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Introduction
There once was a man who wanted so badly to
serve the Lord in a serious way that he searched out the most
demanding monastery he could find so he could join it and express
his love for God through rigorous disciplines of obedience and
prayer. Among other difficult requirements this monastery required
the vow of silence. In fact, adherents were allowed to speak only
two words a year, and that before their confessors on one special
day.
After a the first year the man appeared before his
superior and said, “bed hard.” Another year passed and his only two
words were “room cold.” The third year, “food bad.” The fourth year
he stood before his confessor and said these two words: “I quit.”
The other priest responded, “Well, I’m not surprised – all you’ve
done is complain since you got here!”
When we are addressed
as believers with a two-word imperative from the New Testament
scriptures such as
1 Thessalonians 5:17 “Pray continually” what are we to think?
Are we to think of nothing in this world but devout prayer? Is
nothing else in all of life worthy of our attention? Jesus told the
parable of the persistent widow in
Luke 18, according to verse one “to show [the disciples] that
they should always pray and not give up.”
In
Ephesians 6:18 we are taught to “be alert and always keep on
praying for all the saints.” And in
Romans 12:12 we are chided to be continually “faithful in
prayer.” Yet the Word is also chock full of very practical commands
on how to live out our faith in daily life in a manner such that we
are obediently living out the fruit of the Spirit. Is there really
TIME to pray continually, or as the King James puts it to “pray
without ceasing?”
Or do we need to tutor ourselves more
perfectly on what it means to “pray continually”? Clearly we are not
called to a monkish life of being lost in deeply devoted prayer with
our heads covered so as not to be distracted by anything in the
world around us. No, but there is a way to be both involved in the
busy involvements of life as a witness and servant of Jesus Christ
AND an obedient practitioner of prayer in such a way that it can
best be understood in terms of “continual prayer.”
In fact,
we may find that many of our most cherished thoughts about what it
means to be in continuous prayer are distorted by religious
tradition and false caricatures of prayer. We have made it a point
in the past two weeks to remember that prayer is both a personal and
a corporate discipline in the Christian community. Consider a few
thoughts about the nature of continual prayer.
I. Continual Prayer captures the essence of prayer like no other
“prayers” can. For just a moment think about what
God was after when He created the very notion of prayer. What was He
after when he designed this arrangement wherein the creatures
communicate with the divine Creator? May I suggest His idea was not
simply a mechanistic duty, or ritual of religious satisfaction. Don’t
the pages of the Bible make us understand that God desires meaningful
relationship with us? Yes, sin has separated us from Him, introducing
guilt and judgment, but for the Christian, the one reconciled to God
through Christ, is not the primacy of that relationship with God
restored?
Wouldn’t it be nice to have an encouraging employer?
What would that be like? You get sick leave, all those benefits and a
raise once in awhile, don’t you? And there is the annual picnic and a
periodic motivational seminar. Yet, does that qualify the boss as an
“Encouraging boss?” Not necessarily. Encouragement might mean a little
more that doing the right things.
You want to be generous. You
consent to a paycheck deduction of a half of a percent. A couple dollars
a year go into the Salvation Army kettle each year. Are you necessarily
a generous person? You love your wife. Every time you part you kiss her
goodbye, you share regular times of intimacy, give her gifts each and
every birthday, anniversary. So you’re necessarily a loving husband,
right? Not necessarily—love may go a step or two beyond the token
behaviors into something more special.
You pray before meals, you
stay with the leader during public prayers, working hard at paying
attention and praying along. You’ve been known to lead in public prayer.
You even have a regular time of prayer every morning at 6:30 and a night
time prayer as you fall asleep. These are good. But does it necessarily
bespeak a prayerful attitude? Or is it a little different from saying I
am in a devoted relationship with God?
A church family prays two
or three times together during Sunday worship services. The group
intercedes for special needs regularly and is involved every year on the
National Day of Prayer. Is it necessarily true that they are in a vital
relationship with God? There is another level of attitude, devotion,
hunger that moves beyond dutiful and right behavior into vital, devoted
relationship.
That’s the realm of Continual Prayer. J. B.
Lightfoot put it this way: It is not in the moving of the lips, but
in the elevation of the heart to God, that the essence of prayer
consists. God’s wants a vital relationship with us marked by
continual dialogue.
