Category: Prayer (Page 3 of 3)

All Creatures of Our God and King

April 5, 2016 / Allan Babcock

O Preacher In an effort to keep the old theology-rich hymns alive, I pass along this video.

It comes from Denny Burk, Professor of Biblical Studies at Boyce College, the undergraduate school of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. This is the Norton Hall Band. They have a new album out that can be downloaded from iTunes.

First time I listened, I looked at those young people. I don’t know any of them. Don’t know their struggles or dreams. Don’t know the depth of their devotion or how they’ll serve Jesus in years ahead or what serving may cost them. But as I looked I was reminded that the gospel is held in the good hands of the next generation. As mine passes, the Lord has another he’s raising up to herald his name. Not just at Boyce College or Southern Seminary, but all over the country, all around the world.These young men and women will pay a price to follow Jesus in this darkening world. But they will give themselves to the greatest mission a human can.

Lord Jesus, strengthen and sustain them. Give them hearts of joyous devotion to you. Fill them with the power of the Holy Spirit. Preserve them safe from the work of the evil one. Cause your gospel to flourish through them. As they delight themselves in you, please give them the desires of their hearts. And may they be the means of a greater and greater multitude singing praises to you, our God and King.

I invite you to join me in joyful worship. Turn up the volume. Lift your hands. For the next few moments, forget about everything you have to do, and just stop. Make wherever you are a sanctuary. And sing the praises of our God and King.

The Country That Murders an Innocent a Minute

January 20, 2016 / Allan Babcock

I stumbled across this post by Andrew Napolitano on “Newsmax” and thought it informative about abortion from a legal point of view. Take the time to read it and realize how lawless our country has been and continues to be regarding this devastating issue. And wonder with me how long God, in whose image all these innocents are created, will withhold his wrath from America. More than that, let’s pray and vote for a pro-life president.

Murdering Continues as Roe Turns 43

By Andrew Napolitano | Wednesday, 20 Jan 2016 10:42 AM

Image: Murdering Continues as Roe Turns 43

In one week during January 1973, President Richard M. Nixon was inaugurated to his second term, former President Lyndon B. Johnson died, the United States and North Vietnam entered into the Paris Peace Accords, and the Supreme Court legalized abortion.

Only the last of these events continues to affect and haunt the moral and constitutional order every minute of every day.

The court’s decision in Roe vs. Wade is arguably its most controversial in the post-World War II era. Its effect has been as pernicious to human life as was its 19th century intellectual progenitor, Dred Scott vs. Sanford, in which the Supreme Court ruled that African-Americans are not persons.

Roe declares that the states may not ban abortions during the first trimester of a woman’s pregnancy because the states have no interest in or right to protect the baby during that time period. This made-up rule was a radical and unconstitutional departure from nearly 200 years of jurisprudence, during which the states themselves decided what interests to protect, guided since the end of the Civil War by the prohibition on slavery, and the requirements of due process and equal protection.
During the second trimester of pregnancy, the Court declared in Roe, states may regulate abortions but only to protect the health of the mother, not the life or health of the baby, in which, the Court found, the states have no interest.

This, too, was a radical departure from well-settled law.

Under Roe, during the third trimester of pregnancy, the states may ban abortions or they may permit them; they may protect the life of the baby or they may not protect it.

This diabolic rule, the product of judicial compromise and an embarrassing and destructive rejection of the Civil War era constitutional amendments, permits the states to allow abortions up to the moment before birth, as is the law in New Jersey, where the state even pays for abortions for those who cannot afford them.

The linchpin of Roe vs. Wade is the judicial determination that the baby in the womb is not a person. The court felt it was legally necessary to make this dreadful declaration because the Constitution guarantees due process (a fair jury trial, and its attendant constitutional protections) whenever the government wants to interfere with the life, liberty or property of any person; and it prohibits the states from permitting some persons to violate the basic human rights of others, as was the case under slavery.

As the Supreme Court sometimes does, it ruled on an issue and came to a conclusion that none of the litigants before it had sought.

Roe candidly recognizes that if the fetus in the womb is a person, then all laws permitting abortion are unconstitutional. The court understood that abortion and fetal personhood would constitute the states permitting private persons to murder other persons.

So, in order to accommodate the killing, it simply redefined the meaning of “person,” lest it permit a state of affairs that due process and the prohibition of slavery could never tolerate. George Orwell predicted this horrific and totalitarian use of words in 1949 in his unnerving description of tyranny, “1984.”

