Today
these two Scriptures are working together to encourage me about our home church’s
prayer meeting tonight, as well as the way that prayer is an indispensable part
of our life in Jesus Christ.
“…and whatever we ask we receive from him,
because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.”[1]
“The end of all things is at hand; therefore
be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.”[2]
While
none of the conditions for answered prayer are works-based, there are still
conditions to answered prayer. Keeping Jesus’ commandments means, “that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus
Christ and love one another.”[3] This life of faith and love, or as Paul called it, “faith working through love,”[4] is what gives us that confident relationship with God where we can
know our prayers are heard and answered.
Peter’s
addition of “self-controlled and
sober-minded,” show us that we don’t just pursue these things for the sake
of doing the right thing, but because it is the characteristic of our
relationship with God in our new hearts. When we have this reality of
relationship with God going on, our prayers will be heard and answered.
It
is interesting that the context of Peter’s exhortation is, “The end of all things is at hand.” Instead of letting the troubles
of these last days drive us crazy with fears, or lure us into wasted time
trying to chart the things that God said are his responsibility,[5] we are to live in the end times in a self-controlled, sober-minded,
way of life.
While
many times our focus on prayer is along the lines of whether we receive from
God what we ask of him, Peter’s focus is on the necessity of prayer. Our
motivation to pray is not so much whether we get what we ask, but that the end
times demand the kind of seriousness of heart and mind that prays. Prayer keeps
us focused on our Father, the one person who will get his church through the
end times.
What
the ESV translates as, “for the sake of
your prayers,” other translations present as, “so that you may pray.”[6]The sense seems to be that we must have those attitudes of heart and
mind that keep us “devoted to prayer,”[7]or, “Continue steadfastly in
prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”[8] We must continue in prayer because prayer is necessary to
relationship with God, not because prayer gets us what we want from God.
This
is of special interest to me because I watch for the way children attach to the
adults in their lives. For some, it is quite clear that their attachment to
adults is all about the gifts those adults bring, the things they can buy, the
food they can eat. For others, we can see that the children are attaching to
the people, not the presents.
I
can see that this is part of the issue with prayer. Do we see it as nothing
more than what we have to do to get things from God, or do we see it as a way
of growing in relationship with God that also means we can ask for things we
need with expectation of receiving what we ask for?
If
prayer is only about asking and receiving, than we will only pray when we need
something. However, if prayer is about relationship with God, and these last
days demand the closest relationship with God that is possible this side of
heaven, then we will pray daily, and constantly, and earnestly, so that we can
know him in all the ways he has revealed to us in his word.
For
me it is encouraging to look at how Jesus’ church can unite in faith and love
so that we can pray our hearts out and watch God answer according to his will. We
can be encouraged in whatever we are facing because it is about what God is
doing that is bigger than our prayers, along with what he will do through our
prayers, not what we must do for him to get what we want.
I
am very mindful of needs in my life, family, church, and world that I will
bring to God in prayer with the hope of specific answers. I trust that I am
even more mindful of how important prayer is to the church growing to maturity
in Jesus Christ, no matter what God’s answers or activity look like. Faith
keeps praying, knowing that God will fulfil his plans and purposes, sometimes
through answered prayer, sometimes in ways we could not have thought to ask
for,[9] but always making “all things
work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”[10]
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, Canada, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
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