×

Part 3: Pray in Line with the Mind of God

Ephesians 3:14-21

Listen or read the following transcript from The Gospel Coalition as D. A. Carson speaks on the topic of prayer from Ephesians 3:14-21.


“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

This is the Word of the Lord.

How can we best improve our praying? We may, of course, carefully listen to the best models, to Christians who’ve been praying for decades. We hear them pray, and it is not simply a certain quality of sonorous cadence but an intimacy with the living God, a transparent knowledge of God’s Word, a proportionality, a reverence, a joy.

We can learn much by listening, then, to the prayers of others. That’s why I recommend, for example, the little book now out in paperback Valley of Vision that was mentioned earlier. My wife and I both have the initial, leather-bound copy. She has one by her side of the bed, and I have one by my side of the bed.

I am inclined to read mine in the evening. She is inclined to read hers in the morning. I know the language is somewhat old-fashioned, and so forth, but there is a kind of depth and theological integration in those prayers that can help us reform our praying. We learn, in part, we reform our praying, in part, by good models.

We also improve our praying by practice. You can read about bicycle riding for years, but sooner or later, if you’re going to learn how to ride a bicycle, you have to get on the thing and start pedaling and fall off a few times. You can learn all about the dynamics of swimming by reading books about it. You could become quite a theoretical specialist on the breaststroke, I’m quite sure. But that doesn’t mean you can actually do it. At some point, you have to practice.

You could study flight and learn about the distinction between ailerons and flaps and what they do on an airplane’s wing and aspect ratios and all the rest. But until you actually have the stick in your hand and practice flying, you will not learn to fly. So also it is easier to read books about praying than it is to pray. Whereas one of the things we need to do to improve our praying is to pray.

One of the things we need to do to improve our motorcycle riding is to ride a motorcycle. It is so in just about every domain of life. But above all, if we are to improve our praying, we must learn from God himself, as he has disclosed himself in his Word, how to pray, for he has left many, many forms of instruction as to how to pray in his Word. Our praying shall, then, gradually be transformed along four axes:

1. Prayer steeped in the Word of God

Let me invite you to turn to Nehemiah 9. This is, of course, a formal prayer. I wish I had time to expound the entire chapter, but let me read parts of it to you. The Levites are leading the people in confession of their sins and of the sins of their ancestors. They say, “ ‘Stand up and praise the Lord your God who is from everlasting to everlasting.’ ” Then the prayer begins. Let me read parts of it.

“Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you. You are the Lord God, who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and named him Abraham.

You found his heart faithful to you, and you made a covenant with him to give to his descendants the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites and Girgashites. You have kept your promise because you are righteous. You saw the suffering of our ancestors in Egypt; you heard their cry at the Red Sea. You sent signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his officials and all the people of his land, for you knew how arrogantly the Egyptians treated them.

You made a name for yourself, which remains to this day. You divided the sea before them, so that they passed through it on dry ground, but you hurled their pursuers into the depths, like a stone into mighty waters. By day you led them with a pillar of cloud, and by night with a pillar of fire to give them light on the way they were to take. You came down on Mount Sinai; you spoke to them from heaven.” Dropping down to verse 16:

“But they, our ancestors, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and they did not obey your commands. They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love.

Therefore you did not desert them, even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, ‘This is your god, who brought you up out of Egypt,’ or when they committed awful blasphemies. Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the wilderness. By day the pillar of cloud did not cease to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take. You gave your good Spirit to instruct them.

You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst. For forty years you sustained them in the wilderness …” The reason I have read so much of this (and had I time, I would have read the whole) is because of the language that is used. You see, at one level you can look at the themes the passage covers: creation, verse 6; Abraham, verses 7 and 8; the exodus, verses 9–12; the Law and the wilderness years, verses 13–15.

