The Preconditions of Prayer (6)

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Matthew 6.33

But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” Matthew 16.23

“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will yourheavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” Luke 11.13

Focus for our prayers
The problem many of us have in prayer, and one reason more people don’t pray always and in everything, is that we tend to focus on the wrong things.

Early in his career as a story-teller, the late Andy Griffith did a shtick which he called, “What is was, was football.” In this brief monolog, Andy Griffith recounts his first experience of being at a football game. Swept by a crowd into the local stadium, he reports what he saw in terms familiar to him, but without knowing anything about what was going on. His story focuses on all the familiar details of a football game, but naively, and without any sense of the larger situation or context of why he was there or what he or anybody was doing. He described the game as the “awfulest fight” he’d ever seen in his life, over a “funny little punkin” everyone seemed to want, but why, he couldn’t tell. Meanwhile the audience laughs hysterically.

It’s a funny story, and a little bit like the way many of us approach the work of prayer. We get swept into prayer because we’re Christians, part of the praying crowd, you know. We’re not all that familiar with the terrain of prayer, but we know what we are familiar with, and what we want, and that’s what we bring with us into prayer. We understand that prayer involves talking with God, making our requests and intercessions before Him. We’ve got most of the details in view, at least, as we understand them, but we end up coming out of prayer not quite sure what that was all about. Because we don’t understand the larger framework and overarching purpose of what we’re doing, our attempts to pray can be laughable, if not sad.

The context and end of prayer
Prayer, in the last analysis, is not about the things of men, but the things of God. It’s not about seeing things or making requests as we see or want them to be, but as God does, according to His agenda in Christ Jesus. If we keep trying to make prayer be about the things of men, we’ll never get to the things God really wants us to realize through prayer. A precondition for effective prayer, therefore, is that we make up our minds going in, that what we want in prayer is God’s will, not ours – the world and our lives as God intends them, not as we might wish they could be.

We want God’s Spirit, Christ’s glory, and the progress of His Kingdom – these, and nothing more.

It’s instructive to consider that a passage that begins with Jesus’ disciples asking Him to teach them how to pray, ends with Him promising that God will give His Spirit to those who ask Him (Lk. 11.1-13). En route to that conclusion, Jesus taught the disciples a version of the Lord’s Prayer, together with a parable and instruction to pray persistently, continuously, and expectantly. And He capped it off by promising that God will give His Spirit to those who pray like this.

So the short answer to the disciples’ request that Jesus would teach them how to pray is this: Pray for the Spirit and Kingdom of God. If this is what’s on your mind when you come to the Lord in prayer, you can be certain that the Father in heaven will grant your request.

Spirit and Kingdom
Is it really possible that anything and everything we might want to ask of God in prayer boils down to His Spirit and Kingdom? Well, let’s consider.

Jesus said that we are to be His witnesses (Acts 1.8). That’s why we’re here, to testify to the reality of Jesus – His life, death, and resurrection – and to seek His advancing rule on earth as it is in heaven. In order to empower us for this work, He has given us His Spirit, Who brings the Kingdom with power into our lives. The Spirit comes to dwell in us for salvation, and then to teach, convict, correct, comfort, and empower us for a certain kind of life, a life in which all things are being made new. The Spirit brings the power and reality of Christ’s Kingdom into our lives so that, as His rule unfolds within and through us, we increase in righteousness – all the fruit of the Spirit, the tokens of love, and the virtues of holiness – and in peace and joy. In the Spirit we receive gifts so that we can minister the grace of God to others from within the Body of Christ, which is His Church. In the Spirit we can know all that God reveals to us about Himself and our Kingdom-and-glory calling (1 Cor. 2.12, 13). By His Spirit God is working to make us willing and able to live within His pleasure; He is stretching us into exceedingly abundant newness; and He is equipping us to live for the glory of God.

So, what more than this could you or I or anyone want?

As we come out of prayer, we should be able to say about our experience, with great confidence and joy, “What it was, was the Spirit of God!” Come to prayer seeking the Spirit and His Kingdom power, whatever your needs and requests, and you’ll come away from prayer more firmly established in that realm of righteousness, peace, and joy in which, in spite of all adversity and difficulty, Christ Jesus is making all things new.

For reflection
1.  Think of a typical request you might make in prayer. How would you phrase that as a request for more of God’s Spirit and Kingdom?

2.  How might you pray for your daily work in order to frame that work in the context of the Spirit and Kingdom of God?

3.  How should you be able to tell as you begin to experience more of the Kingdom and Spirit power of God in your walk with and work for the Lord?

Next steps – Conversation: Talk with a Christian friend about how you can learn to set all your prayers in the larger context of the Spirit and Kingdom of God.

T. M. Moore

Each of our “next steps” exercises is tied into goals and disciplines involved in working your Personal Mission Field. If you have not yet identified your Personal Mission Field, watch the brief video showing you how to get started right away (click here). Learn how to work your Personal Mission Field by finding a friend and signing-up for our Mission Partners Outreach.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.