JESUS FIRST: THE SHAPER OF PRAYERS (PART 2)
Jesus First: A Study of Colossians • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 5 viewsScripture Reading: II Chronicles 6:12–23
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III. PRAYER IS SPIRITUALLY FOCUSED- 1:9–11
III. PRAYER IS SPIRITUALLY FOCUSED- 1:9–11
Shape 3: Prayer is spiritually focused.
A. Prayer is saturated with spiritual focus—filled
A. Prayer is saturated with spiritual focus—filled
B. Spiritual Prayer is God-based
B. Spiritual Prayer is God-based
C. Spiritual Prayer is Applicational
C. Spiritual Prayer is Applicational
Doctrinal Knowledge is Necessary but Not Enough
Doctrinal Knowledge takes Time to Become Habitual in Our Lives
Be Patient with Yourself
Be Patient with Others
If doctrinal knowledge takes time to become habitual in our lives, does it not make sense to be patient with others?
How many frustrations, arguments, divisions, and severed friendships have we endured simply because we are not patient with others?
Should our prayers not be geared to growing in Christ ourselves, as well as for our brothers and sisters?
Think about this. A parent does not get frustrated if their child, who is just learning how to walk, cannot keep up with adult. It is physically impossible.
It would be wrong for that parent to become impatient with their child. In a similar way, we need to be patient with others in their growth in Christ.
There are many reasons that people do not grow, some that cannot be helped. We need to be patient with each other.
Spiritual prayer is spiritual precisely because it is applicational, meaning it helps our growth in Christlikeness.
Thankfully, regardless of our maturity or lack thereof, we can pray for empowerment. Spiritual prayer is empowering.
D. Spiritual Prayer is Empowering
D. Spiritual Prayer is Empowering
Paul says “strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power…”
If you understand what Paul is getting at here, you should be asking, “How in the world am I, a fallen being, going to become like Jesus Christ?”
If you understand Scripture, and the hopelessness of salvation outside of God’s initiative, then you also feel the hopelessness of becoming like Christ on your own.
Imagine someone wanted you to become a professional sprinter, and you pick Usain Bolt to emulate. Bolt ran a 100-meter sprint in 9.58 seconds, and his top speed is 27.33 mph.
If you do not run at all, you are already discouraged and, more than likely, have given up. You cannot be Usain Bolt, who has spent a lifetime shaving off half-seconds from his time.
In a far greater way, indeed, an infinite way, that is our goal with being like Christ. But we are not couch potatoes endeavoring to become like Usain Bolt. Nor are we left without any assistance at all.
Spiritual prayer is empowering, because it directs our attention to God Himself. Paul’s prayer is that they would be strengthened, past tense, by God’s might.
A power drill is completely useless unless it is plugged into a source of power. That is the analogy of what Paul is saying. If you are to put Christ first, whether in salvation or in sanctification, you need to be plugged into God’s power. You live from God, you abide in Jesus, you walk by the Spirit.
E. Spiritual Prayer is Enduring
E. Spiritual Prayer is Enduring
Notice the next set of phrases, “for all patience and longsuffering with joy.”
The purpose of being strengthened with all might is for joy-filled endurance and patience. I want to unpack these two words before showing what they look like and why they are important in our prayers for one another.
Patience- to bear under a burden
Patience is an interesting word. It means to be able to bear under a burden. We tend to think of patience in connection with waiting in a doctor’s office or at a stop light. And while that is true, the idea of patience in the Bible is a bit stronger.
It is like a man carrying all the groceries from the car and into the house. For some reason, men feel the need to make one trip and one trip only, and they need patience to bring those groceries, those burdens, into the house without stopping. They need patience, they need to bear under the burden of the bags.
That is a comical example, but life is filled with greater trials that require patience.
An ongoing fight with cancer is a burden to remain under.
Difficult relationships with family members is a burden to remain under.
Your daily struggle with sin is a burden to remain under. I hope you are starting to see not only the need, but the absolute need for our prayers to be shaped by a spiritual focus.
All of us face struggles from without, trials of living in a fallen world with broken bodies and relationships. And all of us face struggles from within, trials of living with a fallen nature being remade into the likeness of Jesus Christ.
