Struggling in Prayer Together

Every church I have ever been a part of has a prayer line or prayer request opportunity. So many misconceptions surround the practice of prayer. Additionally, many unknown dimensions of prayer remain unknown in actual practice. The one I want to focus on is what I call “Mutual Agonizing Prayer.”

            Sean was a young man who asked me to visit him. His world had caved in because of unsuccessful surgeries that left him virtually incapacitated and unable to eat normally. The pain, the misery and the depression were quite acute. On this particular day I entered his apartment and all he could do was listen and pet his dog. It was the first time in my life that I made the following statement: “Sean, I will help take on your painful struggle and pray in your presence right now, trying to say what you are feeling.” Taking on the pain of another introduces empathy into our own lives at a whole new level.

            The apostle Paul understood this mutually, deep experience of prayer. On one occasion he requests that his Christian brothers and sisters in Rome “agonize together with me in prayer” (Romans 15:30). He was asking to be delivered from mistreatment and other difficult obstacles in his life. He felt he could only face these trying circumstances by asking others on board his ship of life. No such thing as sailing solo for Paul during a storm!

            To the church at Colossae Paul reminds them of their friend, Epaphras, who also “agonized in prayer on their behalf”(Colossians 4:12). He specifically prayed for their spiritual maturity and an assurance that they were committing their lives properly to the will of God.

            Think with me, now, about this mutual, deep experience of prayer. Here is what we can struggle together about…

·         Health concerns that overwhelm

·         Proper way to respond to mistreatment

·         Spiritual maturity

·         Right decision-making

·         Support in the midst of emotional pain

·         Right direction in a person’s life

I know that we all can add to this list. When we go through the fires of pain, and life throws one obstacle after another in our path, we understand in the Christian world-view that we do not have to make that journey alone! “Struggling together in prayer” is a mutual blessing that is embraced by Christians who care for one another.

In Christian love, Curtis

PRAYING TO GOD OR PRAISING GOD?

In Augustine’s confessional search for God, he asks God to grant him a special insight.

“Grant me, Lord, to know and understand whether a man is first to pray to you for help or praise you, and whether he must know you before he can call you to his aid.” (Confessions, I.1.2)

Perhaps in our own Christian life and daily walk with God we, too, have struggled with this same question. And, perhaps it comes out this way for us: When I get up in the morning, what is the first thing I should do—pray for God’s help for the day, or begin in praise?

Augustine answers in own question this way: “Those who look for the Lord will cry out in praise to him.”Perhaps, then, it is not an either or choice, rather, seeking God’s help and praising God can be intertwined together.

The notion of knowing God and seeking Him is a concern for writers of the New Testament for their first Christian readers. For example, listen to the writer of the book of Hebrews:  “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).

I think it is clear that faith in God and knowing God comes before praying and praising God. This makes sense because it means that earnest seeking after God and  a personal knowing of God precedes some kind of faithful response to God because of the relationship.

Seeking earnestly after God and believing that He  exists seems to be a hurdle for many. But our faithful life lived in covenant relationship with God is nurtured by prayer and praise only after we have earnestly sought after God and completed invested our destiny in believing that God exists.

Think how each day is transformed from something mundane into an exciting spiritual journey when we are earnestly seeking God because we vigorously and exuberantly believe in Him! May our daily walk then be lived in the context of prayer and praise as we respond to God’s care and compassion.

In Christian love, Curtis