Then, our fathers have sinned, the exodus, Sinai, the calf, verses 16–18; the wilderness manna, verses 19–21; the time of the judges, all the way to verse 25; another “but” passage, verses 26–28, and so on. In other words, part of it is a survey of redemptive history. It just follows the Bible’s storyline. Yet, at the same time, without wanting to bore you with details, this chapter is enmeshed in biblical language. There is scarcely a line that is not taken from earlier Scripture.

Now I’m not going to give you an exhaustive list. The bigger commentaries provide them, in any case. But let me give you a partial list, just so you see what I mean. Verse 11: “The Egyptians were hurled like a stone into the mighty waters.” (Exodus 15) Verse 15: “With uplifted hand, God fulfilled his Word.” (Exodus 6 and Numbers 14) Verse 17: “The people rejoiced in God’s nature. He is a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love.” (Clauses mostly drawn from Exodus 34:6.)

Verse 18: “Blasphemers said to the golden calf, ‘This is your god, who brought you up out of Egypt.’ ” (Exodus 32) Verse 20: “They remembered the gift of God’s good spirit.” (Psalm 143:10) Verse 23: “This privileged people are as numerous as the stars of the sky.” (Genesis 22, Exodus 32, and many other passages.)

Verse 25: On entering the Promised Land, they are given its cities, houses, wells, vineyards, olive groves. (The same order as in Deuteronomy 6.) Verse 26: “But the people of God put his law behind their backs.” (Psalm 50 and Ezekiel 23) Verse 27: “God handed them over to their enemies.” (Judges 2, Ezra 5, and many other passages.) And on and on and on and on.

But it’s more yet. Many of this prayer’s most memorable phrases are drawn from prayers of earlier believers. Hezekiah is quoted in verse 6, Jeremiah in verses 6 and 10, Moses in verse 6, Daniel in verses 10 and 17, Solomon in verse 27, David in verse 31, and Ezra, a contemporary, in verse 8.

Now I’m not suggesting you memorize all of those bits of data. But you get the point, don’t you? The prayer is steeped in Scripture. There is a sense in which our prayers will be enriched as we read and reread and reread Scripture. Yet, for all that this prayer is steeped in Scripture, it does not feel canned. There is a form of praying that quotes a whole lot of biblical phrases, but it feels artificial. It feels like a sort of show-and-tell session. “Look at me. Look at all the Bible verses I’ve memorized.”

There is a kind of praying that quotes a whole lot of Scripture where you somehow get the impression you’re supposed to be impressed. But this doesn’t feel like that. It feels so rich and natural and appropriate. Yet, at the same time, steeped, absolutely steeped, in the storyline of Scripture, in the theology of Scripture, in the language of Scripture, in the prayers of antecedent people of Scripture. Do you see?

Let me tell you quite frankly, that cannot be aped. That comes out of a lifetime of learning to pray your way through Scripture as you read and reread Scripture and learn to pray it. In other words, prayer steeped in the Word of God is one of the axes of transformation.

2. Prayer steeped in biblical theology

We saw a little bit of that in the prayer we just scanned in Nehemiah 9, where again there’s a consciousness on the part of those leading in prayer that there is a storyline that is to be followed. They tell it in such a way as to emphasize the contrast between God’s faithfulness and grace and providing so much, but what we and our ancestors have done has been to rebel again and again and again and again.

There is a way of telling the story so God is magnified and our sins are clearly seen. But there are many other passages that do something similar. Here I would like to draw your attention back to Exodus 32, 33, and 34. Yesterday I warned you to remember how the narrative runs in Exodus 33 and 34 because I was going to return to it. Thematically, those three chapters (Exodus 32, 33, and 34) turn on five major points. Let me list them in no particular order.

A) This is the time of the giving of the revelation regarding the tabernacle. It comes at the end of this divine revelation that tells the people how to build the tabernacle.

After the Decalogue in verse 20, you have about 10 chapters of how to a tabernacle and everything that goes with it.

B) Very powerfully in the narrative there is a play on glory and goodness.

Moses cries, “Show me your glory,” and God says, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you.” Then there is the dramatic scene in chapter in chapter 34.

