How to Pray for Other Believers — Part 5

Prayer — Such a mysterious habit for the believer in Jesus. Maybe you don’t struggle with the discipline of prayer, but I do. I often treat prayer as a last resort, when I’ve run out of humanly-produced options, when I’m helpless and can’t solve my own problems. It’s like I have God on speed dial and His only number is 9-1-1. What a poor view of prayer!

And how often — when I do pray — are my prayers for me and mine? What about others? I’m slowly learning that God expects and invites me to intercede for others, to put their needs ahead of my own, to bring them before the throne of God and to earnestly pray for them.

I’ve recently been challenged by Colossians 1 and Paul’s prayer for those believers. Here’s what we read:

How to Pray for Other Believers (Col. 1:9-14)

We’ve noticed two parts of my outline of this challenging text:

I. The Commitment to Pray for Others (v. 9)

We’ve seen that Paul’s praying for these Colossians is not described as something he started to do, but as something he would not stop doing. And we asked, for whom are you continually praying?

We’ve also seen —

II. The Primary Purpose in Praying for Others (vv. 9-10)

Paul writes: “We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives . . .”

Our prayers are to be for the critical issue of others knowing God’s will and growing in the wisdom and understanding the Spirit gives.

Let’s continue our study and notice —

III. The Specifics of What We Should Pray for Others (vv. 10-14).

How easy it is for us to pray for each other’s health, job, family, choice of college, etc. So what makes Paul’s list as he intercedes for these believers? He prays —

A. That They Would Live a Life Worthy of the Lord (v. 10)

B. To please Him in every way (v. 10).

Let’s notice a third request Paul makes for these believers —

C. Bearing fruit in every good work (v. 10).

We are to be fruit-bearers! We are not simply decorative trees that take up space! We are to bear fruit. We are not to live for ourselves but are to look for opportunities to be fruitful in the works that we do. Our faith is not solely verbal. We are commissioned to do good works (Eph. 2:8-10).

What good work can you choose to do today that will bear fruit?

 

How to Pray for Other Believers — Part 4

Prayer — Such a mysterious habit for the believer in Jesus. Maybe you don’t struggle with the discipline of prayer, but I do. I often treat prayer as a last resort, when I’ve run out of humanly-produced options, when I’m helpless and can’t solve my own problems. It’s like I have God on speed dial and His only number is 9-1-1. What a poor view of prayer!

And how often — when I do pray — are my prayers for me and mine? What about others? I’m slowly learning that God expects and invites me to intercede for others, to put their needs ahead of my own, to bring them before the throne of God and to earnestly pray for them.

I’ve recently been challenged by Colossians 1 and Paul’s prayer for those believers. Here’s what we read:

How to Pray for Other Believers (Col. 1:9-14)

We’ve noticed two parts of my outline of this challenging text:

I. The Commitment to Pray for Others (v. 9)

We’ve seen that Paul’s praying for these Colossians is not described as something he started to do, but as something he would not stop doing. And we asked, for whom are you continually praying?

We’ve also seen —

II. The Primary Purpose in Praying for Others (vv. 9-10)

Paul writes: “We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives . . .”

Our prayers are to be for the critical issue of others knowing God’s will and growing in the wisdom and understanding the Spirit gives.

Let’s continue our study and notice —

III. The Specifics of What We Should Pray for Others (vv. 10-14).

How easy it is for us to pray for each other’s health, job, family, choice of college, etc. So what makes Paul’s list as he intercedes for these believers? He prays —

A. That They Would Live a Life Worthy of the Lord (v. 10)

Let’s notice the second specific of Paul’s prayer. It is that —

B. To please Him in every way (v. 10).

Wow! What a request! The Christian life is far more than doing the right things or thinking the right thoughts. It is asking, everyday, “Am I pleasing the Lord?”

As grandparents of seven, we try to encourage our grandchildren to be “please and thank you” people. But Paul’s request goes way beyond being polite and grateful. This one question — “Am I pleasing the Lord?” — is huge and is guaranteed to recalibrate our choices and priorities every moment we ask it!

For whom should you pray today that they will seek to please the Lord in every way?

