BEARING FRUIT IN 2020: 1 Timothy 2:1-8 - “The Discipline Of Committing Ourselves To Public Prayer”

We now come to consider prayer- particularly public prayer, another foundational discipline for the Christian life. 

This is where wefind ourselves as we consider  vital spiritual disciplines for the church at the beginning of 2020:

1. Disciplining ourselves for the purpose of godliness

2. The discipline of hearing God’s Word regularly

3. The discipline of  Public Prayer

4. The discipline of Worship.

Public prayer is the habitual discipline whereby the church comes together in great numbers (whatever great means for any given church)  to ask, seek and knock and petition the Lord for matters concerning His kingdom. 

This is important! Our common welfare lies in corporately seeking first the kingdom of God (Matt. 6:33). The Bible seldom speaks in reference to the single person. The Bible speaks most often to us in a corporate context – YOU, plural!  Our individualistic society misses that. The emphasis on ‘me’, ‘bless me’,   kills the spirit of public prayer and misses out on corporate blessings, such as having a well ordered society. I am afraid that the devil has led many Christians into thinking that the corporate prayer meeting of the church is  optional – and even worse;  many  think it’s legalism. It’s nothing of the kind! Public prayer to the God who created us is life giving. It leads to healing. It leads to the reversal of the rot  and decay of  our society…

And so, we should not be surprised  to learn that the society  or churches  where many pray together to  God, where many seek God  together for  blessing and favour, are societies  where all people (even non-believers)  flourish. The history of Christian revivals, where public prayer was paramount, proves that.  The more the Christian faith takes hold of a nation, the better off that nation will be.

In a recent  article by Jonathon van Maren[1]  (4^th November 2019) entitled,  “Atheists sound the alarm: Decline of Christianity is seriously hurting society”, he writes:  “But as Christianity fades further and further into our civilization’s rear-view mirror, many intelligent atheists are beginning to realize that the Enlightenment may have only achieved success because it wielded influence on a Christian culture.  (e.g. Christianity enables tolerance). In a truly secular society, in which men and women live their lives beneath empty heavens and expect to be recycled rather than resurrected, there is no solid moral foundation for good and evil.  Anti-theists like Christopher Hitchens mocked and reviled the idea that mankind needed God to know right from wrong, but scarcely two generations into our Great Secularization, and we no longer even know male from female. The article also notes that  Richard Dawkins has now come out and repudiated his previous belief that Christianity should be banished from society …. In fact, he told ‘The Times’, that  ending religion—once his fervent goal—would be a terrible idea, because it would “give people a license to do really bad things.” Despite the fact that Dawkins has long argued that the very idea of the God of the Bible being necessary as a basis for morality is both ridiculous and offensive, he appears to be backtracking. He said,  “People may feel free to do bad things because they feel God is no longer watching them,”  citing the example of security cameras as a deterrent to shoplifting.

Today, we are reminded from our text that corporate prayer is no side issue in the church. It ought to be a core activity in the life of the Christian church. Praying churches have far reaching   influence in this world. So, whatever we fail to   do as a church, we cannot fail in public prayer.  Let’s follow the logic of Scripture once again  as we trust that the Holy Spirit would  press this important spiritual discipline upon our hearts and consciences as we consider the  first 8 verses of 1 Timothy 2 .

(i) “First of all…” here means, as a matter of first priority, indicating that prayer is no secondary or arbitrary  activity  of the church.

(ii) The little word “then” connects Paul’s thoughts with the preceding context in 1:18–20 and gives us a reason why this kind of prayer is significant. In 1:18  Paul exhorted Timothy to "wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience"[2].  He reminds Timothy that by rejecting faith and a good conscience, one may run the risk of making shipwreck of one’s faith. This had been the sad case of men like Hymenaeus and Alexander[3] (1:20)[4].  Earlier  in 1:3 we see that the church at Ephesus  was  being undermined  by people who were teaching  a different doctrine, and therefore Paul  exhorted Timothy that  he needed  to hold  the church  to the  true gospel.  Clearly, the church is always at war. She must constantly fight for her integrity and for the integrity of her society. Societal collapse happens when truth collapses. The church with the Bible in her hand is the truth custodian. It is against this background  that Paul reminds  Timothy   concerning the importance of  prayer. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, the church which Timothy pastored, reveals that prayer is a significant tool  in this spiritual battle  [Eph. 6: 10-20].

