. 26:39 we read,
"Going a little further, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed,
my Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will but as you will."
Jesus wrestled with God in prayer, and we do not hear God saying
a word, but Jesus came to His own conclusion as He prayed: "I will surrender to your will Father
whatever it is. If the cross is the
only way, then so be it, thy will be done." Jesus had counseled with God in prayer and came away committed to
the cross. Prayer is not just asking
God for something, or praising Him for something already received. It is a decision making process where we
talk out the options and come to some conclusion to which we make a
commitment. Jesus was single and so He
could not talk it over with a mate. But
He needed a second opinion, as we all do in times of stress, when the decision
is of enormous consequences. We all
need to talk things through with someone, and this is a good and valid purpose
in prayer, as we talk things over with God.
The Psalms are loaded with prayer counseling, where there is honest
sharing of emotions that help one come to some wise conclusion.
Jesus needed prayer as a counseling tool, and we all need
to learn to use prayer in this way. All
our fears, emotions, doubts and hang‑ups can be worked out if we expose
our total being to God, and face the reality of our problems squarely as Jesus
did. The failure of Christians to be
honest with God in prayer is the reason you have thousands of Christian
Psychiatrists working every day to help Christians cope with all of their
hidden sins and neurotic feelings.
Jesus did not need a counselor because He knew how to be honest in
prayer. Until we learn this we will
need the aid of man, it is not all bad, but it is a sign of inadequate prayer
skills, which can be learned.
Prayer for Jesus was also a tool for practicing what He
taught. Jesus said in the Sermon On The
Mount that we are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. He did this on the cross when He prayed,
"Father forgive them for they know not what they do." In prayer we can do many things that are
hard to do, for in prayer we can be open and honest with God. You cannot be very Christ‑like if you
go up to someone you do not like, and who has been treating you like dirt, and
say, "I know you are just a blundering idiot stumbling through your
pathetic life, but I want you to know I forgive you." It is better if you deal with this issue in
prayer. Struggle before God to forgive
them, and then just treat them as forgiven.
There are just too many ways to make a good thing go bad if you deal
with people. But if you deal with God
in prayer you can get it all worked out in your mind and not spoil a good thing.
Many of the Psalms are prayers we say to God to get anger
and hostility off our chest so we don't blurt them out to people and start a
war when the goal is to achieve peace.
If you are offended by some of the harsh language of the Psalms, remember
that they represent the dark inner emotions being released before God in prayer
so that they are not released before men in damaging ways. Jesus had to deal with His emotions and find
release, and He did so in prayer. The
only group of sinners He verbally lashed out at with severe language was the
Scribes and Pharisees. It was because
they were so evil with their legalism, and they cared more about rules than
about people. The only people Jesus
ever hurt were people who were hurting other people. It is legitimate to cry out against injustice and
oppression. But much of the anger of
life is due to personal conflict, and things that may hurt us, but which are
not a problem for the world. These need
to be dealt with in prayer so that they do not become problems blown all out of
proportion.
Because Christians did not do what Jesus did in prayer on
the cross, and because they did not get rid of their desire for revenge against
the Jews who killed Him, they started persecuting the Jews in the Middle Ages
for being Christ‑killers. They
wrote one of the most disgraceful chapters in Christian history. Christians killed and enslaved thousands of
Jews for a sin that Jesus forgave on the cross. This is why there is a day of judgment for Christians, for Jesus
cannot let such rebellion go unjudged, for that would be a violation of His own
law of love. Christians make their
biggest mistakes by not using prayer as a tool of emotional release. Instead, they take matters into their own
hands, and they proceed to do what is clearly not the will of God.
Could Jesus have been perfect without prayer? I doubt it.
I think we think it was easy to be the Son of God living in the world in
the flesh, and being able to avoid all of the folly of human nature. But I think that this thinking is
wrong. If it was a snap, why was Jesus
always praying, and why does the Bible tell us that Jesus really understands
our battles and our weaknesses? It is
because He has been there, and He knows the pressure and the danger of yielding
to it. Heb. 4:15 says, "For we do
not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we
have one who is tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without
sin."
He knows because He fought the same battles we fight. He won all of them, and that is the
difference, and prayer was one of His key weapons for victory. That is why the next verse says, "Let
us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive
mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." In other words, let us do what Jesus did. He
prayed to God and by means of prayer he was able to remain sinless in a sinful
world. We may not be able to be sinless, but we can follow His example and find
the grace we need to be victorious over the enemy. Without prayer we give the enemy and advantage over us. Every time we fail to be like Christ it is
because of our failure to use prayer as the tool it was meant to be. We go off on our own without checking in
with our Counselor, and the result is that we blow it.
Jesus of all people did not need to pray, we would think,
for He was perfect. But we fail to see
that the reason He was perfect was because He prayed without ceasing. He took everything to God and was able to
face all of life with the right attitude.
We also need to use prayer, as He did, as a tool for release and for
guidance. Pray without ceasing, and do
not limit your prayer to when you rise, or when you go to bed. We need to learn spontaneously as we go
about our daily life. We need to be
aware of our needs and take them to God at those moments of awareness. Thank God at those moments of awareness when
you think of things to be thankful for.
Don't let your mind be idol, but praise God frequently as you go through
your daily routine.
I have read the experts in this area of prayer, and they
tell of how difficult it is learn. It
is a wonderful habit to develop, but it is far from easy to pray without ceasing,
and to be ready at any point to spontaneously praise God or intercede for
others. It is a life changing habit,
but it will never happen unless you discipline yourself and make a commitment
to consciously develop the ability to escape the domination of your mind by the
things of time. To be able to escape
into eternity and pray at any time is a powerful weapon in the spiritual
life. But it will not happen without
practice anymore than playing an instrument will come without practice. You can only spontaneously go to a piano and
play music if you have first of all disciplined yourself to practice. So it is with spontaneous prayer. You will have to work at it to develop the
ability to pray without ceasing, and be ready at any moment to go to the Lord
in prayer. May God help us to be
motivated to develop this marvelous skill of spontaneous prayer.
8.
PATRIOTIC IN PRAYER Based on I Tim.
