Delight in the Law and Prayer
Dear brothers and sisters,
I sit down to begin to write to you on a subject matter that has become dear to me over the past few months, and my assumption is that you have struggled with as well. Prayer. And the Law. Now, there seems to be two extremes on these areas in my opinion (because I've been on both ends). There is the camp that is all about doing: "Read, pray, obey. That is the Christian life." This camp tends towards obedience as a way to measure just how "Christian" they are, and guess what they have the evidence or fruit to back up their claim, because we all know that Jesus said that we will know a tree by its fruit. On the complete other side of the spectrum there is the grace camp. This side of the spectrum emphasizes grace. "We are saved by grace alone, and there is nothing that we can do to earn our salvation. Jesus' life,death and, resurrection were sufficient and it was finished when He said on the Cross 'It is finished.' I will not add to the gospel." That attitude seems to align with Paul's first epistle that he wrote to the Galatians.
Both camps have faults. The doing camp will emphasize work, and be prone to legalism, while the grace camp will throw off works and say that all we need is grace (we actually just throw that word around). This is true I believe, yet Jesus said Himself that if we are to abide in His love we must obey His commandments in John 15, so we do have some obligation to obey. Oh no! That's works based! No, not at all, but we will get to that in a moment. This camp tends to be prone to license, although Romans 5 and 6 would rebuke those that fall into that if we would listen and let the word of God speak. Now, those who know me know that I'm a grace guy, heck just look at the title of my blog and the first blog post I wrote! But, in my thinking and studying of the word of God I have come to a difficult conclusion.
There Must be a Better Way
I was missing the point. Remember that I've been in both of these camps. My senior year of college I began to learn about grace, and how living my life on the "Do" camp the previous three years was exhausting and lacking joy. I found that living by grace led to peace and freedom. Yet, for that year I was prone to shrug my shoulders when it came to sin and say, "Well, Jesus paid it all anyways," without any remorse or hatred for sin. God hates sin, how dare I undermine the significance of the cross by taking sin lightly. Looking back, I was a fool. This last year I was trying to find out why it was hard for me to pray, because in my entire Christian life, I have never had consistent time in prayer, so I began asking why, since faithfully getting into the word of God was easy for me. So I decided to look at my studying of the word to find out what was "going for me" so that I could mimic it, almost as a copy and paste, into my prayer life. What I actually found was that my time in the word, although wonderful, was missing the point and in the process not experiencing the full blessing of the living and active word of God. What I mean by missing the point, I should probably clarify. I understood that there was an importance of reading the word of God, because it can transform me and that it also revealed the character of the One that I worship. Yet, somehow I still came to the word for what it could offer me (insight, a way to live, etc.). Although these were admirable goals it wasn't for what it was designed for.
Maybe you have been in my position, where you knew the good that a discipline brought to your spiritual life and you desired that. Or it just was a chore to you. Regardless, any fruit that you were seeing didn't seem to be the abundant life that Jesus spoke about in John 10 or the joy that would come when we abide in His love through obedience to His commandments in John 15. The question that I had to ask (and you should ask) is why?
I'll just go out and say it. Read, pray, obey, and repeat isn't the answer...entirely. Those things are good things, and as Christians we should be practicing the disciplines of prayer, personal and group bible study, fasting, evangelism, and service. Yet, if we are not doing it out of a heart desiring to worship our God the only alternative is some man exalting desire. It's not about you. It's not about me. It's about Him. Always. Period. The law, besides showing us that we are messed up and need a Savior, is designed to bring us closer to God and not farther from Him. The same is true of prayer, fasting, and service. Just look at Psalm 119. The psalmist throughout the psalm writes statements such as "I hope in Your word", "I delight in Your law", and "I longed for Your commandments." He even goes as far as to say that "So shall I keep Your law continually, forever and ever. And I will walk at liberty, for I seek Your precepts" (vs 44-45). The word of God should bring us great delight. Why? Because it reveals to us the heart of God and His faithfulness. Isn't this why in the same psalm the psalmist says "Your testimonies are my delight and my counselors" (vs 24)? His word was given to us so that we can know Him (by the way that is eternal life according to John 17). So, the promise is that if we draw near to Him He will draw near to us, and if we search for Him wholeheartedly we will find Him. Come to Him. He wants to reveal Himself so come to His word for Him. Come with an expectation that He will reveal Himself to you, and that He delights in doing so.
Prayer is the same way. Come to the throne of grace boldly. Why? Because the gospel demonstrates God's great love for us and delight in us. It is Christ's blood that allows us to come boldly to the throne. Remember how I said that I never had consistent time in prayer earlier for all of my Christian life? It is with great joy that I can say that, by God's grace, I have had faithful, consistent, fervent, and intimate times with the LORD, both by myself and with people, since May. What changed? I saw prayer as an opportunity to meet God, and my eyes were opened to the fact that He hears us when we pray, something we may say, but realistically I would say we don't really believe. I began praying for people, for my own growth, and for my desires and burdens. Why? Because He cares. "Cast your cares upon Him for He cares for you" became a very real thing. I also saw the promises of prayer, specifically in John chapters 13-17 about asking and receiving was convicted because I didn't live as if those passages were true. I then said that I was going to take the word of God at face value and take those promises and cling to them. Now, I did understand that it didn't mean that I was able to twist God's arm and make Him my own personal Genie, and that those promises had stipulations to them (read them and you will find them) but I was going to come boldly cling to those promises, hoping that He would give me His heart. I was able to delight in communion with Him and He gave me Himself in the process and began to change the things that were on my heart.
And as I asked for things and plead for others, I finally was able to say "Your will be done" because I actually believed that He is sovereign and that He knew better than I did. His character was real to me. Ultimately, prayer is a way to worship and to grow closer to the God of the universe. Read, pray, and obey is correct when the reason for doing those things for the purpose of worshiping the Father and drawing close to Him. The abundant life is found with that heart. I pray that God will convict you, and challenge you to find Him in every discipline, and that You will come in awe, adoration, and expectation that you will hear from Him.
Matt Chandler did a message on prayer earlier this year that was wonderful and completely changed my view of prayer, so here is the link if you want to listen to it.
http://www.thevillagechurch.net/sermon/a-call-to-pray-2013/