(iii) I urge[5]  …  indicating  that  this is a priority.  Paul urges  Timothy that  he  must lead the church  in public  prayer  for  all kinds of  people.

(iv) Note  the extent of this prayer: … “pray for all people…"  (2:1)… Paul is saying to these Christians,  “put your requests, or supplications forward to God for all kinds of people;  pray for  all kinds of people; intercede for all kinds of people, and where applicable  give thanks  for all kinds of  people,  even  for the government under which you  live.”  This is a remarkable exhortation, given the fact that Christians lived under precarious circumstances in the Roman world.

(v) “for kings and all those who  are in high positions…“  In this regard, the wise words of Bishop John Charles Ryle come to mind: “It is easy to criticise and find fault with the conduct of kings, and write furious articles against them in newspapers, or make violent speeches about them on platforms. Any fool can rip and rend a costly garment, but not every man can cut out and make one. To expect perfection in kings, prime ministers, or rulers of any kind, is senseless and unreasonable. We should exhibit more wisdom if we prayed for them more, and criticised less” [6].

(vi) “… that we may lead a peaceful and a quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” Corporate prayer is intended to have far reaching influence.  One of the great  goals of  our corporate prayer is seen here.  By  our corporate prayer we ask God  to enter into the hearts and minds  of all kinds of people in our society, especially  kings and all those who are in high positions,  who potentially have so much power  to disrupt our lives  by causing us not to live  in peace and in quiet and with dignity. Part of our public prayer is therefore to pray for our country, our politicians and our churches so that  we may life in peace and quiet and with dignity. This is the essential foundation for the spread of the gospel. Christians desire an ordered society for the sake of all its citizens, but especially because then we can fulfil our God-given responsibilities without hindrance. Jeremiah the prophet had an understanding of this  kind of prayer when he wrote  to the Jews in Babylonia: “Seek the welfare of  the city where I have sent you in exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find welfare.” (Jer. 29:7)  Corporately praying  to God for this city meant  welfare  for the Jews  and for all.  Queen Esther and Daniel are  excellent examples of  those  through whom God worked mightily for the welfare of the Jews. Esther asked for corporate prayer (Esther 4:16). Daniel was a man of prayer and he was prayed for.

(vii) And then Paul goes even bigger  and asks  the church  to pray for, “All people, everywhere! “God, our Saviour, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”(2:4). What are we to understand here? Are we to literally expect all people on earth to be saved as a result of our prayer?   As desirable as we may find this thought, it is not  likely that  this was what Paul had in mind  when he wrote this.  What Paul had in mind  was based  on  an Old Testament hope, namely  that  one day “the earth would be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea”[7], namely  that all the nations  would be united  in the worship of the One True God.  It is thus not so much every person that is in mind here (although we should always work and pray as if everyone  could be saved), but the big  thought here is that  all kinds of people  from all kinds of nations  are envisaged here. Is this not what we are seeing in the book of Revelation 5:9;7:9? People  gathered before the throne in heaven,  from every tribe and language  and people and nation? Is this not what we are publicly praying for every Sunday night?

This sort of prayer  underlies  effective  biblical evangelism of our  community.  Here Paul encourages  Timothy to lead the church in prayer in the expectation that  all kinds of people would come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.  Now here is something to chew on.  If  such prayer is good and  pleasing to God  then we can  confidently say that public prayer is a public means of grace. That means that we can expect that God will answer such prayers, because they are good and pleasing to Him. They are in accordance with God’s goals that the whole world  should hear His Word.   And  so, Paul  was saying to Timothy,

 (viii) “For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.“ (Vv.5 &6) The reason why we are praying for the whole world is because of these  words. There is not one God for the Muslims, and many gods for the Hindus. NO! Why should we pray that people from every tribe, tongue and nation should be saved? Because there is only  one  true God-only ONE Mediator. There is only one  true Saviour. He  alone is the one hope of all humanity, and  if   He is  the only  hope, then it follows  that if we don't pray for the world, what hope does the world have?  And if this is God’s  desire for the world,  then this must move us  as Christians to pray for all kinds of people. And we must expect for  God to hear and answer this  prayer.