2:1‑8
Paul was a man of authority who respected the authority of
others. In Acts 23 it is recorded that
he was struck on the mouth, and he began to rebuke the one who did it. Those who were near by asked, "Would
you revile God's high priest?" Paul
answered, "I did not know brethren that he was the high priest; for it is
written, you shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people." Paul was patriotic, and we do not find him
anywhere trying to stir up opposition to those in authority. He loved his own people and their
government. He was a leader in it as a
Pharisee, and he also had a high respect for the Roman government. It's laws of protection for its citizens
saved him on several occasions.
In his letters he encourages believers to be the best
possible citizens, and to obey their rulers.
We want to examine his advice to Timothy along this line and see if can
gain a new vision of how we can be more patriotic, and have it be a spiritual
exercise. Patriotism is not good in
itself, for one might be devoted to a very evil government and be a party to
its evil by being so devoted. Christian
patriotism, as brought out in this passage, is always good, even if one is a
Christian under an evil government. It
consists in a devotion to that government's highest well being by praying for
its leaders. It is being patriotic in
prayer that has been characteristic of the church in its relationship to the
state.
In verse 1 Paul says that one of the first duties of
believers is to pray for all men. When
our daughter was very young she began to pray in her own words, and one of her
most common prayers was, "Make everybody grow up and be good." This seems a little too comprehensive to be
meaningful, and yet the attitude behind it is basic, for that is what Paul is
saying in this passage. Prayer is to be
comprehensive and all‑inclusive.
There is the concept of universality that runs all through this
passage. We have words like all men,
all in authority, and ransom for all.
Prayer is to be universal and for all men.
Paul breaks prayer down into 4different categories. First you have supplications, which refers
to a request for God's aid in fulfilling a specific need, which is keenly
felt. Then you have prayers, which is
more general, and is a requesting for those needs, which are always present,
such as the need for wisdom and guidance.
If I desperately need to know what to do in a specific situation, it is
supplication. If I simply ask God to
guide me in His will, it is prayer. The
urgency of the need seems to be the main distinction. Then you have intercessions.
This is a pleading for others, and it seems to imply that you are
fulfilling a role, which they cannot do for themselves. Finally you have thanksgiving, which is an
expression of gratitude for blessings already received. Paul feels this is a vital part of the
prayer life, and we need to make sure we do not forget it by including it in
all of our prayers.
Paul says that all these kinds of prayer are to be offered
for all men. It is obvious that we
cannot be praying for everybody. We
would need the infinite mind of God for this.
We cannot take this literally, and yet we dare not dismiss the
universality of Paul's intention. He
did not expect Timothy and the Christians he shepherded to pray for all those
living on the earth, but he certainly meant that all people are included as
objects of prayer, and objects of God's love and concern. It is a paradox, but I take it both
literally and not literally at the same time.
If you take it literally to mean all people then that includes the dead,
and so this has been a proof text for prayers for the dead. It is obvious to the unbiased reader that
Paul had no such thing in mind. So I do
not take Paul's language as that inclusive, but I do take it to include all
living people.
All people are to be prayed for, and none are to be
excluded. Even evil men are to be
prayed for. Many evil men become godly
men because people have prayed for them.
The leaders who oppose all that is Christian are to be prayed for. They may repent and become Christians, but
even if they do not they can make decisions that effect everyone, and they can
make those that are of benefit to everyone.
We need to remember that the man on the throne when Paul wrote this was
none other than Nero, who was the most anti‑Christian leader we can
imagine. But Paul is urging Christians
to pray for him, and Paul prayed for this man who would soon order the taking
of his own life.
The value of this is to see how we must broaden our vision,
and how our obligation as Christians goes beyond our own family, church,
denomination and nation. We are to be
universal in our concern. The cross
breaks down all barriers of rank and race.
We need never ask, should I pray for such and such a person, for even if
they be an enemy of God they fall within the believers prayer life.
In verse 2 Paul gets more specific and connects prayer with
the state. Separation of church and state
does not mean the church has no concern for the state, or no influence on the
state. The church has been the basic
stabilizing factor in the state in many instances. This has been the case in America. Presidents all through our history have asked for the prayers of
the people in order t have the guidance of God.
Back in 311 A. D. the Emperor Galerius asked for the
prayers of Christians. The power of
prayer in the history of politics has been amazing. In Ezra 6:10 Darius appeals to the Jews to offer sacrifice and to
pray for him and his sons. Here was a
pagan ruler requesting the prayers of God's people, and this is good in the
sight of God to do so. God not only
hears the prayers of unbelievers, but He also hears and answers the prayers of
believers for unbelievers. On one
occasion the Jews were even asked to pray for their pagan rulers in
captivity. In Jer. 29:7 we read,
"Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried
you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it,
because if it prospers, you too will prosper."
If all goes well with those who rule, then people will be
free to pursue the things of God and develop resources for spreading the
Gospel. America would not be what it is
today as the center of Christian forces going out into all the world if our
government had been opposed to Christianity.
I do not doubt for a minute that the prayers of millions of God's people
have been a primary cause for our nation being what it is. On the other hand, failure on the part of
Christians to pray for all rulers may well be why America is becoming
paganized. Only eternity will reveal to
what extent neglect of being patriotic in prayer has been the cause of the decay
of our nation. Being patriotic in prayer
is a unique role that Christians play in politics.
The early church took Paul seriously. They made prayers for their leaders and
pagan governments a major aspect of church life. Here is the prayer of Clement of Rome for the Emperor of Rome. This is found in his first letter to the
church of Corinth, which was written in about 90 A. D. when the horrors of
persecution were fresh in the mind of everyone.
"Thou, Lord and Master,
hast given our rulers and governors
the power of sovereignty through
Thine excellent and unspeakable might, that we, knowing
the glory and honor which
thou hast given them, may submit ourselves unto them, in nothing resisting Thy
will. Grant unto them, therefore, O
Lord, health, peace,
concord,
stability, that they may
administer the government which Thou
hast given them without
failure.... Do Thou, Lord, direct their
counsel according to that
which is good and well‑pleasing in Thy
sight, that, administering
the power which Thou hast given them
in peace and gentleness with
godliness, they may obtain Thy
favor. O Thou, who alone are able to do these
things, and things
far more exceeding good than
these for us. We praise Thee
through the High Priest and
Guardian of our souls, Jesus Christ,
through whom be the glory
and majesty unto Thee both now and
for all generations, for
ever and ever. Amen!"
