prayer

Collegiate Day of Prayer — Canada

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“Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray 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 out to speak.” Colossians 4:2-4

I’m thankful for the window Scripture gives us to see into the hearts of God’s servants when we hear their requests for prayer. Whether its Jesus asking his disciples to accompany Him in His distress and time of prayer or its Paul requesting intercession for the mission to which God had called him, these records of their requests make me bolder.

Many in our network are praying today for university and college students on campuses across North America.  Its the 200th anniversary of a commitment to pray for students and campuses.

Our friend Mark, shares the following requests:

We are praying for students to come to know God through a relationship with Jesus.

We are praying for students to engage their campuses with the Gospel.

We are praying for students to be called to serve the nations and take the Gospel around the world.

We are praying for a spiritual awakening on our campuses.

Vancouver Requests

UBC and two other schools are on my heart today in Vancouver. I invite you to join us in praying for students and staff at:

The University of British Columbia

Langara College

Emily Carr University of Art and Design

Simon Fraser University

Douglas College

As well please pray for the leaders and ministry teams on campuses across Canada. Ask the Lord to open a door for the Gospel of Jesus, and to anoint them with His Spirit that they may communicate clearly and compassionately.

Campuses in Canada:

98 Universities in Canada.

190 Colleges in Canada.

Prayer Templates from the Bible

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9And 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, 10so 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. 11May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, 12giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.  Colossians 1:9-12

Ever wonder what to pray when you intercede for a another follower of Jesus. Use the prayers of Paul as a template and write out a prayer. Pray it for a few days and then share it with them.
Dear _________,

From the day I heard about your life of faith, hope, and love in Jesus Christ, I have been praying for you. It goes something like this:

Our Heavenly Father, please fill ____________ with the knowledge of your will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so ______________ can walk in a manner worthy of Jesus, fully pleasing him, and bearing fruit in every good work, and all the while increasing in the knowledge of you.  Strengthen _________ with all power according to your glorious might, so ___________ will have joyful endurance and patience. May your Spirit stir up gratitude in ___________ toward our Heavenly Father who has qualified ___________ to share in the glorious inheritance of the followers of Jesus.

I’m so thankful for what you have done in ___________ life!

AMEN.

Rock Bottom Prayers

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17Some were fools through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities suffered affliction; 18 they loathed any kind of food, and they drew near to the gates of death. 19 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. 20He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction. 21 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! 22And let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, and tell of his deeds in songs of joy!    Psalm 107:17-22

Psalm 107 describes what its like to be intercepted by the grace of God when we come to end of ourselves and finally cry out to Him. I love this description: “he sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction.”

Some wandered in desert wastes, looking for a city…
Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death… prisoners…
Some were fools through their sinful ways…
Some went down to sea in ships doing business on the great waters…

When we quit mistaking our deepest desires for God as some kind of drive to be fulfilled by our own achievements, collections, or meditations, God is ready for our call. When we are at the end of ourselves, God is available. When we attain our dreams and discover a prevailing emptiness, God is listening.

He rescues. His word heals. His love lasts. When the world offers no reason for celebration, God provides hope and help. Jesus presented Himself to those who had come to end of themselves… and would admit it. To some Matthew’s party was full of losers. But not to Jesus! He said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”  (Luke 5:31)
Rock-bottom prayers may not sound pretty, but they are the sound of grace.

Going Through the Motions

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3 Trust in the Lord, and do good;

dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.

4 Delight yourself in the Lord,

and he will give you the desires of your heart.

5 Commit your way to the Lord;

trust in him, and he will act.

6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,

and your justice as the noonday.

7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;

fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,

over the man who carries out evil devices!

Psalm 37:3-7

Tai-Chi is martial arts in slow motion. I’m always intrigued when I watch lines of people at Queen Elizabeth park going through the motions. Apparently if sped up these very motions can guard your life against an enemy. These people are training their mind and  body. They are rehearsing the motions and postures of defence and some even suggest of good health.

In matters of the soul what we rehearse can save our life and shape our character. In Psalm 37 David is concerned with fortifying the soul against the faith-killing infections of envy and anxiety. When confronted with a world that is not fair and appears to be inhabited by people who prevail through wickedness, David directs his soul into the motions of faith in God.

Trust in Lord.

Delight yourself in the Lord.

Be still before the Lord.

Wait patently for the Lord.

These motions of prayer become the motions of life that shape our character with Jesus Christ. Instead of the brittle product of self entitlement and violence you can have the flexible and responsive product David latter identifies in Psalm 37 as meekness.

Let’s go through the motions of faith daily.

NT Wright on Prayer & Holiness

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I’ve been reading N.T. Wright’s book, After you Believe: Why Christian Character Matters. I keep returning to his discussion of Romans 8:12-17. Absolutely beautiful! My systematic theology professor, use to say our generation had one of the most under-developed eschatological visions ever. N.T. Wright is out to change that.

 

After You Believe, p. 93-95. (Harper One, 2010, paperback)

So the telos, the “goal” of being “glorified” over the creation, is to be anticipated in the present by replacing the slave-habits of mind, heart and body with freedom-habits—habits that both share in God’s freedom themselves and bring that freedom to the world. That is, more or less, what Paul understands by holiness or sanctification, the learning in the present of the habits which anticipate the ultimate future. But that sovereign and redemptive rule of renewed humans over God’s world is also anticipated in the present time through prayer.

The whole creation, he says, is groaning in labor pains, longing for the birth of the new creation from the womb of the old (8.22). We ourselves, within that creation, find ourselves growing as we await our own “adoption as sons and daughters, the redemption of our bodies” (8.23) But precisely in that state, as we are longing for and anticipating the final “glorification,” the Spirit is also at work within us, “groaning without words,” and thus enabling us, even when we don’t know what to pray for as we ought, nevertheless to be interceding for the whole world (8.26-27). This essentially priestly vocation, standing before God with his whole creation on our hearts, joins up with the vision of royal sovereignty over creation, and is one of its key aspects. This passage offers one of the strangest but also most moving descriptions in the whole New Testament of what the Christian understands by prayer: the inarticulate groaning in which the pain of the world is felt most keenly at the point where it is also being brought, by the Spirit, in the very presence of God the creator. This is central, in the present time, to the entire human vocation. Learning this language is the second key habit which forms the pathway to the eventual goal, the goal of “royal priesthood.”

In other words, the present anticipation of the future glory consists not in lording it over creation, imagining ourselves already its masters, able to tyrannize it and bend it to our will. It consist, rather, in the humble, Christlike, Spirit-led activity of prayer, the prayer in which the love of God is poured into our hearts by the Spirit (5.5) so that the extraordinary and almost unbelievable hope that is set before us is nevertheless firm and secure (5.1-5; 89.28-30). Thus, at the heart of arguable the greatest chapter of certainly his greatest letter, Paul sets out the pattern of present anticipation of future hope. This is what virtue is all about. The hope is that all those who are “in Christ’ and are indwelt by the Spirit will eventually reign in glory over the whole creation, thereby taking up at long last the role commanded for humans in Genesis 1 and Psalm 8 and sharing the inheritance, and the final rescuing work, of the Messiah himself, as in Psalm 2. And if that is the telos, the goal, it is to be anticipated in the present by the settled habits of holiness and prayer.