When David Watson started main a church in York as a younger pastor, the congregation was anticipated to fail inside six months. The routine gathering was small, the debt was immense—after which there was the leaking roof. Watson canceled each program of the church besides two: the Lord’s Day preaching of the Phrase and the prayer assembly.
Not lengthy after that, the church couldn’t maintain all of the individuals who had been coming, and what had been a dying congregation was thriving. The bishop got here to see and mentioned, in impact, “My, my, my! What a marvel David Watson has labored on this place!” And David Watson used to say, “No, no, no: What a marvel Almighty God has labored on this place!”
When church buildings fail, they typically fail on the fundamentals, and significantly these recognized in Acts 6:4: prayer and the ministry of the Phrase. But even church buildings that emphasize preaching could discover themselves weak within the matter of prayer. We will encourage ourselves to shore up this uncared for basis as we keep in mind three necessary ideas.
Prayer Is the Principal Expression of Relationship
First, prayer is our principal expression of our relationship to God by our Lord Jesus Christ . Paul writes to the Romans, “You’ve obtained the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Rom. 8:15). In different phrases, the Spirit who lives in us strikes us to talk to God with the respect and familiarity of a kid to a father. Certainly, Jesus says if even earthly fathers know how you can give their youngsters what they ask for, “how rather more will your Father who’s in heaven give good issues to those that ask him!” (Matt. 7:11).
A relationship with God, as with all individual, will not be one thing to take without any consideration, as if it may be established after which left in suspended animation. A robust marriage begins with the longing of a pair to see one another, to speak to one another, merely to listen to one another’s voices—and if it stays wholesome, it would stick with it with regular, acquainted, and honoring dialog. Prayerless “Christianity,” like a wedding with out dialog, will not be worthy of that identify, as a result of the connection with God that constitutes Christianity is principally expressed in prayer.
Prayer is our principal expression of our relationship to God by our Lord Jesus Christ.
Within the phrases of J. Oswald Sanders, “If prayer is meagre it’s as a result of we contemplate if supplemental, not elementary.” We would say if a church is shaking, it might be as a result of we see prayer because the spire of the church as an alternative of as a foundational ingredient. So long as now we have this unsuitable perspective, we are going to fail to offer prayer the disciplined consideration it’s due, and our church buildings will undergo.
Prayer Is the Principal Space of Assault
Secondly, since prayer is the principal expression of our relationship to God, we should always presume it to be a principal goal for the Evil One’s assaults. Because the Puritan Samuel Chadwick mentioned relating to believers’ engagement in religious warfare, Devil dreads nothing however prayer. The satan doesn’t care about massive church buildings as a lot as he cares about praying church buildings. The satan doesn’t care about distinguished Christians as a lot as he cares about praying Christians. The satan doesn’t care about pastors who merely discuss; he cares about pastors who pray. And so our enemy encourages us, at each alternative, to place off asking our Father, to keep away from dialog which may be troublesome or wearying or difficult, and so to be prayerless.
When Paul serves as quartermaster to the Ephesian church, laying out for them the religious armor they’re to take up of their battle in opposition to the Evil One, he encourages them, lastly, to be “praying always within the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication” (Eph. 6:18). Prayer is each the goal of the satan’s assault and the reply to it. As he tries to push us away from God, we cling to God all of the extra, calling on Him in prayer “always … with all prayer”—from the devoted time on our knees to the easy requests, thanksgivings, and praises we provide by the day as they arrive to thoughts.
Prayer Is a Matter of Precedence
The one approach we’ll ever pray is that if we make a dedication to wish. It’s as easy as that. Nobody ever turned a praying Christian with out a dedication of coronary heart, thoughts, will, physique, power, and spirit to the duty at hand. John Bunyan wrote, “As for my coronary heart, once I go to wish, I discover it so loth to go to God; and when it’s with him, so loth to stick with him.” What honesty!
Paul describes the prayers of Epaphras for the Colossian church not as a breezy afternoon stroll however as “all the time struggling,” or wrestling, “in your behalf in his prayers” (Col. 4:12). To have interaction in an exercise like that can by no means be a matter of comfort; it would all the time be a matter of “time and bother,” as J. B. Phillips places it in his paraphrase of Paul: “Take time and bother to maintain your self spiritually match” (1 Tim. 4:7).
That’s why the New Testomony admonition will not be “Calm down! Be informal.” No, it’s “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the satan prowls round like a roaring lion, looking for somebody to devour. Resist him, agency in your religion” (1 Peter 5:8–9). And we must try to prioritize prayer by reminding ourselves that the explanation we discover it so troublesome to do is as a result of it’s such an space for the Evil One’s assault.
An Encouraging Reminder
Prayer is tough—however after we discover it onerous to wish, we should always all the time do not forget that “the Spirit helps us in our weak spot. For we have no idea what to wish for as we ought, however the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for phrases” (Rom. 8:26).
In different phrases, although we should always by no means depart prayer apart, we want by no means come to it believing, “All of it relies on me. I’d higher get this proper.” No, we can not come to God as consultants. We should come as youngsters. And we belief that now we have an excellent Father who is aware of what we want even earlier than we ask (Matt. 6:8).
This text was tailored from the sermon “The Precedence of Prayer” by Alistair Begg.
