To Live By Prayer as Well as By Providence
mmalanga | February 23, 2007The Traveler’s Advisory
Friday 23 February 2007
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”–Paul the Apostle, First Epistle to the Thessalonians 5.16-18
There were no better keepers of Paul’s exhortation than the Puritans. Their enthusiasm for prayer is captured in a collection of prayers known as The Valley of Vision. In one section of this most helpful book (Approach to God) I found the following prayer expressed my own recently renewed desire to pursue deeper intimacy with the Lord in prayer. In keeping with the Puritans’ straightforward faith, the prayer bears the simple title, Living By Prayer.
O God of the open ear,
Teach me to live by prayer as well as by Providence, for myself, soul, body, children, family, church;
Give me a heart frameable to Thy will; so I might live in prayer, and honor Thee, being kept from evil, known and unknown.
Help me to see the sin that accompanies all I do, and the good I can distil from everything.
Let me know that the work of prayer is to bring my will to Thine, and that without this it is folly to pray;
When I try to bring Thy will to mine it is to command Christ, to be above Him, and wiser than He; this is my sin and pride,
I can only succeed when I pray according to Thy precept and promise, and to be done with as it pleases Thee, according to Thy will.
When Thou commandest me to pray for pardon, peace, brokenness, it is because Thou wilt give me the thing promised, for Thy glory, as well as for my good.
Help me not only to desire small things but with holy boldness to desire great things for Thy people, for myself, that they and I might live to show Thy glory.
Teach me that it is wisdom for me to pray for all I have, out of love, willingly, not of necessity; that I may come to Thee at any time, to lay open my needs acceptably to Thee; that my great sin lies in my not keeping the savor of Thy ways; that the remembrance of this truth is one way to the sense of Thy presence; that there is no wrath like the wrath of being governed by my own lusts for my own ends.
The Puritans knew the secret to obeying Paul’s exhortation to rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in all circumstances is that such things are the will of God in Christ Jesus for His people. To live by prayer as well as by Providence requires a firm grasp on the realization that “the work of prayer” is to bring our will to the Lord. Sometimes the “the work of prayer” is hard work. At such times it is good to consider such work to be a labor of love done in obedience according to God’s will. Sometimes “the work of prayer” amounts to little more than raising the sails of our souls to allow the wind of the Spirit to carry us along. Whether the work is laborious or joyous, tedious or exhilarating, the aim is the same, to live by prayer as well as by Providence.
To live by prayer is to resolve always to be in communication with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. It is to build an ever-increasing bond of fellowship with the Trinity as well as with our brothers and sisters in Christ. To live by prayer is to cultivate the soul continually so that its soil remains fertile to produce the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of repentance as well as the evidence we are furnishing our faith with the qualities of moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection and love.
During the season of Lent it is customary we give up something. So let me suggest we resolve to give up being governed by our own lusts for our own ends. Let us resolve to do the work of prayer and so bring our will to the God of the open ear. Let us resolve to live by prayer as well as by Providence.
You think about that.
MM