Here is patriotism in prayer in the first century, and the church
continued this attitude, for it combines loyalty to one's government and
God. God is supreme, but in no way does
that make one less loyal to his government.
Instead, it gives him a greater concern for his government to be the
best. Theophilus of Antioch wrote,
"The honor that I give the Emperor is all the greater, because I will not
worship him, but I will pray for him. I
will worship no one but the true and real God, for I know that the Emperor was
appointed by Him. Those give real honor
to the Emperor who are well‑disposed to him, who obey him, and who pray
for him."
Justin Martyr in his Apology wrote, "We worship God
alone, but in all other things we gladly serve you, acknowledging kings and
rulers of men, and praying that they may be found to have pure reason with
kingly power." Tertullian wrote,
"The Christian is the enemy of no man, least of all the Emperor, for we
know that, since he has been appointed by God, it is necessary that we should
love him, and reverence him, and honor him, and desire his safety, together
with that of the whole Roman Empire."
These are the attitudes of men who were persecuted by those very leaders
they prayed for. These quotes from the
early church fathers reveal that Christians took Paul seriously and practiced
his advice. They prayed for all in
authority even though those in authority often despised them, and sometimes
sought to destroy them.
Their motive was just what Paul refers to here, for they
wanted peace so that they might live a quiet and peaceable life in all
godliness. The church is not to stir up trouble, but to seek to maintain peace
so that it is free to witness to the saving power of Christ. Christians are to
be the best citizens possible, and this calls for loyalty to the government as
long as it is not directly opposing what is the clear will of God for His
people.
In verse 3 Paul says this is good and acceptable in the sight
of God. He desires all of His people to be patriotic in prayer. They can
survive and thrive under any government if there is freedom from restraint.
Calvin is very strong in his words on this passage, for he says, "When we
despise those whom God would have honored, it is as much as if we should
despise Him." We may not always
know who we ought to vote for, but we always know who we are to pray for. Paul
makes it clear that we are to pray for all in authority. This means that
Democrats who are Christians are to be praying for Republican leaders, and
Republicans who are Christians are to be praying for Democrat leaders.
Christians are to be praying for all, even their political enemies. This could
make a major difference in the degree of peace we have in our nation, and that
is the point of Paul in being patriotic in prayer.
This is not to say that there is to be no criticism of
leaders. To say my country right or wrong is like saying my water pure or
putrid. The critic may be more of a patriot than the silent citizen who does
not protest what is folly. If we truly love our country we will be always
seeking ways to improve it and make it better, and this will mean that
criticism of what is lacking is valid. God has worked through many unbelievers
to bring forth good for the whole nation, and that is why we keep on praying
even for those who we disagree with in many ways. The worst leaders may still
make decisions that are for the good of the people as a whole.
Paul is saying that no Christian can stay out of politics. If you
are obligated to pray for politicians then you are involved on the highest
level. The only way to stay out of politics is to stay out of the will of God
on this issue of prayer for your leaders. It is a patriotic duty to pray, and
it is a Christian duty to pray. This is more important than voting. In Paul's
day nobody got a vote. They lived under a dictator, but it was still their duty
to pray for him. It is one of the ways the Christians in any nation can help
bring about change that is a blessing to the people. History is filled with
examples of how customs that were harmful to the people were changed by the
influence of the minority of Christians who prayed for change. Since both godly
and ungodly leaders are involved in making change possible it is a perpetual
duty of Christians to be praying for all leaders and thereby be patriotic in
prayer.
9.
ASKING GOD based on James 1:5‑8
Two brothers came to the U.S. from Europe in 1845 to make
their fortune. The older brother had a trade for he knew how to make
sauerkraut, and so he took a wagon train west to California to raise cabbages.
The younger brother went to school to study metallurgy. Several years passed,
and the younger brother went to visit his older brother. As the older brother
was showing him around the cabbage fields he noticed he was not paying any
attention to what he was explaining, and he protested, "You really don't
care about my work do you?" The younger brother picked up a stone and
said, "Do you know what this is? It is quartz, and that yellow spot is
gold. You have been raising cabbages on a gold field." It turned out to be
one of the greatest gold strikes ever in Eldorado County.
Raising cabbages on a gold field is what every person does
when they fail to fulfill the potential of what they possess. In the realm of
prayer almost every child of God is raising cabbages on a gold field. We are
playing marbles with pearls and do not begin to fulfill the potential of
prayer. It has always been so, and
James in 4:2 says, "You do not have, because you do not ask." Only
that angel who is the accountant of heaven could ever know how many blessings
God's people never receive because they never ask. Someone told the story of a
man who was being shown the glories of heaven, and his angelic guide showed him
a vast storage area of beautiful gifts God wanted to give His children on
earth, but they never asked. The story is fiction, but the truth of it is fact.
In the next verse James says to the Christians, "When you
do ask you don't receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your
passions." To ask for a wrong motive is just as fruitless as not asking at
all. A 7 year old boy was told by his mother that he could not go to the Sunday
School picnic because of his disobedience. By the next morning she had
softened, as mother usually do, and she told him he could go after all. He took
the news so quietly that she asked him, "What's the matter, don't you want
to go?" He sighed and said, "Its too late now Mom. I've already
prayed for rain." He saw prayer as
a way to get even with others. Prayer was a means by which we get God to do our
will.
If only children had this immature concept of prayer, it would
not be so bad, but the fact is, many Christian adults are also immature
amateurs when it comes to prayer. We all miss its potential, and spend our
lives raising cabbages on this gold field of spiritual riches. Prayer is the
most universal aspect of man's religious nature. Man is such a praying creature
that even an atheist has a hard time to keep from praying in certain
situations. Like the girl in Russian who was taking a test to qualify for a job
in the Soviet government. One of the questions was, What is the inscription of
the Sarmian Wall? She answered, "Religion is the opiate of the
people." She was not sure, however, and so obsessed with a desire to know
that she went the 7 miles out of the way to check. When she saw the exact words
she had given, she was so relieved that she sighed, "Thank God." It is sometimes hard for unbelievers to
escape all prayer.
