After a short foray into the prayers of OT saints, we move on to the prayers of Jesus. After a short (3 part) series on the teaching of prayer in the Sermon on the Mount, we will close the series next week by looking at the prayers of Jesus during the final week of his life. (MK)
Day #31: "Sermon on the Mount Part 1: Ask Your Father" (Dave Snoke) 1 John 5:14-15 “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” Matthew 7:7-11 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” The New Testament has many verses like these, that tell us to ask God expectantly, with the attitude that he loves to give his people good gifts. Sometimes Christians get discouraged, however, in having the experience of asking God for something that he does not give. That might lead some people to not ask boldly: “Whatever you want to do, God, just go ahead and do it!” I remember a fellow telling me years ago that he had a Presbyterian friend who came to visit him in the hospital, and prayed, “God, if it is your will, heal him, but if not, let him die.” Then a Baptist friend came and prayed, “God, we call out as your children, please heal him!” My friend said, “I felt better after the Baptist prayer!” We do have to be careful not to think that if we ask something in the proper way, it will force God to do it, like a cosmic machine with a special unlock code. That is a type of “shamanism”—trying to use a magic formula to get what we want. God is a Person, and as such, has his own free will and cannot be forced to do our will. But that doesn’t mean we should view his actions as random! Like a good father, he delights to give us good things, and to do things that bless his church collectively. For a small child, it may seem that the parents’ actions are random— “sometimes I get what I ask for, and sometimes not!” —but a good parent actually has a plan for good, including often giving children what they like. There is an analogy with evangelism. We cannot say that if we do evangelism just right, we will force people to become Christians. Only God can change a heart. But God tells us that if we talk openly of the Gospel, he will bless it, and hearts will be changed. “Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.” (John 4:35) Like a farmer, we plant seeds, but God gives the growth. We don’t know that every seed will grow, but we know that sowing seeds leads to harvest. In the same way, we know that sowing prayers leads to God’s blessing both for us and for his church. God is not committed to always giving us health and wealth, but he does love to do what leads to blessing among his people. In both evangelism and prayer, God involves us in the process of his blessings. Day #30: Hannah's Prayer (Ben Chidester)
In the Old Testament book of 1 Samuel, we read of a story of a man with two wives: one who had borne him many children and another, Hannah, who had borne none. You can imagine the sadness that Hannah felt. For many of us, the longing for children is deep and strong; to be deprived of that blessing and joy is a hard calling to bear. Struggles with infertility can be deeply painful and personal in our day as well. (See note below.) And as if that reality were not hard enough, the other wife made it worse by boasting of her many children and taunting and provoking Hannah. On top of the emotional pain, Hannah experienced shame. As we read the story, we wonder “will God not vindicate Hannah? Will He not lift her up and humble her rival?” Hannah’s plight parallels that of Christians in this world. Evil and sin often seem to be more fruitful than righteousness. Sometimes, it seems like the wicked are blessed more than the upright. And evil is often provoking and taunting us. The devil strives to cast doubt upon the fruitfulness of the ministry of the Gospel. He brings our sin to mind and points out the lack of fruit in our lives. Hannah’s character in the midst of her trial is an example to us. She does not allow the boasts of her rival to get to her. Instead, she commits herself to prayer and her plight to the Lord. In His timing, the Lord answers her prayer and gives her a son, Samuel, and in response, she prays the following prayer of praise: (1 Samuel 2:1-10) And Hannah prayed and said, “My heart exults in the Lord; my horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation. “There is none holy like the Lord: for there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God. Talk no more so very proudly, let not arrogance come from your mouth; for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble bind on strength. Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry have ceased to hunger. The barren has borne seven, but she who has many children is forlorn. The Lord kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and he exalts. He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and on them he has set the world. “He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness, for not by might shall a man prevail. