Prayer With A Purpose.

But we pray to God that you may not do wrong—not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed. For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. Your restoration is what we pray for. – 2 Corinthians 13:7-9 ESV The apostle Paul was always having to defend his apostleship. There was no shortage of individuals who would question his authority and criticize his claim to be speaking on behalf of Christ. But while Paul was not shy in defending himself, his greater concern was for the spiritual well-being of those who had come to faith in Christ through his preaching and teaching. Since his own salvation experience on the road to Damascus, Paul had dedicated his life to spreading the good news about Jesus Christ to both Jews and Gentiles. He traveled near and far to make known the gospel message and to see lives transformed by the saving power of Jesus Christ. And if he had to suffer in the meantime, he was more than ready. But he was not willing for anyone to question his authority or discount his message, because he had received his commission from Jesus Christ Himself.

In this, his second letter to the church in Corinth, Paul finds himself defending his apostleship once again. He writes, “you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me” (2 Corinthians 13:3 ESV). But the greatest proof of Paul's claim to being a spokesman for Jesus Christ was the very power evident in their midst that had made possible their transformation. “He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you” (2 Corinthians 13:3 ESV). Lives were being changed. Hearts had been transformed. The message of new life in Christ had taken root and born fruit. But while Paul was away and absent from their midst, he prayed. He prayed with a purpose. He was asking God to produce fruit in the lives of the believers in Corinth. In other words, he was asking to see the byproduct of practical sanctification in their lives – as a form of proof of their salvation. Their faith in Christ should have been producing fruit. And it was for this that he prayed. “But we pray to God that you may not do wrong…” The presence and power of Christ within them, in the form of the Holy Spirit, should have been producing in them a growing desire to do what was right and to turn away from doing what was wrong. Living in the power of the Holy Spirit should have been producing holiness, obedience, and acts of righteousness. Paul told them that “your restoration is what we pray for.” The Greek word Paul used was katartisis and it means “a strengthening, perfecting of the soul.” It comes from root word that has to do with restoration or repair. It means to “make one what he ought to be.” Paul was praying that the believers in Corinth would be experiencing the transforming, restorative power of Jesus Christ in their lives. That power would be ample proof of Paul's status as a messenger of Jesus.

Paul wanted to see lives changed. He wanted to see the power of God released in the lives of those who had come to faith in Jesus Christ, His Son. He desired to see those who had accepted Jesus as their Savior radically restored to a right relationship with God with lives that reflected their newly restored natures. Salvation is a wonderful thing, but it is just the beginning. Sanctification is an essential byproduct of a new relationship with Christ. Growth in Christ-likeness should accompany the presence of His Spirit within us. Paul prayed for proof of that presence. He wanted to see lives transformed. He wanted to see evidence of the saving power of Jesus Christ. Jesus had died, not just to make it possible for us to one day spend eternity with Him in heaven, but to radically reform our lives here on earth. And it was to that end that Paul prayed.

But do we pray for transformed lives? Do we long to see believers living radically different lives right here, right now? Or do we pray more for physical healing than holiness? Do we pray for freedom from trials more than we pray for a display of Christ's righteousness in the midst of them? Are we so busy asking God to make our lives easier that we fail to recognize that Christ died to make our lives more righteous? Paul prayed for life change, not circumstantial change. He prayed for holiness and righteousness. He wanted to see the power of the presence of God lived out in the everyday lives of the people of God. In his first letter to the believers in Corinth, he had reminded them of just how far they had come since accepting Christ. “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11 ESV). God had  transformed them from what they once were to something new and radically different. But His work was not done yet. He was still in the process of changing them from the inside out. And it was to that end that Paul prayed. So should we.

God Has A Purpose.

I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me. – Psalm 57:2 ESV

David is hiding in a cave. He is running from a madman who also happens to be the king of Israel. Saul has an unhealthy dislike for David, fueled by jealousy and fear. As a result, he has placed a bounty on David's head, sending 3,000 mercenaries to hunt him down and bring him back dead or alive.

That's the scenario in which we find David as he writes this Psalm and expresses his desire for God to show him mercy. This had to have been a confusing time for David. He had been anointed by the prophet Nathan and told he would be the next king of Israel. But instead of sitting on a throne in Jerusalem, he was hiding in a cave in the wilderness of Judea, running for his life from the very man he was supposed to be replacing. Yet David knew that God had a plan for his life and while his circumstances were less than ideal and didn't exactly make sense, he was going to trust God. So he cried out, “Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by. I cry out to God Most High…” (1 Samuel 57:1-2 ESV). And why did he cry out to God? Because he knew that, ultimately, God would fulfill His purpose for him. He would be king one day – according to God's plan and in keeping with God's divine schedule. In the meantime, he was going to have to trust God to keep him alive. If God had promised to make him king, then he was going to take God at His word and wait for Him to fulfill His promise according to His schedule.

David was confident in God, which is why he could say, “He will send from heaven and save me; he will put to shame him who tramples on me. God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness!” (1 Samuel 57:3 ESV). While waiting on God's fulfillment of His promise, David was content to enjoy God's love and faithfulness. Becoming king was the ultimate outcome of God's word to David, but any delay in that happening was NOT to be viewed as an indication of a lack of love on God's part. The fact that David was having to run for his life, suffer the anxiety of knowing he was a wanted man, and never knowing when God would fulfill His promise, was NOT to be seen as a lack of God's faithfulness. But isn't that where we go when things don't go our way? Don't we naturally assume God has fallen out of love with us when times get tough? Aren't we prone to doubt God's faithfulness when our circumstances take a turn for the worse? Yet David was willing to wait and trust. He was content to rest in the love and faithfulness of God and see any delays as just a part of God's divine plan for fulfilling the purpose for his life.

Twice in this psalm David praises God by saying, “Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!” (Psalm 57:5 ESV). While his situation was anything but ideal, he knew that God was still in control. He was in heaven. He was in charge. He knew what He was doing. And God could be trusted no matter what David might see going around him. Which is why he could say, “My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast!” (Psalm 57:7 ESV). It was the exalted nature of God that gave David confidence and steadfastness in the midst of difficulty. His God was bigger than his problems. His God was more powerful than his enemies. His God was able to fulfill His promise regardless of the dire nature of David's circumstances.

God has a purpose for my life. He has a purpose for your life. We can't judge what God is doing based on what we see happening around us. Difficulty in our lives is not necessarily an indication of God's disfavor or it should never be viewed as a sign of God's unfaithfulness. He knows how the story ends. We don't. He has a purpose that He is fulfilling according to His will and perfect keeping with His agenda. We can trust Him. Our greatest desire should be that He be exalted in and through our lives. We should want to see Him lifted up as He reaches down and fulfills His purpose for us right on schedule and according to plan. And in the meantime, we should put our trust in Him. We can look up, cry out to and wait on Him, because He will fulfill His purpose for us.

Seek and Find.

Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord… – Jeremiah 29:12-14 ESV These verses contain a promise of God made to the people of Judah who were living as exiles in the land of Babylon. It was part of a message sent by God in the form of a letter written by Jeremiah the prophet. God had given the nation of Judah into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, just as He had said He would. Now He was giving them instructions on how to conduct their lives while there. God told them, “Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease” (Jeremiah 29:5-6 ESV). In other words, they were to prepare for a lengthy stay and make the most of it by living their lives as normally as possible. He also instructed them to “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (Jeremiah 29:7 ESV). Rather than pouting and moaning, whining or complaining, they were to build, plant, marry, multiply, and pray for the welfare of their new community. This was going to be their new home for the next 70 years. And they needed to see their circumstances as divinely ordained by God. He had put them there and He wanted them to accept their situation as having come from His hand. They weren't to listen to anyone who might show up claiming to be speaking for God and giving them false hope or alternative instructions. Their stay was going to last 70 years because that is exactly what God had said. “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place” (Jeremiah 29:10 ESV).

So often, we let our circumstances determine our view of God. We look around us and decide that whatever it is we are going through could not be God's will for our lives, so we begin to doubt and despair. We start to look for alternative solutions to our situation and novel ways to escape whatever predicament in which we find ourselves. We stop looking for God in the midst of the problem, and start seeking Him outside of it – on the other side of it. We fail to realize that He is there. We lose sight of the fact that He has us right where He wants us. God told the people of Judah living in exile, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11 ESV). God always has a plan. Our problem, in our limitations as human beings, is that we can't see God's plans for our lives. We don't always know what He is doing or why. So we panic. We despair. We get antsy and start trying to figure out a escape plan, never realizing that the problem we are trying to get away from is actually part of His plan.