2. Continual Prayer enables walking in the Spirit
Gal. 5 is a great passage on living in a way to please the Lord. It
is filled with talk of living by the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, the
fruit of the Spirit.
Rom.8 likewise references being led by and empowered by the Holy
Spirit of God.
Eph. 5:18 is a basic command for believers. It is in the present
(progressive) tense and is best translated Keep
on being filled with the Spirit.
When we talk about being
filled with the Spirit, let’s be clear, it does not mean having had a
one-time experience. While that particular experience may have been a
moving and catalytic event in your spiritual life, it is not the same as
the New Testament’s reference to living the Spirit life or walking in
the Spirit or being filled (continuously) with the Spirit. In similar
fashion, saying prayers is not the same as praying continually. One is
an experience—the other is a lifestyle.
In practical terms,
being filled with the Spirit or walking in the fullness of the Spirit
can be easily defined by two symptoms:
-
having no un-confessed sin
-
being instantly obedient to the Lord
Now we Christians know painfully that though we
have been forgiven by God’s mercy and saved by His grace in Christ, we
are still dragging around with us our old sin nature. And walking in the
Spirit isn’t just a walk in the park. We need spiritual resources beyond
ourselves to stay focused on Him and to stay plugged in to His Spirit’s
presence and power.
Enter Continual Prayer. Aren’t the new GPS
systems great? Instant directions when you need them. Before that if you
needed help getting where you were going, you could always use your cell
phone. Before that you could invest in a CB radio or a walkie-talkie
system. Before that, you stopped into the nearest Phillips 66 station
and asked the clerk, who would invariably say, “I don’t know,” then
offer to sell you a map.
When we are in uninterrupted communion
with the Lord, we are enabled to navigate life with spiritual acumen.
There something about the Father’s presence and the Spirit’s voice in
our hearts that not only reassures, but gives peace that we’re on track
with Him. ILUS of girl scout campout with Krista: little sleep, helper’s
hike. You just have to stay within earshot of the one who can see.
God is quite interested in our genuine spiritual health, and He has
provided a way for us to be informed and empowered. Armed with His Word,
His Spirit and the irreplaceable privilege of prayer we need never get
lost again. If genuine spiritual health is what you want; if you want to
please the Lord by walking faithfully in the Spirit; if your desire is
to walk in no unconfessed sin and to be instantly obedient to Him, learn
to live in continual prayer. 3. Continual Prayer is
essential in Spiritual Warfare I trust that I am
addressing people who believe that Satan is a real being, and that we
are in a real battle with Him. A desperate and defeated deceiver, the
devil is out to kill, steal and destroy anyone he can get his demonic
mitts on. He is especially out to get you if you have given your life
over to Christ through faith. He does not like to lose and he will do
whatever he can to get you back into the place of spiritual delusion,
guilt and condemnation.
Furthermore, whenever you begin to
seriously attempt to grow in your faith, you will make him extra angry.
Did you know you have in your power to really tick the enemy off? The
devil loves church-going people who just sort of go with the flow and
never put Christ in the center of their lives. He loves it if Christ is
only an ornament, and add-on for you. But put Him in the center of your
life and you get Satan’s attention. You will seriously rile him when you
show signs of getting serious about your walk in Christ. Now let me be
direct with you who are currently deciding to get serious about prayer.
You must know that you will be aggravating the enemy of your soul, and
you may expect retaliation.
We are seeing it now. In reaction to
even the most preliminary plans to build up the church as a house of
prayer, the devil is busy creating havoc. He’s messing with marriages,
he’s creating confusion and he is trying his hardest to get a wedge in
wherever there is a chink in your spiritual armor. Be prepared, but
don’t be scared, because greater is the one who is in you than the one
who is in the world. But get ready—you will experience testing.
Then when you have messed with the bull and he shows you his horns, do
you know what you’ll need? More prayer; continual prayer. Satan will
exploit every weakness you have—you must be covered in prayer. Satan
will bring exasperating circumstances to bear in your life—you must
learn to pray continually. Satan will mess with your marriage, fuss with
your family and he may even wreak havoc with your health. Don’t believe
me?
Read Job.