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces; against them he will thunder in heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.” Hannah’s prayer is an encouragement to us to keep walking in the way of the Lord, in spite of opposition. It is also an example of how to pray in the face of the oppression of the evil one. Her prayer is directed to God, but it is also a proclamation to the worldly powers that God is good and He is sovereign. When the devil boasts and seeks to discourage us, we can defy him by proclaiming, like Hannah, what God is like and reminding him that God will have, and indeed already has, the victory. Several hundred years after Hannah, Jesus’ mother Mary prayed a prayer very similar to Hannah’s, in which she too praises the Lord’s righteousness and faithfulness. It was also a response to the Lord’s blessing of a long-awaited child, but this child was much greater than Hannah’s son Samuel. This child would be the one to ultimately vindicate God’s ways and to bring down the powers of evil. It is because of Him, that we can pray confidently like Hannah and Mary and proclaim to our adversary that he shall be “broken to pieces” and “brought low” and that the Lord and His Anointed will be exalted. Editor's Note: For couples struggling with infertility, the many Biblical stories about miraculous conceptions can feel like salt being rubbed in a wound. Sometimes, well-meaning Christians can further grind in the salt with careless words of encouragement and false promises. We should be careful to understand what is (and what is not) being promised in regard to our desire for children. There are many Biblical stories about people struggling with fertility and then getting pregnant. Abraham and Sarah, are another example. For some people that sort of experience matches their own. They struggled with infertility and then, God answers their prayers and they have a kid. But for other Christians, the story does not end that way. When the waiting of prayers extends beyond a certain period of time and life stage, it can become clear that procreation is not happening. These sorts of stories can become particularly painful when it seems like God does not answer our prayer. How do we read this story in a way that makes sense of those realities? First of all, we have to recognize that the Bible does not promise that every Christian will be able to have children, even if they want them. For some of us, marriage does not become an option. For others, the struggle with infertility does not culminate in conception. This is not the result of someone lacking faith or failing in any way. We live in a fallen world with broken bodies and sometimes our natural longings are met with frustration. Secondly, it is helpful to remember the way some of these stories relate to the unfolding of God's Old Testament promises. The center of the story about Abraham and Sarah is God's promise to bless the world through Abraham's offspring (Gen 12:1-4.) When Sarah remained childless, it is not just a personal disappointment, but it calls God's plan of redemption into question. Interestingly, the conception of Jesus is, to my knowledge, the last miraculous conception recorded in the Bible. Of course, God continues to answer prayers. Sometimes he does provide miraculous healing and sometimes miraculous conceptions. (Only Jesus was a sinless and virginal miraculous conception.) But sometimes God does not heal us and sometimes our disappointments continue. This is a hard reality we wrestle with. But in terms of the Biblical story, Jesus concludes the promise to Abraham to bless the world through a lineage of offspring. Jesus is the chosen "seed of Abraham" and after his resurrection, the Biblical interest in genealogies and conceptions seems to fade into the background. Third, while God does not promise to heal every disease in this life or overcome every struggle with infertility, he does promise to work redemptively in our disappointments. For some couples, their struggle with infertility moves toward the beautiful resolution of adoption. Far from being second-best, adoption brings redemptive transformation into hard experiences. This is not surprising given that God uses the language of adoption to describe his relationship to the church (Gal 4:4-7.) For this reason, theologian J.I Packer argues that the theological concept of spiritual adoption (by God) is the highest Christian teaching. Human adoption reflects this beautiful truth and shares some of the same redemptive beauty. Personally, my life has been richly blessed by family members and church members that I have gained through adoption. For others, the disappointments of family may culminate in our church relationships. The church is called the family of God (Eph 2:20-22.) When Jesus called people to follow him, he warned that it would be costly. Sometimes it would mean the loss of family relationships. For some people, following Jesus means saying "no" to an ungodly romantic relationship or introducing tension into a family relationship. But, in the immediate context of this warning, Jesus promises that through his church we will receive 100-fold family connections in this life and into eternity. The promise is so good it is worth reading in its entirety (below.) None of these struggles are easy and nothing I am saying here makes the pain entirely go away. But I encourage you to follow Hannah in pouring your heart out to God, and to lean into your spiritual family in pouring out your disappointments to your church and friends. (MK) Mark 10:29-30 Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” Sorry for the slight delaying getting this up, I made a mistake about the scheduling of this post. (MK)
