Streams of Living Water

The other day, as I was sorting through material in my office, I came across a book I forgot I had. It was a copy of E.M. Bounds book, ‘Power through Prayer‘. I got it on the recommendation of the former minister of the Tron, Eric Alexander, who told a ministerial fellowship I was privileged to attend, that he reads this particular book once a year. It keeps him focussed upon where the real power in the Christian life comes from - prayer. Through prayer, God re-applies the benefits of believing the Gospel of our crucified and risen Saviour to us, and, through our prayers, He spreads the net out wider and brings in our friends, families and colleagues into the kingdom of Jesus. The apostle Paul knew how vital prayer was in the Christian life - all these commands he has given us regarding our relationships to our husbands, wives, children, parents, employees and employers - he knows that the only place where we can go to get the power to obey is God Himself, and that through prayer. And so, he commands the Colossian Christians to pray.

There are four distinct movements in Paul’s instructions to them: first, they are to pray devotedly; secondly, they are to pray with their eyes open; thirdly, they are to pray with thankfulness, and lastly, they are to pray for mission.
1. Praying Devotedly (vs. 2a) - according to Paul, we are to devote ourselves to prayer. We should be familiar with the word Paul uses for ‘devotion’. A few weeks ago, on a Sunday morning, we were looking at the topic of prayer meetings in the Bible, and from Acts 2:42-47 we saw that the early Church ‘devoted themselves to prayer’. It wasn’t just a hobby with them, nor just an add-on to their day - it was entirely as important to them as the air they breathed. As important as moving the muscles of their chest in order to inhale the air their bodies needed to survive, was the spiritual action of raising their hearts and minds to God in prayer. The Church needs prayer like the body needs air. Without the air, the body dies. Without the prayer, the church dies. The word ‘devoted’ in the world of the day was used to describe a boat which always stands ready for someone to use. It came to mean ‘devoted’ or ‘persevering’.
There are two aspects of what devoted means: the first is earnestness or seriously. It’s asking the question ‘how much do we want the thing we are praying for?‘ Earnestness is a mark of answered prayer in the New Testament. For example, Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, whose 12 year old daughter lay dying, we read, ‘pleaded earnestly with Jesus‘. Again, in the context of Peter’s release from prison in Acts 12, we read that ‘the church was earnestly praying for him.‘ In James 5, we read of Elijah earnestly praying that ‘it might not rain, and for three and a half years it did not rain on the earth‘. The most earnest prayer in the Bible is reserved for Jesus Himself, who in the garden of Gethsemane, on the night He was betrayed, prayed so earnestly that His precious sweat became as great drops of blood. How do our prayers as individuals and as a congregation compare with prayers like those of Jairus, the Church of Peter’s day, Elijah and Jesus Himself? You’d probably have to hang your head in shame as you realise how far short we fall - how un-passionate our praying is - as if we couldn’t care less whether God answered or not. The other day, I received a joke e-mail from someone, calling itself ‘the International Council of Man Laws‘, suggesting that the only two occasions on which men should cry are when a heroic dog dies to save its master, and after you’ve wrecked your boss’s car. I know it’s only a joke, but does it not prick your conscience how few tears we men shed in prayer? Is prayer that ineffective that we treat it like a duty; are those we love so unimportant that we would not shed even a tear over their souls?
The second aspect of devotion in prayer corresponds to perseverance. Jesus told two parables about this kind of persevering, devoted prayer. The first was about a man who kept on knocking at his friends door, asking for a loaf of bread. The second was about the perseverance of a woman knocking on a judge’s door looking for justice. In both cases, Jesus says that those who persevere in their asking receive. Gospel holiness results in persevering prayer - not just something we pray for once, and then forget, but something which is burdening us so much that we can’t forget about it. Imagine you were carrying a heavy television set? Could you ever forget that you were carrying a heavy TV? Can you ever forget the burden of getting rid of greed and anger from your life, the burden of loving that disagreeable fellow Christian, the burden of submitting to your husband, the burden of loving your wife, the burden of obeying your parents, the burden of being patient with your children, the burden of obeying your employer, the burden of being fair to your employees? These burdens are too big to forget about, and only through prayer will we get the strength we need to cope.
Do our prayers match up to this standard? Are they dull and lifeless, or are they watered with our tears? Are they flashes in the pan, or are they the enduring desire of a persevering people? Do they reflect legalistic holiness, which relies upon self; or do they reflect gospel holiness, which relies for everything upon God and His grace? We may devote ourselves to many things in life: home, work, church - but really and truly, are we devoting ourselves to prayer?
