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Devoted to Prayer Colossians 4:2-4 |
June 11, 2006 Pastor Tom Marcum |
I continue to receive a couple of cards and emails each week from various ones who have just learned that my mom passed away a month ago and nearly all of them ask me how I’m doing. And my response always includes an acknowledgement of the incredible outpouring of love and support that I have received from you, my church family. The level of compassion you have shown me has far exceeded what I would have asked for or imagined.
As I’ve begun now to re-read the notes that you sent, I’ve been struck by the fact that, by far, the most commonly offered word of comfort has been this—“I’m praying for you.” “We pray for you and your family every night.” “We’re keeping you in our prayers.” I’m guessing that fully 95% of the mountain of notes that I have received have offered the assurance of the senders’ prayer support.
And I have been greatly encouraged not only by the assurance of your prayers but also by this tangible demonstration of the fact that this church family is a praying family. The church is filled with people who recognize that prayer is vital not only to themselves, but also to the health of their church family. So, they pray.
And it’s prayer that is the focus of the next stage of our journey through the book of Colossians as we are called, today, to be a people deeply devoted to prayer. This morning, I’m going to identify 10 prayer lessons that can help all of us move in that direction. In Colossians 4, beginning with verse 2 we read:
“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.”
Folks, this simple, brief verse, is bursting with life-transforming prayer lessons if we’ll just take the time to see them and soak on them. And let’s begin by noting the most basic lesson of all and that is that GOD WANTS US TO PRAY. God wants His people to be a praying people. Why is that such an important lesson for us to learn? Let me answer that question in this way.
One of the most common struggles that people bring to me for guidance and counsel is this: “How can I know God’s will for my life?” “How am I supposed to do God’s will if I can’t even figure out what God’s will is?” Good question. Here’s my basic response.
While you are waiting to discover the next portion of God’s will for your life, be faithful to that portion of God’s will that He has already revealed to you. And, folks, if you are a child of God I can tell you with absolute certainty that its God’s will for you to pray. Folks, why would God reveal the next portion of His will for your life if you’ve not been faithful to do that portion of His will that He’s already revealed to you? And it is God’s will that each of us pray.
In fact, God not only wants us to pray, GOD LOVES IT WHEN WE PRAY. And that’s our second lesson. God loves it when His children pray. God takes great delight in listening to and answering the faithful, heart-felt prayers of his children.
Proverbs 15:8 says it like this, “The Lord detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but the prayer of the upright pleases him.” It genuinely pleases our Heavenly Father when we, His children, lift our prayers to Him. He loves it.
Isaiah 62:6-7 underscores this lesson with a beautiful word picture. It says, “I have posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth.” God so delights in the prayers of His people that He urges us to take “no rest” for ourselves and to “give…no rest” to Him until we see our prayers answered. Until those answers come, He urges us to “never be silent day or night.” God loves it when we pray.
Which leads us to ask this question—Why? Why does God so love it when we pray?
The answer lies in recognizing that the very essence of prayer is asking. And there’s our third lesson. ALL PRAYER IS ASKING. Yes, prayer takes lots of different forms and includes lots of different elements—praise, thanksgiving, adoration, confession, intercession and so forth. But at its most elemental level, all prayer is a form of asking because every prayer begins with the usually unspoken but always audacious request that the Creator of the Universe would give us His attention. In every prayer we are asking God for something.
--And that means that with every prayer we are acknowledging that we are always on the needy side and God is always on the abundance side.
--And with every prayer we are acknowledging our weakness and His strength.
--And with every prayer we are acknowledging that we are always on the receiving end and God is always on the giving end. Acts 17:25 says it like this, “And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.”
--And, folks, that means that ultimately with every prayer we are acknowledging our dependence upon God and our confidence in His ability and desire to provide all that we need. And that brings glory to God. And there’s our fourth lesson. OUR PRAYERS GIVE GLORY TO GOD.
In Romans 11:35-36 Paul says it like this, “‘Who has ever given to God that God should repay him?’ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.”
In other words, the glory doesn’t go to the receiver of the gift; the glory goes to the giver of the gift. And God is always the giver. As Jesus said in John 14:13, “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.”
Why does God love it so when His children pray? Because in our prayers we are fulfilling the very purpose for which we were created—to bring glory to God. God loves it when we pray because we find pleasure in fulfilling our God-given purpose and He receives glory in providing our needs.
--So, God wants us to pray.
--God loves it when we pray.
--Our prayers give glory to God.
So, we are instructed in Colossians 4:2 to, “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” Six times in the New Testament this word, “devote,” is attached to the idea of prayer. It means “to persevere, to persist or to continue” in something and it points us to a fifth lesson, namely, that PRAYER IS TO BE A DISCIPLINED PRACTICE, NOT AN OCCASIONAL OCCURRENCE.
