Well, this week I came across a simple verse in the letter to the Colossians and just had to settle on it for a week. It works because it relates to our current Philippians passage, which we’ll get back to next week.
The sentence, which is an imperative, an apostolic command, is found in Colossians 4:2:
Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.
It’s a good verse for this season of this church – because we are a church in resuscitation, trying to return to health, and we’ll do so by means of God bringing us back to the basics: God’s Word, prayer, sacrifice for the gospel.
It’s also a good verse for this time of year – it speaks of thanksgiving and we’re entering a season of Thanksgiving.
Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.
Three short points today: 1) Pray; 2) Be watchful in prayer; 3) Be watchful by means of thanksgiving
1) Brothers and sisters, pray. Continue steadfastly in prayer. Be always ready to pray – keep yourself in the frame of spirit to pray. Church, let’s often…more and more gather for prayer and seek God’s help and supply together.
Christian, don’t allow time to go by without being in conversation with God.
You can get by with going to the grocery store once a week; you can get a haircut every two months; you can cut up firewood once/year.
But if you spend a day without asking God for help – in ways that are almost impossible to track you’ll start to feel that God isn’t for you, that the fact of the invisible world is only a burden and inconvenience, that the really pressing things are those things right in front of you.
From there your thinking will grow increasingly secular and cool and then anxious…
Continue steadfastly in prayer – that is, your requests to God for help and insight and restored health and good connections with people and breaking off bad habits and more money and a parking place – these requests should become an essential component to how you are regularly managing your life.
We’re not supposed to put on a show or even make it obvious that we are a person of prayer. But put it this way: if someone were to have unfettered access to your whole life – routines, family interactions, planning – one of their takeaways should be that He brings everything to his God.
Of course, there are other activities in your life besides prayer; prayer is one of several actions whereby we conduct most of our endeavors. But prayer is so fundamental, that in some cases asking God becomes the only effective measure. Listen to David in Psalm 62. Listen for the alones and onlys.
For God alone my soul waits in silence;
from him comes my salvation.
He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.
…
For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence,
for my hope is from him.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
On God rests my salvation and my glory;
my mighty rock, my refuge is God.
Trust in him at all times, O people;
pour out your heart before him;
God is a refuge for us.
This time you can’t tell your spouse the problem – indeed, sometimes your spouse is a good part of the problem.
You can’t talk to your friends and get their advice because it would break a confidence.
You can’t give your kids the lecture because another lecture would harden him, or all the lectures before didn’t work anyway, or you realize you really haven’t grasped the core issue.
For God alone…my soul, wait in silence
God, here’s what’s happening. I don’t know what to do.
Lead, Kindly Light, amidst th’encircling gloom,
Lead Thou me on!
The night is dark, and I am far from home,
Lead Thou me on!
You see, prayer is foundational: John Calvin called prayer ‘the chief exercise of faith’. Before him Martin Luther said the same thing but with even more terseness: Prayer is faith.
See if you can follow my line of thinking here: In John 9, in the wake of Jesus giving sight to the blind man, the Pharisees were faultfinding because he had healed on the Sabbath. Jesus then said a couple of cagy things: For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.
In response the Pharisees raised their eyebrows and sneered: What, are we blind too?
Listen and take the next words out of Jesus’ mouth very seriously: Jesus said, If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.
The ancient Spirit of the Creator enters a man and eternally frees him from guilt when he realizes – I can’t see.
Just think of what critical things we can’t see. I can’t fathom what my ancestors did and how the consequences show up in my life. It’s hidden from me what plaque has come into my arteries the last couple of months. It’s not clear how to ensure I won’t get Alzheimer’s. I’m in the dark as to why I do some of the things I do. I can’t see the way to get myself free from this recurring thought. I can’t see how I can get him to change.
And we come to realize: I’m blind: Most of the important stuff is beyond my observation, beyond my understanding, and I need someone outside of myself to shed light.
Do you get it? The true life begins with an admission, not to the universe but to God – I don’t know. I can’t see.
The night is dark and I am far from home.
And the true life continues in that vein – I can’t see. I don’t know. I need light outside of myself to guide me to motivation and consistency and the right choice and provision. And so the true life constantly, devotedly, refers the situation to God. It continues steadfastly in prayer because it has come to realize it must.
All of that is Prayer 101: And a lot of Christians spend their life (and it’s not a bad life) only with what they learned in Prayer 101.
I talk to a lot of people about their prayer life, and it often goes something like this: I don’t have a set time for prayer, but I pray throughout the day, as things come up – God, help me find a parking place. God, I have a presentation now – help me, God.
But God would move us to a bigger playing field. A couple of times – including in our Philippians passage – Paul talks about asking with prayers and supplications. Thus he breaks up our asks to God into at least two categories.
- Supplications are those on the run requests I just referred to.
- Prayers are scheduled, more systematic times of prayer.
And we need to have that category of “prayer,” because much of what there is to bring to God is not right in front of us. And there are people and endeavors to pray for that are not us or our family or our immediate concerns.
Just listen to how Paul continues in the next verse: 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.
Did you hear that? Paul asks the church in Colossians – people whom he has never met face to face; people who hadn’t been believers long enough to be really seasoned Christians – to pray for him. To ask God to create opportunities that just aren’t there now.
Even new believers should practice praying for other Christians and ministries and ministers, for the mission of Christ in other places. Even if you’ve never met these people with names like Nick Topor, Denis Frediani – keep up with them and pray.
So if you’re going to pray these prayers for things that aren’t right in front of you, you will need a plan – a time and a system for who/what you will pray for, including those that aren’t in the forefront of your mind: praying for the church, praying for world concerns, praying for ministers, praying for conversions, praying for urgent needs of other people.