Charles Steinmetz, the great scientist, was asked what field
for future research holds the greatest promise, and he replied instantly,
"Prayer, find out about prayer." That is what we intend to do,
because James very quickly in his letter gets to this subject of prayer. He
knows you cannot get far in any direction spiritually without prayer. She knew
that the Apostles of his divine brother and Lord never asked Him to teach them
to preach or teach, but did ask, "Lord, teach is to pray." James was
such a man of prayer that he was known as camel knees, because he spent so much
time on them in prayer. He will help us
see how important and practical prayer is for effective Christian living. The
first thing he makes clear is,
I. THE REASON FOR PRAYER v.
5
The reason we pray is because we have a need. James says that if you feel you lack wisdom,
ask God. Prayer is first of all a confession
of our own inadequacy.
Say, what is prayer, when it
is prayer indeed?
The mighty utterance of a
mighty need.
The man is praying who doth
press with might
Out of his darkness into
God's own light.
Saying prayers and praying
are not the same thing. Many times we say
prayers because it is the appropriate thing to do, but to really pray is to
feel a need that only God can satisfy.
If you are facing trials and lack the wisdom to see how they
can make you a better Christian, you know you have a need. You can petition God and ask in all
sincerity, "Lord, give me wisdom.
I don't see any good. I cannot
find any value in what I have to endure.
Give me the wisdom to see it."
The greater we feel the need, the greater the fervency of our
prayer. Those who feel no need do not
pray with any sense of urgency. Need is
the basis for earnest prayer, for recognition of need is the reason we pray at
all. We just do not ask for what we do
not need, or for what we do not recognize as a need.
What we are saying is that there are different degrees of
earnestness in praying. The degree
varies with the sense of need. This was
true even in the experience of our Lord.
Certainly Jesus never prayed a superficial prayer, but He did pray with
varying degrees of need, even as we do.
In His hour of greatest need in the Garden of Gethsemane, Luke tells us
in Luke 22:44 that when he went to pray the second time, "...being in
agony he prayed more earnestly, and His sweat became like great drops of blood
falling down upon the ground."
Never on this planet was a need ever felt more deeply, and never was
prayer ever offered in greater earnest.
Jesus establishes this truth by His life and teaching: The greater the
reality of one's need, the greater the reality of prayer.
In His parable on the Prodigal Son He pictures the Prodigal
feeding the pigs, and coming to a full awareness of his need. "How many hired servants of my father
have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father." When he felt his need deeply enough, he went
to the source where his need could be met.
When he felt self‑sufficient he left his father, but need brought
him back, and need is what brings men back to God.
Lincoln faced the burden of a great nation being torn apart at
the seams, and he felt an intensity of need as few men ever have, and he wrote,
"I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction
that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed
insufficient for the day." Here is
intense and earnest prayer based on need felt so deeply that only God could
meet it.
We are all in a civil war, but because we do not feel it
deeply, we do not pray earnestly about it. It is the war within ourselves to
live for the flesh, and the things of the world, or to live for the spirit, and
the things of Christ. He came to seek and to save the lost, but because we do
not feel deeply that the lost are really lost, we do not have intense prayer
for their salvation, and we do not witness to them earnestly. Consciously or
unconsciously we feel that there is always time, or that there will be a second
chance, and their is nothing to worry about. By this subtle trick Satan takes
most of the army of the Lord out of the battle, and slows down the conquering
march of the kingdom to a crawl. Until
we really feel strongly the need of getting lost people saved, we will not pray
seriously for that to happen, nor will we pray for the wisdom to know how to
communicate the Gospel to them.
Prayer is the link between supply and demand. Need reaches out for resources to satisfy
it. This has very practical
consequences in our prayer life. It
means that our real prayer life is in our desires. "Prayer is the soul's sincere desire." I might say a prayer which goes, "Lord
give me a deeper understanding of your Word," but if my real desire is to
get more money, and my greatest need I feel is the lack of cash, then all day
long by my life I am praying, "Lord give me more money." You real prayer is for what you really feel
you have a need. You can ask for wisdom
in 10 prayers a day, but if you do not feel any need for it, you will not
receive it, for God knows that is not your real prayer. We can learn to ask for all kinds of things
that sound good, but if they do not meet a need, it is not truly prayer.
The reason behind all true prayer is a sense of need. If any lack wisdom let him ask of God says
James. He knows all do lack it, but if
Christians do not feel this lack, and sense a need for it, there is no point in
asking. Only what you really need is
what you really ask for, for need is the reason you pray. After giving us the reason for prayer James
next reveals‑
II. THE REQUIREMENT OF
PRAYER. v. 6
Recognizing a need is essential, but in itself it is not
enough to get the need met by prayer. James says you must ask in faith with no
doubting. God requires faith before he
meets a need. If you do not believe God
can give you the wisdom you lack to enable you to rejoice in life's trials,
then you just as well save your breath.
God gets personally involved in the laws of prayer, and they are not
like natural laws. A man can cast seed
into the ground, and whether he believes they can grow or not they will come
forth and bear fruit. Prayer is not so
impersonal. In prayer you are dealing
with nature's Lord, and you cannot just send request to heaven and expect them
to be answered regardless of your personal faith. "He that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He
is a rewarded of them that diligently seek Him." If you lack such assurance, God will not grant your request.
James is a practical man, and he is not interested in prayer that
doesn't work, and so in this first reference to prayer, and in his last one in
5:15 he makes it clear that faith is the requirement for effective prayer. In that final reference he says it is the
prayer of faith that will save the sick.
Prayer without faith is not practical because it just doesn't work. The motto says, "Prayer changes
things."
But to be fully accurate it
should say that the prayer of faith changes things. Without this requirement being meet prayer changes nothing. James is only echoing his Lord and brother,
for Jesus said in Matt. 21:22, "And whatever you ask in prayer, you will
receive, if you have faith."
Remove the requirement of faith, and prayer holds no promise.
Faith involves confidence in your need being legitimate. In other words, if you sense a need, you
must believe that God can and will satisfy that need before it does any good to
pray. To pray without such confidence is
to fail to meet God's requirement, and such praying will be ineffective. You might just as well go out and try to
sell a product that you have no confidence in as to try and get God to meet
your need without faith. If you said to
a prospective customer, "I would like to sell you this vacuum cleaner, but
I not sure it works better than others.
I'm not even sure it works, because I didn't want to try it at home
since we just got new carpet. A lot of
people say its not a bad little machine.
Would you want one?" Your
answer is clearly going to be no!
