(This article appeared in our Nov. 2011 church newsletter.)
“Christian, Don’t Settle”
by Pastor Stan Gale
May 25, 2012. I just found out that is the release date for my booklet, What is Prayer?, as part of P&R’s “Basics of the Faith” (BOF) series.
You’ve seen some of the BOF booklets in our narthex. They cover topics like justification by faith, hell, spiritual gifts and infant baptism. These booklets are intended to provide a clear, concise treatment from a Reformed perspective on a variety of topics. Most are only 32 pages.
I have long been prodding the editors at P&R to produce a booklet on the topic of prayer. It didn’t have to come from me. I just thought it should be represented among the offerings. Why?—because I believe that Reformed theology has much to contribute to an understanding and practice of prayer.
I’ve discovered that prayer can be an enigma among Reformed-minded people. They find it hard to see how prayer can play any sort of significant role when God has already planned all that comes to pass. Wouldn’t what happened have happened anyway since God had it on the books? (I might mention we have the same sort of thoughts when it comes to evangelism. After all, Jesus said He would not lose any the Father had given Him, right?)
Actually, God does speak to address this and all sorts of other questions we might have about prayer. In the booklet, I try to explore His answers. I look at things like: what prayer is, the relationship of prayer and faith, praying in the Spirit, how our time-based prayer fits into God’s eternal plan, where the power of prayer resides and other aspects that, I hope, bring a biblically-grounded perspective to bear.
I also develop the topic of corporate prayer and God’s design for that. Especially in view here is what it means for the church to be a “house of prayer” for the nations, something dear to our Lord’s heart.
I close with a section on the practice of prayer, laying out ways and means given us by God to enliven and engage us, His people, in prayer.
I am sure there are others far better qualified to write on the subject of prayer than I. But I stepped up because I didn’t see anyone else and I thought the subject needed to be included. I am of the opinion that a Reformed understanding of prayer makes prayer more substantive and more urgent than what is typically a broadly evangelical approach. I thank God for the opportunity and pray that the booklet will be of use to His church.
But here is the reason I am telling you all this. You know how when you prepare to teach something, you learn more than those you are teaching? I did learn more about prayer as I was forced to deal with a variety of issues. But what humbled me was the acute awareness of my own inadequacy in prayer.
The Spirit of God opened my eyes to what He accomplishes through my prayers and the prayers of His people. He showed me His wisdom in gathering with fellow believers for the work of prayer. He impressed upon me what could be, and how immature and ineffective individual believers and the church are without prayer.
Evidently, we are content to live spiritually impoverished lives, either oblivious or indifferent to what God has for us. That ill-placed contentment is directly correlated to the vitality of our prayer lives, personally and corporately.
So I guess I’m sharing this because God has deeply convicted me of settling for less than what He wants of me, as a person and a pastor. But it’s not just about me. It’s about each of us who bears the name of Jesus. It’s about never settling because we want to know Him more. It’s about never settling for the church just to make the budget or have programs for kids, when the power of the risen Christ is at work in and through the church for the sake of His kingdom.
May the Spirit of the risen Christ work in us a deep unsettledness that drives us to prayer.
Hebrews 1:1-4
Note: At the local church I pastor, I preached through the book of Hebrews in 2011, with an eye to "fixing our eyes on Jesus." In this blog, I am reproducing the emails I sent to my congregation by way of Monday morning follow up. Some will recap the message; some augment; and some bring greater application. The sermon audios themselves can be found at www.rpcwc.org. My goal in posting them here is keep before us the Jesus we need to see as the ground and focus of our faith, and the Jesus we want others to see for the sure hope of salvation.
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“This has been the most horrendous year of my life! I am sure hoping next year will start out fresh and new and that I will be able to cope with my life better.”
That's a comment I read on Facebook that reflects the sentiment of many of us. We yearn for better days, less drama in our lives, a little more sunshine to warm and cheer us--please! But can we really expect 2011 to be any different from 2010? The hassles and hardships will just take different forms and be called by different names. Some days we'll be able to cope better than others.
On Sunday, we started a study of the NT book of Hebrews. Hebrews is a curiosity. On the one hand, it looks like a theological treatise. With the opening words, we jump into the deep end of biblical theology and redemptive history. Yet, on the other hand, Hebrews ends like an epistle, a pastoral letter tenderly speaking to the need of the moment for the original audience. It's like it can't make up its mind what it wants to be.
If you have a ruptured pipe that is spewing water all over your house, what do you want, words of comfort or concrete action? Actually, the concrete action would be comfort in itself, wouldn't it?
That's pretty much the approach the writer of Hebrews (we don't know the human author) takes. The original audience was Jews who had converted to Christianity, convinced that Jesus was the Messiah, but were having second thoughts because of the persecution they were experiencing.
The writer says in no uncertain terms how foolish and dangerous that would be to go back. How could they let go of the Reality to return to the shadow? So he takes them through a crash course on covenant theology. In so doing, he points them to Jesus.
