First Think, Then Pray Part Two

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.

Introduction
I believe prayer is the most misunderstood aspect of the Christian life. It is also the one thing Christians talk about the most. Christians are either asking for prayer or are promising to pray for others. The Bible teaches us the earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. (James 5:16) Yet, if we are honest, I believe we have to admit that we see little evidence of great power or wonderful results in the prayer life of the church. Why?
Before I answer that, let me first say that I believe in prayer. I believe God answers prayer. I believe prayer is the pathway to intimacy with God. In the book of Revelation the angels offer the prayers of God’s people to God as incense. Revelation 8:4 says,

“The smoke of the incense, mixed with the prayers of God’s holy people, ascended up to God from the altar where the angel had poured them out”

However, it is my perception that many of the prayers in our churches are not taken by the angels and offered up to God. That’s my concern in writing this booklet.
My purpose is to address some of the common misunderstandings of prayer and provide a basis for our church to be united in our prayers. If you want to go deeper into a study of prayer, there are literally thousands of books on prayer in print. I believe the best discussion of prayer is Richard Foster’s book, Prayer.
Now, back to the question: Why do we see little evidence of answered prayers in the church?

Seek the Kingdom

God encourages us to come boldly before His throne of grace. The Bible teaches us that when we pray we can have confidence that God hears our prayers if we pray according to His will. And, if God hears our prayers we can trust that He will answer them. (1 John 5: 13-15) The key is whether we are praying according to God’s will.
What is God’s will? The simple answer is from the words of Jesus:

“Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” (Matthew 6:33)

Put these two passages together and we can conclude that praying according to God’s will is to pray Kingdom prayers. What are Kingdom Prayers? Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Kingdom prayers are prayers for God’s Kingdom to come on earth and for God’s will to be fulfilled on earth.
Let’s look a little deeper into this idea.
In the Book of James the Bible says that we ask but we don’t receive because our motives are wrong. (James 4:3) Too often our prayer requests are for God to make our life, or the lives of the people for whom we are praying, better. Or, at least what we think is better, which is generally pain avoidance.
James’ point is what St. Augustine called “Incurvatus in se,” which basically translates as curved in on ourselves. Augustine was trying to explain exactly what produces sin. He came up with incurvatus in se as a way of saying that we are essentially ego centric or self-centered. We live for ourselves. Our lives are curved inward as opposed to the life God intended for us, which is life lived with an outward focus.

First Think, Then Pray

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.

Preface

I believe the greatest challenge facing the church in the twenty first century is the authenticity of our Christian witness. Some churches have developed prosperity and blessing theologies to draw people to the church so that their vision of the American Dream can be fulfilled. However, a theology centered on self fulfillment is like a house built on sand – it is destined to fall. Other churches offer grand musical programs, modern dramas, remove all the crosses from the church, and do their best to entertain and keep their members satisfied. They are not too interested in Jesus calling his disciples to take up their cross and follow him.

At Christ Church our mission is to Make Disciples of Jesus Christ for the Transformation of the World. We believe that as we Seek the Life in Christ as Our Way of Life, we will offer an authentic Christian witness to our community. Prayer is the glue that holds us and our mission together as we seek to be faithful to God as a congregation,

The Apostle Paul calls the church to “live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus. Then all of you can join together with one voice, giving praise and glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 15: 5-6) Our life in harmony, our one voice praising God, comes through being unified in our understanding of and practice of prayer. I have prepared this booklet as a means to help us reach out for this common understanding and practice of prayer in the life of our congregation. Later this year we will offer a study on prayer using this booklet as our guide.

Pastor Alex Knight

August 2010

The Prayers of St. Paul – Part 3

In my last two posts I have been discussing the Prayers of St. Paul with specific regard to that which St. Augustine called the problem of our sin “Incurvatus in se.” This phrase translates as being curved in on ourselves. We live for ourselves, our lives are curved inward as opposed to the life God intended for us, which is life lived with an outward focus. A good test of whether our prayer live is turned in on ourselves is to compare our prayers with the prayers of St. Paul.