Without faith in your product you will not please man, and without faith
in your prayer you will not please God.
God is more discerning than any man, but even men will not
give a positive response to a faithless request. God will not reward the negative. A perfect, or mature faith is a faith that says that my need is
legitimate, and that my God is adequate, and He will supply what my need
demands. The doubter, on the other
hand, is tossed about like a wave in the wind.
He is not certain what he needs, and shifts his conviction back and
forth every day. He is not convinced
God would meet his need even if he was certain, and so he fails to meet God's
requirement for prayer. The result
leads to our third point.
III. THE REJECTION OF
PRAYER. v. 7‑8
If you read a hundred books on prayer, probably 90 of them
will each that prayer is always answered.
It is fantastic the lengths to which Christians will go to try and prove
what is clearly contrary to the plain teaching of the Word of God. James tells it like it is. He says that if we pray, not in faith, but
with doubt and double‑mindedness, we will not receive anything of the
Lord. Some will try and get around this
by saying God always answers prayer, but sometimes the answer is no. It is a clever face‑saving trick to
prevent the Christian from blaming himself for his faithlessness. He can throw the responsibility back on God
and say, "Well God said no that time."
The fact is, God does say no sometimes. He did to Paul's request to be healed of his
thorn in the flesh, but what is dishonest is to put all unanswered prayer in
this category, and fail to see that believers are often themselves responsible
for the lack of an answer. There is
such a thing as prayer that is rejected.
God refuses to listen and respond to it at all. He does not say no, for He ignores it
because it is unworthy. For example, if
a believe has sinned in his life, but still wants God's blessing, he is double
minded. He wants to serve 2 masters,
and Scripture says his prayer will not even be heard. This was true in the Old Testament, and it is true in the New
Testament, and it is true today. In
Isa. 59:1‑2 we read, "Behold the Lord's hand is not shortened that
it cannot save, or His ear dull that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have
made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face
from you so that He does not hear."
The prophet is not telling them that God is saying no to their prayer. He is telling them that God is not even
listening. Their prayer is not being
answered at all.
David understood this, and in Ps. 66:18‑20 he wrote,
"If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have
listened. But truly God has listened; he has given heed to the voice of my
prayer. Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his
steadfast love from me!" David knew that God did reject prayer, and there
are many reasons all of which revolve around man's double- mindedness. If you
do not practice the golden rule, you will have many prayers rejected. If you do
not forgive others your prayer for forgiveness will not be heard. If you do not
meet others needs when you are able, your needs will not be met when you cry
out to God. Peter even says that not living together properly as husband and
wife can lead to prayers being unanswered.
Those who try and escape this clear teaching of James, and
other Scriptures, will fail to realize their own responsibility, and,
therefore, never correct their lives and press on to perfection. They will
remain immature Christians. A. W. Tozer, that great prophet of the Christian
And Missionary Alliance denomination, hit hard at the evils of teaching that
God always answers prayer. In one of his editorials he wrote, "The God‑always‑answers‑prayer
sophistry leaves the praying man without discipline. By the exercise of this
bit of smooth casuistry he ignores the necessity to live soberly, righteously,
and godly in this present world, and actually takes God's flat refusal to
answer his prayer as the very answer itself. Of course such a man will not grow
in holiness; he will never learn how to wrestle and wait; he will never know
correction; he will not hear the voice of God calling him forward; he will
never arrive at the place where he is morally and spiritually fit to have his
prayers answered. His wrong philosophy has ruined him."
James is to practical and realistic to let Christians think
prayers are always answered. If we listen to James we will see that effective prayer
with our lives. We must shape up and follow Christ, for it is out of obedience
that faith and confidence grow, and this is the requirement for answered
prayer. Effective praying is simply the result of effective Christian living. A
good prayer life is the practical result of a life of commitment to Christ. Our
greatest need is to live in obedience, and we know God will hear our prayer for
wisdom to do so. The answer to this prayer is the key to answers to all other
legitimate prayers. It all begins by asking God.
10.
CHRISTIAN CONFESSION Based on I John
1:8‑9
The one thing all people have in common is guilt. Ever since Adam and Eve hid from God,
because they were afraid, out of a sense of guilt, man has had to bear the burden,
and suffer the effects of guilt, and these effects are enormous. Modern psychiatry is discovering that guilt
is enemy number one of good mental health.
It is the destructive force behind dozens of different kinds of mental
illness. It is the basic cause for the
anxiety and fear that makes millions live in dread and depression. It is the cause for the ineffectiveness of
many Christian lives. It disarms the
believer of the whole armor of God. It
cuts at the root of the tree of life. It poisons the springs of living water,
and it sends a corrupting worm into the fruit of the Spirit.
Everyone who has done something he does not want known has
guilt. This of course means that just
as all are sinners, so all are guilty.
The more we learn about the guilt of man, the more we realize it is a
major factor in all of human life. One
doctor treating one hundred cases of arthritis and colitis found that a hidden
sense of guilt played a role in 68% of these patients. Flanders Dunbar in the book Psychiatry In
The Medical Specialties reports that, "It has been found that at least 65%
of patients are suffering from illness syndromes initiated or seriously
complicated by psychological factors."
Conclusions like this are being reached in one study after another, and
the result is that men are beginning to see that man's ultimate problem is
sin. It is sin and its effects that are
the greatest plague in the world. And
guilt is sins major effect.
Rowe expresses the minds of millions when he writes,
"Guilt is the source of sorrow!
'Tis the fiend, the avenging fiend, that follows us behind, with whips
and stings." There is no escape
from the facts. Modern psychiatry has
confirmed what the Bible says:
"All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." All are caught in the web of guilt. But thank God the facts do not stop
there. John knew almost 2000 years ago
that this was man's major problem, but he did not just analyze it and diagnose
it, but he gave a prescription authorized by the Great Physician Himself. John had to have an answer for the problem
of guilt in order to ever bring his readers to his established goal of fullness
of joy, and fellowship with the God of light.
Guilt is just the opposite of this, and no amount of truth could ever
lead to that goal that did not first show a man how to be relieved of
guilt. That is why John begins with the
matter of sin and forgiveness, for all Christian maturity begins with clear
understanding of this basic issue. John
shows us three basic steps from guilt to God.
