Prayer

"First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 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. For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle ( I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling..." ~ 1 Timothy 2:1-8

Tomorrow Kristen and I wil be standing before our congregation talking about prayer and challenging them to commit to praying for a specific AWANA clubber or leader, as we pass out prayer cards. We will be telling them that we believe that prayer is the most important thing that we can be doing as a body of believers embarking on such a ministry. From this passage in Timothy, I draw several conclusions about prayer.

Prayer is a humbling act that gives us a better perspective of our relationship to God and to other men.

The ground for this entire passage appears in verse 5, and is essentially the gospel message. Prayer requires having the gospel message ever in our thoughts. First, "there is one God," who is perfecty holy and just and in turn, we realize that we are wretched sinners who can do nothing but evil and reject the goodness of God. When we come before our holy God in prayer, we must remember our relationship to him, as our Creator.(Job 38) We are finite and he is infinite. The very act of prayer requires humility in that we are admitting that somewhere along the way our own devices have failed or that we are unable to proceed any further without God's assistance. And we realize that the only reason we can come before this holy God is through a "mediator...the man Jesus Christ." God does not listen to our prayers because of any inherent good in us, for there is none. (Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 3:10; Psalm 130:3) He looks at the faith of his son, in whom we have been joined by the gift of our faith in Christ and reckons us righteous. So we have no claim to the throne of God by our own merit but by God's grace through Christ, which should bring us before God with a humble spirit.

Paul first exhorts that Timothy pray for all men, even all rulers, by giving thanks and by supplications and intercessions. Why? So that he might live a "peaceful" and "dignified" life. How are these connected? Prayer about other people, in light of the gospel message, helps us to recognize that we are no different from any other sinner in this world as far as our inherent qualities are concerned. We have all sinned (Romans 3:23) and unless we are in Christ's redeemed family, we are all headed for eternal punishment. (Matthew 25:46; 2 Thess. 1:9) When we come before God concerning a government leader, a co-worker, a friend, we ask that God would change their hearts in some way, whether to makes policies that protect life or to be more just in their dealings or to become a Christian. By praying for them, we acknowledge that we can do nothing to change them- it has to be the Holy Spirit touching their hearts. But then comes the question, what happens when they don't change? When we pray, we recognize that there is one God and that he is holy and just and perfeclty wise and all powerful, and in effect, we declare that we are not and that our viewpoint is skewed by our own finitude and short-sightedness. God's is all-powerful and omnicscient- nothing takes him by surprise and he is ever at work in his creation, guiding it for his will and his glory. So when we pray, we recognize that we only see our small picture of the world and God sees the whole of creation and his great work of history. We are humbled to know that our ways may not be the best ways. But this gives us comfort and leads us to a peace in Christ, knowing that even though the government may be unjust or immoral, no part of the world lies apart from God's lordshiop and that everything is subject him and his perfect will. We live dignified and godly by realizing that other people are no better or worse than we are, and so we pray for them and treat them with the love of Christ.

In the last part of this passage, Paul "desires that in everyplace the men should pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or quarreling..." When we gather into the assembly of believers, the blessed church, we have more reason to pray, and yet bickering among believers often taints our worship. We pray for our fellow believers once again recognizing that they are fallen human beings who have not yet been glorified in Christ and are still prone to sin. We must put ourselves in proper perspective to them and to God, and know that in Christ we should pray for their best, that they might continue to grow in their knowledge and joy in him. Prayer humbles us then before other Christians. As a church body, our faith and works can cooperate in spreading the gospel message and in building up believers, but the works by themselves are dead because we have not called upon the Spirit of God to work and have not had faith that motivates our deeds.

So remember to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thess. 5:17) in the knowledge of God's holiness and providence, by the faith we have in Christ, through grace by the cross.

Let Light Shine Out Of Darkness

Today I venture into the world of blogging. It is a scary thing to lay your words before the world. My goal in this venture is to uplift and challenge the reader as well as to focus and sharpen my own faith and thinking. I hope to keep my thoughts practical and down to earth, and yet never neglect the truth about God and his creation. Before I begin, I will offer up a few words as an introduction myself. I am a junior at Hillsdale College, majoring in both Classics and Religion. My hometown is Great Falls, MT, where I grew up as the second of six kids. Interestingly enough, that is about the only information you get when you introduce yourself to someone new at college, so for now, that will suffice. Subsequent posts will testify to my heart and my mind more fully. So here I now begin, by God's grace.