Ephesians 6:10--20.
Reading from Peterson's The Message.
"And that about wraps it up. God is strong, and he wants you strong. So take everything the Master has set out for you, well made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way.
This is no afternoon athletic contest that we'll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life or death fight to the finish against the Devil and his angels.
Be prepared. You're up against far more than you can handle on our own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it's all over but the shouting you'll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You'll need them throughout your life. God's Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other's spirits up so that no one fall behind or drops out.
And don't forget to pray for me. Pray that I'll know what to say and have the courage to say it at the right time, telling the mystery to one and all, the Message that I, jailbird preacher that I am, am responsible for getting out."
For the past while, my thoughts have been about prayer.
Prayer has become a "commonality" among many. We use the phrase "my thoughts and prayers are with you", as if there is some sort of calming attribute to the situation at hand.
I often wondered, do we really understand the design of prayer let alone the power of prayer that we often hear about?
We have the example of how to pray, in the Lord's prayer. As i reasearched and prepared for this message, I was made aware that there are hundreds of examples concerning prayers throughout the Old and New Testaments.
In choosing this passage in Ephesians, I wish to draw your attention to prayer as seen here in this passage.
Verse 18 from the NIV reads: And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. with this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for the saints.
Verse 18 from the Message reads: Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other's spirits up so that no one falls behind and drops out.
I mention this passage from two translations because they give instructions that we often don't think about. Pray in the Spirit, pray long and hard. Pray for the Saints, pray for your brothers and sisters. Be alert, keep your eyes open.
Remembering these three ideas, there are three points I would like to venture into.
The first point is what prayer is not.
How many remember the Christmas catalogs from Sears and Eatons? When these catalogs came out, I would rush to the nearest office and pick up a copy, take it home, and made out my list of what I wanted.
As kids growing up, prayer was often seen as a sort of Christmas wish list with "Amen" put at the end. After we made our list and said "Amen" we would walk away thinking we would get everything we asked for.
This sort of understanding of what we believe prayer to be, often destroys the faith that individuals have. It often terminates one's understanding of God. If we don't get what we want, we often become discouraged and angry with God. When God says "No" we are not prepared for that answer and we walk away disgruntled.
A person I know, prayed long and hard that his daughter would not loose her leg to cancer. When she lost her leg, he was angry with God and walked away believing that he had been betrayed and lied to.
In my own case, for some reason I don't remember praying to keep my leg. I was hoping to keep my leg, but for some reason I had the attitude if it was to be, it was to be.
I know others prayed fervently that I would not loose my leg. I also know of an individual, that the loss of my leg caused spiritual strife for the longest time.
In many cases like this, we are praying for our will to be done and we fail to see what God's will is. Evan as Christians, we don't really seek God's will, nor do we really accept God's will. This is something that we need to come to grips with, to honestly seek God's will and accept His will. I am not going to say that accepting and seeking God's will is easy, for it is far from easy.
The second point is that Prayer at its' most basic level is surrender.
When a person surrenders their will to God, they get God's will in return. Jesus prayed in the garden: "Not my will be done, but your will be done."
The Lord's prayer we recite; "...thy kingdom come, they will be done on earth as it is in heaven..." Often we find it so difficult to surrender ourselves or to line ourselves up with the will of God. We pray "thy will be done" and we take up our problems and concerns and go on with our lives wondering why we're not being blessed or obtaining the glory that God had intended for us.
God doesn't expect us to do the heavy lifting. God provides us with the ablities to endure, while He does the heavy lifing that's needed.
It reminds me of one of my swimmers when I was coaching. Nate asked me how he should swim his back stroke race. I told him to "Swim so your head is at the leader's feet. After the first two lengths swim your hardest and fastest. You should be albe to pass him and win the race." Nate did as I had instructed and won his race to a gold medal finish. He had surrendered his will to mine, and got my will and in return he received a gold medal.
Surrendering is not easy, but when we do, we are blessed and given the glory that God intended for us.
The third point is: Prayer changes the person who prays.
Isiah the prophet wrote; "Seek ye the Lord while He may be found. Call ye upon Him when He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God; for he will abundantly pardon." (Isiah 55:6&7).
The Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:17: "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come."
Many of us do not realize that when we pray, and become one with God that we are changing, because we have surrenered ourelves to God. We become new creatures that Paul writes about.
These changes are often seen in the way we see things, in the way we experience life, how we experience others, and how we consider situations that affect us.
We can aswer that famous question, without hesitation "Where do we see God in the midst of our lives and in the relationships with others around us." By answering this question, we are encouraged to take our journey of faith from the known to the unknown. From the visible to the invisible.
We become the "God light" in the world of darkness. We are that refreshing spirit inour communities in which we live, work, and participate in.
We often pray that a situation or a person be changed so that change suits us, our desires, and our wants. Instead God changes us so that we can be a blessing to that person we wanted God to change. We are that light in the darkness where we find ourselves.
My final point is: Prayer is the means by which we use what God gives us.
Prayer enables each one of us to use the gifts and abilities necessary to live the Christian life. Returning to the passage Ephesians 6:10-20; there are key words that are important that Paul gives us. Words and phrases like; "so that you can take your stand, stand your ground, after you have done everything, stand, stand firm, with your feet fitted with the readiness and be alert".
These are all brought about through prayer. Paul writes; "and pray in the Spirit on all occassions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and keep on praying for all the saints."
When I was a youth, a long time ago, there was a dear lady, Mrs. Garland, in the church who was what we referred to as "Prayer Warrior." When Mrs. Garland told you she was praying fro you, you knew somethibg was up. You knew that God was going to intervene in your life whether you wanted Him to or not. We as youth respected her, while at the same time we feared her.
Prayer is how Mrs. Garland lived her life and how she was such a powerful person in the eyes of the church and people. God gave her everything she needed to live her spiritaul and physical life. God also give us all we need to live an active spiritual and physical life as we travel along our journeys of faith.
Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, ad salvation are more than just words. We need to learn how to apply these words in our journey. We need to understand their importance in our prayters. We need to realize that in many cases, prayer is not just for us, but for others as we interceede on their behalf.
Prayer takes us from the visible to the invisible whereby we become the God light that shines freely.
I encourage you to re-read this passage, and to seek God in the use of the armor that he provides us.
Amen.
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