Let us pray.
Our Lord, as we are gathered to look into Your Word, we pray one of the most daring things of all, that you would change our hearts. Make us people who pray, according to your will, according to your desires, trusting that you will bring to pass what you have decreed in your people and in this world you have created, through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Pray! Pray without ceasing! Pray in faith! Pray according to God's will! This is the call our Lord makes through his apostle in our New Testament passage today. This promises to be one of the shortest sermons I will ever prepare. Everyone say "amen, thanks be to God." Why is it so short? Because we don't preach about prayer, we practice praying.
Really, I've been in so-called prayer services, and I know some of you have too, where you have an hour of prayer. But we open the prayer service with a song or two, then spend forty minutes hearing and talking about prayer and prayer requests, ten minutes praying for them, then sing a couple of songs and go home. May the Lord deliver us from such feeble attempts at prayer. May the Lord forgive us for our slack attitude about prayer. Instead, may we be transformed in the practice of frequent, fervent, believing prayer.
What does our Lord say elsewhere in Scripture about prayer? If we ask anything according to his will it will be done for us. We can come boldly to the Father in the name of Jesus, knowing that he is also interceding for us. The wall of separation between God and man has been broken down, torn apart by the death of Jesus on our behalf. When we pray, we can pray with confidence, knowing that our Lord and Savior has made great promises and is able to keep all those promises for his glory by his grace. Is that all we see throughout the Bible? By no means, but it's enough to be getting on with for now. I'd encourage you, sometime read through the Bible with a notebook giving close attention to what the Lord says about praying, then maybe a second time noting all the prayers in the Scripture. Notice how God's people pray with confidence and authority.
When we pray, we are ushered in before the very throne of God almighty. We know that when we pray according to his will he hears and answers our prayer.
Now back to this passage. How do we pray? We could try to work with the words "supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings." People have tried to make a lot of these different words for prayer. As someone who happens to have a good understanding of Greek, I can tell you confidently that unpacking these words specifically will give us very little insight. In short, Paul is telling us to pray in every way we can come up with, begging God for his help, begging him to work in this world. Paul seems to be using these words to emphasize that we pray earnestly in every way we can. What's really important? It's the people we pray for, the situations we ask God to have mercy on. And who are those people? Everyone, including those who we don't like, including those who might bring harm upon us, even those authority figures we might fear and distrust. What do we want as an outcome? That our world may live in the peace Jesus has accomplished through his death on our behalf and his resurrection as the firstfruits of the resurrection from the dead. Why do we do it? Because our Lord desires that all people may come to know him as the Savior of the world. Through whom and in whose name do we pray? We pray in Jesus' name, knowing that he is the one who has given himself as a ransom for all, to move us from the kingdom of death into the kingdom of life. How do we pray? We lift up our hands, knowing that we have nothing in our hands, nothing to offer God. We put aside our wealth, our wisdom, our own strength, and we receive the riches, wisdom and power of God in Christ Jesus. We remember the order of creation, in which God has made us in his image and likeness, people to love trust and serve him in purity.
So we pray. We depend on the mercy of our Lord and Savior. We know that in all things, in those things we think we can control and in those things we know we can't control, our Lord is sovereign, wise and good, and that he hears and answers our prayer.
Our liturgy is rich in prayers. As we look through the layout of the divine services we see prayer for all situations, for all people. Is there something troubling us? Let us pray. Is there something for which we are glad? Let us pray prayers of thanksgiving.
So let us turn to the Lord in prayer. Lord, we repent of the many times we have thought or even said that all we can do is pray. We confess that we have failed. We have not been the people of prayer that You desire. We have failed to receive the blessing You would pour out on your people as they pray. We have not trusted you as we should. We have prayed according to our own designs, so that when we receive anything we can use it for our own selfish desires. We have prayed prayers that leave us divisive people. We have prayed for things that we can use to bring us glory, not to bring You glory. Grant us forgiveness and life. Transform our lives, our church, our world through genuine heartfelt prayer that prays you will show your mercy and bring us and those we pray for to knowledge of your grace in this world. This we pray, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Our Lord, as we are gathered to look into Your Word, we pray one of the most daring things of all, that you would change our hearts. Make us people who pray, according to your will, according to your desires, trusting that you will bring to pass what you have decreed in your people and in this world you have created, through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Pray! Pray without ceasing! Pray in faith! Pray according to God's will! This is the call our Lord makes through his apostle in our New Testament passage today. This promises to be one of the shortest sermons I will ever prepare. Everyone say "amen, thanks be to God." Why is it so short? Because we don't preach about prayer, we practice praying.