I. CONSCIOUSNESS OF SIN‑V 8.
John says that if we try and live on the hypocritical level of
non‑admission to guilt and sin, then we are self‑deceived. The truth is not in us, and in such a state
we cannot be forgiven. Such a person,
and they are not rare, suppresses his guilt and tries to give the impression
that there is nothing wrong in their lives.
Meanwhile, though they have succeeded in hiding their guilt from their
consciousness, it is invading their whole being like a poison, and will reveal
itself in either a psychological or physical problem, or both.
Many unbelievers do not respond to Christ just because they
refuse to admit they are guilty. They
are hiding their guilt, and they are saying we do not need a Savior, for we are
not so bad. The natural man is fighting
for survival, and does not let himself
be conscious that he is a mass of guilt in need of cleansing, for to do so he
knows must lead to repentance and death for the old man. The same is true for the Christian who lets
the old man revive and live again in his body.
He hides his guilt because to admit it is so painful, and his old man
does not want to die. This is why guilt
so often leads to mental illness. It is
an escape. It allows the sinner to say
he is sick rather than guilty. This
sounds foolish, but this is just how hard man struggles against admitting he is
a guilty sinner.
This may sound like a harsh and cruel judgment on mental
patients, but the facts being discovered by competent men are reversing the
idea that there is nothing to be ashamed of in mental illness. It could well be that such illness is, as
Dr. David Bellgum calls it, "An involuntary confession of
guilt." Unconfessed and unforgiven
sin acts like a cancer of the soul. It
effects the total person in body, soul, and spirit. O. Hobart Mowrer in his
book The Crisis In Psychiatry And Religion comes right out and says that
neurotics and psychotics are not sick so much as they are sinners caught and
condemned by their own conscience. Dr.
Bellgum says this applies also to many with physical problems, for he says
physical "symptoms are often the amplified voice of conscience." In other words, you might suppress it, but
one way or another guilt is going to show itself.
The saying was never more true than when applied to this area
of life, that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Let us not jump to the conclusion that all
mental problems reveal suppress guilt. There
are many other causes; some uncontrollable which result in brain damage, and
for which the person is not responsible.
There are many exceptions to what we have stated, but there are many
cases in which it is true, and it shows that the church has the only answer to
man's greatest problem‑sin.
People do not need to be psychoanalyzed, they need to be saved. They need to stop lying to themselves and
admit they are guilty sinners, for it is only then that they will be conscious
of their need for forgiveness. This is
the first step on the road to recovery.
To make it clear that we are not only dealing here with non‑believers,
let us consider some actual examples of Christians who fell into the category
of those who refuse to admit guilt.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians , and said it was for this very thing that
many of them were weak and sickly, and some had even died. In I Cor. 11 he explains that the reason
was, they had been guilty of unworthy participation in the Lord's Supper. They were observing this remembrance of His
death for sin, but were refusing to do so with a consciousness of their
sin. In lightness and carelessness, and
with no sense of guilt for their heathenish attitude, they remembered the sacred event of Christ's death. The result was hardness of heart. They sought no forgiveness, for they were
not conscious of sin, and the result was all kinds of symptoms in body and
mind, and in some cases leading even to death.
These early Christians were experiencing the consequences of repressed
guilt and unconfessed sin.
All of the facts support the statement that holiness is the
best way to health, just as sin is the surest way to sickness. Even the pagan philosopher Seneca observed
that guilt always punishes even if the law does not. He said, "Let wickedness escape as it may at the bar, it
never fails of doing justice upon itself, for every guilty person is his own
hangman." Plautus said,
"Nothing is more wretched than the mind of a man conscious of
guilt." It is true and it is
painful, yet, as John says, and as science supports, to be conscious of guilt
and to admit your sin is the only way you can be ready to take the next step to
the wholeness for which all men seek. Admit
your guilt and then take the next step.
II. CONFESSION OF SIN. V.9.
This verse is tree with so many branches, on each of which
hangs so much fruit, that we cannot begin to taste all of its riches in one
message. James Edwin Orr said, "Clear teaching concerning the confessing
of sins by Christians is one of the most neglected doctrines of
today." Here is a concept given by
inspiration of God to aid people against the most destructive force in the
world, and yet it is ignored as if it were incidental. The result is, all things have not become as
new as they ought in the lives of believers, because they have not availed
themselves of God's provision. Christians have needlessly borne mountains of
guilt when they might have had it dissolved and cleansed through the blood of
Christ. Continuous and consistent
confession of sin is a must for a Christian who truly desires to attain the
fullness of the stature of Christ. If your aim is any lower than that, that too is
a sin needing to be confessed and forgiven.
Many are uninhibited when it comes to the confession of the
sins of others, but John is writing to Christian people who need to confess
their own sins. Confession is no part
of the life of the unbeliever. No doubt
many deceive themselves into thinking they can gain God's forgiveness, but John
clearly states that only those who walk in the light have fellowship with God,
and only they are cleansed by the blood of Christ. Confession is of no value unless one is a believer walking in the
light. Sin is a blockade as long as we walk in darkness, but if we walk in the
light and confess our sin it becomes a bridge back into fellowship with God,
for he loves the sinner and waits in hope that they will confess and come back
to Him.
The story is told of how Satan approached God with the
complaint that He forgives His children over and over again, but He never
forgave him, and God replies to him, "You never asked." This illustrates the truth that confession
is an essential condition of forgiveness, but it does not go far enough, for
even if Satan did ask, it would be to no avail unless he cease to be the prince
of darkness, and began to walk in the light.
It is important to see this truth, for those who do not see
the whole picture abuse this promise and stretch it beyond what it was meant to
cover. To think that one can confess,
and yet have no sense of guilt about continuing in the same pattern of life is
to be deceived. It is of interest to
note that some Catholics are perfectly aware of this danger in their own
practice of compulsory confession. In a
questionnaire sent out to priests asking what kinds of persons failed to gain
anything from the confession, one answered in a way that made clear he was
aware of all the things that Protestants criticize about the confessional. Here is what he wrote:
"The insincere‑those
who really are not in earnest about
breaking a habit of
sin. The uneducated who consider the
powers of the confessional
as magical. A 'bad confession.'
They are either so attached
to the pleasure or advantages
deriving from the sin that
they do not really intend to stop
the sin or the habit, or
they are presumptuous of God's help,
thinking God will change
them without their effort or
cooperation."