It is interesting to note that our verses for today follow God's promise of restoration at the end of 70 years of captivity. It says, “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me…” After seven decades of living as exiles in Babylon; building homes, having babies, raising their families, planting crops, settling down and wondering if God was ever going to hear their prayers, suddenly He would answer. All throughout their time in captivity, the people of Judah would have been praying for restoration. They would have been asking God to forgive them, to hear their cries for help and to restore them to the land. But for 70 years, it wold appear that God was not listening. It would seem as if God had abandoned them. But He tells them then – at just the right time – He will do what He has promised to do. Not sooner or later, but then. God's timing is perfect. He plan is perfect. He knows what He is doing whether we understand it or even like it. We can trust Him. We are to seek Him continually and consistently. And He promises that we will find Him. God told the people of Judah that when the 70 years was up, “I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile” (Jeremiah 29:14 ESV).

A big part of seeking God is not just to get what we think we need, but to discover His will regarding our life. It is to see His plan even in the midst of our problems. It is to learn to trust Him even when our problems appear greater than His presence. God is there. He has a plan. And if we persist in praying, seeking, waiting, and trusting, the day will come when He reveals Himself, His plan, His power, and His divine solution to our problem – at just the right time. Keep seeking and you will find.

Non-Prejudiced Praying.

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. – 1 Timothy 2:1-4 ESV Who do you pray for? Better yet, who do you NOT pray for? The answer to that second question will reveal a lot about our prayer life, but also about our faith in God. We know that Jesus told us to pray for our enemies. Most of us have a hard enough time with that one. Then Paul comes along and tells us that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people. Then, just so we don't misunderstand him, he gives us a few examples: kings and all who are in high places. When Paul says “all people” he is not saying every single individual. But he is referring to all types of people – saved and unsaved, good and bad, rich and poor, undeserving and deserving, even politicians. Why did Paul bring up kings and those who are in places of authority over us? He provides the answer. “That we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” There is a direct benefit to praying for those who rule and reign over us. God has placed them there. Paul had a unique, but very godly, perspective about governmental authorities. “The authorities are God's servants, sent for your good. But if you are doing wrong, of course you should be afraid, for they have the power to punish you. They are God's servants, sent for the very purpose of punishing those who do what is wrong” (Romans 13:4 NLT). Peter shared his views. “For the Lord’s sake, respect all human authority—whether the king as head of state, or the officials he has appointed. For the king has sent them to punish those who do wrong and to honor those who do right” (1 Peter 2:13-14 NLT). Our prayers for those in authority over us should be based on an understanding that God has instituted civil government. They are there to help maintain order and punish wrong-doers. But that does not mean that all governments are good and that all politicians do what is right. We know there are corrupt administrations all over the world. But that is why we should pray. They ultimately answer to God, so we should appeal to him that they would rule rightly and justly. So that we can live godly lives in peace and tranquility. For those of us living in the United States, we do enjoy a remarkable degree of civic peace and the ability to practice our faith without censor or persecution. That is not the case in many places around the world. So we should pray that God will keep our government and its leaders morally right and ethically pure. We should pray for their salvation, not just their replacement. We should ask God to use them to accomplish His will. 

But their is an interesting aspect to Paul's admonition that we might easily miss. We are to pray so that we might live peaceful and quiet lives, godly and dignified in every way. In other words, our prayers for all men are not so that we can enjoy the kind of lives we want to live, but the kind of lives God has called us to live. The goal of our prayers is that we might have an atmosphere in which we can practice godliness in peace and tranquility, free from persecution and the danger of physical harm as a result of our faith. We all know that there are plenty of places around the world where Christians are being forced to live out their faith in the midst of great danger and the potential for severe persecution at the hands of the civil authorities. They do not enjoy peace and tranquility. For them, living godly and dignified lives can lead to physical harm, financial loss and even death.

So we are to pray. We are to pray for all men. That includes prayer for our neighbors, coworkers, bosses, governmental leaders, school board, police force, firemen, teachers – the list is endless. But we tend to be highly selective in our prayer lives. We pray for those we know best and like the most. We neglect the unlovely, undeserving, and unfamiliar. We practice a form of prayer prejudice, conveniently reserving our petitions for those whom we deem worthy of our time and attention. But Paul would have us realize that to pray for all men is something that is pleasing to God. Why? Because God desires that all men come to a saving knowledge of His Son. This would seem to indicate that our prayers for all men should include a desire that they come to faith in Christ. Which is only logical when you consider that the answer to every problem facing mankind is a right relationship with God made possible only through acceptance of Jesus Christ's sacrificial death on the cross. If we want righteous and just leadership in this country, we need to pray that those in authority come to faith in Christ. If we want to see our nation morally revived, it will only happen if men and women come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior and experience the life-transforming power made possible through His indwelling Holy Spirit. The answer to the world's problems is not better government, but godly government, and that will only take place when we have godly people serving in places of authority.

So we need to pray. For all men. Not just some. We need to pray for their salvation. We need to ask God to sovereignly move in the lives of those who rule over us. So that we might enjoy an atmosphere of civic peace and tranquility, and so that we might be able to live godly lives without fear of persecution. Our goal is not to be our own personal ease and comfort, but the spread of the gospel. We should pray for an atmosphere in which the gospel can be preached unapologetically and unhindered. At this point, we still enjoy a certain amount of freedom here in the United States. But that could change in a heartbeat. We are already seeing increased animosity toward Christianity at the highest levels. And it could get worse. So we must pray. For all men. All the time. Without prejudice.

Prayer Pauses.

But despite Jesus’ instructions, the report of his power spread even faster, and vast crowds came to hear him preach and to be healed of their diseases. But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer. – Luke 5:15-16 ESV

We live busy, non-stop, distraction-filled lives. We fill every second of every day with activity, much of it good, necessary and, to a certain degree, unavoidable. But the problem is that we tend to crowd out prayer. We leave little time for one of the greatest necessities of life – communication with God. Because of our busy schedules and crowded agendas, we end up giving God the dregs of our day. We attempt to pray as we fall asleep at night, exhausted and brain weary. Or we lift up a quick prayer in the morning between our third cup of coffee and checking our email. Busyness can end up being one of the greatest detriments to a healthy prayer life. So what are we to do? We can't just eliminate all our commitments. We can't quit our jobs, abandon our children, renege on our responsibilities or love to a monastery.

But we could follow Jesus’ example. He was busy. He knew what it was like to have a full agenda and the pull of a busy schedule. Yet He always found time to get alone with His Father. Luke says he “often withdrew to the wilderness to pray.” The Greek word Luke used means “to retire quietly, to go back.” Jesus would get away from the pressure, the noise, and the demands on his life. He would “go back” or return to what He needed: time alone with His heavenly Father. I like to think of it as Jesus stopping His activity in order to recharge His battery. He went back to the source of power and energy for His life. He stopped giving long enough to get what He so desperately needed: the comfort, guidance, love and soul-satisfying presence of God. Jesus spent virtually every waking moment of every day giving Himself away to people. He taught, healed, discipled, debated, and ministered to countless people. He walked great distances. He answered countless questions from His disciples. He fended off accusations from the Pharisees. He felt stress. He grew tired. He knew what it was like to reach the end of the day and to feel like He had nothing left to give. So He got away. He returned to the one place where He could what He so desperately needed. He went to His Father's side in prayer.

Prayer for Jesus was not a ritual to be performed or a spiritual discipline to be mastered. It was a non-negotiable necessity for living life as a human being on this planet. It was a joy and a welcome respite from the pressures of everyday life. He longed to get away in prayer. He looked forward to it. It was not something He squeezed into His crowded schedule reluctantly or begrudgingly. Prayer wasn’t a hassle to Jesus. It was the highlight of His day. Which is why He often spent all night in prayer. Like a visit with a long-lost friend, Jesus lost track of time when He talked with His Father. Their conversations would go well into the night and when the sun came up, it would find them still going strong. In his gospel account, John gives us a glimpse into what those conversations were like. In chapter 17 he records the prayer Jesus prayed just hours before His betrayal, arrest and trials. It reveals the intimacy and intensity that characterized Jesus’ prayer life. His prayers were passionate and personal. They were anything but ritualistic, repetitive, and rote. His prayers came from His heart and illustrate His deep love for and dependence upon His Father. Jesus got alone to pray because He knew that what He needed was unavailable anywhere else. He needed His Father to hear Him, guide Him, encourage Him, strengthen Him, love Him, and reassure Him of the unshakable nature of His divine plan. Prayer for Jesus was like the calm before the storm. He knew what was coming. He also knew He needed time alone with His Father if He was going to accomplish what was required of Him in the hours ahead. For Jesus, prayer was the pause that refreshes. It recharged, renewed, and reinvigorated His commitment to His Father’s will for His life. Prayer was a way of returning to the reality of who He was and the purpose for His presence on earth.