Day #29: Daniel's Prayer of Confession (David Bacon) Daniel 9:1-5, 11-12, 18-19 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans— 2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years. 3 Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. 4 I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying, “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 5 we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules... 11 All Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, refusing to obey your voice. And the curse and oath that are written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against him. 12 He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, by bringing upon us a great calamity. For under the whole heaven there has not been done anything like what has been done against Jerusalem... 18 O my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city that is called by your name. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy. 19 O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.” Daniel’s prayer of confession from Daniel, chapter 9, is my favorite prayer that I have studied in the past five years. From the prior chapters in the book of Daniel, we have seen him act righteously before Kings Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and Darius. Each account shows that he is faithfully obedient to God in the face of danger. Now we get this account where Daniel not only has kept in mind God’s promise from 70 years prior but uses this awareness to come before God in an amazingly humble confession of sin! Why is HE confessing? When I have to discipline my kids, they are usually only ready to come forward with an apology after the punishment is over and they feel restored to my good graces. Even then, 8 times out of 10 they’re only sorry because they got caught and punished for the infraction, not for the actual sin itself. This is very different from Daniel’s prayer of confession. He is aware of the reasons behind Judah’s punishment and the current exilic state that has been brought upon them. That’s a major component of confessional prayers: acknowledging our true state. In this chapter, Daniel acknowledged the sin of his people (vs. 8,10,11a). He uses the phrase “we have sinned” 4 times in verses 5-15. He used first person plural language by saying “we,” not third person language by saying “they.” This is an acknowledgement of corporate sins as a nation. Daniel was pretty young when he was taken in exile to Babylon, yet he is still identifying with the sins of Judah because he is a part of that nation. We too should acknowledge how we have sinned not just individually but corporately. This is why when we confess our sins each Sunday we break it up into the verbal corporate confession of sins and then the private silent confession. We acknowledge that our sins are both corporate - as a nation, as a commonwealth, as a church - and our sins are personal. Daniel also acknowledges that this punishment was prophesied from the time of Moses (vs. 11b-14). In Deuteronomy, we get a number of passages where Moses is leaving parting words for the nation of Israel as his death approaches. Deuteronomy 28:15-68 describes what God will do to Israel if they disobey his commands. There are some particularly gruesome descriptions of how foreign nations will besiege a disobedient Israel and the horrors of what the Israelites would do during this besiegement. Daniel is knowledgeable of these curses. He knows that the exile is a direct result of Judah’s disobedience. We also should acknowledge what the just punishment is for our sin. I am not saying that all sorrow and calamity that may befall you is directly due to your sin. That was the error that Job’s friends made. Just as Jesus told his disciples that the blind man was not born blind because of his family’s sin (John 9:3), we cannot peg a curse or punishment to a particular sin unless it is specified in the bible. This is hard to do since there are no prophecies about the people of America in the 21st century. However, we can acknowledge that all have sinned and that sin deserves death and eternal punishment. Finally, Daniel acknowledges that only God could restore his people and only because of his great mercy. (vs 18). None of Daniel’s (or Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego’s) righteous deeds are enough to save Judah. They needed God’s mercy and forgiveness to be restored. We too must acknowledge that the only hope we have is Christ. Praise God that when we confess our sins, we can hold fast to the hope found in Christ, the propitiation* for all of our sins. *Propitiation: (n) something that propitiates or appeases; Propitiate: (v) to gain or regain the favor or goodwill of Day #28: Nehemiah's Prayer
This Sunday, guest preacher Gavin Breeden will explore an Old Testament prayer from the book of Nehemiah. In the beginning of the book, we see Nehemiah's response to a difficult situation hemmed in by prayer. First, Nehemiah responds to news about the desolation of Jerusalem with a highly theological prayer which reflects on God's character, promises and past actions. In the next account Nehemiah responds to his invitation to the King by offering a quick and impromptu prayer. A praying life contains many forms of prayer and is flexible to respond as the need arises. The sermon will be livestream and recorded on the City Reformed Church YouTube station. City Reformed Presbyterian Church - YouTube 1:1 The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah. Now it happened in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Susa the citadel, 2 that Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem. 3 And they said to me, “The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.” 