(ix) “ For  this I was appointed as a preacher and an apostle ( I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the gentiles in faith and truth .”   Paul  includes himself in the mission of God.  He tells us here that God's desire for the world is what propelled him into the ministry. And he is the apostle who always asked the churches everywhere that they might corporately pray for him, for example 2 Corinthians  1:10,11. God  richly answered the churches prayer!

CONCLUSION

The extent, the scope, the possibilities unleashed by the discipline of corporate prayer ought to excite us. Will you not discipline yourself, to join the prayer chorus of this church as we start  this year in corporate prayer every night of this coming week?  

---

[1]  Jonathon van Maren : https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/atheists-sound-the-alarm-decline-of-christianity-is-seriously-hurting-society?

[2] See also 1:5

[3] Alexander is also mentioned in 2  Tim 4:14

[4] throughout this epistle,  Paul talks about those  who  have  wandered away  from the faith see also 1:6;  6:10,21

[5] Gr. parakaleo – to exhort  see also   1:3

[6] J.C. Ryle:  The Upper Room ,  Chapter 21  “For Kings”, p.264

[7]  Num,.  14:21; Ps 57:5,11; 72:19; Isa 11:9; Hab. 2:14

Galatians 4:6 " The Tri-Une God Helps Us In Prayer"

The text before us is  certainly  a most encouraging one: “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”   (Gal. 4:6).  

Our  thesis  is  that  prayer is an inevitable accompaniment  of  our salvation.   If you are a Christian, you are able to pray because God  is in your  heart, and therefore  prayer should be as natural and spontaneous as the act of breathing is to your body! 

Prayer  can be at once    the easiest  activity and  yet at the same  time it  can also  be difficult.  Prayer is easy  in that a little child can pray and speak to God in an effective way and it can be difficult in that  an adult,  having  walked with God for many years, may  find  themselves stuck their prayers  and find  some of them unanswered. There are no easy  answers as to why this is so.  Some possibilities may include  the fact that one may have lost their  intimacy  with God in prayer, because somewhere along the line, an un-confessed   sin has  grieved the Holy Spirit (Eph.4:30), and so   has shut the ear of God. Perhaps,  somewhere along the line,  a husband’s prayer is no longer answered because they  fail to live with their wives in an understanding way, failing to show honour to her as the weaker vessel. (1 Pet. 3:7).  Perhaps  there has been a substituting  of a religious, legalistic habit as evidenced in a begrudging, “I suppose I  have to” attitude, for  a glad obedience  which is  rooted in  thankfulness and thus a deep  loving  relationship  with the Jesus  who has saved them. 

Other  difficulties associated with prayer are that  God may withhold His presence  and answers to prayer  for  sanctifying purposes. The story of Job fits into this category. It may be that He is  teaching us  perseverance and faithfulness by withholding answers to our prayers  (Luke 18:1ff).  

Our focus is however not  so much on  the hindrances to prayer, but on the fact that  all Christians are enabled to pray !  Our text says,  “…and because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”   Every true Christian, despite their many  challenges to prayer  can call on his /her  Abba- Father, because  God has sent the Holy Spirit into  their hearts.

But before we get to this great affirmation  we  want to understand  the context: Paul had been instrumental in the founding of a number of churches in  Galatia, and soon after he had left them, false teachers (also known as the Judaizers)  had begun to infiltrate  and undermine the freedom that  these churches had begun to experience in Christ.[1] The Judaizers were Jews who  believed that Jesus was Israel's Messiah but  they also believed that Gentile converts to Christianity needed  to be  circumcised and keep the dietary laws etc.  in order to be justified. 

The  letter to the Galatians is Paul's response to this very  dangerous  undermining of the gospel.  Paul  is  astonished  at the seeming ease and speed  with  which these Judaizers were able to persuade the Galatians into  abandoning the  gospel principles  which he had so clearly  taught them (Gal.1:6,7).  He is angry[2] with them  that  they  have so easily accepted this  false gospel which is, as Paul says, no gospel at all. In fact, the letter to the Galatians is Paul’s least courteous and loving letter among all his epistles. He is brimming with indignation.   For Paul, the sum and substance of the Christian faith is faith in  Jesus Christ and in His saving work ALONE! 