Sometimes we can lose sight of why we’re on this planet. We can begin to believe our busyness defines who we are and dictates our very purpose for living. But time alone with God will refocus our attention on the eternal instead of the temporal. It is in prayer that we are reminded that there is more to this life than meetings, car pools, appointments, accomplishments and energy-draining activities. We are eternal creatures created to have a relationship with God. We have souls that require sustenance that can't be found anywhere but in time spent with God. Sleep may restore our bodies, but our souls need the spiritual recharging available only from our heavenly Father. Like Jesus, we need to set aside time to get alone with God. We need to reconnect, recharge and reestablish our relationship with the one who made us and who alone can sustain us. So why not take time today for a prayer pause? You won’t regret it.

Praying Like Jesus.

In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. – Hebrews 5:7 ESV Sometimes I think we resent having to pray. We see it as some kind of a burden or task we have to perform in order to get God’s attention and have Him do for us the things He ought to do without us having to ask. If we were honest we would have to admit that we get a little tired of having to go to God and ask Him for things. We end up doing so begrudgingly and somewhat doubtfully. Our fervor ends up being a bit weak and our expectations are usually low.

But look at Jesus. He prayed. He prayed a lot. And His prayers were anything but resentful, reluctant or filled with doubt. The writer of Hebrews tells us the prayers of Jesus were accompanied with loud cries and tears. He was passionate and emotional when He prayed. Jesus was anything but indifferent about His prayer life. He took it seriously and practiced it regularly – with intensity, expectancy, and a reverence for the one to whom He was praying. In fact, we're told that “God heard his prayers because of his deep reverence for God” (Hebrews 5:7 NLT). Jesus didn't come to God with a flippant, I-have-my-rights kind of an attitude. He was reverent and respectful, refusing to let His position as the Son of God diminish His humility and dependence upon God. Paul writes concerning Jesus, that “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:7-8 ESV). Jesus wasn't presumptuous. While He was 100 percent God, He was also 100 percent human, and in “the days of his flesh” He lived with complete dependence upon His heavenly Father. He was submissive, reliant, and always willing to accept His Father's will for His life, because He trusted Him. The writer of Hebrews goes on to say, “Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8 NLT). Even Jesus learned to be obedient, to do what His Father asked, even though His humanity desired to avoid the pain, suffering and humiliation.

“While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue him from death” (Hebrews 5:7 NLT). One of the things we fail to recognize when considering Jesus’ earthly ministry is His humanity. We almost view Jesus with a Greek mentality, seeing Him as some kind of a God masquerading as a man – as if He was simply wearing some kind of a man suit, like a child wearing a costume for Halloween. But Jesus became flesh. He took on humanity. He didn't just pretend to be a man, He was one. He was born. He grew up. He ate, grew hungry, suffered pain, required sleep, had feelings, could bleed, and even die. And He prayed – regularly, passionately, expectantly, willingly, emotionally, and submissively. He didn't take anything for granted. He didn't act like a spoiled, privileged rich kid who demanded His own way or thought of Himself too good to pray. Prayer for Jesus was His lifeline to God. He was separated from His Father by His humanity. He had left His rightful place in heaven and taken on human flesh. He had taken on the limitations of humanity and was no longer able to sit in His Father's presence, enjoying His fellowship. Prayer was how Jesus reconnected with His Father. It was how He communicated His feelings and received much-needed encouragement and love. Like a husband separated from his wife by thousands of miles and months, prayer for Jesus was like a much-anticipated letter, filled with expressions of love and encouragement. Jesus needed to hear from His Father. He was facing unbelievable difficulty and He knew that, ultimately, He would be required to die an excruciating death. Which is why the author of Hebrews says Jesus offered His prayers “to him who was able to save him from death.” Jesus knew that His life was in God's hands. His future was completely dependent upon God. So when Jesus prayed, He was coming to the one who was asking Him to suffer and die, but also the one who was going to raise Him from the dead. Jesus brought His temporary needs to the one who had an eternal plan for His life.

Sometimes our expectations of God are so small. We come so reluctantly and doubtfully. We don't expect much from God. But Jesus saw His Father as the one who was going to save Him from death. Jesus knew that His life was going to be difficult. He realized that there were going to be days filled with rejection, ridicule, pain and suffering. But He had a long-term, future-oriented perspective. He knew that His job was to die a sacrificial, substitutionary death on behalf of mankind. It was God's job to raise Him back to life. And in the meantime, He would keep going back to His Father for strength, encouragement, love, and guidance. He would be passionate, persistent, and expectant in His prayer life. He would pray about anything and everything. He would pray for hours at a time. He would get alone with God and share His innermost thoughts. He would listen. He would hear. He would walk away encouraged. And He would trust that His life was in good hands and His future was secure because His Father loved Him.

Paul reminds us, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11 NLT). Our Father is going to raise us to newness of life one day as well. We can trust Him. We can rest in Him. And in the meantime, we can talk to Him. We can bring Him our troubles, trials, doubts, fears, hurts, heartaches, and need for encouragement. He is listening. And He longs to hear from us.

Struggling In Prayer.

Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. – Colossians 4:12 ESV We all struggle with prayer at times. It comes with the territory. Prayer can be hard. But the kind of struggle we’re going to talk about in this blog is something a bit different than finding prayer hard to do. The word Paul uses in the Greek is agōnizomai and you can see that it is where we get our English words agony and agonize. In Paul’s day it was a word typically used when referring to someone entered into gymnastic games. It had to do with competition, contending, fighting, or laboring against an opponent of difficulty. It also carried the meaning “to endeavour with strenuous zeal.” So when Paul said Epaphras was “always struggling” in his prayers on behalf of the believers in Colosse, he wasn’t inferring that Epaphras had a hard time praying. He meant that this young man’s prayer life was marked by agonizing effort and energetic zeal. Paul had evidently seen and heard him pray. He had been an eye-witness to the determination and dedication behind the prayers of Epaphras. I have a feeling his prayers were much more than just “Lord, would you bless the people in Colosse.” He didn’t just ask God to be with them and watch over them. Paul says that the overriding theme of his prayers was that they would “stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.”

Epaphras was a Greek who had become a follower of Jesus Christ and had played a significant role in helping to establish the church in Colosse. “Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant” (Colossians 1:5-7 ESV). Epaphras had a vested interest in the health of the church in Colosse. He wanted it to thrive. So he prayed for “God to make you strong and perfect, fully confident that you are following the whole will of God” (NLT). His was not just a short, sweet prayer offered on a one-time basis, but an ongoing, persevering petition that was accompanied by an intense desire to see God answer. Epaphras wanted to see them mature in their faith and grow in their knowledge of God’s will for them. It is essentially the same prayer Paul prayed for them at the very beginning of his letter. “So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding” (Colossians 1:9 NLT). And Paul gave the end result that would accompany God’s answer to his prayer: “Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better” (Colossians 1:10 NLT).

Paul and Epaphras both knew what the believers in Colosse needed. They needed more of God. They needed God to mature them by revealing His will to them. They desperately needed to know what God wanted them to know and do. With that knowledge and the Holy Spirit’s help, they would have what they needed to live lives that honored and pleased God.

Do we agonize and labor prayerfully for that to happen among the believers with whom we worship and serve? Do we go to the mat with God, pleading that He will reveal His will to our loved ones and friends, asking that He make them strong and perfect? Are we concerned enough for the spiritual maturity that we pray fervently and repeatedly that they know and follow the whole will of God? For Epaphras, praying for his friends in Colosse was a labor of love. He did it gladly. He did it tirelessly. Because he was not going to be content until he saw God’s answer in the form of lives that pleased and honored Him. We could stand to struggle a bit more in our prayer lives. Not with prayer itself, but in the content and focus of our prayers. We should so desire what God desires, that we are not content until we see His will done in the lives of those we love. God’s desire for each of His children is their growth in Christ-likeness. He wants to see them mature. He wants to see them living within His will. We should want the same thing. And we should not stop praying for it until we see God’s answer appear in transformed lives that bring glory and honor to Him.

That Hardest Prayer to Pray.

But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. – Luke 6:27-28 ESV

These two verses are included in Luke's account of the Sermon on the Mount. They are the words of Jesus Himself and with the rest of His sermon that day, contain His teachings concerning true righteousness. Jesus was presenting a higher standard of righteousness than was being practiced in His day. He was raising the bar, so to speak. He was letting the people know that the righteousness required for inclusion in God's Kingdom was much more demanding than they had ever suspected. Luke gives a shorter version of Jesus' sermon because he was writing primarily to a Gentile audience and so he removed much of the content having to do with the Mosaic law or legal matters. He was interested in those words of Jesus that had a universal appeal. The two verses above are preceded by four “woes” that are designed to contrast with the beatitudes or blessings given by Jesus. Jesus said, “woe to you who are rich…”, “Woe to you who are full now…”, “Woe to you who laugh now…”, and “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you…” (Luke 6:24-26 ESV). The Greek word that is translated “woe” means “alas” and carries the idea of pity or sorrow. It conveys a sense of sadness regarding those who are under God's judgment. Those who choose riches, physical pleasure, temporary happiness, or popularity over a relationship with Christ will suffer in the long run. They will enjoy temporary pleasure, but miss out on the eternal rewards made possible through Jesus.