4 As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. 5 And I said, “O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father's house have sinned. 7 We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses. 8 Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, 9 but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’ 10 They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. 11 O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” Now I was cupbearer to the king. 2:1 In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence. 2 And the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of the heart.” Then I was very much afraid. 3 I said to the king, “Let the king live forever! Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' graves, lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?” 4 Then the king said to me, “What are you requesting?” So I prayed to the God of heaven. 5 And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' graves, that I may rebuild it.” Day #27: Historic Prayers - Imagination, Spirituality, and the Rule of Life (Daniel Snoke)
James K. Smith says that, "love is the condition for knowledge." Pursuit of knowledge without a heart that loves is meaningless. God wants you to love him, and the love he placed within your heart for his good world will ultimately lead you to his grace in deeper and meaningful ways… if we let it. Some Protestants might find it surprising to know that creativity and imagination were important parts of historic Christian spirituality for a lot of church history. Today, most devotional material often isolates the internal experience of faith from the physical world. In fact, many Christians, without knowing it, fear that the physical stuff of life leads to idolatry and believe that true sincerity originates only from within our internal experiences. In this culture, our bodies have become distractions to true worship and our imaginations lead us to sinful practices. Even the popular term "devotions", by which Protestants mean "daily time with God", comes from the medieval practice of using private prayers during Mass to manage the inward affections of isolated individuals. Today, Christians are hyper-aware of their inward sincerity, but they often fail to recognize the power of imagination and physical expression to capture, disciple, and even sanctify their hearts. God made us as physical beings that cannot exist without community, and as such, our faith cannot exist outside of the physical cultures we live in. There is no such thing as a pure faith that is unaffected by human culture. As the philosopher and theologian John Frame says, "Sometimes we dream fondly of a 'purely objective' knowledge of God—a knowledge of God freed from the limitations of our senses, minds, experiences, preparation, and so forth. But nothing of this sort is possible, and God does not demand that of us. Rather, He condescends to dwell in and with us, as in a temple. He identifies Himself in and through our thoughts, ideas, and experiences. And that identification is clear; it is adequate for Christian certainty." We need a spirituality that recognizes God's condescension to us and embraces the physical and imaginative world he has given us. Our faith will become vital when we stop siphoning off our physical imaginations from our spirituality and learn to submit our whole selves, heart, mind, body, and strength, to God's revelation. The term, lex orandi, lex credendi, or "the rule of prayer is the rule of belief" was a mantra of many throughout church history, including St. Augustine. Many have taken this to mean that what we pray forms what we believe, but the heart of the statement gets at something much deeper. It says that how we pray, when we pray, and who we pray with not only forms our beliefs, but molds our entire lives. Deeper still, the equation often works in reverse too; how we live, who we live with, and the patterns we set change our prayers. If we live aesthetically anemic lives, our prayers will be thankless and dull. If we live every day striving for utility, our prayers will struggle to go beyond supplication, and we will fail to see God as a gracious Father who pours out blessings on his children. City Reformed abides by the Reformed "rule of faith", in which Scripture is the sole basis for our faith, but for many, it can be hard to apply that rule to daily spirituality. Instead of placing our spiritual vitality solely on "daily devotions", in which inward experiences are primary, many in the Christian faith also develop a "rule of life". A rule of life is a pattern of habits that seek to align our lives with the purposes of God. They are a system of beliefs and practices that flow out of our faith and in turn, form our faith. The rule of life recognizes that spirituality is much more than inward sincerity and that a strong faith engages every part of who we are. Christians have developed different patterns in every culture and time, but I have observed a kind of evangelical "rule" that often leaves out positive aesthetic experience and expression. The rule of life we typically hear about usually focuses on discipline and asceticism, and then we wonder why we struggle to pray longer than five minutes and for things beyond our immediate needs. Our rule of life should not just seek to shed sin and discipline ourselves into daily devotions, but it should also intentionally seek to submit our imaginations to God's Word and seek to participate with him with our physical expressions. As you consider developing a rule of life, let your love for the arts, creativity, and imagination lead your hearts to treasure God. Maybe for the first time, let your imagination be a lens you use to view God with. Do not fear your artistic instincts, rather, submit them to prayerful obedience to God's Word and express your thankfulness as his humble servants. For some, you might need to exercise creative muscles for the first time. There are a lot of ways to develop a rule of life, but consider these principles:
Day 26 – Paul’s Ephesian Prayers, #3 – Prayer as Armor (Jim Partridge)
Ephesians 6:10-20 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, 19 and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak. To close out this week of looking at Paul’s Ephesian prayers, we turn to the relatively familiar “spiritual armor” passage, Ephesians 6:10-20. You may remember growing up going to a Sunday school or VBS in which we were given the role of a single Roman soldier who was then outfitted with the various pieces of spiritual armor. He had the belt of truth (v.14), and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God (v.17). We were told that the sword was the only “offensive” weapon at our disposal. The problem with this scenario is that we were leaving out the critical and most prominent 7th piece of armor, which is prayer (v.18-20). The other flaw in this scenario is that Paul was never meaning for this text to be taken individualistically. Roman soldiers never fought alone, they fought as part of the Roman phalanx, a division of soldiers linked together; Paul was not equipping an individual soldier, but instead outfitting an army of saints. And don’t you know...the original Greek contains 4 plural pronouns and 14 plural verbs that reflect this communal aspect of Ephesians 6: 10-17. Translated by Paul Miller: Finally, all of you be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Together, put on the whole armor of God, that all of you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, all of you take up the whole armor of God, that together you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and together having done all, to stand firm. All of you stand therefore, together having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for all your feet, having together put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up together the shield of faith, with which all of you can together extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and together take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Well, that gives quite a different sound, doesn’t it? And it underscores looking at prayer as the vital and most important weapon in our arsenal to combat sin, seek spiritual revival both personally and corporately and to do battle with the devil. As an application for these last 3 devotionals, can I suggest first of all that you seek out a community group in our body in order to get praying seriously with other brethren. CG’s are the lifeblood of our covenant community and are the place where real ministry is done; you cannot really connect with 250-325 people at corporate worship on a given Sunday. We now have 13 CG’s and are always looking to add to that number. Contact Pastor Joseph at joseph@cityreformed.org to get connected. We also have 2 standing online prayer meetings at CRPC that welcome participation. The first is our Wednesday morning prayer community that meets from 8:30-9:30 AM. We start around a scripture passage leading us into general prayers of thanksgiving and praise, then share requests from the participants and known church initiatives or needs for about 20-25 minutes. Then we pray over these needs conversationally for the last 20 minutes on the call. We end promptly at 9:30 to allow our church staff to start their Wednesday morning 9:35 staff meeting. Monday nights at 9 pm sharp features our half hour Global Missions Prayer time that was established by the Missions Committee in 2021 and consists of a Scripture reading, brief sharing of the needs of one of our Mission Partners, then focused prayer for that partner for the bulk of the 30 minutes. This year we also will have several “open” GMP’s to pray for regions of the world or for student outreach or other missional needs that we want to support in prayer. Do join us! Zoom links are to be found in the weekly bulletin, the church-wide Friday email or via the website. For questions or access problems, contact emilyschartner@gmail.com. Day 25 – Paul’s Ephesian Prayers, #2 – Accessing the Power Train (Jim Partridge)
