We all need help in praying for others. The prayers in the Bible are a great help and so are the requests for prayer we find there. In Romans 15:30-32, Paul asks for prayer, as he often did. He urges the Roman believers, “by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit” to join him in his struggle by praying to God for him. To pray for others honours the Lordship of Jesus and is an act of love prompted by the Holy Spirit. To pray for others is also to struggle with and for them, as Paul knows. It is a partnership in hard work!
What exactly is the nature of the struggle in Paul’s situation? He says it is twofold. Going to Jerusalem, he needs to be “rescued from the unbelievers in Judea”. Gospel ministry always involves this struggle. It is a frequent, urgent prayer request of many missionaries. The world has not changed in 2000 years and neither has the nature of the struggle. It is not a battle against flesh and blood but it is often manifested through flesh and blood. We must pray for protection and safety.
Paul is also concerned that his “service in Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints there”. Here is a less obvious yet no less real and urgent need for prayer. It is a request that still carries weight for missionaries today.
Paul was taking much needed financial help to the suffering church in Jerusalem, a gift from the Gentile churches. What could possibly be difficult about such a ministry? Why does he fear that his service might prove to be unacceptable? At least two features of the situation may give rise to his concern.
First, there is the history of Paul’s persecution of the church before his conversion and the suspicion of him that followed. He had caused much suffering and the memory of it may still be sharp in many hearts.
We know that we are to forgive as the Lord forgave us, but knowing it is one thing, doing it is another thing entirely. Maybe Paul is simply being realistic in terms of the struggle many of us have with forgiving and forgetting. And it may be that missionaries today encounter suspicion among those they seek to serve because of past failures. Perhaps mistakes made in the early days of ministry are still remembered and poison present fellowship. We need to pray that God will grant healing in such situations.
But it may be that what Paul is most conscious of is that for many Jewish believers something of the old Jew-Gentile divide still exists. Receiving a gift from the Gentile churches may be hard to swallow, because it will mean swallowing their pride. Paul’s approach will need to combine a sensitivity that doesn’t pander to the pride of others with a boldness that doesn’t brutalise their sensibilities. No wonder he is asking for prayer!
Our friends need such prayer too. They need grace to serve national churches with wisdom and humility, without any of the negative overtones of paternalism. They need grace to deal with situations that witness more to old divisions than to the unity of the Spirit. We need to pray that their service may be “acceptable to the saints”.
Thursday, 20 September 2007
They also serve...
It’s a moving story. The great poet John Milton finally lost his sight and then was bereaved of his wife. In the trauma of that first loss, he penned the sonnet ‘On His Blindness’ in which he reflects on the parable of the talents in the light of his own circumstances. He expresses in the poem his sense of frustration and perplexity over how the Lord could allow this enforced idleness, “Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?”
Many will be able to sympathise with his feelings. In Psalm 42, the writer expresses great heaviness of heart and cries out, “Why are you downcast, oh my soul?”. Life had taken a turn for the worse and part of the anxiety and pain were the memories he had of serving God: “These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God.” (v.4). Those times now seemed so long ago and so far away.
As we go through similar times, it’s good to recall that ultimately we are not defined by what we do. Of course, how we serve the Lord is important. Our gifts allow us to express who we are in relationship with him and our gratitude for his grace. But they don’t define us. We are not in the first instance called to serve but “called to belong to Jesus Christ” (Romans 1:6). That clearly involves service but it is not limited to it. Significantly, Adam and Eve’s first full day in Eden was a Sabbath on which they rested in the Lord who had made them. They were created to belong to him and that holds true in the new creation too.
Part of our struggle over this may be because we view service too narrowly. John Milton wrestled with his difficulties and resolved them, declaring “They also serve who only stand and wait”. We too quickly limit what serving God means. We define it in terms of activity but Milton had grasped the profound truth that it depends not on action for its vitality but on the attitude of the heart. Serving God is fundamentally concerned with a response to his grace that recognises and rejoices in the Lordship of Christ over the whole of life.
