First Think, then Pray-- Part Three

First Think, Then Pray

NOTE: Several months ago I began a series on the Prayers of St. Paul. That work led me to write a short book about learning to pray as the first century church prayed. Beginning with this post I will be posting excerpts from the book. You may EMAIL office@christumc.us if you are interested in receiving a copy of the book.

Misdirected Prayers

The Christian knows that Jesus was a man of prayer and as his disciples we too should be men and women of prayer. However, it is the one part of the Christian experience that is least understood and practiced. The reason for this is that our prayers are misdirected.

I don’t mean misdirected as though our prayers are not directed to God; but misdirected in their purpose. I informally surveyed prayer requests that came across my desk or were sent to me through a prayer chain network.

Almost 100% of the requests were asking God to change circumstances.

If a person was sick the request was for healing; if there was a burden the request was for relief; if there was a loss of a job the request was for a new job; if current job conditions were unpleasant the request was for a job in better surroundings; if there was difficulty in a marriage or relationship the request was either a generic ‘make things better’ or to change the other person.

You get the point. The prayer life in the average Christian church has been greatly influenced by our culture. The entire focus of the American culture is entitlement to the ‘American Dream’ which means the individual becomes the center of their own existence and that self gratification, self actualization, and self fulfillment becomes the driving passions of life.

As a result the average prayer request is about changing our circumstances, and those prayer requests are misdirected.

Our cultural influence can be seen in the perspective that many Christians have for the life of a Christian: Life should be good; free from pain, disease, or distress. When faced with what they think are adverse circumstances their first thought is, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”

Kingdom Prayers

As Christians we are called to look to the New Testament church to influence our prayers. The prayers in the New Testament are Kingdom prayers, relating to making the disciples fit for the Kingdom and for the advancing of God’s Kingdom. What does this mean?

When John Wesley taught about our lives as followers of Jesus he spoke about Holiness of Heart and Holiness of Life. When we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior we become a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17) This is the holiness of heart John Wesley taught.

Next, the Holy Spirit begins to work within us teaching us how to live as the beloved children of God. This is the holiness of life John Wesley taught.

Holiness in life is learning to put into practice the teachings of Jesus.

Advancing the Kingdom is fulfilling the command of Jesus to “go and make disciples of all the nations.” (Matthew 28:19)

The prayers in the New Testament are requesting God to transform the life of the individual; not to change the individual’s circumstances. The mission of the New Testament church was to make disciples for Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. When the lives of the individual followers of Jesus were transformed to become like Jesus, they transformed their environment. Because the New Testament church prayed this way the Christian church is still making disciples of Jesus Christ more than two thousand years later.

The Protestant Reformation, the Wesley Revival, all the great renewal movements of the church came about as men and women learned to redirect their prayers.

They stopped praying to change God and started praying to change themselves. They stopped praying for God to change their circumstances and started praying to become more like Jesus.

Yes, God cares about the circumstances of our individual lives. The Bible makes this clear in places like Psalm 56:8-9 where the psalmist writes that God keeps ‘my’ tears in His bottle; and God is for ‘me.’ And Psalm 23:4, “for thou art with me.” It is not a question of whether God is concerned about the circumstances of our lives; rather, it is to what end is God concerned about our lives?

I believe the Apostle Paul reveals God’s purpose:

^“All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.” 2 Corinthians 1: 3-4 (NLT)

Did you see God’s purpose? “He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others.”

Paul’s experience of God’s comfort was in the sufficiency of God’s grace (2 Corinthians 12.) God's grace provides us the means to be in a right relationship with God, even though we do not deserve it and cannot earn it. For Paul, experiencing God's love, God's acceptance of him, while in the midst of great difficulty, knowing God was along side of him was sufficient. That was God’s comfort.

Are we looking to God as our comfort? To comfort is to be with someone, to come along side of them. Too often Christians are not looking to our Merciful Father to comfort us. We want our Powerful God to change our circumstances. When we do receive His comfort, are we seeking out others with whom we can share God’s comfort? I do not see much comfort sharing. This may be because Christians are missing God’s comfort as they strain to see a change in their circumstances.

A line in a benediction says, “Bear witness to the love of God in this world so that those to whom God is a stranger will find in you generous friends.”

Therein is the will of God for our lives: To experience God’s love and to share it with others.