Text: Ephesians 3:14-21 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Today we will delve into Ephesians 3:14-21, which happened to be the text for my NT exegesis paper while in seminary and also the text for my first seminary sermon. I remember being intrigued by the phrase “…according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church…”(v.20-21). Amazingly, 10 years later this same text was the highlight of author Paul Miller’s new book, A Praying Church: Becoming a People of Hope in a Discouraging World. This book was the basis of our recent A Praying Church seminar held in January. (In the interest of full disclosure, I will be drawing insights from that book into this devotional.) Miller’s first insight is that prayer accesses the spirit of Jesus, which can readily be seen in v.14-16. This is the beginning of what Miller describes as a pattern that he calls the church’s power train; prayer accesses the Spirit, who carries us to Jesus, where we find power, where we find the ability to live in a discouraging world and where we find “glory in the church” (v.21). It comes especially as God’s people pray together, such as is first seen in a 10-day prayer meeting in the book of Acts, starting with the disciples in the upper room (1:14) and culminating at the end of Pentecost with the disciples experiencing mass conversions at the end of Chapter 2. A similar display of corporate prayer leading to power is seen in Acts 4: 23-31. Miller states “prayer is the critical spark that brings this Spirit engine to life”, much like the spark of a plug that initiates the power train of a car. So, prayer is not just one more activity of the church, it properly lies at the heart of all the church’s ministry. And there is no special gift of prayer, it is not optional (like breathing!); it is for all of God’s people to participate in! The Lord Jesus in his ascended humanity was fully clothed in the Holy Spirit and that “clothing” is now experienced by the disciples as Jesus now gifts the church with the Spirit at Pentecost. So now we can say that as the fully human Jesus lives by the power of the Spirit, so do we. In v.17, Paul asks that Christ may dwell in the heart of his readers. Although as believers, that is already the case; what I believe he is asking for now is an experiential knowledge of that truth. So that the Ephesian brethren would be naturally given to love others (“rooted and grounded in love”) as well as be granted the strength of comprehension of the massive love of Christ for them, such that they are literally possessed by Christ and His love (v.19). This prayer is "cap-stoned" by the amazing doxology of v. 20-21, where Paul ties together these truths with powerful praise. He even invents a new Greek superlative word in v.20 to express himself, as he appears at a loss for words that already exist!! Ephesians 3:14-21 is a wonderful and comprehensive prayer that I have encouraged as many parents as I can to pray over their children as they seek their hearts to be changed toward the day when they experientially know the truth of Christ dwelling in their hearts by faith (v.17) and then find themselves expressing love as the fruit of that faith. Then they in turn are granted strength to comprehend the love of Christ for them (v.18-19). Pray this for yourself, pray this for friends dealing with besetting sins (like young men dealing with porn) as again this prayer goes straight to the heart and seeks to expel idols and replace them with a deep experiential knowledge of Christ and His love. Today we continue to look at prayers from the New Testament. Jim Partridge, a retired elder at City Reformed, has written several posts this week about Paul's prayers in the book of Ephesians. I am particularly thankful that he was willing to write about the realities of prayer and pain in his own life as he continues his fight against cancer. (MK)
Day #24 – Paul’s Ephesian Prayers, #1 – Praying with Depth and Boldness (Jim Partridge) Text – Ephesians 1: 15-23 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. The epistle of Paul to the Ephesians has been called “the gospel of the church”, and Paul the apostle in the first 3 chapters applies his apostolic calling to “equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up of the body of Christ” (Eph.4:12), even as he has the church apply in chapters 4-6 what he has taught in those first three chapters. The focus of Ephesians 1-3? A beautiful exposition of the doctrine of the church, which Paul does by with a combination of prayer and preaching and doxology (he at times interrupts his own prayer with a doctrinal exposition, then returns to his prayer). He prays about 45% of the time, most expansively in 1: 15-23 and 3: 14-21. So, Paul equips the saints to see the beauty of the church while simultaneously praying over his hearers/readers. Today we will consider the first prayer in Chapter 1, then tackle the prayer of Chapter 3 tomorrow. Finally, the apostle shows prayer to be the ultimate piece of spiritual armor and our greatest weapon. We will look at spiritual warfare (Eph 6:10-20) on Day 26 – stay tuned! Briefly, as one reads Eph.1:15-23, one can see a depth of content and expression that is frequently absent in our broad and shallow prayers... (“Lord, would you bless Tom today in his struggle against ____" … "Lord, would you make Joan’s procedure to go smoothly"… "Lord , help the boy!") Such prayers are not wrong or inherently deficient, but they lack depth, don’t they? And yet I often find this is how I pray for people. Too often the modus operandi of my prayers is that they are shallow and lack boldness. By contrast, we see in this text Paul praying boldly for “a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him” (v.17) for his readers. What does he ask for? Three things are petitioned: 1) enlightened "eyes" of the heart, so that his readers would know experientially the amazing hope that they are called to; 2) the riches of a glorious inheritance that they have as a people, and 3) immeasurable power that the Lord gives to His saints, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead and then seated Him at the righthand