These woes directly precede the verses above. Jesus said, “But I say to you who hear…” He then gives a series of seemingly impossible standards to live by. Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt or abuse you. These words sounded as impossible then as they do now. But they represent the kind of righteousness that God requires. Something far more difficult than had ever been imagined. And only made possible through a relationship with Jesus Christ. In Matthew's account of the Sermon on the Mount, he records Jesus saying, “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20 ESV). For the average Jew in the audience that day, this statement would have sounded implausible and impossible. The scribes and Pharisees were the spiritual elite. They were the religious rock stars of their day. But Jesus was looking for a different kind of righteousness. What He had in mind was not a works-based righteousness based on human effort, but a whole new kind of righteousness made possible by His sacrificial death on the cross.

What Jesus is asking us to do in these verses is impossible. Left to our own devices, we would never be able to love our enemies. We could never muster up enough inner strength to do good to those who hate us or bless those who curse us. And why in the world would we want to pray for those who hurt us? And believe me, Jesus is not suggesting we pray for their destruction. He is telling us to pray God's blessings on them. Our prayer should be that God does them good even while they are doing us harm. Impossible? You bet. Unless it is done in the righteousness of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. Only believers have the capacity to pray that way – and mean it. But in order to pray God's blessings on those who are in the process of hurting us, we need to be living in submission to the Spirit of God. We must be relying on His strength and not our own. We must recognize that God's desire is that we live like Christ, Peter writes regarding Jesus’ actions during His trials and crucifixion: “When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:23-24 ESV). The writer of Hebrews tells us, “Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted” (Hebrews 12:3 ESV).

Pray for those who hurt you. That is not our natural response. We want to hurt them back. We want vengeance, retribution, payback. But Jesus came to provide us with a new kind of righteousness, a new way of living in this world. His death provided us with a new capacity to love the unlovely, pray for the undeserving, and to do good to the ungodly. To pray God's blessings on those who hurt you is to put them in God's hands and let Him do what He deems best. It is to put your trust in His wisdom and your life in His care, knowing that He can protect you regardless of what others may choose to do to you. Prayer isn't about getting what you want from God. It is about doing what God wants. It is about living according to His standards and relying upon His power to accomplish His will.

Humble Dependence.

Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Preserve my life, for I am godly; save your servant, who trusts in you—you are my God. – Psalm 86:1-2 ESV God doesn't need me. As great as I may think I am and as many wonderful attributes I believe I may have, the reality is that God can get along quite well without me. He doesn't need my help. He can survive without my worship. His plan for the world will still take place even if I'm not in the picture. I am a non-essential when it comes to God's sovereign plan for the universe. Admittedly, that's a hard concept for some of us to grasp. We want to be important. We desire greatly to be significant in some way. But King David put it succinctly. “…what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” (Psalm 8:4 ESV). Our only significance comes from the fact that we are created in the image of God. We are His workmanship. It is He who gives us value. As believers, it is our relationship with Jesus Christ that provides us with our worth. As a result of His death on the cross, His righteousness became ours. He took on our sins and condemnation, and His righteousness was imputed to us. Therefore, we have value in God's eyes. But it is not due to anything we have done. It is “not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:9 ESV)

In his psalm, David comes before God as “poor and needy.” That's an interesting self-description for the King of Israel to use, since he was one of the wealthiest men alive and had great wealth and power at his disposal. Yet he knew that he was a man in great need – in need of God. He needed God to hear him and answer him. He needed God's protection and direction. His armies were nothing without God's leadership. His wealth was insignificant if he didn't have God's daily provision of joy, peace, and contentment. He was the warrior-king who had experienced great victories and accomplished amazing feats of bravery. Yet he knew he needed God to prolong and protect his life. He was nothing without God.

Which is why David called out to God. “Be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you do I cry all the day. Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul” (Psalm 86:3-4 ESV). He needed God's grace. He depended upon God for joy. He was totally reliant upon God for inner strength and moral fortitude. David knew his weaknesses. He knew he was sin-prone and self-centered. He knew he was fully capable of not only disobeying God, but dishonoring Him as well. David asked God to save him; not just from his enemies, but from himself. Like all of us, he could be his own worst enemy. His sin nature could wreak havoc on his relationship with God. So he humbly came to God for help, for hope, and for His mercy and favor.

David goes on to ask something from God. “Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name” (Psalm 86:11 ESV). He knew he needed God's help in order to live his life according to God's truth. He couldn't do it on his own. He was incapable of learning what he needed to know, so he asked God to teach him. He even asked God to work on his heart so that he might fear Him. The NET Bible translates that verses this way: “Make me wholeheartedly committed to you!” The New Living Translation gives it a slightly different twist. “Grant me purity of heart, so that I may honor you.” He needed God to literally “bind” his heart so that he would live in a way that honors God. David was familiar with the words of Jeremiah. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9 ESV). So even his heart needed God's help in order to stay united, faithful, true and wholeheartedly committed to God's cause.

A healthy awareness of our neediness and spiritual poverty apart from God is missing from many of our lives. We have developed an arrogance and attitude of deservedness that somehow makes us believe God is somehow obligated to love us and bless us. David knew better. He recognized the fact that he was completely dependent upon God for all that he had and needed God's help in every area of his life. Humble dependence is a necessity for the child of God. It reveals our complete reliance upon God for everything. In the old hymn, Rock of Ages, there is a line that expresses the attitude we should hold. It says,…

Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling; naked, come to thee for dress; helpless, look to thee for grace; foul, I to the fountain fly; wash me, Savior, or I die.

Humble dependence. We are needy and poor. We are naked and helpless. But when we bring our need to God, we find grace, mercy, help, hope, healing, power, forgiveness, acceptance, and the love of a holy Father who sees us as His own child.

Worthy of Praise.

Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me! – Psalm 66:20 ESV Have you ever stopped to consider the unbelievable reality that God hears your prayers? Not only does He hear them, He answers them. Maybe not in the way you would like or were expecting, and perhaps not on the schedule you were hoping for, but He always answers. But the even more amazing fact is that God hears our prayers to begin with. Think about that. Why should He? What have we done to deserve the attention of the holy, righteous, sinless God who created the entire universe. He is the one who made us and yet we have returned the gift of His creation with sin, rejection of His authority, indifference to His Word, and a constant love for creation instead of the Creator. So why does He listen? Because for those of us who are in Christ, He sees us as righteous because of the sacrificial blood of His Son. God no longer sees us as rebellious sinners, but as saints, sons and daughters. We are His children and, as a good Father, He listens to our calls for help, our pleas for direction, and our cries for mercy. The psalmist praised God because his prayers had not been rejected. He praised the fact that God was still in love with him in spite of him. He was able to say, “But truly God has listened; he has attended to the voice of my prayer” (Psalm 66:19 ESV). 

The sad fact is that we take that reality for granted. God listens to our prayers and the unbelievable nature of that thought doesn't even seem to register with us. God chooses to hear me when I call out to Him. Not because I deserve it, but because His Son has paid the price for my sins so that I can come into the very presence of God the Father with no fear of condemnation or rejection. He hears me and He listens to me as His child. He loves me and answers me like a loving Father would one of His children. And I take it for granted. So do you. We have given God plenty of good reasons to reject our prayers and ample cause for Him to fall out of love with us. But He continues to hear and listen to us. He continues to love us unconditionally and unwaveringly. So why don't we praise Him more? David did. He got it. He appreciated God's love and the fact that He heard his prayers. Read the following words of David and ask yourself when was the last time you felt the same way.

Let all that I am praise the Lord;     with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name. Let all that I am praise the Lord;     may I never forget the good things he does for me. He forgives all my sins     and heals all my diseases. He redeems me from death     and crowns me with love and tender mercies. He fills my life with good things. – Psalm 103:1-5 NLT

God hears you. He answers you. He loves you. So why doesn't that amaze you? Why doesn't that produce an attitude of gratitude and praise in you? If you're anything like me, it is probably because we don't pray and truly believe He hears us or answers us. Or it could be that we pray and then fail to recognize His answers when they come. David said, “He fills my life with good things.” We have lost the sense of God's goodness in our lives. We no longer see all the good things that He is doing in our lives every day. Instead, we have boiled down the proof of His activity in our lives to the list of things we ask of Him and expect Him to deliver. We are like a child who wants a new bike, but fails to appreciate the bed in which he sleeps, the food he eats, the clothes he wears, and the room full of toys he already enjoys. We want and demand more from God, while failing to appreciate and show gratitude for all He has already done. God is worthy of our praise – all the time. The very fact that He hears us when we pray and loves us even when we sin, should amaze and astound us. It should produce in us an overwhelming sense of thankfulness. Our attitude should be that of David. “Shout for joy to God, all the earth; sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise! Say to God, ‘How awesome are your deeds!’” (Psalm 66:1-3 NLT). Praise Him. Not because of what you are waiting for Him to do for you, but for the very fact that He loves you enough to hear you when you call. Praise Him for all He has already done. Praise Him because He provided His own son as a sacrifice for your sins and has made it possible for you to enjoy a relationship with Him, free from fear and condemnation. He is worthy of our praise. So let us praise Him. Shout for joy to the Lord. Sing His praises. Let Him know just how grateful you are that He hears you and loves you.