2. Praying with Eyes Open (vs. 2b) - our prayers are to have a quality of ‘watchfulness’ about them. Paul is using loaded words in this passage, because just like ‘devotion’, so ‘watchful’ is another word commonly associated with prayer in the New Testament. For example, when Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, He told His disciples to ‘watch and pray, lest you fall into temptation‘. In 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul uses the word twice to talk of how we are to behave in the light of the impending return of our Saviour Jesus. Again then, just like ‘devoted’, this word ‘being watchful’, in the context of prayer, has two aspects to its meaning.
First, being watchful in prayer means to be alert. It means having our minds awake while we pray. It means intelligently interacting with God on a range of issues, not just praying in a humdrum or lethargic manner - like sometimes we ask our children ‘have you said your prayers’ - we don’t mean anything bad by it, but there is a whole world of difference between saying our prayers and praying. We can say our prayers without our minds being involved at all. Again though, how often our minds are asleep when we are praying! By contrast, Paul insists in 1 Corinthians 14:13 that effective prayer must be through the mind. After all, when you love someone, as we claim to love God, you would normally think carefully about what to say to them - it would be the ultimate of disrespect if your mouth spoke to them, but your mind was wandering somewhere else at the time. Jesus told His disciples to ‘watch and pray’ - to stay alert and, as the New English Bible translates this verb ‘with mind awake’. Praying with our minds is going to mean that we range over vast areas of thought in prayer: for example, we are going to use our minds to remember the greatness of the love of God in Christ Jesus and to thank Him for Him; we are going to use our minds to confess our sins and to render thanks for our forgiveness; we are going to use our minds to think of all the subjects which need our petitions - we’ll think perhaps of people who aren’t well in the congregation; people who are missionaries from this congregation and so on. Our minds will be engaged and we will be alert. The devil will do anything he can to make us cold, listless and unthinking in prayer - but perhaps the first petition we should make in our prayers is that God would send forth His Spirit to wake our minds up and to keep them alert.
Secondly, being watchful in prayer means to be anticipating. Paul’s primary use of the word ‘watchful’ is in the context of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible consistently teaches that Jesus, having ascended into heaven, will return to wrap up time and space and to usher in the new heavens and the new earth. He will return in glory at the head of a million million angels; the sky will tear like a curtain and the Lord will come down. We do not know when this will happen - a thousand years hence, a day hence - before even the end of this service we may see His face. And Paul is telling us that in our prayers, we should be conscious of the impending and imminent arrival of our Lord and Master Jesus. Then will be the time to rest, but now, whilst it is still day and before He returns, it is time to work - it is time to pray. After all, if you knew that Jesus was returning tomorrow, and you have family and friends whom you have never spoken to about Him, would you not be on your knees praying for them right now, and then would you not be speaking to them about the Gospel? Think then of the impact which the second coming of Jesus should have on our prayers - it should give them a purpose, a sincerity and an urgency.
And so, we are to pray not just earnestly and perseveringly, but also with alertness - anticipating the imminent return of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Does this characterise our individual prayers and our prayers as a congregation? Perhaps we get immune to these Biblical calls to earnestness and alertness - perhaps tonight is God’s wake up call.
3. Praying with Thankfulness (vs. 2c) - Thankfulness should play a major part in every prayer we ever make to God. The Christian must not just say ‘thanks’, but his whole life should be lived as a ‘thank-offering’ to God for all He is in Himself, and all He has done for us in Christ. Thanks, or spoken gratitude to God, should form the bedrock of our lives as Christians. After all, the Psalmist asks the question ‘what shall I give to the Lord for all His gifts to me?‘ to which he answers, ‘I will offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord.‘ What makes what Paul says here about thanksgiving all the more remarkable when you consider that at the time of writing, he was in prison - He says in the next verse regarding his gospel ‘for which I am in chains‘. We might think that someone in prison, perhaps facing death, would not be thankful, but would perhaps at best be self-consumed, and at worst, would blame God for what is happening to him. But, because of the way Paul sees the world, and because of the fact that God has changed him on the inside through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which he has now been called to preach, he is able to give thanks even when, humanly speaking, there isn’t much to be thankful about. See how the Gospel changes the colour of the trees and the smell of the air? It turns life from drudgery into delight, not because it changes our situations, but because it changes how we view them.
Added to that, we need to pray with thankfulness because it is a sure way to gain more from God. There is no surer way of closing God’s hand than by unthankfulness for past mercies. Do we pray out of thankfulness, and do we verbalise our thanks to God in prayer for all the things He has given us? You only need to think for a few minutes of the countless ways in which He has blessed us - physically and spiritually, here and hereafter, in every way, shape and form. Let’s covenant to make thanksgiving a section of every prayer we make to God - whether as individuals or as a congregation.