of the Father in Heaven. This is a prayer of great depth over His readers! How often do we pray like this over our brethren? Think on these truths…meditate on them: Biblical hope, a glorious inheritance and power* that we access through our union with Jesus. All yours in Him, brethren! Tomorrow: thepower train, Eph.3:14-21. *Appendix: How do we handle perceived unanswered prayer? The disconnect we might feel between the power promised in passages such as the ones here in Ephesians, and our own experience? Not to mention what some have called the "extravagant promises" of our savior Jesus surrounding prayer. (John 14: 13-14, 15:7, 15:16b,16:23-24 and many more...) What happens when we compare this with long periods of waiting for God to fulfill His promises? As this is an appendix to an already long devotional, and on a really challenging topic, please do not expect a comprehensive answer to any of these questions. I would like to point you to some great resources to help you struggle with such good and honest inquiries. In Paul Miller’s first book on prayer, A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World, he devotes several chapters to address Jesus’ prayer promises and how we might faithfully approach them. He focuses on the barriers to asking or asking selfishly. In his second book, he deals with issues surrounding problems experienced in group prayer meetings, like overemphasis on medical issues or problems. All of these things he handles with remarkable grace. There are many other resources that I could point you to: Tim Keller’s, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering is helpful, as is another Paul Miller book, J-Curve: Dying and Rising with Jesus in Everyday Life. Let me focus the rest of this appendix on my own personal response to questions like these as I have encountered them over the almost 15 months since my cancer diagnosis. Pastor Matt asked me some of these questions just this last week and asked me to reflect on them in this blog. As he asked, I realized that several of these I really do not recall addressing in my thinking, so perhaps this blog can be a helpful journey for me to take even as I share with you! Let me say initially that I am so thankful for the clear Reformed theology taught at CRPC, as I feel that such teaching has made endurance of this trial that much easier. One example of this is that both Tracy and I believe we were spared concerns over the “Why?” questions so many struggle mightily with; as we have been taught a robust doctrine of the sovereignty of God and of His goodness. Against the backdrop of this teaching, such questions have not been an issue. Matt’s repeated emphasis on the realities of biblical faith being “hard” and yet the Lord being ever present IN the hard has been good preparation and help to sustain our journey. Let me give another very simple but hopefully not simplistic example. Psalm 103 has often been a favorite psalm of mine, and it was our part of our liturgy just last Sunday as our call to worship. It contains the tremendous promise that the Lord is the one who “heals ALL your diseases” (v.3). An emphasis on future hope contained in the gospel teaching week after week leads me to think and believe that the Lord in fact IS my healer and will heal this cancer either in this life or the next. He is not bound by time and will be true to His promise. Another help to our journey has been the tremendous gospel hope in the midst of reality contained in our music. These gospel psalms, hymns and spiritual songs have SO lifted Tracy and I week by week – kudos to our music team who pick great songs every week. One that we have sung perhaps not frequently is Whatever my God Ordains is Right and this song fills me with great hope as does Christ is Mine Forevermore. Thus through robust teaching/preaching and hymnody, we have been given a robust “theology of suffering” that I believed prepared us well for this trial – especially for one who really had no history of personal suffering prior to 12/19/22. (The date I was diagnosed with aggressive cancer.) Thanks be to our gracious God! I am going to stop here and offer if anyone reading wants further counsel on struggles they might be having surrounding the difficult questions posed in this appendix, please, please do not hesitate to contact me at partridge.je6@gmail.com or call me at 412-417-9352 and I would be glad to pray with you and offer whatever help I might be able to provide. Day #23: Paul’s Prayer for Fellow Workers (Joe Stehle)
Paul is writing to his friends – “Philemon, our beloved fellow worker” along with Apphia, Archippus, and the church in his house. Although Paul has a significant request coming later in this letter, he starts with a sincere prayer that reminds me of the importance of our ministry relationships. Philemon 4-7 I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all of the saints, and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ. For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you. God has blessed City Reformed with a large congregation of people who are earnestly seeking to serve God and each other. When I look around and when I see people that I know, most of the time I can think of ways that I have seen them showing God’s love to each other. This provides joy and comfort, and it refreshes the hearts of the saints. I am truly thankful for that. Now, let’s look now specifically at Paul’s