I was taking the summer off from my college studies in chemistry and mathematics to earn money and learn to pray.
Earning money was the easy part. The praying part was tougher-especially at first. A new pastor-and old friend-arrived in town and he invited me to meet with him every Monday evening to pray together.
Initially, I found myself running out of things to say, and many of my prayers sounded like wish lists. After three weeks or so, my friend quietly suggested that the following Monday he would start to teach me how to pray.
At our next meeting, he asked, "What shall we pray for tonight?"
I had received a letter from a young woman whom I will call Jane. The pastor and I both knew her. Her life had been in a mess before God saved her. Now, three years later, she was dying of cancer and was not expected to live more than a few weeks. Her letter was full of bitterness, hurt, and fear.
What, then, should we pray for her? "Lord, heal Jane"? "Lord, rebuke Jane for her bitterness"? Or how about the usual prayer: "Lord, bless Jane"?
My friend helped me to think through all the options. Certainly we could ask that God would heal Jane, just as children ask their fathers for something. God could heal her, and we should ask. But God hasn't promised to bring instant physical restoration to all who ask.
Wasn't there something we should pray for Jane that was in line with God's own promises for his people, something we could claim with confidence on Jane's behalf?
As we went through verse after verse, I was struck by the number and the beauty of the passages promising that God will keep his own people and bring fruit from their lives. We may be "confident of this, that he who began a good work in [us] will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" (Phil. 1:6). We were convinced God had genuinely begun a "good work" in Jane's life. Now we would petition God to keep his promise and carry it on.
Great article. One of the pitfalls of living in the midst of a heresy battle is that it is too easy to fall into the habit of complaining about the church, our worthy opponents, and even about our allies, rather than bringing them to God in prayer.
Thanks to Jackie and to PM.