4. Praying for Mission (vs. 3-4) -Thus far, Paul hasn’t really told us what we should be praying about, but now he gives us a definite item for prayer. He doesn’t ask the people to pray for his personal safety - he asks the people to pray for the mission of the Kingdom. For Paul, the Kingdom of God coming must take precedence over his own personal concerns. Remember, Paul here is in chains - in prison - and yet his prayers are kingdom focussed. Are ours, or is all we ever pray about our own situations and our own concerns, rather than the needs of the Kingdom of God? There are three areas where Paul requests prayer:
a. An Open Door - commentators have, over the years, debated what Paul meant by talking about an open door for Gospel ministry. Some suggest that the door is the door of our mouths, and that here Paul is requesting prayer that he would not be ashamed of preaching the Gospel. For example, John Calvin writes, ‘it is in no degree easier for us to speak confidently respecting the gospel, than to break through a door that is barred and bolted.‘ We must pray then that Gospel ministers, and indeed, every Christian, would have an open door - that God would unbar and unbolt their mouths so that they may fearlessly speak about the Gospel. The second suggestion is that the door is the door of the mission field - it is Paul requesting that the Colossians would pray that God would show him where to work and to whom he must share the Gospel. This might seem strange coming from a man in prison, but remember that according to Paul’s own words in the Book of Philippians, the jail itself became a mission field for Paul, with many prison guards coming to know Jesus through his witness to them.
Likewise, Paul expected to be released from jail, and he wanted to know God’s guidance as to where to go next, carrying as he was, the Word of the Gospel in him. Whatever lay ahead wasn’t his primary concern, just as long as there was a door opened for the Word of the Gospel – just as long as there was an opportunity for men and women to hear the life giving, heart transforming, message of the love of God in Christ Jesus. To Him, the Gospel and its progress was central – His own personal agenda was neither here nor there compared to this greatest of tasks of exploiting the door which God had opened. Are we praying for God to open a door – to open a door in the Pinnacle Building, in the Anderston Flats, our next-door neighbour? Before we speak to anyone about God, we must speak to God about them – we must devote ourselves to praying for the progress of the Gospel.
b. A Revealed Mystery – If the first thing Paul asks is that the Colossian Christians would pray for a people to preach the Word to, the second thing he asks is that he would preach the correct word – that he would do it justice. It is the Gospel of the mystery of Christ – namely His Lordship over Jew and Gentile, and although ultimately it is God’s responsibility to reveal Christ’s Lordship, God will work through His apostle to do that. There are so many things to talk about with people, and how often we find ourselves having spent hours talking and never having spoken a word about Jesus. We want to witness to our friends, but we end up either never getting there or getting our words completely mixed up – we end up, we think anyway, preaching a different Gospel from that of Jesus. We get the balance wrong, or we get the words wrong. The truth is, that having prayed over the issue, God will speak through us – through our words and our lives – and His Sovereign Word will not return to Him void but will accomplish the purpose for which He sent it forth. How we pray then that in everything we say and do, we preach Christ’s Lordship. And if we pray that for ourselves, how much more should we pray for those whose calling it is to preach His Word. Please pray for me, and for other preachers, that we will preach the Gospel – offering people life through Jesus. Pray that we may have balance in our preaching and may reflect the Lordship of Christ both in word and in life.
c. A Necessary Method – so far Paul has asked the Colossian Christians to pray for him, that he would have a people to whom to preach, and that he would preach the true Gospel of Jesus Christ – and now lastly, he asks the Colossians to pray that he would employ the correct method to communicate that Gospel – namely, speaking. The literal translation of vs. 4 goes something like this – “pray … in order that I may reveal it, as it is necessary for me to speak.” In other words, not only what he says, but how he says it is important. Someone once said, ‘the medium is the message’ – in other words, how we communicate the message is the message itself. There are some forms of communication which take away from the message itself. And Paul is saying here that speaking is to be the primary method of communicating the Gospel. There are others, but preaching is the one which Paul strives to perfect. By all means, communicate to a culture in a variety of ways, but all these methods of communication should supplement the preaching of the Word, not supplant the preaching of the Word – they should enhance it, not replace it. It really is so tempting to give up on preaching – it seems so counter-cultural – and yet Paul says, ‘it is necessary for me to speak’. Have we given up on speaking and preaching? Perhaps we need to pray not only for a people to communicate the message to, and a message to communicate to them, but also for the communication process itself – that we would be given courage to keep speaking and preaching, believing that as God’s Word goes forth, it will glorify Him and bear fruit.
Jesus said, ‘ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened up to you’. Through prayer we ask, seek and knock – and we receive the strength to live holy, godly and Christ-honouring lives. Are we devoted in our prayers – earnest and persevering; are we watchful in our prayers – alert and anticipating Christ’s return; are we praying with thankfulness in our hearts to God; are we praying for mission and for the progress of the Gospel? There is, in accordance with the title of E.M. Bounds book, ‘power through prayer’. Will that power be unleashed in our lives and in the life of our church today? Then we must pray! AMEN