Not only will the Catholic confessional not be effective for
those people, but neither will the personal and secret confession to God
alone. No confession will cleanse the
sinner who refuses to walk in the light.
Confession implies a change in walk, and not merely a change in
talk.
A basic maxim to be followed in confession is this: "Let the circle of the offense
committed be the circle of the confession made." That is, if the sin is secret, it is to be confessed secretly to God
alone. If the sin is private, that is,
against a particular person, you are to confess to that person as well as
God. That is called private confession
as distinct from public confession.
Public confession is to be made when the offense is against the whole
church, or a large segment of it. In
other words, confession is to always be made to those who have been offended,
for they alone can forgive. This is why
we do not practice what is called auricular confession by the Catholic
church. Auricular means, told in the
ear, and refers to telling the priest one's sins. A party not involved in the offense can not be involved in the
forgiveness. We feel that no party who
is not offended can honestly be a party to the forgiveness. We do not deny that it can be effective in
relieving guilt, but we feel there is a better and more Biblical way that
exalts Christ rather than man. That is
by direct confession to God through Christ, who is our High Priest, and who
daily intercedes for us.
All of this is not to say, however, that God does not use men
as instruments of conveying his message of forgiveness. All of the reformers such as Luther and
Calvin rejected auricular confession, but still retained what they called
private confession to the pastor. They
simply recognized that in exceptional cases a child of God gets burdened with
guilt, and cannot sense the forgiveness of God. Such a person can gain victory by confessing to a pastor, and by
receiving his assurance, as God's ambassador, that He has been truly forgiven.
This is more a matter of counseling than confession.
John R.W. Stott, the well known English pastor and author, has
written a book on confession. In it he rejects auricular confession, but
retains the concept of private confession. He stresses, however, it is
exceptional and not to be habitual. The
normal pattern for believers is to confess to God alone, or to the persons
offended.
This would be the position
and practice of most, if not all evangelicals.
The important thing to see is that the normal Christian life is to be
one in which there is a consciousness of sin whenever we have departed from
God's will, and an immediate confession of it to Him since He is ever
present. These two steps are essential
for Christian maturity. The third step
that John mentions is‑
III. CLEANSING FROM SIN.
This is God's step in the process. There is nothing we can do to cleanse our life once we have
stained it. God does not ask us to do
this. If we confess, He is faithful and
just to forgive. This is the step He
promises to take if we take the others, and the result will be fullness of joy
and fellowship with the Father and the Son.
Cleanliness is not next to godliness, it is godliness, for this is the
final goal of Christian confession.
11.
SEEKING GOD'S FACE Based on II Chron.
7:11‑22
I heard a pastor tell of his experience on a plane. The stewardess was explaining that the
parents were to be sure and put on their oxygen mask before they put them on their
children. This seemed so selfish, and
there was a natural resistance to the idea.
It went against the grain of a mother's instinct to keep her child in
danger. The stewardess explained that
if the parent delays and passes out the child will be helpless to come to their
aid, but if the child passes out there is no danger because the parents have
protected themselves and will be able to come to the rescue of the child. The point is, there are situations where the
most loving thing you can do for another is to take care of yourself first.
If you haven't prepared yourself by learning to swim, you
will not be able to rescue someone who is drowning. If you haven't developed self‑esteem by learning to love
yourself, you will have a hard time loving others as you ought. There are many illustrations of how a self‑centered
focus is the key to being prepared for meeting other people's needs. The doctor, the lawyer, teacher, pastor, or
any other professional person who does not develop their own knowledge and
skills are not going to be very helpful to the people they serve. The selfish person is not the person who
devotes a great deal of their time and energy to their own preparation. The selfish person is one who does not
bother to develop themselves and work toward self‑excellence because they
don't care about other people enough to be prepared to meet their needs.
It is people who care about others who strive for
excellence that they might be an instrument to be used for others. Jesus spent 30 years in preparation before
He began His public ministry of serving and teaching. God's requirements for us to be prepared for revival are really
quite self‑centered. The first
and last are clearly focused on the self.
Humble yourselves and turn from your sin. We would much prefer to humble somebody else and crusade against
their sin, but God demands that we deal with ourselves first. Even when we pray, which seems God‑centered,
we saw in our last message that a major part of prayer is to struggle with the
self to be prepared to receive what God wants to give. Even answered prayer, when you are not
ready, can be a problem. Like the 5
year old boy who let out with a whistle while the pastor was praying. His mother was so embarrassed, but the
little guy explained later that he had been praying that God would help him to
learn to whistle, and that's when God answered his prayer.
F. W. Robertson, the great English preacher, told of the
time he was taken with 9 other boys to be disciplined by the master of the
school. He prayed to escape the shame
of it all, and to his surprise the master excused him, and he was not flogged
with the others. He says it was the
most harmful answer to prayer he ever had, for it lead him to think of prayer
as a magic charm. He fancied that he
had a secret weapon he could whip out to get him through any jam. It made him proud and not humble. It did not change his behavior, for why sin
less when by prayer you can escape the consequences?
This illustrates the really self‑centered use of
prayer. But this does not mean proper
prayer, which is acceptable to God, is not also focused on the self. Robertson came to see the folly of his ways,
and he learned to pray for himself to be an instrument prepared to be useful
for God's purpose. Prayer is not just
asking God for what He can do for us, but it is asking God to help us be
prepared to do for Him what He wills.
Paul's first prayer to Christ was, "Lord, what will you have me to
do?" Prayer has a self focus, and
so that leaves only one of the 4 requirements with what seems to be a totally
God‑focused perspective, and that is the one we want to examine. The third requirement, and the third big if
is, "If my people will seek my face."
The first thing I want to observe about this is that it is
also a perpetual preparation. Psa.
105:4 says, "Look to the Lord and His strength, seek His face always." David says in Psa. 27:8‑9, "Your
face, Lord, I will seek. Do not hide
your face from me." The
implication is that God's face is not always easy to find, for it is often
hidden. Numerous are the texts which
described the frustration of God hiding His face so that it cannot be
found. Psa. 30:7 says, "O Lord,
when you favored me, you made my mountain stand firm, but when you hid your
face I was dismayed."