 

STUCK! Ten Areas That Will Bury You as a Believer and How to Dig Your Way Out! (Area #7- SUCCESS) (con’t)

Jesus-followers sometimes get stuck in the area of SUCCESS.  They either think God has guaranteed them success in material prosperity or health — or — they think they are to go through life as paupers, like the little boy in Charles Dicken’s tale (“More porridge, Sir?”).

These messages for Crossroads Fellowship Church in Augusta, GA (website: crossroadschurchinaugusta.com) will conclude with this one on the topic of SUCCESS.  I pray for the SUCCESS of that small church as their new pastor comes and begins his ministry in October.

We looked at 2 Corinthians 5 briefly in our last post.

⁶ Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. ⁷ For we live by faith, not by sight. ⁸ We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. ⁹ So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. ¹⁰ For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. (2 Cor. 5)

All believers await the judgment seat of Christ — and we will be held accountable for how we have served Him.  What factors maximize the possibility that He will say to us on that day, “Well done, good and faithful servant”?  From this passage I would suggest three:

1. We seek to walk by faith and not by sight (v. 7).  Demanding daily miracles from the Lord does not strike me as walking by faith.  He can do a miracle whenever He wishes, but our task is to live out our Christian lives by faith.

2.  We make it our goal to please Him (v. 9).  What’s involved in “pleasing” someone?  We find out what their desires, needs, wishes, dreams are — and we invest ourselves in meeting those!  What pleases the Lord? (Might I suggest you do a concordance study of the word “please” or “pleasing” the Lord?  You’ll find some very helpful truth in the Word!).

3.  We recognize that we will be held accountable for the things done in the body, whether good or bad (v. 10).  Although we are saved by grace, we are responsible for the works we do or don’t do once we are saved.  (The topic of rewards for the believer is a large, but important, one, and deserves to be studied.)  It is not wrong to live for the Lord’s approval and for the achievement of rewards for faithfulness.  My desire is for a whole lot of crowns on that day — so that I can lay them at His feet!  You?

 

STUCK! Ten Areas That Will Bury You as a Believer and How to Dig Your Way Out! (Area #7- SUCCESS!)

“I’ve had great success being a total idiot,” Jerry Lewis once said.  This ground-breaking comedian and philanthropist died this week at the age of 91.  Sometimes SUCCESS becomes a kind of quicksand for the Christian.

I will deliver a message on SUCCESS to the saints at Crossroads Fellowship Church in Augusta, GA (website: crossroadschurchinaugusta.com) on September 24, my last Sunday with those friends.

Jesus-followers gravitate from a kind of prosperity theology that says God always wants us wealthy, healthy, and successful to a kind of poverty theology that says we are to suffer for Jesus, live austere lives, and eat only locusts and wild honey.   Both theologies are wrong.  Should the follower of Jesus seek SUCCESS — and what kind of SUCCESS ought he or she to pursue?

Of the 51 uses of the word “success” in the Bible, all of them are in the Old Testament!  There is not one occurrence of that word in the New Testament.  The idea of being successful is there in the New Testament (in verses such as Phil. 4:13, Mt. 16:26-27, Lk. 16:10-11, Rom. 12:2), but the emphasis seems to be more on faithfulness and rewards for living life for Jesus.  In the Old Testament, many of the uses of “success” have to do with military victories (such as I Sam. 18:5, 14; I Chron. 12:18; 2 Chron. 26:5).

Here is the main text we want to look at:

⁶ Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. ⁷ For we live by faith, not by sight. ⁸ We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. ⁹ So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. ¹⁰ For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. (2 Cor. 5)

How does this text relate to SUCCESS?, you might ask.  SUCCESS in life will be judged by the Lord Jesus at “the judgment seat of Christ.”  The Apostle Paul makes it quite clear that there are only two states of existence for the believer:  either “at home in the body [and] away from the Lord” or “away from the body and at home with the Lord.”  We are presently “away from the Lord,” seeking to please Him with our lives, striving to live by faith and not by sight.  SUCCESS is striving to please Him whether at home in the body or away from it!  How are you trying to please the Lord today?  (to be continued)