Parental Prayers.

Give your love of justice to the king, O God, and righteousness to the king’s son. Help him judge your people in the right way; let the poor always be treated fairly. – Psalm 72:1-2 ESV

What should you pray for your kids? As a father of six, I have struggled with that question over the years. There were times when I prayed for their safety. Prior to their conversions, I prayed relentlessly that they would come to faith in Christ. There were plenty of times I begged God to help them just get along. I asked Him to give them good friends and to help them succeed in school. I prayed for their future mates and, in for the four who are still not married, I still do. I prayed for their healing when they were sick, for them to have joy when they were sad, that they would develop a love for God's Word and a desire to live for Him all the days of their lives – and I still do. But as my kids have grown up and I have grown older, I have seen my prayers change in both tone and content. I have learned from reading and studying the prayers of the Bible. I have discovered there is something far more important than my children's safety, happiness, success, future spouses, friendships, or health. It is their godliness. As i read this psalm written by David for his son, Solomon, I was reminded once again that what my children have really needed over the years is rarely what I have prayed for them. David was praying for his son as he began his reign as the king of Israel. And what he prayed for him is revealing. He asked, “Give your love of justice to the king, O God, and righteousness to the king’s son.” He didn't pray that Solomon would be a successful king or a powerful ruler. He didn't ask God to give him victories over all his enemies. He asked for something far more significant. The NET Bible translates David's request in a way that makes them even more impactful. David was asking God to give his son “the ability to make just decisions” and “the ability to make fair decisions.” David knew that Solomon's future success as a king was going to be based solely on his godliness. Solomon was going to need God's help in the form of God's wisdom in order to rule wisely, justly, and fairly.

It's interesting to note that, in the early days of his reign, Solomon had a dream in which God appeared to him and said, “What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you!” (1 Kings 3:5 ESV). Solomon's answer seems to reveal that David had spent some time drilling into his son the understanding that wisdom and godliness were the most important assets he could seek in his life. Because when Solomon responded to God's question, he said, “Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong. For who by himself is able to govern this great people of yours?” (1 Kings 3:9 NLT). The Scriptures tell us that God was pleased with Solomon's request and that God responded, “Because you have asked for wisdom in governing my people with justice and have not asked for a long life or wealth or the death of your enemies—I will give you what you asked for! I will give you a wise and understanding heart such as no one else has had or ever will have! And I will also give you what you did not ask for—riches and fame! No other king in all the world will be compared to you for the rest of your life! And if you follow me and obey my decrees and my commands as your father, David, did, I will give you a long life” (1 Kings 3:11-14 NLT).

David knew that Solomon's greatest need was God. Whether he became a king or a commoner, Solomon was going to need God to guide him, direct him, and provide him with a sense of right and wrong, justice and mercy, righteousness and fairness. It is interesting to note that the apostle Paul prayed for his children in the faith in a similar way. He told the young believers in Colossae, “We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better” (Colossians 1:9-10 NLT). He knew that the key to them living lives that were God-honoring, God-pleasing, and spiritually fruitful, was that they be godly, being filled with a knowledge of God's will.

Our children's greatest need is God. Their future success is dependent upon their dependence upon God. Their future marriages will thrive only to the degree that they are filled with God's wisdom, justice, righteousness and understanding. It doesn't matter how much money they make or how many degrees they earn. It doesn't matter how far up the corporate ladder they climb or how big a home they eventually live in. Their greatest need will remain their need for God. Their greatest strength will remain their reliance upon God. What our children really need can't come from this world. It can only come from God. Their greatest need is spiritual, not physical, emotional, or financial. Godly children grow up to be godly teachers, parents, husbands, wives, nurses, doctors, accountants, and friends. Pray that they get more of God. Pray that they be filled with His wisdom and understanding. The more they have of Him, the more impact they will have on the world and the greater influence they will have on those around them.

When Things Look Down, Look Up.

Then Hezekiah the king and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, prayed because of this and cried to heaven. – 2 Chronicles 32:20 ESV The psalmist asked the somewhat rhetorical question: “From where does my help come?” (Psalm 121:1 ESV). Then he gives what should be the obvious answer: “My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:2 ESV). In times of trouble, the one who believes in God turns to Him for hope and help. When things are down, they look up. David, the great king of Israel, wrote, “For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken” (Psalm 62:1-2 ESV). The psalmist, Korah, echoes this sentiment. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1 ESV). And it was with this thought in mind that King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah prayed to their God in heaven. They looked up and they cried out.

The situation was desperate. King Sennacherib of Assyria had invaded Judah with his armies and had Jerusalem surrounded and under siege. He had sent a message to the inhabitants of the city, saying: “Why are you so confident that you remain in Jerusalem while it is under siege? Hezekiah says, ‘The Lord our God will rescue us from the power of the king of Assyria.’ But he is misleading you and you will die of hunger and thirst!” (2 Chronicles 32:10-11 ESV). He went on to threaten the people of Judah with annihilation and warned them that Hezekiah was simply trying to deceive them. He ridiculed the God of Israel and bragged that no other god of any other nation had been able to stand against his armies. “Who among all the gods of these nations whom my predecessors annihilated was able to rescue his people from my power?” (2 Chronicles 32:14 ESV). King Sennacherib even had some of his troops who spoke Hebrew call out to the people of the wall, attempting to demoralize them with threats of destruction. They purposefully ridiculed God. “They talked about the God of Jerusalem as if he were one of the man-made gods of the nations of the earth” (2 Chronicles 32:19 ESV).

Things were definitely looking down. The odds were stacked against Hezekiah and Isaiah. The people were beginning to have second thoughts about Hezekiah's leadership. They were listening to the words of Sennacherib and wondering if their God was strong enough to stand up against such a great army. There's no doubt that Hezekiah and Isaiah were hearing a lot of complaining. They were probably getting a lot of advice to simply give up and cave in to the demands of the enemy. Self-preservation was the watchword of the day. Rather than expect victory and deliverance, the people were willing to settle for surrender and submission in exchange for their lives.

But Hezekiah and Isaiah didn't give up or give in. They looked up and they called out to God. In the darkest of moments they still saw a glimmer of hope, because they believed in the power of their God. They knew Him to be loving, faithful, and fully capable of delivering His people from the greatest of difficulties. Sennacherib and his armies were formidable, but they were no match for the God who had created heaven and earth, who had defeated the armies of Egypt, who had delivered the land of Canaan into the hands of His people by defeating the more powerful nations that lived there. The armies of Judah were nothing compared to those of the Assyrians, but that was inconsequential. It was David, the great warrior-king of Israel, who wrote, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright” (Psalm 20:7-8 ESV). Here was a man who built his reputation on warfare, bravery, battlefield heroics and victories against his enemies. But even he knew that, ultimately, the battle was the Lord's. Any success against the enemy was His doing.

So Hezekiah and Isaiah cried out to God. And He answered. We're not told what they prayed. We're not told how long they prayed. But we are told that God answered, and in a big way. “The Lord sent a messenger and he wiped out all the soldiers, princes, and officers in the army of the king of Assyria. So Sennacherib returned home humiliated” (2 Chronicles 32:21 ESV). God didn't even have to show up Himself. He simply sent a messenger, much like Sennacherib had done. But God's messenger brought more than threats and insults. He brought destruction on the enemy and deliverance for His people. In fact, when Sennacherib arrived home, he went into the temple of his god and was murdered by his own sons. His own god wasn't powerful enough to protect him.

But God proved Himself faithful, powerful, and fully capable of delivering His people from the greatest of difficulties. Sennacherib had boasted, “no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to rescue his people from my power or the power of my predecessors” (2 Chronicles 32:15 ESV). But he didn't know the God of Israel. He had yet to come up against the God of the universe, the one and only true God, the maker of heaven and earth. Like Hezekiah and Isaiah, may we learn to trust God even in the darkest of moments. May we learn to call out to Him even when all looks lost. Like David, may we be able to say, “Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed; he will answer him from his holy heaven with the saving might of his right hand” (Psalm 20: 6 ESV).

At An Acceptable Time.

But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness. – Psalm 69:13 ESV The primary purpose of prayer is not to get something from God. But for many of us, that is what we have made it. That is how we understand it and approach it. We pray primarily to receive something we need or want. And while we are encouraged to ask from and offer petitions to God, there is far more to the act of prayer than simply receiving our requests. Prayer is an act of humble submission to a holy, all-powerful God. It conveys our dependence upon Him and acknowledges our understanding that He is the giver of all good things. Jesus said of the Father, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11 ESV). The psalmist reminds us that “the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly” (Psalm 84:11 ESV). God loves to give to His children. But there is more to prayer than getting from God. It is an experience in getting to know God. Through prayer we discover the will of God. We experience the nature of God. We begin to understand the attributes of God. We learn the valuable lesson of trusting God. And over time, as we wait for His answer, we grow in our willingness to wait on God.

