Prayer, Mission, and our Struggles with Both

While Jesus left no recorded instruction to the apostles to prepare themselves for mission by prayer, Luke reports that during the interim until Pentecost "all these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer" (Acts 1:14).  When the mission of the new church was threatened by an edict commanding them to cease their witness, the apostles turned to prayer again, and their mission was confirmed by a new spiritual empowering (Acts 4: 1-31).  The first missionary journey from Antioch emerged from a prayer meeting (Acts 13: 1-3).  Thus there is an indissoluble reinforcing connection between mission and dependent prayer.  Those who realistically face the demanding task of local mission are immediately driven to prayer by the magnitude of the work confronting them.  Those who are praying about the needs surrounding them in the world are awakened to the greatness of those needs and the opportunity for the church to meet them.

Richard Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life, 152.

Prayer should be as natural as breathing.  Yet for most of us, concentrated prayer is difficult.

Why is this the case?

I think so many of us feel downright guilty about our lack of focused prayer.  We know the good we ought to do, we can tell you what you ought to do, but we lack the evidence in our lives that we really do what we know we ought to do.  In time, we build up an immunity to calls for further and deeper prayer by placing walls around our souls.  Who wants to feel guilty all the time?!

My goal is not to make us feel guilty.  It is also not to hold my life or anyone else's life up as "the standard."  My true goal is to encourage us to grow.  To do so, we need to recognize and repent of several things.

First, our biggest hindrance to prayer is our indwelling flesh.  

Even if you have been a believer for years, your flesh is still with you.  The supernatural gift of faith was lost in the fall.  Faith is what propels prayer, particularly a life-style of prayer.  Thus, walking in dependent prayer does not come naturally to us.  Instead, it runs opposite of our natural, fleshly, tendencies.  

In other words, we do not naturally pray and walk in faith with God.  It is something that has to be nourished and grown.  It will not naturally happen just because you have been a believer for many years.

When it comes to dependent, missional prayer, almost all of us are beginners.  

In fact, new Christians can often lead us older believers in dependent prayer.  I would go so far to say that if you have known Jesus for years, but have not nourished and grown your ability to pray in faith, you probably have more "fleshly" walls built up against dependent prayer.  Why?  You have a reputation to keep.  You know should not be so "immature."

The first step to overcoming our lack of prayer is confess that rumors of our great maturity need to be rejected as a complete lie.  All of us need to repent and believe.  Claim the truth of your justification and adoption by God.  Start anew.  Begin small- with 5 minutes of prayer in the morning.  Learn to pray throughout the day.  Get past the guilt by claiming the truth of your identity in Christ.

Our second greatest hindrance to prayer is our huge tendency to walk 

in our self effort and personal strength.  

There is so much that all of us can do without "divine" help.  I know that sounds horrible, but it is true.  You can perform your job without direct aid from God.  You can do so many work tasks without even a thought of needing God's help.  I can almost assure you there are others in your workplace that do your type of work who do not believe.  They still "get it done."

Even in ministry, there is so much that can be done through our fleshly efforts.  If you are a good musician, you can play and lead worship without divine help.  You can follow the script and the plans made from past years so as to pull off a great VBS or some other church program.  You can go about your "Christian Life" without much need for moment by moment dependence on God.  You can even parent or make it through your normal day without much if any divine help.

Doesn't what I just wrote sound heretical?  Yet, I think it is really true.  I know I lived that way, and I still live that way sometimes.  I even prepared sermons and talks without much dependent prayer.  I am a good public speaker and I have a vast trove of theological knowledge at my disposal.  With the orderly mind that God has given me, I can pull of speaking or teaching without prayer.  I know many pastors who are experienced will affirm the same thing.

How about you?  

Take a moment to really think about it.  I think many of us vastly overestimate the amount of dependence we have on Jesus.  If this true, repent, confess, and believe afresh and anew.

Do you want to grow in dependence?  I offer this piece of advice.  Get out of your rut by starting or participating in a new ministry.  Push yourself outside of your comfort zone.  Try something that will fail without God's direct help.  See if that helps promote dependency.

Such stretching in ministry is exactly what the early church experienced in the book of Acts.  God's call prompted dependent prayer.  There is something nice and peaceful about maintaining the status quo in ministry.  Yet, it can also be deadly to our spirituality.  

Growing in dependency upon Jesus leads to unshakeable joy, power, growth in holiness, maturity, and depth.  

Why not take some time today to ask the Lord to fight against your fleshly tendencies and grow you in dependency?  He loves you so much that He will lovely guide you deeper in.