The title for our sermon series is "HEBREWS: Fixing Our Eyes On Jesus." That subtitle presents us with our goal for the new year. Just as the original audience was dealing with fears and doubts and discouragements and struggles with sin and confusion, so do we. The answer to help them to persevere and to know joy and peace amidst the heartaches and hardships of life is the same answer for us. We need to see Jesus more clearly, more constantly, more gloriously, more personally.
That's just what the Spirit of God is going to help us do through the book of Hebrews. I would encourage you to commit to memory our theme verse behind the series' subtitle, Hebrews 12:1-3. And think about it. Like Mary, ponder these things in your heart. Meditate upon them on your bed as worry keeps you awake at night. Fortify yourself with them as doubts creep in. As sin's guilt and power presses in upon you, run the race of life in 2011 not with your head down, but with your eyes lifted to Jesus - intently, expectantly, joyfully.
-----------------------------
“This has been the most horrendous year of my life! I am sure hoping next year will start out fresh and new and that I will be able to cope with my life better.”
That's a comment I read on Facebook that reflects the sentiment of many of us. We yearn for better days, less drama in our lives, a little more sunshine to warm and cheer us--please! But can we really expect 2011 to be any different from 2010? The hassles and hardships will just take different forms and be called by different names. Some days we'll be able to cope better than others.
On Sunday, we started a study of the NT book of Hebrews. Hebrews is a curiosity. On the one hand, it looks like a theological treatise. With the opening words, we jump into the deep end of biblical theology and redemptive history. Yet, on the other hand, Hebrews ends like an epistle, a pastoral letter tenderly speaking to the need of the moment for the original audience. It's like it can't make up its mind what it wants to be.
If you have a ruptured pipe that is spewing water all over your house, what do you want, words of comfort or concrete action? Actually, the concrete action would be comfort in itself, wouldn't it?
That's pretty much the approach the writer of Hebrews (we don't know the human author) takes. The original audience was Jews who had converted to Christianity, convinced that Jesus was the Messiah, but were having second thoughts because of the persecution they were experiencing.
The writer says in no uncertain terms how foolish and dangerous that would be to go back. How could they let go of the Reality to return to the shadow? So he takes them through a crash course on covenant theology. In so doing, he points them to Jesus.
The title for our sermon series is "HEBREWS: Fixing Our Eyes On Jesus." That subtitle presents us with our goal for the new year. Just as the original audience was dealing with fears and doubts and discouragements and struggles with sin and confusion, so do we. The answer to help them to persevere and to know joy and peace amidst the heartaches and hardships of life is the same answer for us. We need to see Jesus more clearly, more constantly, more gloriously, more personally.
That's just what the Spirit of God is going to help us do through the book of Hebrews. I would encourage you to commit to memory our theme verse behind the series' subtitle, Hebrews 12:1-3. And think about it. Like Mary, ponder these things in your heart. Meditate upon them on your bed as worry keeps you awake at night. Fortify yourself with them as doubts creep in. As sin's guilt and power presses in upon you, run the race of life in 2011 not with your head down, but with your eyes lifted to Jesus - intently, expectantly, joyfully.
Fast Food
Note: Below is an email to my congregation as a follow up to a called day of fasting and prayer. In the call, I instructed them in the purpose and practice of fasting and gave them direction for prayer. I trust it will be an encouragement to you.
Thanks to all who participated in our Day of Fasting and Prayer yesterday. For those of you who fasted, isn't it remarkable how fasting keeps you in mission, reminding you, stimulating you, inclining you to God?
I hope many of you found it a blessing to choose prayer over TV or internet. It would be wonderful if we did this more often. Instead of turning on the TV, saying, "I have a better idea."
Prayer is not easy. It requires intention and discipline. I'm always struck by the urgency given prayer by the Apostle Paul. He also recognizes that prayer is work, the work of faith for the cause of Christ. At the close of Romans he says, “I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf.” The word “strive” carries the tone of strong, vigorous, fervent effort. In Colossians, Paul notes that Epaphras is “always struggling on your behalf in his prayer, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.”
Prayer is essential to our growth in Christ and effectiveness for His kingdom--your prayer. I am confident that our God will do mighty things in and through RPC because you gave yourself to the labor of prayer. Thank you again.
Blessings,
Pastor Gale
Thanks to all who participated in our Day of Fasting and Prayer yesterday. For those of you who fasted, isn't it remarkable how fasting keeps you in mission, reminding you, stimulating you, inclining you to God?
I hope many of you found it a blessing to choose prayer over TV or internet. It would be wonderful if we did this more often. Instead of turning on the TV, saying, "I have a better idea."
Prayer is not easy. It requires intention and discipline. I'm always struck by the urgency given prayer by the Apostle Paul. He also recognizes that prayer is work, the work of faith for the cause of Christ. At the close of Romans he says, “I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf.” The word “strive” carries the tone of strong, vigorous, fervent effort. In Colossians, Paul notes that Epaphras is “always struggling on your behalf in his prayer, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.”
Prayer is essential to our growth in Christ and effectiveness for His kingdom--your prayer. I am confident that our God will do mighty things in and through RPC because you gave yourself to the labor of prayer. Thank you again.
Blessings,
Pastor Gale
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