prayer. “I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers” does not tell us to do anything specific but it is Paul sharing a practice in a way that we can adopt. He thanks God each time he remembers them in prayer. The explicit message is thankfulness, so when we think of each other – either in a regular prayer time or just thinking of each other, please remember to give thanks to God. We can give thanks for the friendship of others and for how God shows his love through them. The implicit message is that we should be remembering each other in our prayers. That is easiest for the people we know well – family, close friends, community group members, pastors and staff – but Paul also identified “the church in your house” – which basically means every person. That does not mean that we each need to pray for several hundred people by name, but it does mean that we should actively try to know the people in the church, at least those with whom we interact, and to take opportunities to pray for them as God brings them to mind. “I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.” The NIV version says “I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.” Let’s be praying for each other to be active in sharing our faith – not necessarily preaching on a streetcorner, but always conscious of being an image of God’s love. The phrase “for the sake of Christ” or “in Christ” brings to mind the teaching we heard in the “Praying Church” seminar. I do not yet fully appreciate the full impact of praying to enable every good thing in us for the sake of Christ, so my request today is for you to pray for me (and all of us) that we can understand what that should mean to us as we pray for renewal as a praying church. This week we will be looking at examples of prayer in the New Testament. The first is a striking example from the early church found in the Book of Acts. (MK)
Day #22: "Believers Pray for Boldness" (Joe Stehle) Have you ever felt an earthquake? After graduation from Grove City, my first job took me to near San Jose, California. I had not experienced an earthquake growing up in Western PA, and so it was a very strange feeling when the room seemed to move and any hanging lamps started to sway. By God’s grace I was never in a bad earthquake, but each one that you feel really gets your attention. (If you are interested, ask me or find someone else who has lived in an earthquake area to tell you some earthquake stories.) Our scripture passage today ends with an earthquake in this attention-grabbing experience from Acts. Peter and John had been boldly preaching the resurrection of Jesus, and the Priests and Sadducees had them arrested. The next day they were questioned and told not to speak of Jesus. But they responded saying that they "cannot but speak of what they had seen and heard." We pick up the story there... Acts 4:23 – 31 When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord. Who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, “Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The Kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his anointed – for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. This significant incident in the early church has several important points for us, and a caution for us as Presbyterians. Let’s take the caution first. Vs 30 speaks of healing, signs and wonders. For many of us, our first reaction is to think that those things were limited to that apostolic time, and so we tend to gloss over them as not applicable to us. But I encourage us to look more carefully at what we can apply for ourselves. Peter and John had been preaching boldly about the resurrected Christ. As Christians today, I think we are familiar with the idea of Jesus having been raised from the dead. But they were speaking to their fellow Israelites, many of whom may have been in the crowd when he was crucified, or may know someone who saw it. Then they were arrested and told by the authorities to stop speaking about the resurrection. They responded that they had to say what they saw, and when they were released the first thing they did was to gather with friends and pray. Vs 24 starts “they lifted their voices together to God”, followed by praising God for who He is, what He has created, and His sovereign plan. (Which is an excellent example of small group prayer.) Vs 29 asks God to recognize the threats but grant them boldness to continue the message. Vs 31 speaks of the place they were gathered being shaken, then all being filled by the Holy Spirit and continuing to speak with boldness. They did not pray to be miracle workers – that was happening in Jesus’ name – but rather to “continue to speak boldly”. They were not asking for a great miracle for themselves, but just to be able to faithfully continue in the work they were already doing. As we read about and practice praying this spring, let’s remember this example. Facing the trial of being arrested and being warned to stop preaching, they gathered to pray. They praised God and prayed to be able to continue to do what they had been doing. Now, why the earthquake? I do not know with certainty, but my thought is that God wanted to make sure that Peter, John, and the rest of the group there felt certain that their prayers had been answered. As we gather to pray, we can be confident that God will answer us, even without an earthquake. |
AuthorThe primary author and coordinator of the blog is Pastor Matt Koerber. ArchivesCategories |