C) You now come across this expression, “abounding in love and faithfulness,” in God’s self-disclosure when he intones certain words and expounds his own name before Moses, who is hidden in the cleft in the rock.

Of course, all of those who’ve been to theological college and have studies their Hebrew will remember this is the famous expression checed ‘emeth.

Grace and truth, love and faithfulness. Checed is God’s gracious covenantal faithfulness. It is his grace shown to his covenantal people. ‘Emeth is his utter reliability, and when it is his utter reliability in word, it means truth. So when the queen of Sheba comes, for example, to Solomon, and sees everything that has been reported to her, she says, “Everything that was said to me was ‘emeth.” It was a reliable report, that it was the truth.

This pair of words, which surfaces again and again and again in Scripture, is sometimes rendered in our English Bibles love and faithfulness and sometimes grace and truth or some other combination. It is the right sort of ballpark. Remember it.

D) This is clearly also the time of the giving of the Law.

That’s what Moses was up in the mountain to do. He was there to receive the Law. The people rebelled against it in revelry. There is great, great judgment that falls upon the people. In chapter 34, Moses is commanded to return to the mountain to receive the Law yet again.

E) This dramatic clause, “No one has ever seen God.”

Exodus 33:20. One could pick up other thematics in these chapters, but remember those five.

Now turn to John 1. What you discover in verses 14–18 is all five of those thematics recur here. All five. If one or two had recurred, you might think it is an accident of thematic overlap. But when you have five coming together like this, it is just impossible to believe it is a providential accident from the human perspective. It is, rather, intentional. This is John reflecting on this passage. He’s bringing these truths from the Old Testament together, these divine perspectives and linking them, now, in the revelation of who Jesus Christ is.

So, tabernacle. John 1:14: “The Word became flesh and …” Our versions have, “… made his dwelling among us.” But none of the regular Greek verbs for housed among us or made his dwelling among us is used. It is a rather odd expression. You know as well as I do. “The Word became flesh and tabernacled amongst us.”

Inevitably, we are brought back to the introduction of the tabernacle. In our imaginations we are immediately caught back to the giving of the tabernacle as God manifested himself to his covenant people, in the context of the tabernacle, the glory coming upon the tabernacle as it rested amongst the tribes, three on the north, three on the south, three on the west, three on the east.

So now God is manifesting himself in the Word made flesh. “The Word became flesh and tabernacled amongst us.” As that was the place where this Holy God met, in fact, with his sinful and rebellious covenant people, so Christ is the supreme tabernacle, the meeting place between God and his people.

But because this is the Johannine prologue, virtually every theme in the prologue is anticipatory of that which is going to be unpacked later in the book. Sure enough, by chapter 2, already Jesus is talking about himself as the ultimate temple. The temple, of course, which is the hard-copy realization of the tabernacle. Now Jesus himself claims to be the ultimate temple. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it again.”

Then, the glory/goodness theme. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father …” Of course, glory is such a common theme that, by itself, it can’t provide a necessary connection with one particular chapter. But because the other four are all present, and are tied pretty tightly to this one set of chapters in the Old Testament, you are inclined to look at glory in the same way.

“Show me your glory.” “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you.” So you start remembering how the glory theme plays out in the gospel of John. “We have seen his glory.” Oh? What glory is that? As the narrative unwinds, initially, the glory is often connected with the signs, the miracles, so that at the end of the first one, for example, the turning of the water into wine in Cana of Galilee, we’re told the servants saw the miracle, but the disciples saw the glory.

But by the time you get to chapter 12 of John, this glory theme is running in a slightly different way. The Greeks approach. Jesus takes this as a trigger, and he says, verse 27: “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’?” That is, this hour that brings him to the ignominy and terror of the cross? Is that what I shall say? “No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.” What shall I say then? “Father, glorify your name!”

