HOW TO PRAY FOR YOUR CHURCH

It has been one of our family traditions which our children were introduced to from the moment they could talk, that whenever we were driving to church on a Sunday, each family member would pray. Our children learned to pray for our church by listening to Kim and I pray. Although, it became apparent to us that when they were young they didn’t quite grasp some of the nuances of what was being prayed. Hearing us pray for our church to grow, when it was the turn of one of our children to pray, they began to ask God with great gusto for grass at our church to grow! Over time, they each of them began to learn how to pray for our church – especially the Sunday service that we were driving to. I not only want each of my children to continue to develop in how they pray, I would also like each person in our church to learn how to pray more effectively for our church. Here’s how.

¶ Brothers, pray for us.
First Thessalonians 5:25

PRAY THE ‘WHY’ FOR YOUR CHURCH

Every church has a ‘why’. To paraphrase Rick Warren, every church should be driven by their ‘why’. Every church that has clear sense of their ‘why’ is going to have people praying more effectively for their church. Our ‘why’ is not unique to us. Many (if not most) churches would say they have the same ‘why’ as us – after all, we’re all reading the same Bible. Our ‘why’ is based on the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20) and the Greatest Commandments (Matt. 22:37-40). These ‘why’ informants guide us to be a community which: (i) fosters worship of God; (ii) encourages caring fellowship with other believers; (iii) delivers God’s Word to empower Christlikeness; and, (iv) cooperates to reach out to those who are without Christ (we sum these up as: enthrone / encourage / empower / engage).

But, any church will conduct their ‘why’ with the fragrance of the gifts that God has placed within it. If the pastor has the gift of evangelist, the church will probably emphasize reaching out, and most of the church will probably focus their prayers toward seeing the lost saved. However, such a church is in danger of a ‘why’ imbalance by possibly neglecting the other essential ‘whys’. This is why such a church needs, what every church needs – people who know how to pray appropriately for it.

To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power,
Second Thessalonians 1:11

WHY PRAY FOR YOUR CHURCH

Yesterday morning, in my daily Bible reading, I read in the Gospel of Mark where Jesus told His disciples that certain miracles can only happen with (much) prayer.

And He said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”
Mark 9:29

A few hundred years after Jesus said these words, a monk was copying this sacred text as part of his life’s work and could hardly believe that prayer alone could be the cause of such a miracle. In the margin he added the words “and fasting” (something monks had to do a lot of). Later monks copied this baffled monk’s addition words into the text proper, and eventually the King James Version translators incorporated into their translation. But as any good recent English translation will point out in its footnotes, every older copy of the Gospel of Mark does not have these two extra words in their text. This makes Christ’s words about prayer worth taking note of more carefully. Added to this, the next time you are reading through the Gospel of Luke, note how often he describes Jesus spending nights in prayer. Then consider why He did. 

After you’ve done a bit of pondering on this, consider that the Apostle Paul prayed more for the churches that he planted than he did preaching or writing to them. And to help you consider this, let’s conclude by noting how he prayed for these churches and why it should influence how we pray for our church.

¶ Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things.
Hebrews 13:18

WHAT TO PRAY FOR YOUR CHURCH

¶ And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Colossians 1:9-14

1. Don’t cease praying for your church, especially its leaders

2. Ask God to fill everyone in our church with the knowledge of God’s will, especially our church’s leaders

3. Ask God to give your brothers and sisters spiritual wisdom and understanding into God’s Word, especially our church’s leaders 

4. Ask God to enable those in our church to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, especially our church’s leaders

5. Pray that your church family will be fully pleasing to God, especially our church’s leaders 

6. Pray that everyone in our church will bear fruit in every good work, especially our church’s leaders 

7. Pray that your brothers and sisters will grow in their knowledge of Christ, especially your church’s leaders 

8. Ask God to strengthen everyone in our church with the Holy Spirit’s power, especially our church’s leaders

9. Pray that God will enable our church family to endure life’s difficulties with patience and joy, especially our church’s leaders 

10. Ask God to deliver those who attend our church, but are yet to surrender to Christ, from the domain of darkness into His glorious kingdom of His Son, that they might know redemption and forgiveness from God.       

That’s how you pray for our church. Let’s pray.

Your pastor,

Andrew.

How To Strengthen Others

INCREASE YOUR STRENGTH

¶ We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.
Romans 15:1-2

Ever been weary? I have. Weariness comes in different varieties. There’s physical weariness. There’s emotional weariness. There’s intellectual weariness. And there’s spiritual weariness. I’m pretty sure from personal experience that all four are interconnected. Two football teams can play off in the Grand Final and exert exactly the same amount of physical energy. At the end of the game one of these teams will feel energised while the other team will feel exhausted! Emotional weariness has a bearing on our level of physical strength. Would you like to know how to increase your four-fold strengths quickly and easily?

