“Our prayer must not be self-centered. It must arise not only because we feel our own need as a burden we must lay upon God, but also because we are so bound up in love for our fellow men that we feel their need as acutely as our own. To make intercession for men is the most powerful and practical way in which we can express our love for them.” John Calvin
“The battle of prayer is against two things in the earthlies: wandering thoughts, and lack of intimacy with God’s character as revealed in His word. Neither can be cured at once, but they can be cured by discipline.” Oswald Chambers
“…True prayer is measured by weight, not by length. A single groan before God may have more fullness of prayer in it than a fine oration of great length.” C. H. Spurgeon
“If you want that splendid power in prayer, you must remain in loving, living, lasting, conscious, practical, abiding union with the Lord Jesus Christ.” C. H. Spurgeon
“If the spiritual life be healthy, under the full power of the Holy Spirit, praying without ceasing will be natural.” Andrew Murray
My Comments: I’ll be curious as to which of these stick out in your mind as you read them. For me I think it is the last Spurgeon quote. As I examine my own life and recognize now anemic my prayer life can be it causes me to consider what might be short circuiting the power. What is keeping me from having the kind of relationship with God that would result in increased power from God through prayer? Hmmmm!
This Week’s Passage: 1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Paul reiterates here that he is a “prisoner for the Lord.” I don’t think he wants the Ephesians to forget this. He is reminding them that no matter what they may be dealing with or how hard life might be for them at least they are free. At least they are not imprisoned for their beliefs. Because he has lived out his faith with authenticity he has every right to plead with them to live authentic Christian lives.
Evidently they were not doing so. And evidently the problem was not with how they were acting towards those outside the church but with those inside the church. With each other. Paul was concerned for the church. How could the church possibly expect to be salt and light in their city – how could they expect to demonstrate the love of Christ to a lost and desperate world – when they couldn’t even love each other.
So he appeals to the calling the believers received. He wants them to be reminded of where they have come from. To be reminded of how Christ has changed their lives. To be reminded that they were blessed, they were chosen, they were loved, they were redeemed, they were forgiven, they were marked by the Spirit of God. (see 1:3-14) He wants them to be reminded that they were DEAD, that they were objects of WRATH – but that God, because of His mercy and grace, made them alive again. (see 2:1-10). He wants them to understand the love of Christ that surpasses ALL understanding (3:19).
His point is that when they really get it, when they really understand what God has done for them in Christ, then all the pettiness and squabbling that goes on among believers begins to look stupid. And it only deters the church from what the church is supposed to be about – living as children of light (see 4:17 – 5:21 which we will get to in the months to come).
Believers are not supposed to agree about everything. We are supposed to love one another! And we are not supposed to be “Stepford Christians” – mindlessly repeating what we we hear others say and mindlessly doing what we are told to do. We are supposed to think for ourselves while being “completely humble and gentle.” There WILL be times when believers, because of their love for one another, will have to agree to disagree – and then boldly and courageously get on with the business of the church: Rescuing the lost, shining light in the darkness, and being a living, loving testimony to the glorious grace of our glorious God.
“There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful than that of a continual conversation with God.” Brother Lawrence
“I would rather teach one man to pray than ten men to preach.” Charles Spurgeon
“If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.” Robert Murray McCheyne
George Mueller
“One day George Mueller began praying for five of his friends. After many months, one of them came to the Lord. Ten years later, two others were converted. It took 25 years before the fourth man was saved. Mueller persevered in prayer until his death for the fifth friend, and throughout those 52 years he never gave up hoping that he would accept Christ! His faith was rewarded, for soon after Mueller’s funeral the last one was saved.”
On persevering prayer: “I look at a stone cutter hammering away at a rock a hundred times without so much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the 101st blow it splits in two. I know it was not the one blow that did it, but all that had gone before.”
Prayer should not be regarded “as a duty which must be performed, but rather as a privilege to be enjoyed, a rare delight that is always revealing some new beauty.” E.M. Bounds
My Comments: So here is what I gleam from all of these quotes: These guys have learned the value of prayer in a way that I have not. So I ask myself – why is that so? Why is prayer not as sweet and delightful to me as it was to Bro Lawrence? Why do I think that preaching is more fruitful than praying? Why is my idea of persevering prayer to pray for something for one month? Why does it often feel like duty rather delight?
Only questions at this point. Hopefully answers to follow in the months to come as I continue my quest.