In other words, the Father’s name is to be glorified precisely in Jesus going to the cross. “Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.’ ” Thus Jesus returns to the glory he had with the Father before the world began by being glorified in the shame and ignominy and torture of the cross. “Show me your glory!” “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you.”

Oh, it is right to think of the exalted Son at the right hand of the Majesty on high. It is right to think we will see him in his glory when he comes on the last day. Yes, it is right. But we must see God is most glorified in the obedience of his Son that takes him to the borders of hell itself on the cross, for God’s glory is most manifest in his goodness. And we have seen his glory.

The expression, “abounding in love and faithfulness” is there, too, isn’t it? “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Then the same expression is picked up a little farther on, as well. That is, grace and truth came par excellence in Jesus Christ.

It’s not that there was no grace and truth in the old covenant. Of course there was. God is always like that. God discloses himself in those terms. But grace and truth par excellence are demonstrated supremely in the Lord Christ, the visitation of God himself when “The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us.”

Of course, this is also the time of the giving of the Law, verse 16. Our English translations have trouble with this one. “Out of his fullness we have all received grace …” Well, the NIV has “… grace upon grace,” as if they were heaped-up presents. The TNIV and the ESV have it right: “Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace.” Grace instead of grace. “… grace in place of grace already given.”

The expression suggests substitution. The preposition that is used doesn’t absolutely require that. It suggests it, but the next verse mandates it. “Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For …” The explanation, verse 17: “… the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” That is to say, the Law was a grace greatly given, generously given, graciously given. It was the truth.

But now we have grace and truth par excellence coming along. This law covenant has now eclipsed in the new covenant. Grace was given, but now a grace has come which surpasses it, which succeeds it, for the law was given to Moses. Now grace and truth par excellence come through Jesus Christ. Once again, we are driven to the Old Testament account, and this sweeping development in the progress of redemptive history.

Lastly, “No one has ever seen God.” (Exodus 33:20) Here we read in John 1:18: “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in the Father’s bosom, is in closest relationship with the Father, he has made him known.” Of course, this book goes on to say, in the Farewell Discourse, “Philip, have I been with you such a long time and have you not known me? He who has seen me has seen the Father.”

“No one has ever seen God.” “He who has seen me has seen the Father.” Oh, not the Father in his unshielded glory. That is still to come. Nevertheless, in his incarnate Son.… Do you want to see God? Study Jesus. Moses sees the trailing edge of the afterglow of the glory of the Lord. We see Jesus. All these are biblical theological themes that flow right out of the Old Testament text we briefly studied.

David was kind enough to mention the commentary on the New Testament use of the Old Testament. Let me tell you one way to use the book some people overlook: Use the indices. Don’t wait until you’re getting to the New Testament to read the New Testament commentary on the Old. Any time you’re preaching from anywhere in the Old Testament, use the Old Testament index and see if that passage shows up anywhere in the New Testament, thematically or otherwise. Do you see?

You will learn to go both ways. If you’re preaching from John, you should be taking your congregation back to Exodus 32, 33, and 34. But if you’re preaching from Exodus 32, 33, and 34, you ought to be going forward! Do you see? But that also suggests the prayers Moses utters, within the context of that great revelation in Exodus 32, 33, and 34 also have to be.… How shall I word this? Upgraded? Covenantally renewed? In terms of the new covenant.

The four prayers were: Moses intercedes for the people, Moses could wish himself accursed for the people, Moses understands his ability to stand and withstand depends utterly on knowing God better, and, whatever else, Moses begs for God’s presence among the people, whether in blessing or in judgment. That means, now, that with this fulfillment of all of those themes under the terms of the new covenant, those prayers, likewise, need to be developed and unpacked and prayed all over again in the constraints and characteristics of new covenant language.

I will leave you to work that out in more detail yourselves. I hinted at it when we went through those prayers. For example, Moses could wish himself accursed. We quickly come to Paul wishing himself accursed for his own kinsman, and so forth. All of them can be updated, upgraded, covenantally renewed, as it were, as you move into the New Testament Scriptures themselves.

