Prayer in Action
It’s often said that in order to do the work of God, we can’t just sit around and pray, we must work and do so diligently. To some degree, this is true. The call to work for and through the kingdom of God requires work from His people, but this also denies the effectiveness and the meaning of what prayer is and does. When you, me, or any of the children of God pray, it’s an invitation to invoke the kingdom of God to be made present before our eyes, make the injustice of the world right again, treasure God as the source for the life we desire, and recite in our hearts and minds what the true King said in the Lord’s Prayer, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven” (Matt 6:10).
Before any step, thought, or idea begins to come into fruition, the first question that must be asked must be, “Does God desire for me to take this next step forward? Or is this a desire of my own heart that I’m wanting God to bless without His calling and provision?” So while proper action must be taken to fully engage the world and bring human flourishing, without prayer, it will all have been done in vain.
My prayer for you in this post is to see the power of what prayer for the advancements of the kingdom will do for the world and how the actions we take must first be entranced in prayer. It wasn’t a sermon that the disciples asked for, it wasn’t a theological breakdown of the incarnation, it was prayer that the disciples asked Jesus to teach them because prayer is the language in which we speak and hear from God.
THE HOPE THAT PRAYER BRINGS
If you’ve gone through a rough patch in life and had Christians around you, you’ve likely been asked the question “Can I pray for you?” and for good reason. Asking to pray for someone is the act of intentionally interceding on that person’s behalf to God so that they would gain peace, joy, or the wisdom to navigate the situation in a God-honoring way.
Yet for people like me (maybe even you too), it’s easier for me to pray for others while forgetting to personally spend time with God for the sake of my own soul. Whether that be because I’m ashamed of the most recent sin I’ve committed and feel as though God wants nothing to do with me, I neglect to make time in my day, or I just forget during the normal course of my day to commune with God. But, there’s hope, because the promises stand firm even when we falter, because God’s faithfulness isn’t affected by our faithlessness, and because the mercies of God are made new every morning inviting us into the life we desperately desire yet run away from on a daily basis.
When we begin to pray, our eyes start to become aware of the world and the people around us. Our senses become alive to the overwhelming reality that the kingdom of God is all around us. From the roses in the fields, the mountains that lay across the earth with a billowing presence, and more importantly the people you may have never noticed that are vying for someone to speak with them and love them. Yet in God's kindness, He brought the people you know into your presence, so that they would see there’s a God who sees them and knows them. He allows you to be His hands and feet so that they may one day know the glory of God and weep because of the utter beauty, all because you showed them God loves them, not for what they do, but because of who He is.
THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER
The scriptures paint a clear picture that prayer is essential and a good thing to pursue. The disciples of Jesus ask him how to pray and we see a model of what it means to pray through the lens which God sees and interacts with the world.
“Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name.” (Matt 6:9). We first start with addressing who exactly we’re talking to. When you or I pray, it’s not simply thinking good thoughts to an unknown person, we’re speaking directly to the God of all creation, our Father. The Father who speaks and causes worlds to be made, animals to take form, oceans to be filled, love to be made clear, and our souls to be made pure in His sight, that is the God who our prayers are directed at.
“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven” (Matt 6:10). This speaks directly to the state of what all the world wants. A place where mourning ceases, tragedies are no more, love is as present as the air that we breathe, people take charge and care for one another, and we’re all experiencing what a life of bliss was meant to be like. This kind of world only takes form by the people of God willingly choosing to think and act in the ways of Jesus so that his grace would be evident to the people around them. When you speak, words of wisdom and truth spill from your lips and leave others in awe. When you work, others are shocked because of not just the quality you produce, but because of your desire to use your gifts to serve everyone around you even when it inconveniences you at times. Inhabiting this world and bringing the kingdom of heaven down means living in the ways of Jesus so that others would be captured by His love and grace made available to everyone and anyone.
“Give us this day our daily bread,” (Matt 6:11). Food serves two purposes for you and I. It is what gives us energy, allows us to carry on in our days, and provides us the strength for everyday life. Yet it’s also the very thing that points us to our need of daily grace from God. We will never be at a point when we don’t need God in our every day. The moment that you or I neglect our daily dependence on God is the moment our souls will forget what it means to live a life of beauty and flourishing, because when left to our own devices, we will fall every single time. It is by grace alone that we can experience the treasures found in this world that reflect the goodness of God that make us long for him all the more.
“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matt 6:12-15).
I went back and forth deciding whether to break down these verses into smaller pieces or try to parse it down into one train of thought, but for the sake of both you and me, I went with this route so stick with me here for this last bit, I promise it’ll be worth your time.
Jesus models these words for you and I to remind us of the primary reason he came to earth, so that we would have peace with God through his perfect work on the cross. God forgave us of sins past, present, and future, and still decided that dying in our place was worth the cost. Because we’ve been forgiven much, loved much, and shown grace in all things, our default setting should be to share that with others. Yet Jesus puts this line in the prayer because he knew exactly how hard it would be to live out the grace we’ve received to others. The last line of the prayer isn’t some threat meant to scare you into forgiveness, true forgiveness comes from the inner disposition of the heart that says, “You may have wronged me, hurt me, or sinned against me, but I’m choosing not to hold this against you or condemn you. Even though this has caused me pain, I’m choosing to say and believe ‘I forgive you’ because it is what will best lead to a better life for you and me, and what will honor God and show his love really does affect the way I live.”
PRAYER CHANGES THE HEART
Every person acts on their own beliefs of the truth. They may say one thing or hold to certain beliefs, but intellectually saying you believe something doesn’t mean you’ll actually live that out. You, me, and everyone else aren’t run by simply learning or possessing good information, or else we would all have exactly what we want, in the timeline we want it, and have no problems in life. The reality is that information alone will never change a person. It is the start to change, but it requires a whole new belief of what the Good Life is and what it means to live that out to actually make change in someone’s life. To cause someone to truly learn or grow into something new, they must catch a vision for something better. If what you’re telling them isn’t compelling, even if it’s true, why should they change what they’re doing? Because whether we like it or not, we live in a day and age where truth and goodness is based on the individual rather than what is proven to be the best.
The beauty of prayer is that it leaves no person left untouched. Prayer is beholding God and allowing Him to reorient the heart to become more like His. It’s where cold hearts are softened, arrogance is humbled, and hatred becomes love. Sometimes miraculously, but more often than not, it’s through the process of step-by-step obedience in the same direction over time that causes a person to truly change. It’s one thing to do a lot of good, even for months on end. It’s another to actually desire to do good. That’s when the heart has conformed and modeled what it means to follow Jesus and live that out in its truest form.
Others will take notice, wonder why, and you can gladly say, “It’s because of God.” Some may shrug this off and pay no attention, but others will long for what you have and observe from a distance. Curiosity will arise and in that moment, you can be the means for how God meets them and changes their life for eternity, because they saw the good in you and wanted that same thing. Doing the things of God is a good thing that all of His disciples must do. Here’s a line from Dallas Willard that captures the essence of grace and action well; “Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning.”
Whether you’re someone who’s followed Jesus for a lifetime, you’ve just begun, or you're just curious about the whole thing, I’m praying that you would see that God isn’t just after what you think. God is after your whole being from your mind, body, and soul to become alive to His will and His word. May these words encourage you as you continue this walk on beholding and adoring all of who God is. Blessings.