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Epaphras,
who is one of your number, a bondslave of Jesus Christ, sends you his
greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand
perfect and fully assured in all the will of God. (Holy Bible: New American Standard Bible, Colossians 4:12) [emphases added]
For as secular as our society has
become, in the public arena we may still hear from time to time someone make a
statement like, “Our prayers go out to …” or “Our thoughts and prayers are with
…”. Yesterday during a televised
sporting event, the score was tied and the camera found one fan kissing something
on his necklace, and if you had read his lips, he was praying for his team to
score. Have you ever wondered if the
person who said, “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims,” actually
prayed in any tangible way, or if that phrase is just our cliché when there’s
nothing else to say? Some ancient thought
expressed in the Mishnah (part of the Jewish Talmud) considered it trivial to
pray for birds (Zahavy, Kerakhot 5:3). How much more then for sporting events? If these are accurate pictures of prayer in
our public arena, how much has this influenced our perspectives on prayer?
In the above-cited passage from
Paul, the word he uses translated laboring
earnestly is the same word from which we get our English word agonize. Paul’s companion Epaphras is said to agonize
in his prayer for his friends. Although
people who have developed a deep prayer life may be able to relate to this
idea, if we were to do a word association exercise, is agonize the first word
that comes to your mind when you hear the word prayer? Perhaps you’ll find it interesting that in
Luke, this same word, translated strive,
is used by Jesus to tell His followers to enter in the narrow gate
(13:24). In that context, we can see a
dichotomy between the path that leads to destruction and the other that leads
to life.
How then do we understand striving
to enter by the narrow gate? Why is the
broad road to destruction so appealing?
By exploring those questions, do you see how prayer can be a
struggle? In considering this, we are
also reminded how challenges make us better.
Therefore, this earnest labor in our unanswered prayers can be the
character-building struggle we need in our spiritual development. If prayer is as laissez-faire as in the
examples highlighted at the beginning of this blog, what kind of character
development would be possible? On the
other hand, when we engage in prayer as in wrestling, working, or striving,
then we enter into the mystery that is our communication with God. Perhaps this is why in some cases we
experience unanswered prayers.
Did Jesus give carte blanche to prayers?
Did Jesus give carte blanche to prayers?
Written by Pastor Ozzy
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Works Cited
1995. Holy Bible: New American Standard Bible.
LaHabra: The Lockman Foundation.
Zahavy, Tzvee. 1987. The Mishnaic Law of Blessings
and Prayers: Tractate Berakhot. Scholars Press.
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