The heart of depression is when God's face is hidden, and the
heart of joy is when God's face is shining upon you. God Himself told Moses how to bless the people of Israel by
saying this benediction over them, as recorded in Num. 6:24‑26: "The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine upon you and be
gracious to you. The Lord turn His face
toward you and give you peace." In
a very real sense the goal of the believer's life is to see the face of
God. To have His face shine on you is
another way of being saved in the Old Testament. Psa. 31:16 says, "Let your face shine on your servant. Save me in your unfailing love." All of God's blessings are summed up in His
face shining on you. Psa. 67:1 says,
"May God be gracious to us and bless us, and make His face shine upon
us." One could answer the
question, what is the purpose of life by responding: To seek the face of God.
Man began his conscious existence in the presence of God
face to face. God talked with and
walked with Adam and Eve. The fall led,
not only to Adam and Eve hiding from God, it led to God hiding His face from
man. The sense of God's absence is the
primary consequence of sin. If man does
not find a way to get back into the presence of God to see His face, then man
is lost forever. The everlasting
absence of God's face is hell. On the
other hand, if man can get back into the presence of God, that is what salvation
is, and that is what heaven is. It is
the everlasting presence of God. Jesus
died on the cross that we might have the right to enter God's presence and see
Him face to face.
In the last chapter of the Bible where the blessings of eternity
are described, we read in Rev. 22:4, "They will see His face." Man has reached his highest destiny when he
is face to face with God.
For God to require us to seek His face for revival makes
sense, for seeking His face is the key to everything. It is the key to every gift and blessing of which you can
conceive. What this means is that this,
one of the 4 requirements that seems so God‑focused, is in reality also a
very self‑focused activity, just like the rest. In fact, being humble, praying, and turning from sin are all
directly involved in seeking God's face.
Psa. 24 makes it clear that self‑preparation is vital to the
success of seeking God's face. Verses 2
thru 6 say, "Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart; who
does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false. He will receive blessing from the Lord and
vindication from God his Savior. Such
is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, O God of
Jacob." Seeking the face of God
covers just about everything you can imagine doing to prepare yourself for
coming into God's presence.
If I read a book with no thought of how the content of the
book relates to God's plan and purpose in life, then I read it for myself
alone. If, however, I am conscious of
the presence of God, and in the awareness of His presence seek to wrestle with
the ideas of the book, and strive to get the mind of God, and know His
application of them, then I am seeking the face of God as I read. God consciousness and God awareness is what
we are talking about here. We can go
for hours and never even think of God and the relevance of His presence in our
lives. That does not mean we are being
bad or out of His will. It just means
that we are not seeking His face, and by not seeking His face we are not being
open to revival, nor any of the other blessings He may be desiring to give us.
Seeking God's face is another way of saying that we are
practicing the presence of God. This is
not limited to prayer and times of meditation.
We are to seek God's face in the marketplace, on the job, and in our
going in and coming out, and in all of our social activities. We are to do everything we do in the
consciousness of God's presence. This
is hard, and it is terribly hard, and that is why it is another big if. This explains why revival is so rare. None of the 4 requirements is easy. Just to fulfill these 4 things takes a life
of commitment far greater than most Christians ever reach.
I remember Frank Laubach, who tried to be conscious of God
at least once every minute. That was
really seeking the face of God. He
worked at it hard, but he still failed.
I don't know of anyone else who has even tried. Fortunately, God gives us a break here, and
He does not demand that any of these 4 requirements be absolute. He does not demand that we be as humble as can
be; that we pray as persistently as possible; turn from sin so absolutely as to
be perfect, or that we seek His face every minute or second before He will
bless us. He just demands that we be a
people who are working on our consciousness of His presence.
This is the key to being available to God to accomplish
His will. When we go through life
conscious only of ourselves and our own will we will miss opportunities to do
the will of God. They will stare us in
the face and we will not see them, for we are not seeking the face of God. If we were seeking His face, we would see
that which God wants us to see. All of
these requirements are tied together, for the only way to get to the place
where we will seek God's face is to first of all humble ourselves, pray that
God will help us to keep self off the throne, and Christ on the throne.
Luis Palou, the Billy Graham of Latin America, had to be
humbled by God before he could be used.
But he also had to become aware of the presence of God before he could
be used. He tells of his own burning
bush experience when Major Ian Thomas was preaching on Moses at the burning
bush. He said, "Any old bush will
do, as long as God is in the bush."
That is what Moses needed to learn.
He made excuses to God for why he could not go back to Pharaoh. Moses needed to learn that the power of God
to get His will done is not in the beauty of the bush, or the eloquence of the
bush, but in God's presence in the bush.
God said to Moses, "I will be with you." It is God's presence that is the key. When
Palou realized this, he too was available, and God used him
mightily. It was not his gifts that God
needed, but his awareness of God's presence.
When he sought the face of God the blessings of God were poured out
through him.
The presence of God is the sunlight that brings forth the
flowers and fruitfulness in our lives.
The fruits of the Spirit are just that.
They are the fruits of the Spirit, and not just the fruits of your labor
and effort. You don't produce the
fruit. The Spirit does, and He does it
when you allow His presence to dominate your consciousness. The Prodigal was a
great and foolish sinner, but what he had going for him was his awareness of
his father's presence. He longed to be
back home restored to that presence.
The elder brother was already there, but he did not treasure that
presence. He missed what he already
had, but the Prodigal gained what he had lost.
It all revolved around the value they placed on the father's
presence.
The shepherd goes after his sheep, but there is another side
we seldom see. The sheep are expected
to seek the shepherd. The father didn't
go after the Prodigal. That son had to
come home to his father on his own. God
asks His people to seek His face, and to pursue His presence. It is our responsibility and
obligation. God says that He is not
always going to come after you. You
have to come home on your own and seek His face. Even when we do, however, we sometimes feel He is hidden, and we
cannot find Him. We cry out with Job,
"Oh that I might know where I might find Him!" Sometimes it is the sheep looking for the
shepherd, and it is the shepherd that seems to be lost. We are often like the fish and the birds in
this poem, and we are looking for and longing for that which is ever present.
Oh where is the sea, the
fishes cried,
As they swam the crystal
clearness through.
We have heard of old of the
ocean's tide,
And we long to look on the
water's blue.
The wise ones speak of the
infinite sea,
Oh who can tell us if such
there be?