This Week’s Passage: 20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
It is hard for me to even imagine what “immeasurably more” looks like. I haven’t seen it… yet. But I’m going to. And our church is going to. And maybe your church will to. Paul has just finished asking God to do some incredible things in the lives of the Ephesian believers. But it is when there is a church full of empowered believers that “immeasurably more” begins to happen. Think about it…
What if in our church there were 100 believers who did not just have Christ hanging out from time to time as a guest in the home of their heart BUT had Christ dwelling there, abiding there, had ownership there. What if He was calling all the shots – not just the ones we allowed Him to be involved in? What if EVERYTHING we said or did or thought was Spirit-directed and had a stamp of approval from Christ our Lord, the owner of our surrendered hearts? This is Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith. And this is when immeasurably more happens!
And what if knowing that God loves us was not just a “4 spiritual law” that we can say or an application of John 3:16 but was something that fueled and empowered our lives each and every day? What if we really got it? What if we grasped the magnanimous love of God for us in such a way that it drove us to worship, drove us to care for the helpless and hopeless, drove us to pray at the throne of grace, drove us to boldly proclaim the gospel in word and deed? That is when immeasurably more happens!
What will immeasurably more look like? I don’t know – but I do know that it will look different than we look now.
How will immeasurably more happen? When we stop trying to do church and stop trying to be a good Christian and stop trying to make things happen – and begin to understand that it is His power alone that can bring immeasurably more to happen. This is why Paul prays in verses 14-19 and this is what he means in verse 20 “according to His power that is at work within us.” It is going to take an act of God for immeasurably more to happen. And perhaps He is just waiting to unleash that act upon us until He sees a people that are hungering for it to happen – a hunger that is expressed through prayer in the same way that Paul prays.
Update: So after last week’s “Here’s the Deal” challenge there are now 7 of us who are praying that Ephesians 3:14-21 will become reality in our lives. We have been praying daily for a week now. I’ll extend the invitation again if you want me to begin praying for you and if you will commit to pray for me for 30 days. Just email me (sreyner@Ridgecrest.cc) or FB message me to let me know. Sometime Monday or Tuesday I will email all of you who are praying so that we can all pray for each other.
And so that we can begin to watch “immeasurably more” happen together!
“The prayer power has never been tried to its full capacity. If we want to see mighty wonders of divine power and grace wrought in the place of weakness, failure and disappointment, let us answer God’s standing challenge, “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not!'” J. Hudson Taylor
“No learning can make up for the failure to pray. No earnestness, no diligence, no study, no gifts will supply its lack.” E.M. Bounds
“Satan trembles when he sees the weakest Christian on his knees.” William Cowper
“If the church wants a better pastor, it only needs to pray for the one it has.”
“Prayer is the real work, Evangelism is just the mopping up.”
“Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer.” John Bunyon
“He who has learned to pray has learned the greatest secret of a holy and happy life.” William Law
“Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance, but laying hold of His willingness.” Martin Luther.
“The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray.” Samuel Chadwick
My Comments: Which one of these do you like best? I really like them all but the one that I really really like is by Martin Luther. Our God is a “YES” God. By that I mean that He delights in saying yes to the prayers of His children. He is willing to answer. Are we willing to ask? Are we willing to learn to pray according to His will not ours? Are we willing yo abide daily in Him? And by “we” I mean “me”.
I love to watch American Idol. There, I said it. And I’ve published it so I am officially out of the closet. But my reasons for loving it may surprise you.
I love it for the entertainment value – I think it is a very well produced show. And this year, oh my goodness, they have an incredibly amazing stage that is worth the watch in and of itself. I get very emotionally involved with the performers – especially at this time of the year with only about 6 weeks left. I feel like I’ve gotten to know the contestants. And when one of them gets booted off the show I feel like I’ve lost a friend. This will surprise you if you know me at all – I cry at the end of every show. Not like weep, but I get real teary and can’t talk for a few minutes because someone just lost a part of their dream.
Like this week for instance. Colton Dixon got the boot. I liked Colton. He was not my personal favorite but I really liked him. And he is a strong believer. For his goodbye encore he got down on his knees and sang a worship song and then later in an interview talked about wanting to honor God with his music. He was very humble when he heard he was going home and apologized to his fans for his performance on Wednesday night. He was referring to the Lady Gaga song “Bad Romance” that he did which he admitted was VERY out of character for him. I was thinking the same thing as he was performing it. So I was sorry to see him leave – and I cried a bit.
If you watch the show then these names will be familiar to you: Jessica, Philip, and Joshua. All 3 of them are incredibly gifted. The other 3 are also really really good, but not in the same way as these 3 – for me at least. I realize we will perhaps differ on this as we all have our own reasons for liking someone. But I can’t wait each week for the 3 of them to sing. As J-Lo often says, they give me goosies.
