Using the Power of Prayer

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, July 14, 2019.  The Bible verses used are Colossians 1:1-14.

            There’s a phrase you’ll hear people use from time to time.  Maybe you’ve even used it yourself.  It’s a phrase that’s almost become a cliché any more, and in fact it’s a phrase that’s actually become somewhat controversial.  That phrase is this:  “thoughts and prayers”.  Whenever there’s a time of sadness or tragedy, you’ll hear someone say, “Our thoughts and prayers are with you.”

            Now, it’s hard to see what could be wrong with that.  I mean, it’s hard to think of a basis for a Christian to object to the idea of praying for someone who’s going through a tough time.  Where the criticism comes, though, is that sometimes people will accuse Christians of using prayer as an excuse for not taking action.  They say, “Oh, sure, you’ll pray for these people or this situation, but you don’t want to actually do something to help them.”

            Now, if that’s truly our attitude, there is some validity to the criticism.  I mean, James wrote about that.  He says in James Chapter Two, “Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, keep warm and well fed’, but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?”  As Christians, we are not supposed to use prayer as an excuse for failing to help people.

            But where the criticism fails, I think, is that it seems to imply that prayer has no power.  It implies that praying for someone is worthless, that praying is equal to doing nothing.  And I don’t think that’s true at all.  There are times when praying for someone is the most important thing we can do.  And that brings me to our reading for today from Paul’s letter to the Colossians.

            After the initial greeting, what’s the first thing Paul tells the Colossians?  He tells them that he, and the others with him, have been praying for them.  And he tells them what kind of a prayer it is.  It is a prayer of thanksgiving.  Paul tells the Colossians that he and the others always thank God when they pray for them.

            And that’s not the only time, in this short passage, that Paul tells the Colossians that he’s praying for them.  He says that, since the day he and his friends first heard about the Colossians, they have not stopped praying for them.

            Now, before we go any farther, let’s think about that.  When you pray for someone, what do you pray for?  Good health?  Safety from harm?  Reasonable financial security?  God’s protection over them?  That they will change somehow?  When you pray for other people, what do you pray for?

            Well, there’s nothing wrong with praying for any of those things.  I’ve prayed them, and I’ve had them prayed for me.  And I appreciate when they’re prayed for me.  But let’s look at the things Paul prays for in regard to the Colossians.  He prays that God will give them knowledge of God’s will.  He prays that they will have wisdom and understanding through the Holy Spirit.  He prays that they will live lives that are worthy of the Lord and are pleasing to God in every way.  He prays that God will give them strength, so they can have great endurance and patience.  

            That’s quite a prayer.  That kind of prayer cuts right to the heart of our lives, you know?  Again, there’s nothing wrong with praying for health or safety or God’s protection or any of those other things.  But the things Paul prayed for in regard to the Colossians are the things that are and should be most important to us as Christians.  

            And they’re the things we really should be talking about when we talk about the power of prayer.  It gets back, again, to Jesus’ statement to Peter about human concerns versus the concerns of God.  Health, safety, protection--those are human concerns.  They’re still important, don’t get me wrong.  But the things Paul prayed for are the concerns of God.  Knowledge of God’s will.  Wisdom and understanding.  Living a life worthy of God.  Strength from God, so we can have the patience and endurance we need in living that life.

            We cannot get those things on our own.  We can only get them through God’s Holy Spirit, and the way we get God’s Holy Spirit into our hearts and souls is through prayer.  If you’re not sure about that, let me ask you this:  have you ever tried to understand God’s will without praying?  Have you ever tried to live a life worthy of God without praying?  Have you ever tried to have the inner strength to have patience and endurance without praying, without asking for God’s help?

            If you have, let me ask you:  how did that work out for you?  Because it has sure never worked out for me.  In fact, not only have I never been able to get any of those things without prayer, when I’ve tried to do it without prayer I’ve made a mess of it.  Even if I had the best of intentions, even if I was trying to do everything right, it did not work if I did not make God part of the process.  I have always needed God to be involved if I was going to understand God’s will and live a life worthy of God.  I’m not saying it’s always worked even then, because I still make plenty of mistakes.  But if I make God part of it I at least have a chance of getting it right.  Without God, I have no chance.  And also, if I make God a part of it, sometimes things ultimately work out in a way I never intended.

            Now, Paul does not just tell the Colossians that he’s praying for them and leave it at that.  Paul goes on to tell them all sorts of things.  There are four chapters in Colossians, after all.  He tells them about the power and awesomeness of God.  He tells them about the reconciliation and grace that can come through the life and death of Jesus Christ, if we will just accept him as the Savior.  He tells them about the forgiveness and freedom that can come from accepting Jesus.   He also gives them some warnings:  warnings about falling back into slavery under the law, warnings about things to watch out for, warnings about ways that people tend to stray from following God.  But for Paul, it all starts with prayer.

            And in fact, it ends with prayer, too.  In the last chapter of Colossians, before he gives some final greetings to some specific people, Paul tells the Colossians this:  “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.  And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message...Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.”  

            Paul was probably the most active evangelist of his time.  He traveled all over the known world, trying to spread the gospel.  And yet, he thought the most important thing he could do for people was pray.  And he thought the most important thing anyone could do for him was pray, too.

            So I encourage each of us to examine his or her prayer life.  And please don’t hear that as a criticism.  I know some of you pray a lot.  I know some of you pray for me and for Wanda.  And we appreciate that very much.  When I say “examine your prayer life”, I’m not assuming that you need to make changes.  Maybe you don’t.  I don’t know.

            But what I know is that it’s rare for a human being to do anything perfectly.  And of course, that includes prayer.  So again, I encourage each of us to examine his or her prayer life.  And I encourage each of us to do that using what Paul says here as our model and our example.  

            Paul says we should pray frequently.  In fact, Paul uses the word “continually”.  Prayer should be a constant part of our lives.  Prayer should not just be something we do when we’re in a tough spot, or before we go to bed at night, or even before meals.  There’s nothing wrong with praying then, of course.  But we should not restrict our prayers to certain times.  We should pray frequently as we go through the day.

            And what should we pray for?  Knowledge of God’s will.  Wisdom and understanding from God’s Holy Spirit.  Living a life worthy of the Lord and pleasing to the Lord.  Strength from God so that we can have patience and endurance.  

            And who should we pray for?  Everyone that we care about.  Including ourselves.  And we should not hesitate to ask others to pray for us, too.  Because we need those things just as much as anyone else does.  

            It’s okay to pray for human concerns.  It’s okay to pray for good health and safety and so forth.  It’s especially okay to pray for those things when we or someone we love is facing a particularly tough time.  God hears those prayers.  God understands why we pray them.  God wants us to pray them.  God wants us to tell him anything and everything that’s on our minds.  I don’t mean anything I’ve said to be putting restrictions on what we can pray about.  After all, you and I are made in God’s image.  If something is important to us, it’s important to God, too.

            But we need to remember to pray for the concerns of God, too.  Because those are the things that will lead us to live a life centered on Jesus Christ.  They’re the things that will lead us to live lives pleasing to God.  And if we do that, we’ll have shown the love for God and love for others that Jesus told us to show.