Prayer is too important to our well-being and to God’s will to be handled lackadaisically. We need to pray frequently and we need to pray consistently and that kind of praying doesn’t happen by accident; it’s happens through hard, disciplined work. So Paul expands his call to devoted prayer with a secondary call to be “watchful” in our prayers. Other translations say, “keep alert” in your prayers. The point is that devoted praying only happens when we stay on guard.
On guard against what? On guard against distractions that will call us in a thousand directions other than prayer.
On guard against hindrances that will convince us that we’re too tired or too busy; that its too late, too early, or too whatever to pray right now.
--Let me ask you a question—Have you ever had a desire for a more disciplined, faithful, devoted prayer life? Has that ever been a desire in your heart? I think most of us would say, “Yes. I’ve often had that desire.”
--Second question—In spite of that desire, have you ever felt frustrated because your prayer life remained stuck somewhere below the level of disciplined, faithful and devoted?
--Third question—How can that be when God wants you to have a more devoted prayer life and you want a more devoted prayer life? How is it that we can remain stuck even though God’s will and our desire are perfectly in synch? The answer is that we’ve also got distractions and hindrances swirling all around us, and the moment we drop our guard they will swoop in and overpower our desires.
Folks, make no mistake about this—devoted prayer is the product not of good intentions or a strong desire. Devoted prayer is the product of hard work and discipline. So, we’re told to, devote ourselves to prayer and “be watchful.”
But, notice also, that while devoted prayer is the product of discipline, it’s fed by thankfulness. As Paul writes at the end of verse 2, “…being watchful and thankful.” And there’s our sixth lesson—PRAYER GROWS BEST WHEN IT’S ROOTED IN GRATITUDE. Being “watchful” helps us recognize the distractions and hindrances that constantly surround us, threatening to stifle the growth of our prayer life. But being “thankful” keeps us from becoming discouraged in this threatening environment by reminding us that it is God who has called us to this task and God is more than able to protect us when we do those things that He has called us to do.
So, let’s get really, really practical at this point by asking: How do we move from where we are to where God wants us to be in our prayer lives? Well, that brings us to a seventh lesson; and it applies to all of us, no matter where we are in the development of our prayer life—THE ONLY WAY TO GROW IN YOUR PRAYER LIFE IS TO START PRAYING. That’s it.
--There is no secret prayer strategy out there awaiting your discovery.
--There are no short cuts to a rich and rewarding prayer life.
The only way to grow in your prayer life is to start praying. And the only place you can start is wherever you are.
Some may ask, “When should I pray?” Answer—Whenever the thought strikes you. Whenever the desire to pray enters your mind, receive that as a prompting from God and pray. Just get started.
Well, how long should I pray? Answer—as long as you feel led to do so. 30 seconds. 5 minutes. An hour. The more you pray, the more comfortable you will be in praying. Just get started.
Well, what do I pray about? Well, sometimes you’ll be prompted to pray by a specific need in your life or in someone else’s life—a health concern, a relationship concern, a spiritual concern, and so forth.
Other times, you’ll be prompted to pray because someone has asked you to pray for them. In fact, that’s exactly the situation that we see here in the next part of our text. In Colossians 4:3-4 Paul writes,
“And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.”
Here is one of the greatest communicators of the gospel that has ever lived asking a group, largely composed of young believers, to pray for him and his effectiveness as he shares the gospel. And that brings us to our 3 final prayer lessons:
--LESSON #8—WE NEVER OUTGROW OUR NEED FOR PRAYER. Whether we have walked with Christ for days or decades, we remain in need of prayer.
--LESSON #9—BE FAITHFUL TO PRAY FOR YOUR SPIRITUAL LEADERS. Pray for their strength. Pray for their protection. Pray for their wisdom. Pray for their families. Pray for God’s blessing on their ministries. Pray for their encouragement. And pray for their endurance. Folks, one thing I’ve learned over the last 30+ years is that pastoring is not for the faint of heart. Current research indicates that every month 1500 pastors leave the ministry. Every month. At the risk of sounding self-serving I want to urge you to faithfully pray for your spiritual leaders…and I want to thank you for doing so.
--Finally, lesson #10—BE FAITHFUL TO PRAY FOR YOUR CHURCH. Folks, we must never forget that we serve God, but God builds His church. We must never forget that while there is a social component in most everything we do, we are not a social club—we are the church…and Christ is the head of the church…and He’s leading us to do the work of His Father. Only God can build His church. And so we pray that God will open hearts as we proclaim the mystery of Christ. And we pray that God will show us how to do so in a way that is clear to everyone who hears.
Folks, life is too hard to do it alone. But the good news is that we don’t have to do it alone. In fact, it was never meant for us to do it alone. God is good, faithful, loving, powerful and all sufficient. What’s more, He delights in providing all our needs. Our part is to ask Him. Our part is to pray.
© Copyright 2006 Pastor Tom Marcum