Placentia Presbyterian Church

Please pray with me: Loving and gracious God, like Jesus’ disciples of long ago, we also now bring before You a similar request: teach us truly how to pray. In Jesus’ strong name, Amen.

It is not that we don’t pray — we do, and we do quite often. Throughout each day and during the night, rainy days and sunny days, holidays as well as every day of the week. We are, without question, people who pray. Only, it’s that we don’t necessarily pray the way we should, or the way we have been taught, or the way Jesus taught, or the way scripture teaches. At least, this is my take on it. My guess is that when Jesus’ disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray “as John taught his disciples,” it was not that they did not know how to pray. I am certain that they knew how to pray. It was so much more, I believe. It’s that they wanted some specific direction, some helps, in how to pray. My guess is that every time they heard Jesus pray, they could see light years of difference between his prayers and theirs.

Perhaps, at least up to this point, the disciples had been praying a lot like you and I pray. You see, you and I do pray, and we pray almost all the time. Some of our prayers go like these: “Lord, please give us nice weather for this next weekend for our family cookout.” “Lord, please do something about the stock market so that my stocks can start going up.” “Lord, help me get a really good grade on my exam today.” “Lord, my back really hurts. Please heal it.” “O Lord, please help me find a parking spot.” “Lord, please do something about the gasoline prices.” “Lord, help the Lakers go all the way.” “And Lord, speaking of ball, help us to win our softball game tonight.” For the life of me, I really can’t imagine anyone ever praying this last prayer! However, for the record, yes, this last item was, indeed, included in the team prayer offered for our PPC Softball Team prior to taking the field last Monday evening, an evening which saw our team win a double header and clinch the first place title in our division in the city softball league! Who says God doesn’t listen to our prayers?! You see, as we consider the prayers we pray, it’s not a question of whether or not we pray; it’s more a question of how purposeful our prayers really are.

In line with this, it’s also interesting at times to see how God seems to answer our prayers, or at least some of them. Some of you know that our daughter, Mindy, with the assistance of Mary, developed a business not long ago which is called, “Cuddles from Home.” Because Mindy has three small children and is no longer able to teach, she devotes much of her time to this business making and selling toddler pillows and blankets, loveys, bib and burp cloth sets, diaper changing pads, and lots of other related items. Every Thursday afternoon and evening, Mary and Mindy participate in the Fullerton Street Fair to display and hopefully sell some of their products. Well, as a part of their preparation, they always pray prior to the street fair, not so much that they will be successful in selling their products, — although they do hope that will happen — but that at the very least what they do will be able to become a blessing to whoever happens by. In other words, even though Mindy and her family are counting on the success of this business to help them financially, they also want this to be sort of a ministry, a ministry through which others might somehow be blessed. And so, each Thursday afternoon they pray that they and their business will somehow be a blessing to others. And so, this past Thursday evening, only three days ago, a young man in his 30’s walked by, took one quick look at their display, and then seeing the sign advertising a twenty percent discount on account of Mother’s Day, said loud enough to be heard by Mindy and Mary, “Oh crap, that’s right, Mother’s Day!” Please excuse me, but that’s exactly what he said! His comment actually brought a lot of joy to Mindy and Mary, for even though he didn’t buy anything, Mindy’s and Mary’s prayers were answered, because as a result of the quiet display reminding passers by of what today is, somewhere there is a mother being blessed; somewhere today, there is a mother receiving a special gift or some sort of nicety from her son, and in part, we trust, because of Mindy and Mary prayed! Never underestimate the power of prayer, and never underestimate how God will answer our prayers!

So, in light of this, today’s question is quite simple: Do you and I pray with a purpose? Beyond the quick prayers we offer on Monday evenings prior to a softball game or prayers for nice weather or prayers for finding a parking spot or getting a decent grade on an exam, do you and I really pray with a purpose? And does that purpose go very far beyond a self-serving one?

One of the unique challenges from Colossians given to us is the challenge to pray with a greater awareness of purpose. And while I certainly don’t expect anyone here to remember, at least for very long, the salient points of what the Apostle Paul shares with us in these opening verses of Colossians, at the very least please remember that some of the best guidelines for praying with a purpose are found in these first fourteen verses of Paul’s letter to the Colossians.

