Spiritual Formation (Prayer Life Part 4 Unanswered)

Feel free to click the follow button here on the right and get notified when ➜   each new blog is posted.

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?

Written by Pastor Ozzy

For more information, visit our website

http://ccvmontrose.org

Follow us on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/ccvmontrose

Or on Twitter

https://twitter.com/ccvmontroseco

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.

Spiritual Formation (Church part 1)

Feel free to click the follow button here on the right and get notified ➜  when each new blog is posted.

Imagine that a gym puts up a sign that reads, “Exercise is good for your health.”  Is that statement falsified because the gym benefits from you paying to join it?  Imagine a restaurant putting up a sign that reads, “We serve heart-healthy soups.”  Is that statement falsified because the restaurant stands to benefit from health-conscious customers buying their soups?  In both cases, the fact that there could be benefits to the sign owners does not negate the claim made by their sign.  Perhaps you will think, of course, a Church blog is going to write about the importance of Church attendance.   In the same way, a blog focused on Spiritual Formation and pointing out the value of participation in the local Church cannot be falsified only on the grounds that the local Church benefits from that participation.

Perhaps you will think, I have the Bible and I can read; therefore, I have no need to go somewhere and have someone tell me what the Bible says.  If that is the case, then we should consider what the Bible says about believers gathering together.  You may remember a Psalmist likened his seeking for God to a deer that pants for water.  When that Psalmist pondered the question, “Where is God,” it was answered by remembering their going with crowds of people up to the House of the Lord and being with the multitude celebrating the festivals (Ps. 42).

Consider these words attributed to the fourth-century Christian philosopher Ambrose, “To Thee our morning song of praise, to Thee our evening prayer we raise” (Farrar 1822).  Notice the plural pronoun ‘our’ as opposed to any singular pronoun.  Ambrose’s words fit with Paul’s words to the Church in Corinth; the body of Christ is made of several different people.  Those different people perform different functions, just as different body parts perform different functions, so the body works.  One part cannot say to another part, I do not need you (1 Cor. 12:14-26).

With that in mind, think about how many things you do in a week where you need another person.  You cannot go waterskiing alone.  Is it fun texting yourself?  We can see the need for other people in our daily lives; moreover, as shown above, God intended His people to be in community.

Written by Pastor Ozzy 

Farrar, D. D. 1822. "Sermon at Great St. Mary's." The Cambridge Review Vol. III. NO. 62. . Cambridge Review Committee, Feb 22.

For more information, visit our website
http://ccvmontrose.org
Follow us on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/ccvmontrose
Or on Twitter
https://twitter.com/ccvmontroseco