Sometimes when I speak somewhere, it has become a bit of a shtick in some circles. I’m not quite sure why. Less so in Britain than some places. Whoever is introducing me ends up by saying, “Now, Brother, before you speak, we would like to pray for you. What would you like us to pray for?” And depending on the country, they might put an arm around your shoulder. In other countries they wouldn’t dare.

For a while I stumbled over that one. What do you say? I mean, there are always lots of things I could mention: The next conference? That seems a bit distant from the one I’m at. That a lot of you folk would get converted? My family? I mean, what do you say? But I’ve finally resolved that one. I simply say, “Pray for all the important things: Pray I may be holy. Pray I may speak the truth. Pray I may love you. Pray I may be faithful to my wife. Pray I may handle the Word of God correctly. Pray for all the important things.”

Of course, there’s the context in which it’s right to pray for this specific and that specific. It’s right to pray for particular details. I’m coming to those things later. But surely the most important things we should be praying for, for one another, are the important things. They’re the things that are established by the sweeping line of biblical theology, by God’s purposes in the world, by what God is doing.

3. Prayer steeped in the priorities of Scripture.

This could be taken as a sub-point of the last one, I suppose, but what I have in mind here are three specific things.

A) The examples of Scripture

We saw some examples from Moses praying. A number of years ago, of course, in a call to spiritual reformation, I worked through some of Paul’s prayers to use those as examples of what we should be praying for. In fact, the passage I read to begin with this morning, Ephesians, chapter 3, was one of those passages I tried to expound at the time.

There are specific things to pray for as judged by the apostolic and other examples. So although I’m sure it’s right to pray the marriage of your daughter will go well on Saturday.… I’m sure it’s right to pray that. Yet, at the same time, if we never pray, “May God strengthen you with power in your inner being, together with all the saints, that you may be able to grasp how long and wide and high and deep the love of God is, to the end you may be filled with all the measure of the fullness of God …” That’s a Pauline way of saying so you might be genuinely, spiritually mature.

If we never pray that, then in what sense are our prayers being formed and reformed by Scripture? Part of our discipline ought to be to pull out the prayers of Scripture, make lists of them, learn them, and learn to incorporate those prayers in our own praying. Reread Philippians 1:9–11 and Colossians 1:9–11. What are the kinds of things Paul prays for the Philippians, for the Colossians? What does he pray in Ephesians 1?

So, the examples of Scripture. In this same connection, then, one should study the Lord’s Prayer. I scanned last night the book by Richard Coekin. It’s different from some books on the Lord’s Prayer, precisely because it’s trying to teach you to enjoy God while you’re praying so prayer is not mere duty. It’s a good book to read. For a book that works through the theology of it, at a sort of systemic level, to understand how this needs to be integrated to broader themes, perhaps also the book by Derek Prime.

B) The eschatological vision of Scripture

Come back to Ephesians 3:14 and following, which I read at the beginning. Paul introduces the prayer by saying, verse 14: “For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. And I pray …” For what reason? Well, for this reason: Clearly that’s referring to the previous material. It’s antecedent reference. But when you’ll look at the preceding verses in Ephesians 3, you discover that chapter 3, verse 1, begins with the same expression and leaves a sentence running on unfinished.

“For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles.… Before I go there, there’s some more stuff I want to bring to your attention. Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given me,” and so forth. In other words, the “For this reason” of 3:14 actually harks back to the “For this reason” of chapter 3, verse 1.

In some ways, although 3:2–13 is tightly integrated with the theme of the book, it’s an excursus as far as this “For this reason” continuity is concerned. That means, if you want to find out what “this reason” is in 3:14, you have to look at 3:1 and what precedes that. So the reason Paul prays what he prays in 3:14 and following is actually located in chapters 1 and 2. Now be of good cheer. I shall not try to expound all of Ephesians 1 and 2 to you.