Yes, Jesus is Lord, even over all our infirmities. The Lord who is sovereign can use us just as he will. His purposes are not thwarted when our gifts are limited through age or infirmity, nor are his purposes overtaken by events beyond our control. Paul had grasped this as he languished in a Roman prison. Despite the curtailing of his ‘active service’ he was still rejoicing in the Lord’s ability to use his circumstances and even the wrong motives of others to further the cause of Christ (Phil. 1:12-18). We may feel chained by age or circumstances but “God’s Word is not chained” (2 Tim. 2:9) and by his Spirit he can still use us to herald the name of Jesus, in our sufferings, through our prayers.
The God we serve called light out of darkness and made all things from nothing. Out of the ‘nothing’ of our limitations and frailties, he can fashion something lasting and good to glorify his Son. It’s interesting that Milton’s greatest piece of work, Paradise Lost, was written after his blindness. And the greatest work in all history was declared ‘Finished!’ when all had seemed lost and the Suffering Servant forsaken by God. His ways are much higher than ours.
Many will be able to sympathise with his feelings. In Psalm 42, the writer expresses great heaviness of heart and cries out, “Why are you downcast, oh my soul?”. Life had taken a turn for the worse and part of the anxiety and pain were the memories he had of serving God: “These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God.” (v.4). Those times now seemed so long ago and so far away.
As we go through similar times, it’s good to recall that ultimately we are not defined by what we do. Of course, how we serve the Lord is important. Our gifts allow us to express who we are in relationship with him and our gratitude for his grace. But they don’t define us. We are not in the first instance called to serve but “called to belong to Jesus Christ” (Romans 1:6). That clearly involves service but it is not limited to it. Significantly, Adam and Eve’s first full day in Eden was a Sabbath on which they rested in the Lord who had made them. They were created to belong to him and that holds true in the new creation too.
Part of our struggle over this may be because we view service too narrowly. John Milton wrestled with his difficulties and resolved them, declaring “They also serve who only stand and wait”. We too quickly limit what serving God means. We define it in terms of activity but Milton had grasped the profound truth that it depends not on action for its vitality but on the attitude of the heart. Serving God is fundamentally concerned with a response to his grace that recognises and rejoices in the Lordship of Christ over the whole of life.
Yes, Jesus is Lord, even over all our infirmities. The Lord who is sovereign can use us just as he will. His purposes are not thwarted when our gifts are limited through age or infirmity, nor are his purposes overtaken by events beyond our control. Paul had grasped this as he languished in a Roman prison. Despite the curtailing of his ‘active service’ he was still rejoicing in the Lord’s ability to use his circumstances and even the wrong motives of others to further the cause of Christ (Phil. 1:12-18). We may feel chained by age or circumstances but “God’s Word is not chained” (2 Tim. 2:9) and by his Spirit he can still use us to herald the name of Jesus, in our sufferings, through our prayers.
The God we serve called light out of darkness and made all things from nothing. Out of the ‘nothing’ of our limitations and frailties, he can fashion something lasting and good to glorify his Son. It’s interesting that Milton’s greatest piece of work, Paradise Lost, was written after his blindness. And the greatest work in all history was declared ‘Finished!’ when all had seemed lost and the Suffering Servant forsaken by God. His ways are much higher than ours.
Thursday, 6 September 2007
quoting the quoted
In order to be able to assume the responsibility for other people’s growth, leaders must themselves have grown to true maturity and inner freedom. They must not be locked up in a prison of illusion or selfishness, and they must have allowed others to guide them...
We can only command if we know how to obey. We can only be a leader if we know how to be a servant. We can only be a mother—or a father—figure if we are conscious of ourselves as a daughter or a son. Jesus is the Lamb before the He is the Shepherd. His authority comes from the Father; He is the beloved Son of the Father.
Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, 1989 - quoted on Out of Ur.
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