The Person, Promise, & Perseverance in Prayer
2 Peter 1:3, 4,
When we think of prayer we should always come back to the question, “What makes prayer, prayer?” “What makes Christian prayer different from every other kind of prayer?”
There are three things, that came to my mind today, in terms of why Christians pray differently and what makes our prayer so different. There are three P words: person, promises and perseverance.
“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us His precious and very great (some translations read exceedingly great) promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.”
When we think of prayer we should always come back to the question, “What makes prayer, prayer?” “What makes Christian prayer different from every other kind of prayer?”
There are three things, that came to my mind today, in terms of why Christians pray differently and what makes our prayer so different. There are three P words: person, promises and perseverance.
Person
The most important word about prayer is the person that we are praying to. Not just the person who is praying, that is us, but the person we are praying to. If we are going to have an attitude of reverence and humility, if we are going to hallow His name, we are going to have to understand who He is. A.W. Tozer had a great emphasis upon worship. Here is what he said,
"Where worship rises or falls in any church, it depends upon the attitude we take toward God. Whether we see God as big or whether we see God as small."
I remember Dr. J. I. Packard in that classic book, Knowing God, said,
"We are the generation of the God shrinkers."
He said that about 50 or 60 years ago, but we are certainly not the generation of the God magnifiers. That is what we should be, God magnifiers. And to help magnify God in our thinking and our praying here are three more words that are helpful; His sovereignty, how big is God; His majesty; the doctrine of the Trinity. Those are three great doctrines to remind us just how big God is.
Sovereignty means He has absolute, ultimate, unrivaled, universal control or reign over all things. That means there is nothing that happens in your life, in my life, that is not under His sovereign control. Romans 8:28, a very favorite text, “And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good.” Ephesians 1, “He put all things under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church.” So yes, from the littlest of things, to the biggest of things, the greatest of sorrows, the greatest of trials, the greatest of joys and gifts. All of those things come under the sovereign purpose, will and control of God. When we come to God need to remind ourselves of how big He is, that word sovereignty helps us.
Majesty. Psalm 93, “The Lord reigns, He is robed in majesty.” That word majesty comes from the Latin that means greatness. “Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised.” Majesty has to do with His unrivaled authority. It also has to do with His glorious attributes or excellencies.
Trinity. In a Biblical context we worship a three person God; Father, Son and Holy Ghost. So here is the God we come to, a God who is sovereign, a God who is majestic and a God who is triune. There is no one greater than Him, no one to whom we can compare.
Sovereignty means He has absolute, ultimate, unrivaled, universal control or reign over all things. That means there is nothing that happens in your life, in my life, that is not under His sovereign control. Romans 8:28, a very favorite text, “And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good.” Ephesians 1, “He put all things under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church.” So yes, from the littlest of things, to the biggest of things, the greatest of sorrows, the greatest of trials, the greatest of joys and gifts. All of those things come under the sovereign purpose, will and control of God. When we come to God need to remind ourselves of how big He is, that word sovereignty helps us.
Majesty. Psalm 93, “The Lord reigns, He is robed in majesty.” That word majesty comes from the Latin that means greatness. “Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised.” Majesty has to do with His unrivaled authority. It also has to do with His glorious attributes or excellencies.
Trinity. In a Biblical context we worship a three person God; Father, Son and Holy Ghost. So here is the God we come to, a God who is sovereign, a God who is majestic and a God who is triune. There is no one greater than Him, no one to whom we can compare.
Promise
In 2 Peter 3, he describes the promises, divine promises here as exceedingly great or precious. The same word precious is used in the book of Hebrews when he talks about marriage as honorable. That word is precious. The marriage is honorable, precious. And these promises are precious, but he also describes them as exceedingly great. How are they great? They apply to everything in your life, any situation you face. Promises when you are awake, when you are afraid, promises when you are suffering from high levels of anxiety, promises when you sin, promises of sanctification, of growth in holiness, promises to strengthen you, promises of the resurrection, promises of Christ coming back again, promises of a new heaven and a new earth. So when we come to prayer we make good use of the promises of God, at least we should.
Perseverance
Jesus makes that point in Matthew 7 when He gives us those imperatives to keep on knocking, to keep on asking and seeking. Then He taught a whole parable in Luke 18 on the persevering widow. She is set before us as a woman who persevered and we are to persevere as well. The Apostle Paul brings that matter of perseverance up in at least four of his epistles.
And what does that mean practically? You are praying all the time. You keep on praying in the midst of trials. When you are in trials it is easy to become disaffected, you have to pray to God to help you, to stay the course, to suffer well. You can be praying in the midst of trials and you could also be praying in everyday life in terms of your graces. You want them to grow, you don’t want them to shrivel. You can be praying in light of your marriages. You can keep on praying if you have had a struggle in your marriage, you can keep on praying that God would make it stronger, that God would make it a Christian marriage, a gospel marriage. You can keep on praying for your neighbors and for your friends. Maybe just in terms of loving your neighbors, loving your wife, loving your husband, loving your children. We can keep on praying for the unconverted. We can keep on praying for those who are dead in trespasses and sins.
So let’s approach God’s throne of grace with these three P words in mind to help us think: what are we doing? why are we coming? The person, the promise and the perseverance.
Colossians 4, “Continue steadfastly in prayer.”
1 Thessalonians 5, “Praying without ceasing.”
Romans 12, “Be constant in prayer.”
Ephesians 6, “Praying at all times.”
And what does that mean practically? You are praying all the time. You keep on praying in the midst of trials. When you are in trials it is easy to become disaffected, you have to pray to God to help you, to stay the course, to suffer well. You can be praying in the midst of trials and you could also be praying in everyday life in terms of your graces. You want them to grow, you don’t want them to shrivel. You can be praying in light of your marriages. You can keep on praying if you have had a struggle in your marriage, you can keep on praying that God would make it stronger, that God would make it a Christian marriage, a gospel marriage. You can keep on praying for your neighbors and for your friends. Maybe just in terms of loving your neighbors, loving your wife, loving your husband, loving your children. We can keep on praying for the unconverted. We can keep on praying for those who are dead in trespasses and sins.
So let’s approach God’s throne of grace with these three P words in mind to help us think: what are we doing? why are we coming? The person, the promise and the perseverance.
Posted in Pastor Devotional