Tag Archives: Prayer

Jesus’ Prayers Overcome Our Fear of Disappointment

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In the last post on Hebrews 10:19-25, we saw how Jesus answers our fear of judgment in verses 19-20. But there’s another way as well, seen in verse 21.

Because Jesus prays for us, we can have a rich God-accomplished relationship with God (v. 21)

Hebrews 10:21 forms the second part of the basis or ground to the commands in verse 22-24. See the “since” again in verse 21. “Since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus and since we have a great priest over the house of God, for these two reasons, let us draw near…”

So this is important. On the same grounds as the death of Jesus, we see the prayers of Jesus, his intercession for us, is the reason that we can have a rich relationship with God.

Jesus Prays for Us

We talk a lot about the death of Jesus because it is the center of our faith. One aspect we probably haven’t talked as much about is the priestly role of Jesus. This priestly role of Jesus — his interceding role — is really a theme in the book of Hebrews. It’s mentioned several times. Hebrews 7:25 tells us, “Jesus is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” Jesus is always praying for us. He never stops.

There are these two elements: the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus and the never-stopping prayers of Jesus.

So what’s happening here? If the sacrifice is once for all, then why does Jesus have to keep praying? Well, the prayers of Jesus for us are not for our sin problem. Jesus died and took God’s wrath in our place. That’s finished. Nothing more needs to happen. This now all applies to us by faith — by our faith. Our faith, that’s what Jesus prays for. And the same one who accomplished the forgiveness of our sins is the same one who sustains the life of our faith, all flowing from the blood of his cross and victory of his resurrection.

Peter’s Story in Luke 22

I think the story of Peter in Luke 22 gives us a glimpse into what this looks like. Jesus had the last supper with the disciples and at some point they started arguing about who is the greatest of them. And I imagine Peter was in that conversation. Jesus had told the disciples that they’d all run away. And Peter speaks up and says “not me! I’m following Jesus all the way.”

Here’s when Jesus looks at Peter, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail (Luke 22:31).

Basically, Jesus says, “Peter, you don’t get it. Satan came to me. He wants to destroy you. But it’s not going to happen because I am praying for you. I am praying that your faith would persevere and never fail.”

And we’re there with Peter. Our sins have been paid for by the blood of Jesus and we are thrown into this thing called life. Life is complicated. Life is hard. It’s not a bed of roses. There are temptations, there are sufferings, there are difficulties. And it’s in the thick of all this stuff that we are called to draw near to God.

Jesus Knows, and He Prays

We’re called to a relationship with God in the wildest and craziest and most hectic movements of our days. Draw near to God when work is frustrating again. Draw near to God when your heart is breaking over disobedient children. Draw near to God when you’re in that traffic jam and you’re already running late. Jesus doesn’t stop praying for you in those moments. He never stops praying.

In fact, Hebrews 4 tells us that he knows how we feel, he is a high priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses. He gets it. And he prays for us. So when things we hard, and your faith gets the weakest, remember Jesus is praying for you. He is praying for you.

We have the blood of Jesus abolishing our fear of judgment, the sin problem is no more. And we have the prayers of Jesus abolishing our fear of disappointment. In the most difficult circumstances, we are not left alone. Jesus is praying for us that our faith may not fail.

So we can have a rich relationship with God because Jesus is always praying for us.

If you trust in Jesus, there is nothing that can keep you from a rich, sweet, deep, glorious relationship with God. He is your Father and you are his child. Jesus has died for you and Jesus prays for you. So let us draw near.

The Distress and Healing of Face to Face

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Prayer means that we address ourselves to God, who has already spoken to us in the gospel and in the law. We find ourselves face to face with him when we are tormented by the imperfection of our obedience and the discontinuity of our faith. Because of God we are in distress. God alone is able to heal us of it. In order to ask him to do so, we pray.

Karl Barth, trans. Sara F. Terrien,  Prayer, (The Westminster Press: Philadelphia, 1985), 31.

HT: Paul Young

Praying is the Most Real Thing We Do

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Doctrine helps us come to our senses, and to our true selves. It does so in part by demythologizing our fantasies and deconstructing our cleverly devised myths.

C.S. Lewis notes that what we normally call our self is largely a dramatic construction, as is the stage we call “the real world.” The theo-drama, far from being fantasy, is in fact a glimpse, and taste, of reality. But it is only through prayer that we become aware of our true selves beneath the mask I call “me”: “Now the moment of prayer is for me… the awareness, the re-awakened awareness, that this ‘real world’ and ‘real self’ are very far from being rock-bottom realities” (Lewis, Letters to Malcolm, 81).

Prayer, like doctrine itself, is a powerful tonic of reality, exposing our artificial psychological and social constructions to be no more than glittering images, a theater of shadows.