Is the fetus in the womb a person?

No court has contradicted the Supreme Court on this, and the Roe supporters argue that nonpersonhood is necessary for sexual freedom. Think about that: The pro-abortion rights crowd, rejecting the natural and probable consequences of ordinary, healthy sexual intercourse, wants to continue to kill babies in the name of sexual freedom.

I take a back seat to no one when it comes to personal freedom. But the freedom to kill innocents violates all norms of civilized society. It violates the natural law.

It wasn’t even condoned in the state of nature, before governments existed.

It violates the 13th and 14th Amendments. Yet, the Supreme Court and numerous Congresses have refused to interfere with it.

It is a grave and profound evil. It is legalized murder.

Is the fetus in the womb a person?

Since the fetus has human parents and all the needed human genome to develop postnatally, of course the fetus is a person.

A simple one-line statute could have been enacted when Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush were in the White House and Republicans and anti-abortion Democrats (the handful that have made it to Congress) controlled the Congress. They could have ended the slaughter by legislatively defining the fetus in the womb to be a person.

They did not. Are the self-proclaimed anti-abortion folks in Congress sincere, or do they march under the anti-abortion banner just to win votes?

Their failure to attempt to define the fetus in the womb as a person seriously, and the Supreme Court’s unprecedented dance around the requirement of due process and the prohibition of slavery has resulted in 44 million abortions in 43 years.

That’s an abortion every minute.

Abortion is today one of the most frequent medical procedures performed in America; and the Democrats have become its champion.

They, and their few Republican allies, have become the champions of totalitarianism as well. The removal of legal personhood from human offspring in order to destroy the offspring is only the work of tyrants.

How long can a society last that violates universal norms and kills its babies in the name of “sexual freedom”?

Whose personhood will the government define away next?

Judge Andrew P. Napolitano was the youngest life-tenured Superior Court judge in the history of New Jersey. He is Fox News’ senior judicial analyst. Napolitano has been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and numerous other publications. He is the author of the best-seller, “Lies the Government Told You: Myth, Power, and Deception in American History.”

Chutzpah Prayer

January 15, 2016 / Allan Babcock

“Chutzpah” is a Yiddish word which American humorist Leo Rosten defined as “that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan.”

“Chutzpah” has a negative connotation as the synonyms “brazenness” and “arrogance” suggest. But it has a positive connotation too as the synonyms “boldness, confidence, gutsiness” suggest. Positive “chutzpah” is the kind believers displayed in their prayer after Peter and John were released by the authorities having been arrested and tried for preaching in the name of the resurrected Christ (see https://theoldpreacher.com/interruption-malfunction/ ).

On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: “‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.’ Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly (Acts 4:23-31).

Today we continue following the Acts narrative leading up to Acts 7:1-53, sermon #3 of “The Acts Eight”. The narrative today is almost entirely a prayer.

Whom They Address.

“Sovereign Lord (Greek despotays), you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them” (4:24). By addressing God this way they affirm God’s total authority over his servants, all of his creation, and even over the Sanhedrin opposing them. Thus they encourage themselves that the God they serve is in control of all things.

What They Remember the Sovereign Lord Said.

“You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: ‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One'” (4:25,26). This God spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of David. As Francis Schaffer entitled one of his books: “He Is There And He Is Not Silent.” And what did God say? The early believers quote from Psalm 2, a psalm of David considered by the Jews to be messianic.

How They Apply What the Sovereign Lord Said.

Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen (Acts 4:27,28). Knowing that the Lord is sovereign and remembering what he said in David’s psalm, they conclude that Herod, Pilate, the Gentiles and the people of Israel “did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen”. Each of these anti-Lord people chose to “conspire against [God’s] holy servant Jesus”. Yet their choice was what he had decided beforehand should take place.

What They Ask the Sovereign Lord For.

Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus” (Acts 4:29,30). Remarkably, they don’t pray for protection. While they ask the Lord to pay attention to the threats of their enemies (implying how he may or may not act is up to him), their only concern is that the Lord enable them to carry out their mission “with great boldness.”

The NIV incorrectly breaks 4:29 and 4:30 into two sentences. The ESV translation captures the meaning of the Greek: “And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” In other words, the believers assume Jesus will continue to do the miraculous works he started (as recorded in the Gospel—Acts 1:1) as they speak his word.