I will, however, dare to give a summary. In Ephesians, Paul delights in reflecting on the superlative sovereignty and grace of almighty God in doing all things according to the pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, in calling out a people for himself, from both Jews and Gentiles. He to a whole life of good works, Ephesians 2:8–10. His point, as it develops in the latter half of Ephesians 2, is this constitutes one new group, one new humanity, made up of Jews and Gentiles alike.

At one time alienated, but now a new community. So he dares to address the Gentiles and say, in Ephesians 2:11 and following, “Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called ‘uncircumcised’—remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope, without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one, has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.”

Verse 19: “Consequently …” You Gentiles. “… you are no longer foreigners and strangers. You’re fellow citizens with God’s people, members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”

“For this reason I pray …” For what reason? Because this is God’s purpose in redemptive history. His purpose is to build this whole new community, grounded in what God has done in Christ Jesus on the cross. “For this reason,” because this is God’s purpose. This is God’s plan. This is his eschatological vision. We are rushing, now, toward the consummation. It is all grounded on the cross. This is what God is doing. This is where his heart is. This is what his purpose it. This is what he is effecting. “For this reason I bow my knee. And I pray …”

Then the prayers themselves have to do with asking, in effect, that God’s will be done for the building up of this community, that it might be conformed to Christ, that you might be a dwelling place for Christ, that you might grasp something of the limitless dimensions of God’s love in Christ, because toward this end you become mature. No other way will you become mature.

So you pray these things since they are entirely in line with God’s saving, redemptive purposes in Christ Jesus. That’s why you pray. Again, that doesn’t mean it’s not right to ask the Lord to keep you safe on your travel home today. Yet, there is a sense in which the heartbeat of what we pray for ought to be in line with God’s redemptive purposes in the gospel. That’s the heartbeat.

C) The ultimate goal of Scripture

You see, even at the end of this prayer Paul still maintains a God-centeredness that transcends even the importance of the consummation of the church. He ends up with a doxology: “Now to do him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine …” Now there’s some encouragement, isn’t it?

“… according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations …” To him be glory. So we pray to bring maximal glory to God himself in the life of the church, in his Son, in the proclamation of his Son, in the elevation of his Son, now and for all eternity.

4. Prayer that acknowledges its frank ignorance of the mind of God.

You see, what I’ve been talking about here, all through this talk, has been prayer in line with the mind of God. In my first three points, what I was trying to establish is there are numerous ways in which your prayer may be enriched by increasing knowledge of the mind of God, prayer steeped in the Word of God, the phrasing of God, the account of God (Nehemiah 9), prayer steeped in biblical theology so you see how the whole Bible works together and things are fulfilled along typological and other lines.

Then prayer steeped in the priorities of Scripture, the example of Pauline prayers, the eschatological vision of Scripture, the ultimate goal of Scripture.… That’s all true. Yet, yet, prayer that acknowledges its frank ignorance of the mind of God.

Just as in the Old Testament, people could cry, “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you,” so Romans 8 reminds us, “In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for. But the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”

That is, there are times when we simply do not know the will of God. We do not know the mind of God. It’s too complicated. It is not sufficiently disclosed. The particulars are too narrow for us to be quite certain about. Is God dealing with us here in judgment or in mercy?

We cry out to God, as Moses cried out to God in Exodus 34, “Take us for your inheritance in blessing. We want your forgiveness, but come to us in judgment if you must. But take us for your inheritance. We do not know what to pray for.” And the Spirit enables us, praying for us through our wordless groans, precisely because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

The applications, of course, are many. Most of us have become so burned by the excesses of charismatic claims of healing we’re afraid to pray for healing except through means. We are less inclined than some to say, “Lord, heal our dear sister.” We are more inclined to say, “Give the doctors skill to hear our dear sister.” That’s a good prayer, and there’s nothing wrong, too, with praying, “In your mercy, will you not heal our dear sister?”

