Prayer

John Piper has this incredible sermon on prayer and what he likes to call “the victory of God”. The texts of Scripture he refers to are all eschatological in nature, which struck me as odd the first time I heard the sermon. What in the world does eschatology have to do with prayer?! But this sermon in combination with my church’s recent sermons on the book of Daniel, (which by the way I can only vouch very highly that you really should listen to them online www.graceevfree.org, ) has caused me to desire to see my little life in line with God’s greater purposes that He is even now in process of working out in history. John Piper’s counsel for fulfilling this desire is to pray. He puts prayer in a couple of different perspectives: he refers back to the passage in Revelations that describes the angels reaching down and drawing out from the prayers of the saints stored up in a bowl as incense before the throne of God. The angel is using those prayers to bring about the judgments and wrath of God on the earth. Our prayers don’t get laid by the wayside! No, they are being stored up and then used to bring about the end of time and in the inauguration of the Kingdom on earth! Our prayers, every last one of them, matter!

And then Piper brings out the significance of prayer in light of this by describing a woman on her knees in her kitchen floor before the day has started, praying for the salvation of the lost in China. He states that it is those prayers that God uses to bring about His kingdom purposes around the world. Our prayers! The angel in Revelations is withdrawing from our prayers which more often than not feel small, insignificant, and unpowerful (isn’t that just how Satan would want us to see prayer?!).

Our church’s prayer meetings recently have been spent in prayer for the lost, and what powerful and refining times of prayer they have been. Our Monday night prayer meeting this week focused particularly on missions and afterwards, several individuals met to discuss and communicate to our church leadership their interest in overseas missions. It was an interesting time for me because several of my friends participated in that meeting. I did not.

God has been gracious to me by showing me what His intent is for my role in missions – I know beyond a shadow of a doubt God’s design for me to stay here in the States – the burden on my heart speaks strongly: a yearning for the church of America to regain a deeper understanding of the Lord. And through the counsel of my church elders, I have been convicted that I must somehow figure out how to relate myself, to come alongside, those who have a burden for overseas ministry. And it is not that I do not have the compassion or awareness of the great need that awaits us across the waters. If anything, I have more than your average American, simply because I spent the greater part of my childhood living next to slums and beggars. I know the need. But God has not called me in particular to go meet those needs. He has called me to stay here where I can continue to vocalize the need, to try and burst our American comfort bubble we live in and help people, including myself, to stay abreast of the ever-constant need across the ocean. For a long while, I have felt that my role in missions was that – coming into an American perspective with a more global perspective.

But now, after living here for 6 years, with very limited overseas travel, I find myself trapped in that bubble that I spent the first couple years of my time here in the States trying to burst. I have become like those I was constantly trying to change! Pride indeed goeth before a fall!

But witness with me the powerful transformation of our God:

With the inauguration of Ramadan yet another year, my roommate and I have committed to joining Christians around the world in prayer for Muslim nations. This has been a key participant, as I have recently become aware of, in God restoring my global perspective. For God’s choice for me was not simply to jump on a plane and drop myself off in a foreign 3rd world country to re-expose my senses to the needs of the world for the peace of Christ. No, it was prayer.

These times of prayer in the morning has made me realize the powerful truths of Piper’s sermon. My prayers really do matter. Entering into prayer and trying to figure out what to ask of God, and how to relate myself to people I have never met before in my life, feeling under-informed about the culture and true needs of the place or people group I am praying for – it is challenging. But it is oh-so-rewarding. My heart and mind have become much more engaged in a Gospel-perspective. I used to be envious of those going overseas because I knew God was asking me to stay here even though I longed for the familiarity of life overseas. But now? I get excited, and want to be on board with what God is going to do through these families and individuals.

Missions is so easy to avoid, to ignore, to neglect. Especially if you don’t think you are “called” to it. But we are all “called” to it. That is the Great Commission, and whether that means we pack up and leave, or we stay behind, we are commanded to be participating in this great work of God to offer people one last chance before He brings about a righteous judgment on the earth. This is God’s will for us! How that works out in each of our lives may be very different, but friends, I plead with you, do not ignore the Great Commission.

Before I step down from my preachy soap-box, I would like to urge you, beckon you who live here in the States: pray! Pray! Even if you never touch foot on foreign soil, we who live here in the States have no excuse. And how much more we must trust in God’s sovereignty when we are praying for the nations. God is sovereign over the workings of history – it is all over the Bible – if Daniel is too challenging to understand, start at least with the prophets. And when we begin to pray for the nations, suddenly the World News every evening takes on more import. Because if you really believe your prayers can make a difference, maybe, just maybe you’ll get a chance to witness some of the answers to those prayers through the circumstances here and around the world. But you won’t know until you pray. Because it is through prayer that the Holy Spirit begins to open your eyes to see what He is indeed accomplishing around the world.