In this psalm, David makes it clear that his prayer was to God. He wasn't going to turn to anyone or anything else. His request was going to be made to the only one who could do anything to help him. David was up to his neck in trouble, and he had been for some time. His prayers had been constant and urgent. “ I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God” (Psalm 69:3 ESV). David longed to see God intervene and deliver him from all his difficulties. He wanted to be a living example of God's saving power. He cried out, “Deliver me from sinking in the mire; let me be delivered from my enemies,and from the deep waters. Let not the flood sweep over me, or the deep swallow me up, or the pit close its mouth over me” (Psalm 69:13-14 ESV).

But David was willing to wait. His prayer was based on his understanding of God's love and faithfulness. While he would have loved an immediate answer to his prayer and a quick deliverance from his trials, he was willing to wait on God, because he trusted God. He knew that God was there and that He cared. His petition was based on what he knew about God. “Answer me, O Lord, for your steadfast love is good; according to your abundant mercy, turn to me” (Psalm 69:16 ESV). We sometimes pray and our focus is more on what we want than on the one to whom we are praying. We can become obsessed with our request and fail to give much thought to God and His love, mercy, grace and power. David went to God because he loved God. David made his request to God because he trusted God. David prayed to God because he was completely dependent upon God. And he knew that God would answer him “at an acceptable time.” The Hebrew literally means, “in a time of favor.” David was willing to wait on God to answer his request when He deemed the timing was right – based on His unfailing love, faithfulness, and mercy.

We are welcome and encouraged to make our requests known to God. Paul writes, “The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:5-7 ESV). Notice that Paul says the result of our petition will be peace – the peace of God. In other words, the peace we will receive will be a God-based peace, not an answer-based peace. We will not experience peace because we got what we wanted, but because our God has heard our request and loves us deeply and cares about us greatly. The peace will be founded on the character of God. He is sovereign. He hears. He loves us. He is faithful. He is all-powerful. He will always do the right thing. And He will provide His answer at an acceptable time and in the appropriate manner.

Paul said, “The Lord is at hand.” He is near. He is not distant or disengaged from our experiences. He is as near as our next prayer. But rather than simply pray to get from Him, we should pray to get to know Him, to discover His character, to become more convinced of His love and faithfulness. David was so confident of God's deliverance that he was able to say, “I will praise the name of God with a song;I will magnify him with thanksgiving” (Psalm 69:30 ESV). He knew His God. He trusted Him. He was willing to wait on Him. Because He knew His answer would come at just the right time and in just the right way.

Holy Help.

You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. – 2 Corinthians 1:11 ESV Paul was an apostle of Jesus Christ and he took his responsibility to spread the good news quite seriously. He traveled far and wide taking the message of salvation made available through faith in Jesus to as many of the Gentile lands he could possibly reach. On those journeys he encountered those who embraced his message eagerly, but also those who offered intense opposition. He was regularly rejected, ridiculed, thrown out of the synagogue, falsely accused, chased out of town and even stoned and left for dead. Paul told the believers in Corinth, “For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death” (2 Corinthians 1:8-9 ESV). There were few who could relate to Paul's experiences. The list of those who were putting their life on the line by sharing the gospel in hostile situations was short. Yes, there was persecution going on all over the world at that time, but there were not many who were performing the role of an official missionary for the gospel. Paul's calling was unique. His commission to take the gospel to the Gentiles was given to him personally by Christ himself and to him alone. 

Paul wasn't complaining about his lot in life. He was whining to the believers in Corinth about all that he had to suffer for the sake of Christ. In fact, he was sharing all that he had gained through his trials on behalf of Christ. “But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again” (2 Corinthians 11:9-10 ESV). Through all his difficulties, Paul had learned to trust in God. He had seen God deliver him time and time again, so he knew that God would not fail to deliver him in the future. He was content to trust God's plan for his life. But his contentment with God's will did not stop him from asking for prayers on his behalf. He specifically asked those to whom he was writing for their help – in the form of their prayers. “You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.” While they could not travel with Paul or assist him by taking the gospel to foreign lands, they could come to his aid by going to their knees. They could pray for his ministry, his health, and his safety. They could ask God to continue to provide protection. They could pray for those to whom Paul would minister, that they would have receptive ears and soft hearts. There is power in prayer. Through prayer, we come humbly before God and ask Him to do what only He can do. We acknowledge our need for His assistance. We share our heart with Him that His will be done. We show Him that we care about what He cares about. Paul was asking for their prayers. He coveted their prayers on his behalf. He knew that the greatest assistance they could provide to him would be through their prayers for him. “In prayer, human impotence casts itself at the feet of divine omnipotence” (Philip E. Hughes, Paul's Second Epistle to the Corinthians, pp. 23). 

Prayer allows us to do things we could not possibly do in the flesh. We can't be everywhere at once. We can't physically be with every person in our family at the same time. We have limits. We have physical constraints. But through prayer, we are able to span distances, expand our reach, multiply our efforts and provide our assistance to those we can't even see. Paul knew there was power in prayer. He had experienced it. He knew there were countless individuals, in cities all across Macedonia, Asia and Galatia who were praying for him as he traveled. They were praying for his work, his health, and his message. He could sense their love for him and their common concern for his work. Paul did not take their prayers lightly. He coveted them. He asked for them. He knew he needed them.

Through prayer we can accomplish far more than we can through our own efforts. Prayer engages God. Prayer unleashes a power we do not possess. Prayer reminds us that God is the one who must accomplish the impossible, not us. God has no limits. He is not hampered by time constraints. Distance creates no barrier for Him. By reaching out to Him, we are able to touch the lives of those we cannot see and the hearts of those we don't even know. We can pray for the lost around the world. We can lift up the work of missionaries we have never even met. We can offer up our concerns for the work of the gospel in places we will never get to go. Through prayer, we can help in ways that go far beyond our human capabilities and accomplish more than we could ever imagine. They say technology has made the world “smaller.” From the safety of our home we can see what's going on around the world. We can talk to someone on the other side of the planet. We can watch events taking place in distance lands as if we were there. I can Skype with a missionary working in Africa. I can send a text of encouragement to a friend on a different continent. I can receive images instantaneously from someone thousands of miles away. But prayer does far more. It unleashes the power of God. It allows me to not only stay in touch, but to connect in practical, powerful ways. Prayer shrinks the world, expands our reach, spreads the gospel, and exposes our dependence upon the power of God.

Praying Properly.

The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. – 1 Peter 4:7 ESV There is a manner in which we are to pray that will make our prayers proper and appropriate. It has less to do with form, than with our attitude toward prayer. Some of us worry far too much about our words and not enough about our hearts or disposition while we are praying. Peter gives us a valuable lesson on perspective. He reminded his readers that “the end of all things is at hand”. Peter, like the rest of the apostles, lived with a eager anticipation and expectation that the return of Christ was eminent. This attitude produced in him a day-to-day diligence regarding his lifestyle, including his prayer life. It resulted in a desire to live self-controlled. The Greek word he uses is sōphroneō and it means “to put a moderate estimate upon one's self, think of one's self soberly”. It can also mean “to curb one's passions.” The idea is to live with a realistic understanding of who you are and what you are capable of. Don't get too cocky and sure of yourself. Don't get complacent about your sin nature and assume you are above giving in to temptation. Paul used the very same word when he wrote to the Romans and told a man was “not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned” (Romans 12:3 ESV). There is a sense in which we are to come to God in prayer with a sober-minded, realistic view of who we are. We are not to come before Him arrogantly, pridefully or with an attitude of self-righteousness. Pride can have a negative impact on our prayer life.

But Peter also uses the Greek word, nēphō, which means “to be sober, to be calm and collected in spirit”. It carries the idea of watchfulness or wakefulness, to be clear-headed and alert, capable of recognizing what is going on around you at all times. Paul used the same word when he wrote to the believers in Thessalonica. “So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation” (1 Thessalonians 5:6-8 ESV). Paul was also talking about the “day of the Lord”, the end times. He warned his readers that the day of the Lord would come like a thief in the night, suddenly and  unexpectedly. At that time there will be those who believe all is well. They will have a lazy attitude toward the Lord's return. They will be caught by surprise. But Paul told his readers, “you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness” (1 Thessalonians 5:4-5 ESV). As believers we are to live with an expectation of the Lord's return. It could happen any day. And our awareness of that reality should change the way we live. It should impact the way we pray. Peter said that we should be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of our prayers. We should have a strong awareness of what we are capable of apart from the Spirit's indwelling presence within us. We have the capacity to sin at any time. We have a sin nature that is constantly battling with the Spirit within us. That realization should produce in us a dependence upon God. It should show up in the way we pray. Our prayers should contain requests for wisdom, strength, protection, direction, and the capacity to live in obedience to His will. We also need to stay alert and awake, fully aware of what is going on around us. Our ability to sense the dangers surrounding us will keep our prayers focused on our need for God. We must constantly remind ourselves that this world is not our home. We don't belong here any more. In fact, Jesus told us that the world would hate us. It hated Him and so it hates us. We must never lose sight of that reality. Satan would love to convince us that the world is our friend, that everything we need can be found right here. We can even buy into the lie that the things of this world can bring us satisfaction and contentment and allow our prayer lives to be filled with requests for more of what this world has to offer, rather than for requests of those things that God has promised – like peace, joy, contentment, and a hope for His Son's return.