But I digress. There is another reason why I love Idol. I love it because it teaches me things about being a better preacher, teacher, and communicator. 3 things in fact that I am reminded of each week by the judges.( A quick word about the judges from my perspective. I think Randy and Jennifer do a great job of giving excellent feedback to the singers and helping them to become better. Steven Tyler is useless – he opens his mouth every week but never says anything. Just my thoughts – don’t be a hater)
The judges are constantly telling the contestants these 3 things:
1) Pick the right song – for me, translated, this means that the message you convey is very important. As a communicator I need to make sure that I do a great job of teaching the Bible. Not teaching what I think or what others think but what God thinks. It is God’s Word that is eternal and it is God’s Word that changes lives so I need to teach God’s Word. I need to stay true to Scripture – God’s Word is always the “right song.”
2) Know who you are as an artist – At this point in the competition the judges expect the idols to have this figured out. For me as a communicator, I need to be true to who I am. I am not a Billy Graham or a David Platt or a John Piper. I know need to know who I am and let my personality be a vehicle through which God’s Word is conveyed. I cannot try to be somebody that I am not as it will come across as ingenuous.
3) Connect emotionally with the audience – I hear this every week on Idol. And I admit, the songs that make me go WOW are the ones that not only are sung well but are sung with passion and conviction and feeling – all of which you can see written all over their faces. As a preacher/teacher I need to feel what I teach. Which is hard for me because a) I am a guy and b) I have learned not to express my emotions over the years. But I also recognize that the messages that I best remember are the ones that I felt as they were preached – not just heard as they were preached.
So there you have it. That’s why I love American Idol and what it has taught me about preaching. The next time that I preach in church will be at about the end of the Idol season. I will probably be so teary over my favorite losing (or winning) that I will be an emotional mess. But hopefully, any emotion that I convey in the message will be because I feel passionately what I am preaching and can deliver God’s Word in a way that gives Spirit inspired goosies that result in life changing obedience.
This Week’s Passage:14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom his whole familyin heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
“For this reason” – Which reason is Paul talking about? Why is it that Paul is not only compelled to pray for his Ephesian friends but determined not to miss this opportunity to come to the Father on their behalf? Go back to verse 12: “In Him and through faith in Him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.” Paul is absolutely confident that God will not only hear his prayers but also answer his prayers. And what’s not to answer…
I mean look at what Paul is praying – he is praying that the Ephesians would be strengthened with POWER so that they would be fueled by faith and grasp how glorious is God’s love for them. What’s not to answer in a prayer like that. He is not praying for their safety or their health or their financial situation or their employment status or that they would be happy. He is praying that these Christians in Ephesus would experience from God something that would transform their lives on the inside not just change their circumstances on the outside. He is praying that the Ephesian believers would be radically changed so that the watching world stand up and take notice.
I do not meet many believers who are fueled by the power of God and daily live faith-filled lives. I do not meet many believers who who have such a thorough, all-surpassing grasp of the love of God that that they are “filled to the measure of all the fulness of God.” Nor would people say these things about me.
So here’s the deal. I need people praying these kinds of prayers for me because I want to be empowered daily by faith and I want to grasp God’s love in this way. If you want this as well then comment back or send me an e-mail or a FB message and let me know. My covenant with you will be this: I’ll pray for you in this way for the next 30 days if you will pray for me. And together let’s watch and see what God does in us and through us as His power strengthens us to live vigorously potent lives that honor and glorify God.
I love really good quotes. Over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing some random quotes about prayer from a wide variety of people.
“If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer. Martin Luther
“You can do more than pray after you have prayed; but you can never do more than pray until you have prayed.” A.J. Gordon
“God does nothing except in response to believing prayer.” John Wesley
“One should never initiate anything that he cannot saturate with prayer.”
“Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons, but they are helpless against our prayers.” Sidlow Baxter
“Prayer is where the action is.” John Wesley
“Satan does not care how many people read about prayer if only he can keep them from praying. Paul E. Billheimer
“Don’t pray when you feel like it. Have an appointment with the Lord and keep it. A man is powerful on his knees.” Corrie ten Boom
My Comments: Which one of these do you like? Which one grabbed your attention? I like the last one by Corrie ten Boom. Most of the time I don’t necessarily feel like praying. If I only prayed when I felt like it then I would not pray much at all. I have several prayer appointments during the week that right now I do a pretty good job of keeping. I hope to develop more. Once I start praying it becomes more than just an appointment with God. It’s more like us having father/son time. But I have to be intentional about making it happen or it won’t happen.
This Week’s Passage: 7 I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power. 8Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. 10 His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, 11 according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. 12 In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. 13 I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory.