Here’s the heart of the “chutzpah” prayer. No one thinks the cost of spreading the Gospel too great. No one gives up the fight and goes home. Jesus is alive. He is Sovereign Lord. They are his witnesses empowered by the Holy Spirit to make him known to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and the ends of the earth.

How the Sovereign Lord Answered.

After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly (4:31). The Holy Spirit is the divine Enabler. On Pentecost they had been filled (2:4). Here they’re filled again. This reminds us that the filling of the Holy Spirit is not a one-time “trophy” experience, as some Pentecostals seem to think. It also tells us this filling isn’t the object of the prayer—empowerment for bearing witness of Christ is, especially in an environment officially hostile to their message. But as church father Chrysostom observed about the place being shaken: “and that made them the more unshaken” (Homily on the Acts of the Apostles 11). May the Lord’s answer to our praying also make us unshaken by whatever opposition or suffering we face!

* * * * *

Many of us who read this blog live in nations without overt opposition to the Gospel—though even in America and West European nations hostility is growing. Some of us who read this live in nations where opposition is overt and dangerous, as it was for these early believers.

All of us, however, should see this prayer as a model. All of us can be Yiddish in praying. “Yiddish” was the language of Central and Eastern European Jews until the mid-20th century. We could all do with a little Yiddish chuztpah, couldn’t we!

Sovereign Lord, you made the heavens, the earth, the sea,
and everything in them.
You own it all and you rule it all—even the people opposed to you.
As you spoke long ago,
what your Son endured was your will,
so today nothing happens outside your will.
You know the opposition we face to making Jesus known,
some of it from outside, some from within ourselves.
Take note of those threats, Lord,
and enable us as your servants to speak your word with great boldness,
—with chutzpah, unmoved by resistance or rejection or dread—
while you heal and do miraculous signs and wonders
through the name of your holy servant Jesus.
In his name we pray. Amen.”

Alone with Jesus

November 24, 2015 / Allan Babcock

My private prayer time is suffering. Whenever I pray, my illness tugs at my mind—like metal to a magnet—and won’t let go. I need help to return to God-centered praying. The following blog, published by “Desiring God,” spoke to me. Perhaps it will to you too.

One thing. I wish Chan had shared lessons he’s learned about private prayer. Here are a few of mine. (1) Begin with a minute or two of quieting down to become conscious of coming before the Lord. (2) Dump your read-through-the-Bible-this-year program. (It’s valuable, but, I, at least, tend to rush through the reading. Instead, pick a Bible book you’re interested in. (3) Ask the Lord to speak to you through it. (4) Read a small portion or until something “stands out” to you. (5) Be still and meditate on that portion or your “stand out” verse. Repeat it over and over in your mind. (6) Ask the Lord to enable you to believe it or obey it or whatever the appropriate response .

Okay, enough from me. Here’s what Chan wrote (with thanks to “Desiring God”) . . .

The Greatest Thing You Could Do Today
Francis Chan / November 23, 2015

Imagine walking up a mountain alone. But it’s no ordinary mountain. The ground beneath you is shaking, and the entire mountain is covered in smoke. At its peak is a thick cloud with lightning and thunder. God descends onto the mountain in fire, and each time you speak to him, he responds in thunder. This is what Moses experienced in Exodus 19.

Now compare that experience to your last time in prayer.

Distracted, obligatory, ordinary — I doubt any such words came across Moses’s mind as he ascended the mountain. But some three thousand years later, we rarely marvel that God permits imperfect humans into his presence.

How did the shocking become so ordinary to us? Is it even possible for our experiences with God to be that fascinating?

Going Up the Mountain

A mentor of mine lives in India. Last year, he called me on the phone crying, distraught over the state of the church in America. “It seems like the people in America would be content to take a selfie with Moses. Don’t they know they can go up the mountain themselves? Why don’t they want to go up the mountain?”

When was the last time you enjoyed meaningful time alone with God? Time so good that you didn’t want to leave. It was just you, reading God’s words, in his holy presence.
I was fifteen years old when my youth pastor taught me how to pray and read the Bible alone. Now, more than thirty years later, I still can’t find a better way to start my days. I can’t imagine what my life would be like if I didn’t refocus daily by going up the mountain.

It is alone with him that I empty myself of pride, lies, and stress.