Prayer is not easy. But it is far more painless and effective when done with a proper perspective. We must remain constantly aware of our sin nature and our predisposition to disobedience. We must never think too highly of ourselves or see ourselves as somehow above the need for prayer. We must also live with a sense of expectation and wide-awake awareness of the Lord's return. We can't afford to get lulled into complacency or contentment with life as it is in this world. When we lose sight of the end that God has in store, we can find ourselves living as if this world is all there is. Then our prayers can become filled with requests for temporal rewards and earthly treasures. But God has far more in store for us. He offers us strength for the journey, not stuff to enjoy along the way. He offers us peace and joy in the midst of trial, not a trouble-free life. We are to live with the end in mind. We are to pray with our focus on what God has promised, not on what the world offers. We are to be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of our prayers.

Prayer for the Lost.

Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. – Romans 10:1 ESV How many people do you know who are lost, who don't know Jesus as their personal Savior? We all know someone. We are surrounded by an endless number of individuals who have yet to hear of the good news of salvation made possible by the death of Jesus on the cross. They remain ignorant of the free gift of grace available to them. They don't know how to be restored to a right relationship with God. They live in the world, blind to their own sin, oblivious to their own eternal destiny and hopeless as to how to do anything about their situation. They search for meaning and significance in this world. They seek to find fulfillment in the things this world offers. Some are religious. Some are good people who have good intentions. Others are prideful, arrogant, boastful, self-righteous and satisfied with their lives just like they are. Paul described some of the people in the word as those “who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10 NLT). Paul told Timothy that the “last days” would be filled with lost people, who he described in very detailed terms: “For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly” (2 Timothy 3:2-5 NLT).

And sadly, we find ourselves surrounded by people who fit those descriptions. But what do we do about it? Paul would suggest that we pray for them. In his letter to the believers in Rome, Paul said that he prayed for the Jews living there. He longed to see them come to faith in Christ. They were his fellow brothers and sisters. He was a Jew who had been saved by Christ and he longed for them to have that same experience. That's the reason Paul made it a habit to head to the synagogue every time he entered a new town on one of his missionary journeys. He made a bee line to the place where he knew he would come into contact with the greatest number of Jews, and he would share the gospel with them. He prayed and he preached. He lifted them up to God and he brought the message of Jesus to them. And in most cases, his efforts resulted in insults, rejection, and on one occasion, stoning.

But he wouldn't stop sharing. He couldn't stop praying that they might be saved. He had a love for the lost. He had a passion for the gospel. He couldn't stand the thought of even one person not having the opportunity to hear about Christ. His heart's desire was their salvation. And he turned his heart's desire into prayers to God on their behalf. He wanted to see God save them. He wanted to see them come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and accept His free gift of salvation. He knew they were relying on their own righteousness and that it wasn't going to get them anywhere. They needed Jesus. So he shared Jesus with them. But he also prayed for them. Regularly and fervently.

So do you pray for the lost? Do you care about their spiritual condition? Do you understand that the salvation you have received from God was totally undeserved and that you were once in the same condition as all those around you who live without Christ? Paul reminds us, “Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11 NLT). We were lost, but then we heard the good news of Jesus Christ. Someone prayed for us. Someone shared with us. So why wouldn't we want the same thing for those who have yet to hear? Ask God to give you a burden for the lost. Ask Him to help you to see them as He does. Ask Him to give you a love for them like He has. And pray for them. By name. With persistence and with passion.

Devoted to Prayer.

Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. – Colossians 4:2 ESV This short, simple verse carries a key to having a more effective prayer life. Prayer requires devotion. It takes a level of commitment that many of us seem to lack. We tend to treat prayer as a spiritual add-on, an extracurricular exercise that is somehow optional, and not required. We pray when we have a pressing need. We pray when it's convenient. We pray when others are watching or listening. But for many of us, our prayer lives lack commitment. In his letter to the believers living in Colossae, Paul encouraged them to devote themselves to prayer. The Greek word he used was proskartereō and it means, “to give one's self continually, to continue steadfastly, to persevere and not to faint.” It carries the idea of doing something with diligence and determination. It is not a passive word, but an active one. Paul used the same word in his letter to the believers in Rome. “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer” (Romans 12:12 ESV). 

Prayer requires determination. It demands persistence. Notice that in his words of encouragement to the believers in Rome he combined hope and patience with steadfastness in prayer. There is a need for a kind of stick-to-it-ness when it comes to prayer. Some of us pray, then give up when we don't get what we want. We pray and if we don't get what we want when we want it, we stop. But Paul would have us devote ourselves to prayer. He would have us keep on praying, regardless of what happens, because we don't know what God is doing behind the scenes. We can't see the future. We can't know the outcome.

That's why he tells us to be alert. The Greek word he used is grēgoreō and it means “to watch, be vigilant, stay alert and awake.” It would seem that Paul wants us to pray with an air of expectation. And a heart of thanksgiving, even before we get the answer to our prayer. In other words, we are to thank God for what He is going to do even before He does it, because He is faithful and trustworthy. He may not do exactly what we ask, but He will do what needs to be done. He will always do what is best for us. To fail to pray is to fail to trust God. It conveys an independence from God and an attitude of self-sufficiency. Prayer at its core is an expression of need. It is an act of dependence that illustrates a willing submission to God's plan for our lives.

Prayer is a privilege afforded to us by Christ's death on the cross. His payment for our sins has made it possible for us to come into God's presence through prayer. We can come before Him at any time and from any place through the simple act of prayer. We can tell Him our needs. We can praise Him for His love, grace and mercy. We can express our fears, share our doubts, unload our problems, and confess our sins. We can ask Him for wisdom, help, encouragement, strength, healing, power, or patience. Our prayers can be long or short. They can be eloquent or little more than a moan of anguish. But He always hears us. His Holy Spirit takes our most confusing prayers and turns them into words that align with the very will of God.

But we must be persistent. We must persevere. We must not lose heart. Prayer is our connection with God. It keeps us in tune with Him. It reminds us of how much we need Him. There are no shortage of things for which to pray. There are those around us who need our prayers. There are situations taking place each and every day that demand our prayers. Taking all these things to God is a way of showing Him just how much we need Him. It is a way of letting Him know how much we long to see His power displayed in our world. When we pray, we are asking God to step in and do what only He can do. When we fail to pray, it means we are going to try to be our own god, our own savior. Devotion to pray is nothing more than devotion to God. Praying is another way of trusting. That is why Paul told the believers in Philippi, “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7 ESV). Pray diligently. Pray expectantly. Pray thankfully.

Prayer In the Midst of Problems.

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them… – Acts 16:25 ESV Most of us have no problem praying when everything around us is falling apart. In fact, it seems that our prayer lives actually improve drastically when our circumstances take a turn for the worse. We become prayer warriors in the midst of problems. But what kind of prayers do we pray in those moments? If we were honest, we would have to admit that our prayers usually center around our rescue. We want God to deliver us from trouble, fix our problem, remove our pain, heal our sickness, improve our finances, restore our happiness, and we want Him to do it NOW. But the story of Paul and Silas gives us a glimpse into a different kind of praying when faced with troubles and trials. Acts 16 tells of their arrival in Philippi, a Roman colony. Luke records, “And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together” (Acts 16:13 ESV). In virtually all of Paul's missionary journeys he went to the local synagogue on the Sabbath. But in this case he went to a “place of prayer.” For a city to have a synagogue, there had to be a minimum of 10 Jewish men living there. So evidently, there were only a few people of Jewish descent living in the city of Philippi and, as a result, they had to find a place to gather for worship and prayer. It was there that Paul and Silas met Lydia, who they led to the Lord and baptized. She hosted them in her home during their stay in Philippi. Some time later, on their way back to the place of prayer, they met “a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling” (Acts 16:16 ESV). Actually, she was demon possessed and was used by her masters to tell people's fortunes. When she saw Paul and Silas, she shouted, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation” (Acts 16:17 ESV). She did this every time she saw them. And while what she said was true, it was not acceptable to Paul and Silas. Perhaps they feared that they would become too closely associated with a woman who was known to be possessed of a spirit. So Paul, “having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, ‘I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.’ And it came out that very hour” (Acts 16:18 ESV).