Most of you know me well enough to know that I do
not see demons behind every bush or get superstitious or go off the deep
end about such spiritual issues. But I am here to tell you if you are
not forewarned about the hazards of growing into deeper levels of prayer
and maturity, you will be spiritually stunned and perhaps spiritually
stunted. You have nothing to fear, because God is with you, but it is
important to be alert. I think of the words of the apostle Peter:
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy
prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist
him standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers
throughout the world are undergoing the same. (1
Peter 5:8-9) I am your pastor, and as I have said before, I say
again: while you personal and we corporately start getting more
aggressive in our obedience be what Christ wants us to be—a house of
prayer, we will be inviting the retaliation of the evil one. And it will
drive us yet deeper into prayer. We will need to draw on resources from
God and one another we have not yet experienced. It is in such crucibles
where we will discover the true depth of the experience of praying
together. Get ready. 4. Finally, Continual Prayer
is what our future heavenly existence will be like – so get into
practice now. Being in continual and increasingly
more intimate fellowship with Him is the Father’s goal for us in prayer.
In fact, that is part of what our eternal heavenly existence will be
made of. Perfect, unmolested fellowship with God. Prayer here is a
foretaste.
The joy of the Lord is our strength until we get
there. You know as well as I that the most satisfying levels of joy we
can ever know come in the context of our healthy relationship with God.
If you want to be strong, satisfied and steady in your pre-heaven faith
walk, learn to more perfectly pray continually.
I feel as though
I am in pre-kindergarten in the school of prayer, but by God’s grace I
have come far enough to know that it is where I want to be, and I want
to grow in this relationship with God through prayer. I want our church
to know the power and the intimacy of the kind of corporate prayer God
has for us. The key ingredient, the Spirit is saying to us, is prayer.
To pray without ceasing establishes prayer, not as a
part of the Christian life, but as
all of it. I must add to that quote that
even prayer isn’t ultimately all of the Christian life, but it is the
key to opening the rest of what God has for us.
For now, pray
these things asking God to help you grow in the art of prayer. First, to
grow in your awareness that God is always present. Think of the analogy
of love. When you are truly in love with another there is an unceasing
awareness of the other. It doesn’t mean that you are consciously engaged
in thinking of the other, but the “presence” of the one is constant with
you. Every move you make and every thought you think is colored by the
beloved one. All your decisions are made with the beloved one in mind.
All of life is oriented around this great love.
You are God’s
beloved. He wants to be your beloved. Such intimacy will demand
prayer—both prayers and that continual walking in the presence of God.
Daily periods of intentional prayer, reflection, meditation on His Word,
are essential to establish the climate of unceasing prayer for the rest
of the day. Don’t deny your beloved God the honor of your devotion to
Him.
That’s the way we start to please Him in ever better ways—by
growing in our openness to God. He His desire is that we consciously
bring all of ourselves into His presence.
I guess the greatest thing
about drawing nearer to God is that when we do He enables us to see Him
better, to see Truth better, to deepen our understanding of His will for
our lives. Inspirational speaker and writer Barbara Johnson tells this
story:
The day had not started out well for a certain woman.
She had overslept and was late for work. Then some things happened at
the office that only contributed to her harried condition. By the time
she reached the bus stop for her trip home, her stomach was tied in an
intricate knot. As usual, the bus was late and packed, and she had to
stand up. The bus started, stopped, turned left, then right, pushing and
pulling her in all directions. The day wasn't improving even as it came
to an end.
Then she heard a man's voice up front proclaim,
"Beautiful day, isn't it?"
Because of the crowd she couldn't see
the man, but he continued to comment on everything the bus passed that
added to his joy: a church here, an ice cream store there, a baseball
diamond here, a library there. The atmosphere in the bus grew
immediately more carefree as did the woman's heart. The man's enthusiasm
was so winsome, the woman found herself smiling.
When the bus
reached the woman's stop, she worked her way through the crowd to the
door. As she did so, she glanced at the erstwhile "tour guide"; a plump
man, wearing dark glasses, and carrying a white cane. He was blind.
As she stepped off the bus, she realized the day's tensions had
disappeared. God had sent a blind man to help her see that, though
things go wrong sometimes, it's still a beautiful world.
God help us to SEE – each of us and all of us.
Ephesians 3:14-21
Prayer for Bob and Jan Claus – off next
week to Ukraine.
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