• Pride: standing before a Person clothed in unapproachable light has a way of humbling you (1 Timothy 6:16).
• Lies: speaking to an All-Knowing Judge tends to induce honesty (Hebrews 4:13).
• Stress: kneeling before the God who causes men to fail or succeed replaces our anxiety with peace (Psalm 127:1).

Professional Gatherers

We often spend a lot of time and effort gathering believers together. We’ve become experts at gathering Christians around great bands, speakers, and events. Where we have failed is in teaching believers how to be alone with God. When is the last time you heard someone rave about their time alone with Jesus in his word? Gathering believers who don’t spend time alone with God can be a dangerous thing.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes in Life Together:

Whoever cannot be alone should be aware of community. Such people will only do harm to themselves and to the community. Alone you stood before God when God called you. Alone you had to obey God’s voice. Alone you had to take up your cross, struggle, and pray, and alone you will die and give an account to God. You cannot avoid yourself, for it is precisely God who has called you out. If you do not want to be alone, you are rejecting Christ’s call to you, and you can have no part in the community of those who are called.

The word community is thrown around quite a bit in Christian circles today. But our gatherings can be toxic if we do not spend time alone with God. I’ve been in many groups where people share their insights. The problem is not only that our insights are not as profound as we think they are, but that we’re so eager to share thoughts originating in our own minds, when we have a God who says,

My thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8–9)

I want to know the thoughts of God. I want to gather with people who have been reading God’s words, people who have prayed and interacted with him. I want to fellowship with those who fellowship with God. I couldn’t care less if you have a doctorate in theology or sixty years of life experience. I would rather talk with a fifteen-year-old who has been in the presence of God.

Can You Love Sermons Too Much?

There is so much discussion around books, sermons, and conferences. I’m not against those. After all, I’ve given a significant portion of my life to preaching sermons and writing books and going to conferences. But sometimes I wonder if it’s time to shift our focus.

We have to look at the facts. American Christians consume more sermons and books than any other group in the history of the world, but consider the state of the church. Has the increase in resources led to greater holiness? Greater intimacy with Jesus?

You could argue that the state of our churches would be even worse without the resources. Maybe that’s the case. Or could it be that these resources (and even this article) has the potential of distracting people from the Source itself? Maybe all of these books and sermons about Jesus have actually kept people from directly interacting with him. It may sound blasphemous to suggest our prayer lives may be weakened by all of the consumption of Christian material. Nonetheless, I want to throw it out there.

We live in a time when most people have a difficult time concentrating on anything. We are constantly looking for the quick fix and for faster solutions. So the thought of sitting quietly to meditate on Scripture and praying deeply in silence can be eagerly replaced by listening to a sermon while driving to work. While it’s definitely better than nothing (considering all of the other messages we are bombarded with daily), the point of this article is to say that there is no substitute for being alone with God.
We must learn to be still again.

Something Has to Go

It was simple for Paul. He loved being with Jesus. “To live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).
Knowing Christ deeply consumed him (Philippians 3:8). There is no substitute for being alone with God. If you don’t have time, you need to quit something to make room. Skip a meal. Cancel a meeting. End some regular commitment. There is literally nothing more important you could do today.

God literally determines whether or not you take another breath. “He himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:25). Could anything be more important than meeting with the One who decides if you live through this day? Could anything be better? How can we not make time to be with the Maker of time?

What plans do you have today that you think so important that you would race past the Creator to get to them?

Paris Prayer

November 14, 2015 / Allan Babcock

News from Paris last night (http://www.nytimes.com/) seemed surreal. Were terrorist attacks really erupting throughout one of the world’s major cities? Were over 100 people really slaughtered as they went about a typical Friday night? It didn’t seem as frightening as “our” 9/11 (partly because it didn’t happen here); but it seemed more threatening. Maybe because after 14 years we assumed we had better control of our own safety. Maybe because it darkly warned, “This can happen anywhere, anytime.”

Politicians urge us, “Don’t be afraid. Live life as normal.” I’m not trying to stir up fear, but we should at least be aware of how tenuous life has become. Terrorists are rocking the world. Yes, the Lord is sovereign. He is in control. But that doesn’t mean that we casually dismiss evil, or that we watch a news report as if it were a movie.