But you cannot claim that as if it is what God has universally promised, here and now in this world order, as if you have the right to be certain God will heal everyone now. Even pragmatics should teach us that, let alone exegesis. As far as I know, the death rate amongst the most extreme charismatic faith healers is exactly the same as amongst us: 100 percent.

My wife, a couple of years ago, was at a prayer meeting for a woman whose cancer had returned, and she was clearly dying. This was a group of more than 200 people praying with increasing enthusiasm for a healing for this dear woman. We’ll call her Mary.

But my wife, who has almost lost her life twice to cancer, when it was her turn to pray, she said, “Dear heavenly Father, we would so much appreciate it if you would heal dear Mary, and we dare to ask you that. But if not, teach her to die well. Give her confidence in the risen Christ. Give her a testimony for her husband and children. Give her delight in the Lord and the prospect of a new heaven and new earth. Fill her with joy in believing.”

Well, you could have cut the air with a knife. I mean, you’re letting down the side. You weren’t praying for healing, you know? There’s an unbeliever in our midst. But, in fact, there is no promise in Scripture that guarantees all healing now. There will be healing on the last day in resurrection existence, and as we grow older we start thinking that looks like a jolly good idea.

There’s no harm in asking, but sometimes we don’t know what God will do. We pray for revival, and so we ought to do. But sometimes God deals with his people in judgment. We ought never think provided we get enough people praying for revival, therefore, God has to send it. God’s timing, God’s sovereign sway in all of this.… He will do what he wills in his due course, which should not decrease our fervid desire for revival. But God will also raise up the prayer warriors, too. He may bring revival yet again to this nation and to Europe. He may, in his mercy.

If, instead, he deals with us in judgment, then just as Job could say, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him,” we will learn to pray, “Grant us revival and reformation. Hear our sins. We repent and hunger afresh for a new moving of your Spirit that convicts and converts and promotes the Word of God in the land. But if not.… But if not, then let me be faithful in my small corner and acknowledge that your ways are perfect,” because we do not know what God will do, and there is no kind of increased piety by pretending we do.

Brothers and sisters, we have worked hard, in the context of the Proclamation Trust and its many, many forms of fruit, to reform our preaching, and that is right. Now let us reform our praying. Dare to take time to copy out the prayers of Scripture and learn how to incorporate them into your prayer life. Set time aside for praying as you set time aside for study.

You have learned that, in part, through the disciplines of the Proclamation Trust. Now learn to set time aside for praying, praying in line with the mind of God for your people, for the nation, for the advance of the kingdom of God in every corner of this world in line with the mind of God where we know his mind from Scripture and with groanings that cannot be uttered where we do not, because when the Spirit intercedes for us, he knows the mind of God. Let us pray.

We confess, heavenly Father, we often feel as if we are just on the edge of learning these things. Work in us by your Spirit so we have a hunger to pray, to pray biblically, faithfully, in discouraging times and in encouraging times, on the vast scale of redemptive history that looks for the consummation and cries gladly, “Yes. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” and on the small scale of individual parishioners who are struggling with bereavement and divorce. Who is sufficient for these things?

We bless you that we have access to your presence by the Lord Christ. We thank you that he has commanded us to pray and taught us to pray. We thank you that in his grace he condescends to work through us poor pray-ers. We thank you that when we do not know what to ask for, you send your blessed Holy Spirit to intercede through our wordless groans, perfectly in line with the will of God. We dare to ask, heavenly Father, by your Word, by your Spirit, by the examples of others, teach us to pray. For Jesus’ sake, amen.

 

Is there enough evidence for us to believe the Gospels?

In an age of faith deconstruction and skepticism about the Bible’s authority, it’s common to hear claims that the Gospels are unreliable propaganda. And if the Gospels are shown to be historically unreliable, the whole foundation of Christianity begins to crumble.
But the Gospels are historically reliable. And the evidence for this is vast.
To learn about the evidence for the historical reliability of the four Gospels, click below to access a FREE eBook of Can We Trust the Gospels? written by New Testament scholar Peter J. Williams.