Awesome is God from his sanctuary; the God of Israel—He is the one who gives power and strength to his people. Blessed be God!
Psalm 68:35

After you’ve been married a while you experience times when you’re down and your spouse is up. Or, put another way: there are times when you’re weak, and your spouse is strong. In a marriage, these roles change back and forth. Strength is imparted between a husband and a wife with words, forgiveness, and a touch. Sometimes these strengthening touches look like your husband or wife taking you by the hand and saying, “Come on. Let’s go for a walk.” But the strengthening power of a word, forgiveness (and acceptance), and a touch don’t just work with husbands and wives to strengthen each other. It can also bring strength between family members, friends, work colleagues, team mates, and church members.

¶ Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
First Corinthians 16:13

SOURCES OF STRENGTH

You could exercise. I probably should exercise more. What do they say? “No pain, no pain!” Or something like that? There is of course a proportional amount of gain to achieved from the pain that comes from the self-discipline of taking the time and effort to exercise. Whenever I see someone who is obviously well toned and quite fit, I have to conclude that they are a highly self-disciplined person. But physical exercise is not the only source of strength.

¶ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.
Ephesians 6:10

I watched a documentary on the world’s fittest man, Rich Froning, and was amazed that during a five day fittest tournament he ate pizza and drank soda! Although Rich looks like a body builder, his muscles aren’t for show – they’re for work! Each day during his physical tests of strength and endurance, he would burn the equivalent energy of several large pizzas! As I write this, Kim has just handed me a large chocolate cookie with white choc chips. According to the ABC3 For Kids Operation Ouch Doctors the other night, it takes the equivalent amount of exertion involved in running a marathon to burn off the amount of ‘energy’ found in this delicious cookie which I just devoured. That reminds me, food(if we can stoop to call anything chocolate to be “food”) is also a source of strength. 

Each of the four categories of strength has its equivalent forms of exercise and food. It’s an intellectual exercise to learn a foreign language. It’s intellectual food to be taught by someone else has to speak and read that same foreign language. it’s emotional exercise to keep loving  someone who is being unkind to you, while it is emotionally nourishing to be shown love by someone.  

A STRENGTH THAT COMES FROM GOD

¶ I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service,
First Timothy 1:12

The Scriptures describe and discuss a mysterious strength that comes from God. This insight helps us to see that strength might be prioritised in its interconnected order as-

1. Spiritual > 2. Intellectual > 3. Emotional > 4. Physical

Many people feel tired and run down and immediately assume that the cause is entirely physical. They may go to the gym or their GP for remedies. But sometimes all the gym or a doctor can do is treat the symptoms. The underlying cause goes untreated. Oddly, this became evident to Rich Froning, the world’s fittest man! He bombed out terribly in a fittest tournament that he was expected to win easily and this made him realise a truth he had been avoiding. Rich had worked hard to be able to tick boxes 4, 3, and 2, but realised that his spiritual life was lifeless and that it was having a dramatic effect on his intellectual, emotional, and physical well-being. He sought God and soon found the missing strength he longed for. He wanted to declare to the world his new-found faith in Christ and his commitment to Him. You’ll notice how he did this down his right side –

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:  whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To Him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
First Peter 4:10-11

If you need strength – and need it quickly – then the above two verses are gold! God gives strength to His people through His people!!!! If you think of God’s strength as being like magnetism. The more a paper-clip of screw-driver hangs out with a magnet, the more likely it is to become magnetised! The more you hang out with strong believers the more their strength is imparted to you! God’s design for His people to fellowship with each other is not just about accountability, it’s about imparting strength to the weary. I think our Enemy knows this. This is why he seeks to isolate believers because by doing this he can cut them off from their means of receiving God’s strength. 

If you’re feeling a bit weary and the Enemy whispers slyly into your soul’s ears that it’s time to have a break from Christian community – HE’S LYING TO YOU! 

Strength from God comes from asking Him for it and most commonly it comes from the strength He places within your Christian brothers and sisters who love you. You should spiritually exercise. You should spiritually eat. But in the meantime, you can spiritually be refreshed by following God’s ordained means for imparting his Grace-Strength to you through the fellowship of believers – especially strong ones. These believers can be identified in a few not so obvious ways. They don’t always look very religious. But they love God. Their love God is like the love that two people in love have. Just as people in love want to spend time with each other, the fully devoted follower of Christ wants to spend time with God. They don’t pray because they should or have to, they pray because it means they can talk with the One they love. They don’t just occasionally read the Bible. They prioritise time in God’s Word each day because it means they can read God’s love letters to them and learn His language. When they are around people they take an interest in them. Almost involuntarily, they find themselves praying for these people. No matter difficulties they are dealing with, they always seem to make you feel like your problems are their greatest concern. When you hang out with people like this, you can’t help but feel stronger yourself! 

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Hebrews 10:24-25

Be strong!

Amen.

Ps. Andrew Corbett