What’s your plan?
And as you pray, including particularly praying for needs that don’t directly concern you –God will be expanding your life and answering prayers.
So that’s by far the biggest point: pray!
Paul gives one direction for Christians as they pray: Be watchful in prayer. Pray, and be alert. Stay awake in your prayers.
The word that Paul uses for being watchful- gregoreo – was adapted by a lot of popes – 16 of them have called themselves “Gregory.” They chose this name because vigilance, alertness, is such a vital Christian habit.
In fact, this was one of two primary exhortations that Jesus gave his people for after he leaves – he tells them to 1) be on the guard against false teachers and 2) to stay alert. Don’t allow, for instance, in-fighting or pleasure-seeking to dull your senses, to make you sleepy before the promises of the returning Christ and coming Kingdom.
Vigilance and prayer go together. That vigilance is an essential element of prayer was highlighted at the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus says to James, Peter, and John – watch… gregoreo – and pray with me.
You could make the argument that when you win the battle of vigilance in prayer, in that victory you’ve also acquired vigilance outside of prayer.
So one problem Paul is addressing with this bit of instruction in our Colossians passage is the problem of sluggishness and sleepiness and listlessness in our prayers.
We can start praying and end up thinking about a football game or a date we’re about to go on.
We finish five minutes of prayer and it’s all been so vague, so riddled with religious jargon – put a hedge of protection and so on – so needlessly repetitive, so thoughtless, so indirect or broad in its requests – we actually don’t know if we’ve asked for anything, we would certainly not be able to say if God answered the requests.
We can actually fall asleep.
And now contrast the above with these specific, “awake” requests:
- God, please give me money to pay for this class.
- God, should I take out this loan?
- God, give me an opportunity to raise a point that has to do with the invisible world, with you
- God, I need a car.
- God, keep them awake as they drive.
- God, open up my understanding just a little bit more from reading the bible this morning
- God, he wants to do what is right from a distance but doesn’t want to do what is right in the moment. I have ran out of words to advise him. Give him understanding in his spirit so that he wants to do the good thing when it’s time to decide.
You can hear the difference, right? A vigilant and watchful prayer knows what is going on, knows what it needs, knows what God is capable of, knows what God is likely to grant, and importantly is confident that it is being listened to attentively. And then it asks – directly, specifically.
[And the alert prayer is also marked by arguments – so conscious of what it wants, so convinced that it is God who can give it, and perceives reasons why God would grant the request – and so it brings arguments to bear.]
Don’t be vague or drowsy or tepid when you speak with God.
Be vigilant in prayer. Stay awake. Know what the need is. Know that God can meet the need. Ask.
But how to be vigilant? And that’s the final point this morning. Pray. Be vigilant in prayer. Be watchful in prayer with thanksgiving.
It could be that Paul is merely saying that our prayer should be accompanied by and thus flavored with thanksgiving. That by itself is a good reminder.
But there is another interpretation here, the en eucharist – with thanksgiving – the with has an instrumental sense: Vigilance by means of thanksgiving.
When we express our gratitude we recognize what God has already done, which then energizes us to ask for more.
God, thank you for providing for Paul to go to college next semester: now don’t let this be a waste. Will you use especially that semester to give him knowledge, to train him in your character, to build his faith?
You see how that works? In gratitude I first observe what God has already provided. Then I’m asking him to build on that, to further his already revealed purpose.
Now, let me lead you in an exercise that is not original with me. Take out a bulletin or some other piece of paper. I’ll ask the ushers to go down the aisle with pencils.
The purpose of this is to draw out our gratitude for what God has already done, perhaps we had missed seeing it. Which then will hopefully spur us afterward to ask and ask a little more brightly for more:
- What creature comforts have you enjoyed today but you didn’t take notice of – sharp razor, great smelling bar of soap, clean tap water, unbroken nights rest?
- What are two relationships with people that you tend to take for granted – Mailman, librarian, friendly neighbors, a helpful colleague
- What are two great spiritual blessings in being part of this body that are easy to overlook. – Good examples, know he prays for me, a place to sing, weekly accountability from just attending,
- Name two perfections of the Lord that ought to give you comfort – Honest, generous, just, patient,
See how much God has already given. Let his provision encourage you to ask for more. As he has brought you into these relationships ask him to make them fruitful in Christ Jesus. As he said he would build his church and he has already outfitted it with good things, ask him in specific ways to continue building. As God is who he is, ask him for justice. For mercy. For more supply. For his insight.
There will always be more that we and others need. Ask. Ask boldly and not listlessly. Ask out of thanksgiving.
——————————
Let’s bring Jesus into this sermon!
We shouldn’t ignore the fact that when the disciples asked Jesus how to pray, he said, when you pray, say, “Our Father…”
In prayer we come to our Father!
When the eternal Son of God came and lived among us as a Son of Man he lived and moved in obvious dependence on the Father, in prayer.
We could elaborate: The Son of God was led by the Spirit of God to pray to God the Father. Just listen to how the Gospel writer Luke puts it: ‘Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, ‘I praise you, Father’ (Lk. 10:21).
The Son of God doesn’t simply have a relationship with the Father or even simply show us His relationship to the Father – He took a path, a way that included His crucifixion, that opened up the way for us to come to be called children of God, and thus go to God and say “Our Father.”
As the eternal Son of God lived in joyful dependence on God, so do those that have been adopted into sonship.
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Application:
- Pray
- Have a plan
- Say “no” to bland and watery prayers
- As part of your plan, be grateful
Conclude with the Lord’s Prayer
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