This
is part 7 in an ongoing series entitled “Becoming a People of Prayer” Click here for a listing of previous posts in this series if you want to catch up
on what you’ve missed.
Continuing from the last post on the
danger of merely surviving in corporate prayer we look today at the first two
real risks that we run by not pressing into the discipline that Christ has
designed the church to operate under. You see, when we are content to merely
survive in corporate prayer we will:
1. Miss out on the opportunities
that God wants to give to this church
Prayer is a solemn and serious
responsibility that God entrusts to his people. We are called to stand watch in
prayer for places to move, circumstances to become involved with, initiatives
to start, people to love, intercession to perform and repentance to offer.
At Gethsemane, Jesus instructed Peter to
be alert and stand watch. Specifically he wanted Peter to see what he was doing
so that Peter could in some way have the privilege and blessing of
participating in what Jesus was doing; to be a pillar of support in his hour of
need and desperation. But Peter (along with James and John) failed to keep his
eyes open.
We need to follow that instruction as
well so that we can see what direction God is leading us in as a church. What
needs are there to be met in our community? What opportunities do we have to
spread the Gospel? What doors is God opening for us to burst through in the
power of the Holy Spirit? What mistakes are we making or have we made that we
need to repent of? Are we as a church prepared to do what it takes to make sure
we’re on guard or are we content to merely survive, with our eyes closed and
miss every opportunity to be involved with what Jesus wants to do through us?
2. Believe that we have
something to offer God while acting in our own power – and fail trying.
The truth of the matter is that as a
church; when we try to do anything by our own strength – when we try to make a
difference as a surviving – rather than a thriving - church we will fail.
Back in 2011 I was involved in this
community theatre production of Hairspray. I was sharing one of the principal
roles with our local funeral director because the show runners wanted us both
to be involved but recognised that neither of us could fully commit to the role
because of the nature of our work. I did the Thursday and Saturday shows while
my friend did the Friday and Sunday shows we also split a lot of the rehearsals
so that the burden was not as extreme on us as it is for many of the other cast
members. Because of that and because of
my faith in my own general awesomeness I walked into our first full cast
rehearsal about two weeks before opening night fully confident in my ability to
dazzle and impress everyone with my considerable skills. There was only one
problem: I didn’t know my lines.
I got out there and sang my song,
muddled my way through my dance steps and completely bombed on all my spoken
lines. I mean after the first couple flubs I didn’t even attempt to recite
anything – I just read. I had let my overconfidence and self-assurance get the
best of me and when it came time to give an account for what I was asked to do
I failed miserably.
As a church we are called to do
something as well. We are called to advance the Kingdom of God, to spread the
good news that Jesus is alive, to care for the weak and weary and broken, to stand
up for the oppressed, to be God’s agents in remaking this fallen world into a
place where His presence is manifest in every corner, nook and cranny of
society. What are we going to say as a congregation when God taps us on the
shoulder and says it’s our scene? Are we going to be ready? Or are we going to
be woefully unprepared?
Returning to our principal text for this
section from Mark 14 we read:
Then
he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Simon,” he said to
Peter, “are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray
so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh
is weak.”
The second time Jesus instructed Peter
to pray that he wouldn’t fall into temptation. The temptation of course was the
temptation to believe in his own strength. To think that apart from Christ he
was able to do anything – even something as simple as acknowledging Jesus
before the crowds.
“Peter”,
he says, “Pray! Or you’re not going to be
able to make it through what’s coming”
When we, like Peter grow self-assured
and arrogant in our own capacity to do right, and our own collective ability to
accomplish anything of merit for God on our own we fool ourselves and open
ourselves up to the kind of folly and failure he experienced.
In our next post we will review the
second two risks that we run when we are content to only survive, rather than
thrive in corporate prayer.
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