  

Now please note that Paul is NOT condemning Moses and obedience to the law as such. He is  taking on  these  Judaizers  who  claimed  that Christ ALONE is not sufficient to save the believer. Paul is condemning the teaching that says that the believer has to add works (i.e. law keeping) to the sufficient work of Christ on the cross for our salvation.  The Judaizers   said that,  in addition to Christ, circumcision  and Jewish  food laws   and  the keeping of certain days  had to be added to  obtain salvation.  Again, for the sake of perspective, Paul is not saying that Christians should not be obedient in keeping the moral law of God, BUT he is saying  that    the keeping of the law  is not the standard by which anyone  will  merit their salvation.  And again, let it be said   that the basis of  the Christian faith  is coming to  Christ  through faith ALONE  (3:26). This faith is  then expressed by being baptized into Christ  and  by putting on Christ in our daily walk (3:27), but neither baptism  nor  good  behaviour  form the basis  of our  salvation. They are important New Testament expressions, and out-workings, and extensions of our faith, but faith  IN CHRIST ALONE is sufficient  for salvation.

Now concerning this primary theological fact Paul says, that Christians cannot go on being childish in  their  thinking  (4:1-3).  It is time to grow up. It is time to  stop being children, who  are  enslaved to the elementary principles of the world under the law which at this time  held  its sway  for 1300 years. Paul argues that now,  in Christ, the full revelation of God   has been granted to  every believer. Believers are no longer in a state of childlikeness, under  the  law which has been acting  as a guardian and manager, to whom they were enslaved  as it were.  The truth  is that all God’s children now, having received Christ, having  been fully  redeemed from the consequence of  their  sinful nature, and  being at peace with God, are adopted  by God. (Gal.4:5). By this process they  were made members of the great family of God, and the revelation of that great family awaits  them when  they get to heaven[3]!

Now,  following that statement  on adoption in v.5  we find our text and thesis  in v.6: “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

Here  then is the basis of all true prayer!  Here is the prime reason why prayer is possible at all! 

1.   You will immediately  notice  that  the three  persons of the Trinity are  mentioned in this text.  God  firstly sends His Son into the world. Secondly, He sends His Spirit into our hearts. Leon Morris  observes that ”the presence  of the Spirit in believers is in their hearts; it is something that happens  in their innermost being and is not a minor disturbance on the surface of life.”[4]  Prayer is possible  and inevitable because  the Tri-une  God  comes and lives in the heart of every true believer! 

 

2.  God  the Father has  taken the initiative in  prayer : God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts.  Therefore prayer comes to us outside of ourselves. Prayer is not  having a conversation  with an imaginary friend. Prayer, biblically speaking is an impulse created  in us by God who  has given us His Holy Spirit in our hearts.  And  so today when we pray, it is important that we pray according to the sufficient revelation  of God, in the written  Word of God, which has been inspired by the Holy Spirit. (2 Tim 3:16).  The Bible, the ‘outbreathed’ Word of God  in its totality, and  with every verse in  context, provides us with the knowledge and theology of prayer. My personal prayer is enriched by the  Spirit inspired Word of God, and therefore I would strongly counsel you that you never start prayer without  saturating your prayer in your meditation upon the Scriptures.  Praying  according to the will of God  means  praying God’s thoughts after Him.  What does all this imply for our understanding of prayer? Who changes what through prayer? The idea  of a God who  needs to be persuaded  by our prayers has no biblical warrant.  Again, it is important that  we realise that good theology  is essential to biblical prayer.  If we are to ask for anything “according to his will” (1 John 5:14), then  this does not imply a carte blanche, but  we must refer to his will as revealed in His word.

3.  Prayer  is possible  because of  Jesus. Paul’s  frequent  description of believers   being “in Christ” and “with Christ” indicates that  believers, i.e.  all who are in union with Christ by faith (Heb. 10:19-22) have access to the Father. The Father has accepted the  substitutionary sacrifice of  Jesus whom He loves , on behalf  of every believer.  The Father loves us, because He loves His Son. We are accepted in the  Father’s Beloved.  That is the essence of our justification by faith. If the Father always hears the Son, then he always hears those who, in Christ, are sons.  In addition we are also reminded that we are able to pray because  Jesus  continually intercedes for us.  (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25).

