And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. - Phil 1:9-11
Starting each blog post can sometimes be a challenge, not due to a lack of something to say, but due to way too many disparate thoughts that my mind often struggles to coherently pull together. And prayer is probably the best (or should I say worst) example of this. As my close friends can attest, I have wrestled with whole notion of prayer: what it is, what it should be, how God sees it and what its become in the broader evangelical community. So, with all that baggage, I want to reflect on a very simple, yet profound set of verses where Paul portrays both the heart and the goal of prayer.
Let me assure you, I've asked God to restrict the flow of my thoughts regarding prayer. My Spirit driven focus today will be simply to highlight a few things and then call us into this marvelous, gracious gift called prayer. In the end my prayer is Paul's prayer, that we all may grow in wisdom and discernment so that we may know and embrace what is excellent and that through God's mercy and grace we may be filled with the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ, to the glory of God.
Observation 1: Notice Paul's focus. He is not focused on stuff. Is praying for stuff wrong? Not necessarily, but if you read Ecclesiastes and see the vanity of it all or read Mt 6 and see that God knows what we need, then perhaps the better focus of our minds and hearts is on God's kingdom and His righteousness. (Mt 6:33) Paul really has one request, but with a few anticipated, Spirit-wrought affects. Paul asks that the Philippian's love may abound more and more with knowledge and discernment. How important is it that the love Christ puts into us not only stays alive, but stays true and grows deeper? My friends we must each be growing more in love with Christ and the people he has redeemed. Yet only God can give us this growing, abounding love. Shall we ask for it? Shall we seek it? Will we request it for our families, our pastors, the others in our church who we don't really know?
Observation 2: Paul expects results from his prayers. I want to say this very carefully, because I am certain I will be misunderstood. It is very easy for us (or at least for me) to wish for answers from our prayers rather than expect them. My sense and my observation is that we trust God to do the right thing, we want to inform Him of our perspective on the deal (in case He's unsure) and then kind of step back and let God do His thing. Paul's attitude is different than that. Paul (and other Biblical pray-ers) see prayer as more cooperative. God actually responds to our prayers (No ask -- no answer) So, as Paul begins a letter about growing more in love with Jesus so that we may be filled with the fruit of righteousness, he simply, expectantly, confidently asks God for it. And, as he says in Eph 1, we have access, through prayer, to the same power that raised Christ from the dead.
The call: It is as simple and as difficult as this. We must pray. Not lip service prayers. Not help me find a good parking place prayers. Rather, by God's mercy, we must pray Christ-centered, God-exalting, believer-strengthening, unbeliever-saving, Spirit-driven prayers. By the way, I am NOT there by any stretch of anyone's imagination. I can clearly see the shallowness of my own prayers in contrast to the powerful ones laid out in Scripture.
To God Alone be the Glory
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