One thing we can do is pray. How should we pray in the face of the Paris attack? In his blog today, Denny Burk suggests Psalm 10:12-18. Good idea. I’ll include verse 1, because in such times the Lord seems absent. Or it seems he really isn’t involved in these “real life” tragedies.

Why, O LORD, do you stand far away?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? . . .

Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up your hand;
forget not the afflicted.
Why does the wicked renounce God
and say in his heart, “You will not call to account”?
But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation,
that you may take it into your hands;
to you the helpless commits himself;
you have been the helper of the fatherless.
Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer;
call his wickedness to account till you find none.

The LORD is king forever and ever;
the nations perish from his land.
O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted;
you will strengthen their heart, you will incline your ear
to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,
so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.

The above is taken from the ESV. Or you may wish to pray from the TEV below . . .

Why are you so far away, O LORD?
Why do you hide yourself when we are in trouble? . . .

O LORD, punish those wicked men!
Remember those who are suffering!
How can a wicked man despise God
and say to himself, “He will not punish me”?

But you do see; you take notice
of trouble and suffering
and are always ready to help.
The helpless man commits himself to you;
you have always helped the needy.
Break the power of wicked and evil men;
punish them for the wrong they have done
until they do it no more.

The LORD is king forever and ever.
Those who worship other gods will vanish from his land.
You will listen, O LORD, to the prayers of the lowly;
you will give them courage.
You will hear the cries of the oppressed and the orphans;
you will judge in their favor,
so that mortal man may cause terror no more.

When I pray “Bible prayers”, I often find their words spur additional thoughts. So, rather than sticking strictly to the text (which is fine), I often pray what it has jogged in my mind. You may find it so too. Either way, let’s pray.

God shapes the world by prayer. The more praying there is in the world the better the world will be, the mightier the forces against evil…
~ E.M.Bounds

Praying Puritan Prayers

October 19, 2015 / Allan Babcock

Puritans’ prayers shame me. I wish I could pray like them.

Before quoting one prayer (and assuming many of us know little about them) here’s what J.I. Packer wrote about the Puritans in his book, A Quest for Godliness . . .

“California Redwoods make me think of England’s Puritans . . . . Between 1550 and 1700 they too (like the Redwoods) lived unfrilled lives in which, speaking spiritually, strong growth and resistance to fire and storm were what counted . . . the mature holiness and seasoned fortitude of the great Puritans shine before us as a kind of beacon light, overtopping the stature of the majority of Christians in most eras, and certainly so in this age of crushing urban collectivism, when Western Christians sometimes feel and often look like ants in an anthill and puppets on a string
. . . affluence seems for the past generation to have been making dwarfs and deadheads of us all.”

Many of us presume 16th to 18th century Puritans have little to say to us. Certainly we’ve advanced far beyond those old guys! I heartily recommend Packer’s book as a cure for that presumption and for compelling lessons about the Christian life. Hardcover is available from Amazon for $7.67 (http://www.amazon.com/Quest-Godliness-Puritan-vision-Christian/dp/0891075798/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1445189177&sr=1-1).

The Valley of Vision is a collection of Puritan prayers and devotions (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_11?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=the+valley+of+vision&sprefix=The+Valley+%2Cstripbooks%2C176). In there I found this prayer (I’ve changed Elizabethan English to modern.)

O LORD,
In prayer I launch far out into the eternal world,
and on that broad ocean my soul triumphs
over all evils on the shores of mortality.
Time, with its happy amusements and cruel disappointment,
never appears so inconsiderate as then.
In prayer I see myself as nothing;
I find my heart going after you with intensity,
and long with vehement thirst to live to you.
Blessed be the strong gales of the Spirit
that speed me on my way to the New Jerusalem.
In prayer all things here below vanish,
and nothing seems important
but holiness of heart and the salvation of others.
In prayer all my worldly cares, fears, anxieties, disappear,
and are of as little significance as a puff of wind.
In prayer my soul inwardly exults with lively thoughts
at what you are doing for your church
and I long that you should get yourself a great name
from sinners returning to Zion.
In prayer I am lifted above the frowns and flatteries of life,
and taste heavenly joys;
entering into the eternal world I can give myself to you
with all my heart, to be yours for ever.
In prayer I can place all my concerns in your hands,
to be entirely at your disposal,
having no will nor interest of my own.
In prayer I can intercede for my friends, ministers, sinners,
the church, your kingdom to come,
with greatest freedom, ardent hopes,
as a son to his father,
as a lover to the beloved.
Help me to be all prayer and never cease praying.