4.  Prayer is possible because the Holy Spirit indwells us. In Romans 8:26 we learn that the Holy Spirit  helps us in our prayer, particularly when  we do not know how to pray. That is very comforting. The Holy Spirit in us   directs our prayers. This  raises an important question:  What does it mean to pray in faith? It is sometimes suggested that when our specific prayers are not answered it is because we do not have enough faith. Passages such as these become proof texts :

·         According to your faith, be it done to you (Matt 9:29).

·         Whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith(Matt 21:22).

·         Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it, and you will (Mk 11:22).

The teaching that puts faith  in  a subjective way is dangerous  and downright  discouraging. What if   a certain answer does not come in response to the prayer of my faith ? (e.g. when someone is not healed) .  We need to  be reminded of what faith is and what it is not. This is where the  place of the Holy Spirit becomes important.  The biblical truth is that the Holy Spirit in me  directs my faith.  This is how it works .

In the first place  we need to understand  that our very first prayer for salvation,  ‘Lord save me’ ,   was  by the power of  the Holy Spirit  who directed us into Christ. We would not  have believed if the Spirit of God did not first remove our blindness and our hatred of God's truth[5] .

Secondly, the Holy Spirit  continues  to direct our faith in life, particularly as we look  to God  through the lens of scripture,  and  when we learn to  pray,  “Your will be done!” We  may be sure of this  always.  God is  good.  He is committed  to His children.  He knows what we need,  and  from the Lord’s prayer  we know that  He is committed to give  us everything we need for life:  physical , emotional, spiritual. True  faith and true  prayer is not an emotion or subjectively  based  feeling.  Our faith is  being led by the objective, Holy Spirit inspired gospel.  We pray according to the  Word of God , and as  we  pray for the means to the end (safety, food, material needs, healing etc.), we must be prepared for God's gracious "no",  while we trust Him for the best.

Lastly, remember that at the end of our prayer  there is our Abba – Father. Abba  is the Aramaic  diminutive form of  father -  daddy.    Every  true child of God is heard  and cared for  not by a ‘force out there’  but  by a God  of whom Jesus said  that He cared for the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, and much more  so for His beloved children!

Thus, this Trinitarian perspective on prayer  is well summed up in Paul’s assertion in Gal. 4:6, “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”  Thank God  that  He is at the beginning of all prayer. Prayer is possible because Father, Son and Holy Spirit are at work  in  stirring up prayer in us. Amen!

---

[1] This is a very common problem in  Paul’s epistles . As soon as  the oversight  of a church is  gone, the wolves come in very quickly ( see Acts 20 :29-30)

[2] Gal. 1:8,9; 3:1-10; 5:7-15

[3] Revelation 7 : 9-12;

[4] Leon Morris : Galatians : Paul’s Charter of Christian  Freedom, IVP , p. 131

[5] John 6:37, 44-45; 16:8-11; Eph. 2:8-9

Genesis 4:26 - Why do People Pray ? Why is Prayer so difficult?

January is a dedicated prayer month at Eastside Baptist Church.  We consider  prayer as an indispensable discipline to the life of our church, a sign that we  confess our actual dependence upon God for all that we  do as we  pray, “your kingdom  come, your will be done  on earth as it is  in heaven.” (Matt. 6:9,10). 

We begin our year by acknowledging   that the church is  dependent on God for her life and vitality.  It is true that  God uses people  to do His work, but it  is  even more true that  our people need to be empowered by God to do  real, fruitful  kingdom work in His way and not by human  intuition. In this regard  the Lord  Jesus has reminded us,  ”I am the Vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in  him, he it is that bears much fruit , for apart from me  you can do nothing.” (Jn. 15:5).

Our  congregation that has  often been reminded  and  instructed  over the years   concerning the  importance  and the priority  of  the work of prayer, particularly on a congregational level. There is little else that is left for me to say to you, except by way of constant  reminders and exhortations  to ‘always pray and not to lose heart’ (Lk. 18:1).  Praying is   never easy, but it is always necessary  that we should pray.   If you struggle to pray then learn to pray. Say, like the disciples did to Jesus: Lord teach us to pray!”  That is a prayer in itself.  In the end the way  to learn to pray  is by praying!  I can  speak to you about it and you can read many books about prayer, but in the end we must pray. There are some that are  better trained in the work of prayer. Let us learn from them by all means, but  ultimately there are no experts in prayer; we  all need to constantly  learn and grow  in this discipline.   Prayer is  difficult  for the  reasons  I will  give to you .