So . . . First, praying with purpose begins when we pray with thanksgiving and when we pray without ceasing. Paul writes, "We always thank God when we pray for you. And even since the day we first heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you . . .” I think that if you and I were to sit down together and really analyze our normal and usual prayers, we would agree that far too many of them are fairly short on thanksgiving, and that far too many of our prayers are turned mostly inward rather than mostly outward. As a rule, the vast majority of our prayers are far too short on remembering the struggles in the faith journeys of others, far too short on remembering anything other than health challenges of each other, far too short on remembering the spiritual issues of those who may be quite new to the faith. One of our prayer weaknesses is that we spend far too much time giving our "laundry lists" to God. Think back on the prayers you have prayed during this past week. Were any of these prayers exclusively prayers of thanksgiving? During this past week, were we able to pray without asking God for a special something for ourselves? Praying with a purpose begins with a posture of thanksgiving, and it continues when we can pray “without ceasing.” Praying without ceasing deals not so much with the amount of time we spend in prayer as it deals with being in something of an ongoing season or posture or attitude of prayer. If any of you should ask me to be very specific on the exact times I pray, that would be tough for me to answer. I don’t necessarily have “set times.” Like many of you, I’m “breathing” prayers almost all day long. I spend a lot of my study time in getting ready for two different Bible studies each week, and those preparations begin, continue, and end with prayer. I spend a great deal of time in getting ready for worship, mostly in preparing a message each week. And preparing a new message week after week after week takes a lot of time and always a lot of prayer. And with this, I hope you also pray for whoever is bringing the message from this pulpit each Sunday. As I have shared before, God’s curse on a prayerless congregation is poor preaching! And beyond this, like some of you, every time I hear a siren I pray for the situation soon to be addressed. I pray for the person or persons in need, and I pray for the emergency personnel. And I pray that whatever the situation is, that God’s gentle peace will be felt. As I am driving and I hear on the news of still another fatality on a freeway, I always immediately offer a prayer for the family and loved ones of the person killed, that at least in time, they will be given the gift of God’s healing. And when I hear over the news of the deaths of more of our service personnel, I immediately pray for their families and loved ones. I’ve been there. When my brother-in-law, a pilot for the U.S. Air Force, was shot down over North Vietnam in September of 1966, I learned first hand what it’s like to have a sister and their little baby suddenly without a husband and father. You see, prayer is not so much an activity we schedule at 6:30 each morning or the moment we get into bed at night. Prayer is much more a way of living in the continuing presence of a loving God. And when we live and pray like this, we learn what it means to pray without ceasing. So, praying with purpose begins as we pray with thanksgiving and always without ceasing.

And it continues when we pray that all of us, as well as all others, might somehow be given an awareness and an understanding of God’s will, and from there, not only to know of God’s will, but in God’s will to live lives more pleasing to Him. And there is no question that in today’s world, this may be one of the greatest challenges we followers of Christ have: to live lives worthy of and pleasing to our Lord. I think in real simple terms, it means living in a manner that not only reflects our Lord, but in a manner that causes Him to smile. We should never ever live simply to please others. Our call is to please God.

And then, third, praying with purpose means that we will pray specifically that all others who are also followers of Christ will somehow bear the fruit of Christ in all that they do, and that they, too, will grow increasingly in their knowledge of God. You see, once we begin to pray like this, we begin to get away from so much of the trivial aspects of so many of our selfserving prayers. If I asked you to raise your hand right now if it is your desire to do a better job in living a more Christ-like life, I have absolutely no doubt that every hand in this room would be raised. That’s why we’re here, isn’t it? We want, finally, to be more Christ-like in how we live. We want to do a better job in reflecting Christ. We want to do a better job in living the kind of life which brings a smile on his face. We simply want to do a better job in being fruitful Christians. So, why not pray like this? Let me ask each of us to do something. Without being too obvious, let’s each one of us make a mental note of at least one person seated close by. Okay? Now, let’s each of us make a commitment to pray for that person at least once a day this week, praying that that person will be able to be a better fruit-bearing Christian. So, let’s pray with thanksgiving and without ceasing, let’s pray to live lives pleasing to God, and let’s pray for each other.

Fourth, (and there’s only one more following this), praying with purpose means that we will pray that others will be strengthened with endurance and patience. This is what Paul writes here in verse 11, “And we pray that you might be strengthened with all power according to God’s glorious might so that you might have great endurance and patience . . .” I am going to make an educated guess that every person in this room needs greater endurance and patience in the affairs of life which truly matter. I know I do. For some of us, our “skin” does not get thicker over the years, but only thinner. Whether it’s ministry or teaching or administering or engineering, or just trying to hold a marriage or family together, all of us need each other’s prayers for greater endurance and greater patience.

Finally, praying with purpose means that we will pray with joy knowing that God is not only at work so that you can qualify for heaven, but God is at work right now to the end that all might be able to share in inheriting the fullness and joy of God’s kingdom. Let me ask you something: do you remember that person who has been so short with you, or maybe pretty awful to you, and who may have said some hurtful things toward you? Do you remember them? Of course you do! We don’t forget people like this; we always keep our score cards up to date! So, let me ask, would it bring you joy or would it bring you displeasure to know, that God is also working to qualify them for heaven just as much as God is working to qualify you for heaven? Whatever Paul had in mind in these words, you and I should be praying with thanksgiving, and without ceasing, and finally with great joy that God is working hard to qualify others for heaven, just as much as God is working hard to qualify you and me for heaven. Don’t you see? If God has crowned each of us with His glory and honor, why would God want to lose any of us? He doesn’t want to. That’s why He’s working hard for all of us to quality for heaven.

And this, once again, is what it’s all about. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Praying with a purpose — praying with thanksgiving and without ceasing, praying to know God’s will in order that we might live lives pleasing to Him, praying that all might be better fruit-bearing Christians, praying for greater endurance and patience for others, and praying with joy knowing that God is at work even now to qualify all of us for heaven. Praying with purpose — what a great way to pray!

Copyright © 2008 by Rev. F. David Throop.  All rights reserved.  No part of this sermon may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the prior written permission of the copyright owner, except in the case of a very brief quotation, which will acknowledge the source.