Admittedly, this is not a spontaneous prayer. It was almost certainly edited and revised. Even so, do you see why Puritans’ prayers shame me? These words surely don’t describe my prayer life! So much of my praying time is taken up by that one line, “In prayers I can place all my concerns in your hands . . . ” Yes, I can ask about what concerns me. What a gracious blessing; that is! But that first line captures a concept of prayer I rarely experience:

In prayer I launch far out into the eternal world,
and on that broad ocean my soul triumphs
over all evils on the shores of mortality.

“I launch far out into the eternal world”. How often my prayers leave me sitting in my familiar chair at my same old desk! Instead of my soul triumphing “on that broad ocean over all evils on the shores of mortality”, too often I feel squeezed by all the stuff of this mortal life. No fresh breeze of victory. No sense of triumph. My prayers may have reached the eternal world, but I have no sense I have.

That’s why from time to time I return to the prayers of these “dead saints” (John Piper’s term). After being a Christian for more than a half-century, I still find myself saying, “Lord, teach me to pray.”

And this Puritan prayer (like many others) kindles a spark that will one day hopefully soon launch me into the eternal world when I pray.

sunrise over ocean photo: Sunrise StKittsSunrise.jpg

Pastor Prayer

November 4, 2014 / Allan Babcock

Interesting that the apostle Paul asks the churches to pray for him.

“Brothers, pray for us” (1 Thessalonians 5:25)

“To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,
and pray also for me, that words may be given to me
in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel,
for which I am an ambassador in chains,
that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak” (Ephesian 6:18b-20).

“Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.
At the same time, pray also for us,
that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ,
on account of which I am in prison—
that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak” (Colossians 4:2-4).

We might presume someone as powerfully used by the Lord as the apostle Paul wouldn’t need prayer. It’s us little ordinary people who need apostles (and pastors) to pray for us. True. But Paul’s requests remind us that leaders need prayer, too. In fact—not to make too much of leaders—I might say they especially need prayer. Our prayer. Here are four reasons why we should pray for our pastor.

One, he has the fearful responsibility of preaching God’s Word. Preaching the Gospel is a high joy. To stand before a congregation and proclaim the Good News of God’s grace in Christ and realize this is the best news anyone can ever hear satisfies the preacher’s soul. But to remember his message has eternal consequences and that he is speaking for God makes preaching a fearful responsibility for him. It’s one thing for a doctor to prescribe medication for a sore throat, another for a doctor to perform open heart surgery. The preacher is more heart-surgeon than general practitioner. He’s got to get it right! So our pastor, however gifted he may be, needs our prayers for the empowering of the Holy Spirit when he studies God’s Word, when he prepares his sermon, and when he preaches it. How faith-building for the pastor to know that his people have been praying for him and that we’re all together in the spiritual battle of God’s Word accomplishing the purpose for which he sends it out!

Two, the devil prowls like a lion looking to devour the pastor. True, Peter warned the church, “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). But the devil’s no dummy. If he can corrupt the pastor’s faith, he can infect the whole church. “Strike the shepherd,” Jesus said, “and the sheep of the flock will be scattered” (Matthew 26:31). So, it seems to me that Satan has pastors, particularly, in his sights. The pastor needs the power of our prayers to be strong to resist the devil and stand firm in the faith. He needs the might of our prayers to say “no” to ungodliness. He needs the influence of our prayers to turn away from the seduction of this world for the glory of the unseen God and his yet-to-be-seen kingdom. He needs the “push” of our prayers to walk in the way of Christ, so he can call us to follow him as he follows Christ. To live out what he preaches–this may be the pastor’s greatest challenge. For that he needs to be filled with the power of the Spirit that comes through prayer.

Three, the weight of concern he carries daily for the church is heavy. Paul boasted of many things that showed his weakness. One was ” . . . the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches” (2 Corinthians 11:28). A pastor cares for the well-being of his people as individuals. A pastor cares about the spiritual health of the church as a family. A pastor cares about the influence of the church in the community. A pastor cares about the hurts of the members. A pastor cares about the people loving each other as Christ loved us, instead of bickering and fighting. A pastor cares that the church he leads see and enjoy the glory of God. The weight of all this concerncan be heavy. A pastor needs people who will hold him up in prayer, as Aaron and Hur held up Moses’ hands for the battle in the wilderness (Exodus 17:12).