To pray “Our Father…” is to begin to let a new imagination shape our sense of self. To call God “Our Father” is, says Lewis, to dress up as Christ. But this dressing up is no play-acting, nor does it have anything to do with hypocrisy. For doctrine directs us to participate in the theo-drama precisely by clothing oneself with “then new self” (Col. 3:10) and putting on the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 13:14). Such imagining is no pretense; it is rather a perception of what is eschatologically really the case.

As Lewis comments: “Very often the only way to get a quality in reality is to start behaving as if you had it already” (Lewis, Mere Christianity, [Glaslgow: Collins, 1955], 158).

Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Drama of Doctrine, 394, paragraphing mine.

Reason #1 of Some Reasons Why I Hate My ‘Christian Blog’ and am Contemplating Its Termination

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#1. It is intrusive to my life of prayer.

The irony here is that this particular post came to mind while in prayer. It happens too often. The quiet of the morning and the stillness of my home, I am praying to the Father, declaring the gospel of the Son, yearning to be filled with the Spirit and simultaneously fighting the all-too-easy ‘hey, that could be a blog post’ crap. This makes me very angry. All accusations are pointed at me in my sinfulness.

“I want to forget myself, be wise in nothing but the cross, live before and unto the LORD, careless towards the approval of man (oh, I should post this).”

There are a dozen comebacks. I hope that you are thinking of them now and confronting what I’ve said with “but…” and “what about…” Well done. Tell me, please. Comment. Challenge my thinking. I need it. Prayer is too important, bro. I am growing weary in fighting a battle that could be eliminated. I am sinful enough to let a web address rob my communion with God. That is painful enough to make me want to bash my MacBook and throw it in the cold Mississippi, or ball up like a baby and cry.

I hope you like my post, hope it gets lots of hits. Crap.

Jesus, please help me.

Prayer and Study: What Are We Preparing For?

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Among all the influences which go to make up a man honoured of God in the ministry, I know of none more mighty than his own familiarity with the mercy-seat. All that a college course can do for a student is coarse and external compared with the spiritual and delicate refinement obtained by communion with God. While the unformed minister is revolving upon the wheel of preparation, prayer is the tool of the great potter by which he moulds the vessel. All our libraries and studies are mere emptiness compared with our closets. We grow, we wax mighty, we prevail in private-prayer.

Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to my Students, 43

I don’t care how well we may learn to arc or diagram Greek sentences. We may memorize every ecumenical creed there is and recite Jonathan Edwards’ Religious Affections by heart, but if we’re not praying now than we’re not being prepared for ministry. We are preparing for something else, but not ministry–not God’s mission in the world, not a task so huge that we tremble at the thought of our utter inadequacy.

Brothers, we should pray before, during, and after we study.

The Keeping Protection–The Content and Purpose of a Prayer We Should Pray With David

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“But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you.”

(Psalms 5:11 ESV)

We should ask what kind of protection David is speaking about here in verse 11. It has something to do with verses 9-10 which goes back to verse 8. The protection is from these enemies of David, that is, those described as rebellious evildoers. And I do not think the protection is a mere preservation of health or guard against military attack. 

The protection has a purpose, namely that those who love the LORD’s name may exult in Him. Protection is a means here to enjoying God–to being satisfied in Him. What protection means then must be expanded to refer to all those things that are an obstacle to enjoying God. And those obstacles are not external, they are internal. Perhaps the protection here is a prayer that God not let “all who take refuge in Him” be like those previously described… this is about sustaining grace. 

This protection is that the redeemed (the refugees) in verse 11 not be like the rebellious evildoers of verses 9-10.

The prayer something like …

Keep Your refugees as Your refugees, protect them from being like the rebellious and from every other alternative out there, in order for this glorious purpose–that they may exult in You.

May it be so, in Jesus Christ alone. Amen.

Do We Pray Like the Dead?

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“God, please bless and protect my family, watch over me at work, help me to make good decisions…”

A good question to ask yourself is whether the prayers you pray could be prayed by unbelievers. Every spiritually dead person there is wants safety and success and good decision-making skills. Do we merely refer to God as our lackey? Give me this, do that, help there…

Those who have been brought from death to life, awakened by the Spirit of God, redeemed and transformed by Jesus Christ, they pray differently. It is not that they do not ask for protection and help in the most mundane things of life, IT IS that they ask everything under one banner: Father, hallowed be Your name! You be glorified!

Examine yourself. Spiritual maturity, or even spiritual life, has nothing to do with that you pray, but with how you pray.

The Goal of My Life and Prayer for My Family

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To know and enjoy the LORD by beholding and believing Jesus Christ in the gospel, by the Holy Spirit.

The goal of my life and peak of my days is summed up in the few words found scribbled on a little stickie just inside the front cover of my Bible. The implications are vast. Its reality would be a miracle. 

Please, Father. Amen.