Paul’s prayer for this post comes from Ephesians 1: “I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.” Ephesians 1: 15-19 (NRSV)

Much of our knowledge of what it means to be a Christian comes through our intellectual knowledge. Just as Paul prayed, the eyes of our hearts must be opened if we are to receive all that God has for us. Many Christians have a hard time with this and suffer with spiritual poverty. Their understanding of the Christian life is too limited and thus they miss an Encounter with the Living God. Maybe this old tale will help make this point.

In the 1930’s, during the Great Depression, Mr. Yates owned some land in Texas. However, because of the depression he was very poor – living in poverty and struggling just to feed his family. He was about to lose his land because he was unable to pay the taxes on it. Then an oil company approached him and said they believed there might be oil under his land. The oil company offered Mr. Yates a contract to allow them to drill for oil. He signed the contract and in a short time the company struck the biggest oil deposit discovered up until that time on North America. Overnight Mr. Yates became a billionaire. Or did he? The oil was there all the time.

Like Mr. Yates, many Christians just do not understand what God has done for them, and thus they live in spiritual poverty. In Christian bookstores there are as many “self help” books encouraging Christians to change their lives as there are in the secular bookstores. God does not call us to change our life. He calls us to Exchange our life. The Christian life is not a self-improvement program – it is about New Life in Christ. It is expressed in the terms of a total change in identity. The Christians in the Middle Ages understood this. When a person came for baptism they were given a new name – usually from the Bible – and thus came the tradition of referring to your first name as your Christian Name.

Jesus Christ identified Himself with us in his death in order that we might be identified with Him in His resurrection, and thus an Exchange takes place. We give God all that we are, -- spiritually dead, guilty sinners and Christ gives us all that He is. As I have noted on these posts before, the bed rock of the Christian life is in understanding that as a Christian what is true for Jesus is true for us as well. Jesus is the beloved child of God, with whom God is well pleased and upon whom God’s favor rests. So also for the followers of Jesus.

In this new identity Christ becomes our life. Because Christ is our life, God, our Father, declares that we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. He further attests that this righteousness, since it was given to us as a gift, is not based on our behavior. We are not his righteousness or new creation because of what we did, or we are doing, or what we have refrained from doing. Rather it is because of what He has done in uniting us to Christ in death, burial, resurrection, and enthronement.

When we know who we are in Christ and we live out of that identity we are living the Christ life. The distinguishing characteristic of the Christ Life is that Jesus lives his life outwardly – he lived to be a blessing to others.

Live outwardly.

Selah,

Alex

The Prayers of St. Paul – Part 2

Christmas Eve.

In my last post I noted that St. Augustine called the problem of our sin “Incurvatus in se,” which basically translates as curved in on ourselves. We live for ourselves, our lives are curved inward as opposed to the life God intended for us, which is life lived with an outward focus.

I thought about that today as I was reflecting on our Christmas Eve Candle Light Service. Our Choir Anthem is “Do You Hear What I Hear?” The truth is 99% of the people in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago did not notice anything unusual. Foreigners noticed the Star in the sky, but the people of God, for whom the Star was a sign of the coming of their Messiah, did not notice. Some of the shepherds out in the fields noticed and went into town to see what was happening. Others didn’t notice anything. People from outside of Bethlehem noticed and came to town. Those in Bethlehem apparently didn’t notice anything unusual. They were too preoccupied with self to notice and offer assistance.

In this series we are looking at the prayers of St. Paul to guide us into a better understanding of our own prayer life. Do our prayers curve in to ourselves, or out to others.

The second of Paul’s prayer we’ll look at is in 2 Corinthians 1: 3-4 (NLT)

^“3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. ⁴ 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.”

Are we looking to God as our comfort? When we received His comfort, are we seeking out others with whom we can share God’s comfort? This thought reminds me of a line in a benediction I like to use at weddings. As I pray a blessing over the newlyweds I say, “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.”