John Bunyan, the author of The Pilgrim’s Progress, second in sales only to the Bible until the 20th century, and continuously in print since 1678, was a man of patience. He was a pastor to Bedford Independent Church and enjoyed a wonderful ministry for a few years.
He was married and had four children, one of whom was blind, when his wife died. Shortly after her death, Charles II returned to power and passed the Act of Uniformity, Bunyan was imprisoned for 12 years.
During those 12 years, the Lord blessed Bunyan with encouragements and insights into the Lord’s goodness and grace. But they were not always easy years. He writes about the challenges,
“But notwithstanding these helps, I found myself a man and compassed with infirmities; the parting with my wife and poor children, hath often been to me in this place, as the pulling the flesh from the bones…” John Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners
Can you imagine how difficult that would be? That is a burden that few of us can even relate to, let alone say we experienced.
But let not the greatness of the burden of others lead you to belittle your own burdens. They are burdens, after all.
This is why we need patience. This is why we need to be strengthened with all might according to His glorious power. It is impossible, on our own strength and in our own might, to be patient under such circumstances.
Longsuffering- remaining calm in the face of adversity
Remaining calm in the face of adversity is difficult to say the least. When someone is in your face, yelling at you, remaining calm takes immense self-control. Biblically speaking, as we consider living in this fallen world, it is not just difficult, it is impossible.
Elizabeth Elliot, the wife of martyr Jim Elliot, is a remarkable example of the God-empowered longsuffering of which Paul speaks. Her husband, along with four other men, were speared to death trying to share the Gospel with the Huaorani people of east Ecuador.
What was her response? Did she become bitter and angry, leaving the mission field? No, she was longsuffering, staying among the Quichua Indians and ministering to them for two more years.
While ministering, two ladies from the Huaorani people taught by Elizabeth and her fellow coworker, Rachel Saint (who’s husband was also martyred), returned to their people and along with them went and lived Elizabeth and Rachel, where eventually she helped them develop a written language in grow in their knowledge of Jesus Christ.
That is the face of God-empowered longsuffering.
Prayer that is spiritually focused is saturated with spiritual focus, it is God-based, it is applicational, it is endurance-focused.
F. Spiritual Prayer is Joyful—with joy
F. Spiritual Prayer is Joyful—with joy
Now, we have just discussed some heartbreaking examples of patience and longsuffering. And, although we may find it hard and, without the help of God impossible, we certainly can see the biblical basis for such endurance.
Our prayers can be geared toward this spiritual focus on endurance. But the last phrase we will consider will shatter our conceptions of such endurance.
Suffering….with joy. With joy? How can one endure 12 years in prison, or how can one remain longsuffering at the loss of her husband with a young son and 10 month old daughter, with joy?
Through God’s power! is the reply, but that rings painfully hollow when we fail to connect it with the great truth of our union with Christ, our ultimate goal, or telos.
We call this the beatific vision, beholding the Triune God in the face of Jesus Christ. We see this in Revelation 22:4 “They will see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads.”
Or, consider David’s words in Psalm 16:11 “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
Paul was practicing what he was preaching, for he too was patient and longsuffering, writing this letter from prison.
He wanted the Colossian believers, and us, too, to focus on the glorious union with Christ and life with Him. We know, according to Romans 8:28, that “all things work together for good to those who love God,” and that good is beholding the beauty of God.
God uses those burdens that we must bear, and those adversities in which we must remain calm, to peal away things that hide our face from His glory or that prevents us from becoming like Jesus.
In a poem by Martha Snell Nicholson, she writes this at the end,
“I learned He never gives a thorn without this added grace,
He takes the thorn to pin aside the veil which hides His face.” Martha Snell Nicholson
We have one more point to consider as we reflect upon spiritual prayer, but that will be for next week.
What burdens are you under?
What adversities are confronting you?
Are you relying on the strength of the almighty God to be patient and to endure with joy? Have you forgotten the pains of this life are meant to pull away the love of this world and push us sweetly into the presence of the Author of Life, in whose presence is the fullness of joy, and at whose right hand are pleasures forevermore?
Are you praying this way for one another?
Oh, how different we would be individually, and we would be corporately, if we prayed spiritual prayers.
