It is a startling fact about people
like us that if we are diagnosed with a life threatening condition that will
end our lives in the next few years and a change in habits would remedy the
situation, 80% percent of us will do nothing.
Old habits are hard to break and new habits are hard to develop. Even when it is a matter of life and death we
don’t like to change our habits. Well,
without sounding like a snake-oil salesman I would like to tell you about a
change in habit that’s not likely to make you live longer, reduce your stress,
or overnight deliver you contentment, but it will help you to be faithful, to
endure.
Faithfulness, Jesus asked his disciples
that rhetorical question, “When the Son of Man comes will he find faithfulness
on the earth?” That question comes at
the end of a parable in which he was teaching them about their need to pray
continually so that they do not lose hope in God and fall away. Jesus knew that being his faithful disciple
in this world that crucifies its hope was going to get tough for them. It was going to be quite difficult to live
faithfully according to the hope of his coming by showing unconditional,
forgiving love and steadfast commitment to Christian fellowship. He likened this task to the hopeless
impossibility of a falsely accused widow seeking vindication for her tarnished
honour by going to a crooked judge who just likes to see people put to shame.
Praying continually is necessary to having
faith and being faithful. Apart from
praying continually Jesus’ disciples would fall into what we translate rather weakly
as discouragement or a loss of heart. I’m going to get your Greek lesson out of
the way quickly this morning. The word
Jesus uses quite literally means “in evil doing.” The word is enkakeo (Those who like playing with Spanish homonyms think en caca.) and there are two senses in
the way it gets used. It can be either
“to treat badly or evilly” or “to wrongly cease doing something” meaning to
quit on people or to leave fellowship. So,
without this habit of continual prayer Jesus’ disciples will fall into the evil
of a discouraged heart that leads them away from Christian fellowship or even
to turn on it and treat it badly.
For time’s sake, instead of tracing
this parable out in depth I’ll just go straight to the point and say that there
is a correlation between Jesus’ disciples learning to pray continuously and the
continuance of Christian community on earth.
Without this discipline, the habit of continual prayer among the
disciples of Jesus, the church perishes. It is in prayer that the personal faith, hope,
and love that are the seeds of Christian community take root and sprout. In prayer by the working of the Holy Spirit
God changes us, transforms us to be in the nature of his children, Christ-like
as Jesus is his Son. As children trust
their parents for everything, so prayer makes us look to our Father in heaven
and trust him for everything.
So, what is continual prayer? Well, what goes on in our heads anyway? All
of us worry. We worry instictinctually. Apart from worry, we usually just let our
minds go on in their own little worlds of imaginary conversations around
emotions we can’t quite name. Sometimes
we get ideas. A few of us can actually
sit and think and sort things out. Mostly,
we just let our minds get preoccupied with whatever. Continual prayer is taking control of our
thought world with prayer. Let me give
you some examples of continual prayer.
First, there is finding a specific
prayer to pray over and over in those times when we’re just letting our minds
graze the green pastures of nattering thoughts.
I like the Lord’s Prayer for this.
“Our Father, who art in heaven hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth
as it is in heaven…” and so on. I pray
that prayer and think about what it means quite a lot especially “Thy kingdom
come, thy will be done.” If I wake up in
the middle of the night, I wait and listen if anyone in particular comes to
mind then after that I just keep saying the Lord’s Prayer over and over in my
head until I fall asleep. When I’m out
for a run or cooking dinner or working in the yard I pray the Lord’s Prayer
over and over. In fact, if I were laid
up in the hospital or lying on my deathbed, praying the Lord’s Prayer over and
over would likely be where my mind would be.
We can also make our Prayer Covenant
prayer a means of continual prayer. “Lord, grant Bob and me the grace to commit
our lives to the lordship of Jesus Christ without reservation and further grant
Bob and me the grace to know your strength and guidance today.” Pray that over and over throughout the day.
A more mission-oriented way of doing
continual prayer would be to walk around our neighbourhoods praying for
everyone. Figure out when people are
most active and get out there so you can actually see them and hear them. There’s also actually talking to our
neighbours and find out what’s going on in their lives and keep it in mind and
pray about it. If they are worried about
something, bear that worry with them through prayer. If they are okay with it, pray with them. When we’re out and about we can take notice
of the people around us and pray inwardly, “Lord, have mercy on him.” If we see a young family walking a baby
carriage up the street, if you’ve had kids you know what they’re going through,
pray for them.
We can make our homes prayer centers. Anybody that comes into our homes does not
leave without us having first prayed for them.
This is especially so for our children and grandchildren. If you start a ministry like that, be
prepared for in time people will start coming to you.
Some of you might be thinking “that’s
what ministers are supposed to do.” No,
it’s what we do. We pray. That’s faith.
That’s heaven coming to earth When
people in churches take up this habit, this ministry of continual prayer,
churches change because God begins to change the people in them. If we are to take Jesus seriously in this
passage, it is when we, his followers, depart from praying continually that
churches become social clubs, or go into survival mode and die.
So, if Jesus were to return today and
come to this church would he find faith?
Would he find us praying? Let us
not forget that our God is not an unjust judge.
Our God deals in resurrection.
Let us not be part of that 80% who do nothing and fall into the evil of disheartenment
that destroys Christian fellowship.
Amen.
