Pastor's Message - May 2008
Paul’s teaching on the spiritual battle, in Ephesians, closes with the challenge to pray. “Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” – Ephesians 6 v 18. This is not merely an afterthought but a key to standing against the very real powers that seek to throw us off course or discourage us, making us ineffectual in our Christian walk. His exhortation to pray in the Spirit isn’t just talking about praying in tongues as described in 1 Corinthians, since Paul talks about all kinds of prayers and requests. It is more a reminder that the prayers which are going to be effective are those that are inspired and prompted by The Holy Spirit of God. We need to pray that God will teach us how to pray prayers which are not primarily inspired by our own sense of need but are empowered by the Holy Spirit’s leading.
How are we to do that? The prayer that Jesus taught His disciples in Matthew chapter 6 show us some keys to this. It is not intended to be a blueprint for prayer in a mechanistic, religious sense but rather a set of principles on which to base our praying. It starts out by declaring the Fatherhood of God, revealing His heart of love for us. It goes on to declare that God, our Father is in heaven above, over all things and that His name, all that He is and does, is holy and right. So the focus of our prayers should be, to start with on worship and on declaration of God’s sovereignty, majesty and love. As we do that God will share with us what is on His heart and we will be able to declare the Lordship of Jesus, our King, over the situations we are praying for (your kingdom come).
Also, since the desires of our hearts will be in line with His will as we delight ourselves in Him (Psalm 37 v 4) we will be able to pray “your will be done” with an assurance of the heavenly will, and a faith that is far beyond the failsafe prayer which we often reduce this to. This is the sort of prayer that is able to move mountains because it is grounded in a faith produced by God’s word.
Only having focussed on worshipping and declaring the greatness of God do we then come and lift up our prayers of petition before the throne of God. Then we are able to pray with a greater knowledge of God’s faithfulness and of His promise to provide all that we need as we seek first His kingdom and righteousness. Rather than crying out desperately for what our Father has already made provision for through Jesus, we will be able to thank Him that it has already been accomplished and declare the release on earth of whatever has already been released in heaven.
Paul then instructs the Ephesians to pray for all the saints. He says “With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints”, meaning, not only to remember that they should pray on all occasions, but that they should keep in mind the battle of which he has been warning them, in graphic detail. It is important that we continue to persevere in praying for each other, since none of us are meant to be standing as lone warriors. We each need the strengthening that comes through the prayers of the saints. Jesus requested that the disciples prayed in the garden of Gethsemane . He said that they should watch and pray so that they should not fall into temptation. However, they could not stay alert but kept falling asleep when they should have been on watch. Their prayer is what should have kept them from falling into the temptation of going to sleep at such a critical time.
So let us make sure that we stay alert, persevering in our worship and our prayers for all the saints, keeping in mind the battle in which we engage and thanking God for the victory that has already been won for us through the finished work of Jesus on the cross.
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