With the removal of the demonic spirit, the girl lost her ability to tell fortunes, and her owners lost their ability to make money. This resulted in Paul and Silas being dragged before the rulers of the city and accused of causing a disturbance. They were beaten with rods, thrown in jail and had their feet chained in stocks. It was in this condition that we find them praying. But not only were they praying, they were singing hymns. The passage does not tell us the content of their prayers, but it indicates that their prayers and songs were heard by the other prisoners around them. Luke tells us that they were “praying and singing hymns to God” in the middle of the night. The very fact that he mentions both prayer and singing seems to indicate that they were joyful, not sorrowful. They were praising God, not just pleading with Him to get them out of their predicament. They were worshiping, not whining about their circumstances. And their actions were getting the attention of those around them. Their unorthodox behavior in the midst of their problems couldn't help but be noticed by those who shared their lot in life.

Paul was well acquainted to difficult circumstances. He wrote to the believers in Corinth, giving them a glimpse of all he had been through. “To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things” (1 Corinthians 4:11-13 ESV). In a second letter to the church in Corinth, he let them know that his experience with trouble and trials was ongoing. But so was his less-than-normal reaction to them. “In everything we do, we show that we are true ministers of God. We patiently endure troubles and hardships and calamities of every kind. We have been beaten, been put in prison, faced angry mobs, worked to exhaustion, endured sleepless nights, and gone without food. We prove ourselves by our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness, by the Holy Spirit within us, and by our sincere love” (2 Corinthians 6:4-6 NLT).

It wasn't that Paul enjoyed pain and suffering. It was that he had learned to trust God regardless of what was going on around him or happening to him. He found peace in the midst of problems because he knew God was there with him. He wrote, “We faithfully preach the truth. God’s power is working in us. We use the weapons of righteousness in the right hand for attack and the left hand for defense. We serve God whether people honor us or despise us, whether they slander us or praise us. We are honest, but they call us impostors. We are ignored, even though we are well known. We live close to death, but we are still alive. We have been beaten, but we have not been killed. Our hearts ache, but we always have joy. We are poor, but we give spiritual riches to others. We own nothing, and yet we have everything” (2 Corinthians 6:7-10 NLT).

We aren't told what Paul and Silas prayed, but I have a sneaky suspicion that they were praising God for His sovereignty, power, protection, wisdom, and unshakeable plan. He knew what they were going through and He knew why they were going through it. He had a plan behind their problem. And Luke records that while they were praying and praising, an earthquake shook the building, their chains fell off and the doors of the prison flew open. But rather than run for daylight and freedom, Paul and Silas led the jailer and his family to Christ. And the amazing thing is that the jailer took them to his home, washed their wounds and fed them, but rather than escape, Paul and Silas chose to go back to the prison. Had they been praying for release, they would have seen this as God's answer to their prayers. But I believe they were praying for God's power to be on display, so that more people might come to Christ. They weren't praying for their problems to go away, but for their God to have His way. And He did.

Praying in the Spirit – Part II

But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. – Jude 1:20 ESV Praying in the Spirit. What exactly is it? How do you do it? Jude was giving his readers some extremely important advice that was intended to prevent a potentially negative outcome in their lives. He had just told them, “you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 1:17 ESV). But what predictions did he have in mind? Jude leaves no doubt. “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions. It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit” (Jude 1:18 ESV). The prediction was that there would be those in the church who were worldly, controlled by ungodly passions and who did not have the Holy Spirit resident within them. In other words, they were not saved. But those to whom he was writing were in the “beloved” – they were members of the body of Christ and the family of God. As believers they were expected to live differently. They were to build themselves up in their faith. They were to grow spiritually. In fact, Paul told the believers in Ephesus that God had given to the church the roles of apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd and teacher “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12 ESV). Those within the church were to be equipped so that they could assist one another in their mutual pursuit of spiritual maturity.

The antidote to worldliness and ungodly desires is to pursue spiritual growth, to increase in our knowledge of God and our understanding of His Word. It is to become increasingly more dependent upon the Holy Spirit for wisdom and for strength. That is why Jude says that we are to pray in the Spirit. The very thing that sets us apart from the worldly is our possession of the Holy Spirit and His ability to empower our prayers, as well as interpret our prayers before God Himself. It is our growing reliance upon the Spirit whose presence within us allows us to understand spiritual truths and apply them to our hearts. It is the Holy Spirit who gives our prayers spiritual weight and allows them to resonate with God's heart and align with God's will.

While those around us may be devoid of the Spirit, we are to be filled with the Spirit. We are to be controlled by the Spirit. We are to be reliant upon the Spirit. It is this relationship with the Spirit that allows us to stay firmly planted within God's love and provides us with the patience to wait for the return of God's Son and eternal life. The Holy Spirit is a kind of down-payment, guaranteeing that what God has promised for the future will actually take place. He gave us the Spirit to help convince us that what He has said about eternity is true and well worth waiting for.

And while we wait, we are to grow and pray – all with the help of the Holy Spirit. As we wait, we are to show mercy to all those with whom we come in contact. Jude writes, “And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh” (Ephesians 4:22-23 ESV). All that we do in this life and on this earth, we are to do in the power of the Spirit, and that includes our prayer life. We must never forget that without Him, we are nothing. Those devoid of the Spirit have no capacity to reject worldliness or their own ungodly passions. They end up causing divisions within the body of Christ and scoff at the things of God. But because we have the Spirit, we can grow, we can pray, we can love, we can show mercy, and we can live holy lives in the midst of an unholy generation.

Pray in the Spirit.

Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere. And pray for me, too. Ask God to give me the right words so I can boldly explain God’s mysterious plan that the Good News is for Jews and Gentiles alike. I am in chains now, still preaching this message as God’s ambassador. So pray that I will keep on speaking boldly for him, as I should. – Ephesians 6:18-20 NLT

The English Standard Version translates verse 18 as “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.” The word, “prayer” would seem to indicate our conversation with God, while “supplication” addresses any specific requests that we make to Him. But whatever Paul means, he is encouraging us to pray “in the Spirit.” The context for this well-known passage is that of spiritual warfare. Paul has been talking about the whole armor of God and the need for the believer to equip and arm himself with the weapons of our warfare. Why? So that we “may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11 ESV). His point is that the battle in which we find ourselves is spiritual, not physical in nature. He writes, “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12 ESV). So this supernatural enemy requires that we use supernatural resources with which to combat it. Any hope we have of standing up against this enemy is based on the weapons we utilize in our struggle. Paul mentions the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, shoes that represent the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. These elements all represent God's armor, not our own. They are spiritual in nature. They are divinely provided and empowered. Our survival is tied to their use and our dependence upon them for protection. They offer both defensive and offensive capabilities, providing us with all we need to withstand anything the enemy can throw our way.

But there is one more thing Paul mentions. It is the prayers we offer up in the Spirit. But what does that mean? Is Paul referring to a special spiritual state or some kind of divine altered reality? As always, he seems to be encouraging us to remember our complete dependence upon God for all we need to live the Christian life. Our prayers are powerless without the Spirit's help. In fact, it is the Spirit who steps in and gives words to our seemingly impotent prayers. Paul told the Romans, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8:26-27 ESV). The Spirit of God knows the will of God. He knows what it is that God desires and what God intends. He steps in and converts our sometimes selfish, me-centered prayers into words that coincide with the heart of God. He gives expression to our pleas so that they come to the ears of God in perfect harmony with His will.

We are in the midst of a spiritual battle. We are incapable of surviving on our own. We don't have the strength, the resources, the wisdom or the courage to stand up against all that the enemy can bring against us. But it is our recognition of our weakness and our need for God's help that allows us to take advantage of His weapons and benefit from His Spirit's power. We are to pray dependently, persistently, expectantly, boldly, and specifically. Paul asked for specific prayer regarding his need to preach the right words with boldness. Even though living in chains, he asked that prayers be made on his behalf that he would be strong. His request was clear. His desire was easily understood.

And should his readers doubt their ability to pray and receive an answer to their prayers, all they needed to do was remember to offer up their prayers in the power of the Spirit. He would intercede on their behalf. He would bring their weak and powerless prayers before God and make sure that they mirrored the Father's will and accomplished the Father's plans for Paul. Praying in the Spirit is not some supernatural endeavor we accomplish, but a reliance upon a supernatural entity provide by God on our behalf. The Holy Spirit is our intercessor, helper, and advocate who lives within us, empowers us, guides and directs us, and speaks to God on behalf of us. When we pray, we must remember that we do so in Jesus’ name and with the Spirit’s help. At all times. And for all people. We can be specific. We can be expectant. We can be bold. We can be thankful. Even before our answer has even arrived.