Today I will comment on three phrases in 3 different verses…
v 7. Hard for me to get past verse 7 because it pretty much sums up my life and calling. I could write a very long post about how God called me to be a “servant of the gospel by the gift of (His) grace…” . I have detailed some of this in 4 posts that I wrote back in November of 2010. If interested, just go to the archives and look for the “Defining Moments” posts. (I’ve linked to the first one). Let me just say here that Paul’s sentiment is one of gratitude and humility – which I echo. I am very very grateful that God rescued, redeemed, and reconciled me through the power of the cross and the preaching of the gospel. I am grateful for the privilege of serving Him which I would do whether it was my job or not. It just so happens that I am able to get paid to do what I love which is an incredible blessing. It is also with great humility (and hopefully not false humility) that I serve the gospel. I know that God has a calling upon my life and yet there are times when I feel so inadequate for the task and wonder how could God use me to do something as prodigious as investing in people with the glorious gospel. There are certainly people more gifted, more charismatic, more outgoing, more passionate, more compassionate, better speakers, better thinkers, better administrators, better visionaries. And yet…. Humbling indeed.
v 10. “through the church” – When Paul wrote this the idea of church was less than 30 years old. He is telling the Ephesians that it is not through apostles such as himself that the gospel will be declared and advanced but through the church. Why is this? Why would God choose to use flawed people who make up our churches rather than super saints to tackle the task of reaching the world with the gospel. A few thoughts: 1) We live in a world that is made up of flawed people – who better tho reach these people than flawed people who have experienced the life changing grace of God. 2) Scripture gives us two metaphors to describe the church – the body of Christ and the bride of Christ. Both of these, when understood and communicated clearly, give a powerfully inviting portrayal of the gospel and a bold testimony of the great love of God for harassed and helpless sinners. 3) People need community. We were not created to live isolated lives. We were created for relationship. Church provides a great place for people to gather and find friendship – both with other people and with God. 4) People are by nature worshippers – Some people worship the gods of self or success or money or beauty – all of which leave people ultimately feeling lost and empty. Church provides a place for people to worship a God who can fill their lives with joy and hope and fuel their lives with strength and purpose.
v 12. “may approach God with freedom and confidence” – Our faith offers a completely different approach to God than any other world faith. We can approach Him with freedom and confidence. This is because our faith is based on relationship not rules. We don’t have to do anything to earn His favor, He has already done it all. We don’t have to do anything to get His attention, we already have it. We don’t have to do anything to be forgiven, He has already offered forgiveness to us. Because he is the initiator in the relationship, because we come to Him at His invitation we can come with freedom and confidence. Not as slaves, but as sons and daughters. Not in trepidation but with courage knowing that he absolutely delights in our coming and that he eagerly waits for us to enjoy the relationship that we were created for.
Yancey is commenting on Jesus’ Upper Room encounter with His disciples just prior to Gethsemane…
“ Of all that Jesus said that night in the candlelit room in the warrens of Jerusalem, one comment must have puzzled the disciples more than any other. Jesus knew the melancholy effect of His words about impending death: “Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief.” As if to cheer them up, He added, “But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away.”
Soon the disciples who were accustomed to presenting their questions, complaints, and requests to Jesus in person would have to fall back on a different approach: prayer. Of all the means God could have used, prayer seems the weakest, slipperiest, and easiest to ignore. So it is, unless Jesus was right in that most baffling claim. He went away for our sakes, as a form of power sharing, to invite us into direct communication with God and to give us a crucial role in the struggle against the forces of evil. p. 142-143
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God,” Paul instructs…. How can we make known a request to a God who already knows? Relationship is the key.
Occasionally in the mail I get a request for help from a stranger, often a prisoner or someone in a foreign country. Sometimes I give in response, sometimes I check the facts with a local person, sometimes I refrain from getting involved for fear of encouraging a flood of similar requests. When my neighbor has a need though, or my nephew, or someone known to me, I do everything I can to meet the need. Relationship ups the urgency of any information – it’s the difference between watching news of reports of a tragedy overseas and watching those same reports when your son or your fiancee is there.
I will never figure out the precise role of prayer in events like the path of a hurricane or the downfall of Communism. None of us time-bound humans have that capacity. I go to God with my concerns, though,as a child goes to a loving Father. I admit my dependence and make known my requests. In the time I spend with God, I may come away with a different view of the world or at least a new appreciation of my limited point of view. In exchange God gets my attention, my engagement, my soul. p. 143-144
My thoughts: It seems like the key to understanding the gospel, the key to understanding just about everything related to our faith, is understanding that it is based on relationship. This is certainly true with regard to prayer. Prayer makes absolutely no sense at all unless we get the fact that God our Father delights in seeing His children come joyfully into His presence – sometimes to ask, sometimes to listen, sometimes to vent, sometimes to just hang out and be with Him. More often than not we have our prayer agenda – I think God would be tickled if we just came to the throne of grace and sat in silence, and just enjoyed the idea of being with Him.