Our Text: Gen 4:26

Last year we  began a series  of sermons in Genesis  and in that context we   had read a verse  which I would like us to re- consider  as a starter  for our “fresh thoughts on prayer” series in January.

"To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh.  At that time people began to call upon the name of the LORD.” (Gen. 4:26). I have chosen this text   to answer  some  fundamental questions  such as,    “Why do we pray?”  and  “Why is it so difficult to pray”?

But first some background to our text:  

This text follows  an intense series of events.  In  Genesis 3 we  have learned of the fall of man by which  mankind  had  become spiritually alienated  from God.  Before the fall, in the garden of Eden, man  had a wonderfully intimate, direct  relationship  with his Maker.  God and man  walked together  in paradise.  The fall  brought an end to all that. Sin caused  man  to be evicted  from Eden, that place of  direct fellowship. Man   was now in a spiritual desert. He  was now surviving  by his own instincts, devices and wisdom. He now lacked that direct  input and instruction from God and now being  influenced by the inclinations  of his sinful  nature and  also under the tutelage of  Satanic impulses,      man  now became capable of the worst  behaviour.

And so we must not be surprised  to  read in Genesis 4:8  of   Cain’s murder of his brother Abel.  This  fact leads Cain  and his  offspring   even further away from  God. He settles in the land of  “Nod” (wandering) , away from the presence of the Lord.  Mercifully, God did not forsake the people  that He had made, and  He continued to care and provide  for them, although no longer in the context  of the intimacy of Eden.  God  nevertheless brings  near to Himself a  people  through another son of Adam and Eve, Seth by name,    and his offspring.  It is   in this context that we read, “at that time people began to call upon the name of the LORD.”   The position here  then  is  that we have  a people removed from God, through sin  but it is clear that they still  have  a conscience and a  longing to be in touch with  the Creator.

So, our first question, “why do we pray? “ is answered. Men  everywhere instinctively know that they have been created by God and that  is  the reason  why   they call upon God in prayer. We observe  in this regard   that  prayer is a universal phenomenon. All  modern religions have a practise of   prayer.  This is also described in the New Testament.   Read Acts 17:22-28  where   Paul points out the inherent religiosity of the Greek people  of his day  in v. 22.  They  have an inclination to “seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find to him” (v. 27).    Paul is saying  that these  people  intuitively know that they  have been   created  by God, and by this virtue they wish to speak to  their Creator.  This does not mean  that  their prayers are  received by God . We are simply making the observation that people pray everywhere.

This brings us to our  second question:  Why is prayer so difficult? Why  do we so often feel that we are groping in the dark as far as prayer is concerned?  To the Athenians in Acts 17 Paul answers  that  God seems far away to them, but he  reminds them  that  “he is actually not far from each one of us”(v.27b).

The actual reason  why God  seems far away is not because He is  actually far  away, but because  man, by virtue of sin,  feels himself  to be   far  away. Sin  indeed  makes us feel far away from God. A little boy once got lost in a shopping center  because he disobeyed his mother’s command to stay near her. But then he drifted away and lost  sight of her, and he began to cry  because he  feared that he had lost her, and yet  all the while she was near him.  This is what  sin  does. It makes us unsure of the nearness  of God.  Sin endows us with a sense of alienation  from God, and yet  the truth is   that  God is not far.   He is in fact  near to the humble, broken, contrite sinner.  He is also near to the  arrogant sinner  that denies His Maker. He is near in judgement to Him.

So we observe then  that  people  everywhere pray  and  we also observe that prayer is a real struggle for all people.  I wish I could say that this was  all there was to the  matter of difficulty in prayer.  But when people began to call on God in the days of Seth  there was  another problem. Not only did God seem distant because of the expulsion from paradise , the place of nearness and fellowship with God, but  there was also the fact that   the very  act of prayer had  become  corrupted.