Live outwardly.

Selah,

Alex

The Prayers of St. Paul - Part One

The Prayers of St. Paul

For several months I have been thinking about prayer. I believe that prayer is the most misunderstood aspect of the Christian life.

On the one hand it is the one thing that Christians talk about the most. Christians are either asking for prayer or are promising to pray for others. Yet, if we are honest, I believe we have to admit that we see little evidence of answered prayers in the life of the church. Why?

I suspect the answer may be found in James 4:3 “And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.” (NLT)

James’ point is what St. Augustine called “Incurvatus in se,” which basically translates as curved in on ourselves. Augustine was trying to explain exactly what produces sin. He came up with incurvatus in se as a way of saying that we are essentially ego centric or self-centered. We live for ourselves, our lives are curved inward as opposed to the life God intended for us, which is life lived with an outward focus.

So, using Paul as an example, let’s look at his prayers and compare them to our own. Let’s see if Paul’s prayers are curving in or out. Then begin to listen to your own prayers, and to the prayer requests you receive. Are those requests curving in or out?

The first of Paul’s prayer we’ll look at is in Romans 15: 5-6, 13 (NLT)

“May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus. Then all of you can join together with one voice, giving praise and glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Selah,

Alex

Don't Give Up

A woman told the story on herself of the rainy day when she was stopped in the Yield lane trying to get onto I-4 in busy downtown Orlando. She heard a tap on her window and rolled it down. An angry man yelled, “For crying out loud lady, the sign says ‘Yield” not give up.”

We all have had experiences where we seem to lose hope of making it through the rainy days in our lives. While we may well have to Yield to the unavoidable circumstances of life, we never have to give up.

The Apostle Paul told his friends that he had learned he could do all things through the power of Jesus that strengthen him from within. And, Jesus said we would be amazed at the things we can do through faith, even faith as tiny as a mustard seed.

Maybe today is a good day to thank God for the faith that is helping you through life when things are going well and also to ask God to strengthen your faith when the difficult days of life come.

Faith Working in Love

Dr. Charles Allen, a preacher from Houston, Texas, shared, tongue in cheek, this survey about his church:

10% of the members cannot be found;

20% -- never attend;

25% -- never pray;

35% -- never read the Bible;

40% -- never give financially to the church;

70% -- never attend Sunday Evening Service;

75% -- never assume any church task;

85% -- never invite anyone to church;

95% -- never win a soul to Jesus;
100% -- expect to go to Heaven!

Dr. Allen’s survey reminds me of the story of the man who took a walk to eat his lunch. He strolled through a park and purchased a hot dog and a soft drink. As he walked, enjoying the view, two different street people approached him one by one. Each asked, "Can you help me, I am hungry?" Each time the man looked straight ahead and kept walking. After finishing his lunch he stopped and bought a chocolate éclair for dessert. As he was about to take the first bite, he was forced to jump out of the way as a young boy raced down the sidewalk on his skateboard. The éclair went flying and landed on the ground. The man picked it up and tried to clean it off, but it was no use. It was now a dirty éclair. Before discarding it, however, he had an idea. He strolled over to one of the beggars who had approached him and handing the man the éclair said, "Here you are my good man. This is something for your hunger." The man walked away smiling and returned to his office.

That night the man had a dream. He was sitting in a large and crowded cafe. Waitresses were scurrying about bringing customers delicious cakes and tortes. All the waitresses ignored the businessman, even though he was waving his hands at them continually. Finally he caught the eye of a young woman and asked for something to eat. She returned a few minutes later with a dirty piece of pastry. The man was outraged. "You can't treat me this way. I have a right to be served like all the others. I expect good service and food for my money." "You don't seem to understand," the waitress responded kindly. "You can't buy anything here. We don't accept money. You have just arrived in heaven and all you can order here is what you sent ahead while on earth. I just checked the records and the only thing we have for you is this dirty éclair."

Selah,
Alex