Four, the pastor is just a man like us. Times have changed since the days when a minister was a revered member of the community. Yet, even today, we subconsciously assume that the pastor exists in a higher spiritual realm than the rest of us. Certainly we expect him to know God’s Word better (and to know God better) and to walk in closer fellowship with him than the rest of us “ordinary” people. How can he lead if he isn’t further ahead forging the path of following Jesus? But he is tempted in every way as we are—and he (unlike our great High Priest) isn’t without sin (Hebrews 4:15). Like, he has a family to care for and relationship problems that rise from time to time. He may have health issues and financial struggles. His body and car break down just like ours. God doesn’t shelter him in a spiritual cocoon! As they say, he puts his pants on one leg at a time too. For the ordinary stuff of day-to-day life, our pastor needs our prayers as much as we need his.

Now our church—SonRise Community—is elder-led. That means, while our pastor is “first among equals”, all our elders need our prayers as they lead together. So whether our prayer list is in our head or on paper, let’s be sure to add our pastor and the other elders. As the book of Hebrews says in a slightly different context: that will be an advantage to us all (Hebrews 13:17b).

Sunday Puritan Prayers

November 1, 2014 / Allan Babcock

Most of us pray spontaneously. That is, we pray what comes to mind, almost as if in conversation with our Father. I have found it helpful from time to time to pray written prayers. Probably the best collection of those are in a little book entitled The Valley of Vision.

It contains prayer of the Puritans–a religious movement during the 16th and 17th centuries in England and America. In the preface of The Valley of Vision, Arthur Bennett, Canon of St. Albans Cathedral in England, writes, “The strength of Puritan character and life lay in the practice of prayer and meditation. Many of those who held the doctrines of grace wrote down a record of God’s intimate dealings with their souls, not with an eye to publication, but . . . to test their spiritual growth, and to encourage themselves by their re-perusal in times of low spiritual fervor.”

Since tomorrow is the day we gather for worship, below are two appropriate prayers, one (or both) of which we might use to pray before we leave home. (I’ve changed some of the language from 16th to 21st century English.)

WORSHIP

Glorious God,

It is the flame of my life to worship you,
the crown and glory of my soul to adore you,
heavenly pleasure to approach you.
Give me power by your Spirit to help me worship today,
that I may forget the world,
be brought into fullness of life,
be refreshed, comforted, blessed.
Give me knowledge of your goodness
that I might not be over-awed by your greatness;
Give me Jesus, Son of Man, Son of God,
that I might not be terrified,
but be drawn near with your fatherly love and with holy boldness.
He is my Mediator, Brother, Interpreter, Branch, and Lamb;
him I glorify,
in him I am set on high.
Crowns to give I have none,
but what you have given I return,
content to feel that everything is mine when it is yours,
and the more fully mine when I have yielded it to you.
Let me live wholly to my Savior,
free from distractions and care,
free from hindrances to the pursuit of the narrow way.
I am pardoned through the blood of Jesus—
give me a new sense of it,
continue to pardon me by it,
may I come today to be washed anew,
that I may worship you always in spirit and truth.

FIRST DAY MORNING

O Lord,

We commune with you every day,
but week days are worldly days,
and secular concerns reduce heavenly impressions.
We bless you therefore for the day sacred to our souls
when we can wait upon you and be refreshed.
We thank you for the institutions of the faith
by which we draw near to you and you to us.
We rejoice in another Lord’s Day
when we call off our minds from the cares of the world
and attend upon you without distraction.
Let our retreat to you be devout,
our conversation edifying,
our reading holy,
our hearing profitable,
that our souls may be renewed and lifted up.
We are going to the house of prayer,
pour on us the spirit of grace and supplication.
We are going to the house of praise,
awaken in us every grateful and cheerful emotion.
We are going to the house of instruction,
give testimony to the Word preached,
and glorify it in the hearts of all who hear;
may it enlighten the ignorant,
awaken the careless, reclaim the wandering,
establish the weak, comfort the feeble-minded,
and make ready a people for their Lord.

Be a sanctuary to all who cannot come.
Forget not those who never come.
And do bestow on us
benevolence toward our dependents,
forgiveness toward our enemies,
peaceableness toward our neighbors,
and openness toward our fellow-Christians.

Amen!

Category: Prayer (Page 3 of 3)

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