Read the familiar story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal[1]. Everyone is praying in this story, but what is the difference  between  the prayers to Baal and Elijah’s prayer?  The priests of Baal had a God- conscience, but  they had no idea how to approach Him, because they did not know Him  according to  what He had revealed to Israel  in the OT Scriptures.  Elijah by contrast knew  YAHWEH  personally, and He walked (mostly)   with God, but the strength of Elijah’s relationship with God lay in the fact that God had  brought  him near. He had revealed His Word to Him (1 Kings 17).

There is thus true  and false prayer. In  the  Sermon on the Mount, Jesus   makes mention that  in prayer we ought  not to  “heap up empty phrases  (NIV “babbling”) as the gentiles do” (Matt. 6:7). Here Jesus  refers to a corrupted form of praying  which  makes no  gain with God.   He then proceeds to instruct His disciples  in the  art and practise of true prayer, which begins with a relationship  in which  they begin with : “Our Father in heaven!”

Even  within the  Christian  community there   are prayer  forms  that are closer to pagan  sources and practises and far from the prayer that  God  would  endorse.  This is partly because many Christians  have their ideas of prayer shaped by  unbiblical  practises and  pagan  influences.  The whole idea of  works based efforts to obtain  answers to prayer   or prayers expressed through the mediation of saints   finds no sanction in the Bible.  

Even in evangelical circles  we  frequently find unbiblical notions of prayer.  There are evangelical Christians  who  focus on correct methods and   who have a legalistic  focus  on  the conditions which we must meet,  the things we must do, in order to get our requests granted.  The  result is  that  such people  pray  out of  a sense of guilt  and not in  anticipation of   the  simple joy of   meeting with God and  fellow believers and delighting ourselves in Him.  On the other hand  there are  evangelical Christians who completely disregard  the  imperatives of Scripture with regard  to prayer  (e.g.  Eph.  6:18-20). They will make absolutely no effort to  pray    or  to delight  themselves  in the Lord (Psalm 37:4).  They are faithful pew warmers  and, but you never get the sense that they are  with you in the  great battle   that the church has to fight in her day.  There is in them  also never a sense  of   pressing  forward  to explore all the good things that God has given them   to take hold of  in this life. 

“At that time people began to call upon the name of the LORD.”   It is not as simple as it sounds. Prayer in a fallen world  is difficult, but  does that mean that there is no true prayer  to be found  in this life   in which we  currently live away from the manifest presence of God?  

No, not at all!  Prayer is possible because God makes it possible.

(i)                 God Himself   gives us help in prayer :

·         Rom. 8:27 The Spirit helps us in prayer

·         Rom.  8:34 the Lord Jesus Christ  helps us in prayer 

 

(ii)                He  gives us directives in prayer : Help   is given us  by way of a general outline  in the form of the Lord’s prayer  in Matt.  6 :9-13 (cf.  Lk.  11:2-4).    Here the Lord Jesus Christ helps us to  see that all true  prayer …

·         Is to be directed to the God who is our Father in heaven. Note the  familial terms  with which we are called to engage God. Prayer is not  a technique. It is a  FIRSTLY a relationship that is based on knowing the One that I am conversing with.

·         Is to be directed to Him Who is to be acknowledged as holy – set apart , Sovereign  King

·         Is to be directed to  Him who has  an  expressed  will  and purpose for mankind. It is perfectly done in heaven , but not yet  on earth. Mankind is  commanded  to seek  that  God’s will  should be established on earth

·         … allows us to pray for all our needs, physical , emotional and spiritual.

So, ultimately    true prayer is found  as God awakens the hardened hearts of His people through His Spirit and by His Word, by which Christians are now able to pray because they are helped  on the basis of much greater and much more specific knowledge. 

All this is possible because Jesus  has come to show us the Father. And so as we draw near  to this communion table with a sense of our  clumsiness  and fallenness  and distance from God, we come by the new and living way  made to us by God. We come  as always  in faith and dependence upon Jesus, the Author and Perfecter  of our faith.  There will come a  time  when  we shall be in heaven, when  prayer as we know it now will no longer exist for then we shall  be  in that place  of perfect  revelation and fellowship  with the Father. Son and Holy Spirit once again.

Amen!

---

[1] 1 Kings 18:23-24, 27-29, 36-38