Really, I've been in so-called prayer services, and I know some of you have too, where you have an hour of prayer. But we open the prayer service with a song or two, then spend forty minutes hearing and talking about prayer and prayer requests, ten minutes praying for them, then sing a couple of songs and go home. May the Lord deliver us from such feeble attempts at prayer. May the Lord forgive us for our slack attitude about prayer. Instead, may we be transformed in the practice of frequent, fervent, believing prayer.
What does our Lord say elsewhere in Scripture about prayer? If we ask anything according to his will it will be done for us. We can come boldly to the Father in the name of Jesus, knowing that he is also interceding for us. The wall of separation between God and man has been broken down, torn apart by the death of Jesus on our behalf. When we pray, we can pray with confidence, knowing that our Lord and Savior has made great promises and is able to keep all those promises for his glory by his grace. Is that all we see throughout the Bible? By no means, but it's enough to be getting on with for now. I'd encourage you, sometime read through the Bible with a notebook giving close attention to what the Lord says about praying, then maybe a second time noting all the prayers in the Scripture. Notice how God's people pray with confidence and authority.
When we pray, we are ushered in before the very throne of God almighty. We know that when we pray according to his will he hears and answers our prayer.
Now back to this passage. How do we pray? We could try to work with the words "supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings." People have tried to make a lot of these different words for prayer. As someone who happens to have a good understanding of Greek, I can tell you confidently that unpacking these words specifically will give us very little insight. In short, Paul is telling us to pray in every way we can come up with, begging God for his help, begging him to work in this world. Paul seems to be using these words to emphasize that we pray earnestly in every way we can. What's really important? It's the people we pray for, the situations we ask God to have mercy on. And who are those people? Everyone, including those who we don't like, including those who might bring harm upon us, even those authority figures we might fear and distrust. What do we want as an outcome? That our world may live in the peace Jesus has accomplished through his death on our behalf and his resurrection as the firstfruits of the resurrection from the dead. Why do we do it? Because our Lord desires that all people may come to know him as the Savior of the world. Through whom and in whose name do we pray? We pray in Jesus' name, knowing that he is the one who has given himself as a ransom for all, to move us from the kingdom of death into the kingdom of life. How do we pray? We lift up our hands, knowing that we have nothing in our hands, nothing to offer God. We put aside our wealth, our wisdom, our own strength, and we receive the riches, wisdom and power of God in Christ Jesus. We remember the order of creation, in which God has made us in his image and likeness, people to love trust and serve him in purity.
So we pray. We depend on the mercy of our Lord and Savior. We know that in all things, in those things we think we can control and in those things we know we can't control, our Lord is sovereign, wise and good, and that he hears and answers our prayer.
Our liturgy is rich in prayers. As we look through the layout of the divine services we see prayer for all situations, for all people. Is there something troubling us? Let us pray. Is there something for which we are glad? Let us pray prayers of thanksgiving.
So let us turn to the Lord in prayer. Lord, we repent of the many times we have thought or even said that all we can do is pray. We confess that we have failed. We have not been the people of prayer that You desire. We have failed to receive the blessing You would pour out on your people as they pray. We have not trusted you as we should. We have prayed according to our own designs, so that when we receive anything we can use it for our own selfish desires. We have prayed prayers that leave us divisive people. We have prayed for things that we can use to bring us glory, not to bring You glory. Grant us forgiveness and life. Transform our lives, our church, our world through genuine heartfelt prayer that prays you will show your mercy and bring us and those we pray for to knowledge of your grace in this world. This we pray, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Dave Spotts
blogging at http://capnsaltyslongvoyage.blogspot.com
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