Prayer Meeting 30/5/2022

Our Lack Of Sustaining A Prayer Life - Part 2

I do know there will be much improvement in our prayer life since we started these teachings and meetings, but I’m sure none of us are satisfied yet with our prayer life, and I’m sure none of us would think we have an ability to sustain anything that would lead to a more productive prayer life on our own.

Well, at the last prayer meeting we talked on: ‘Our Lack Of Sustaining A Prayer Life.’ We were drawing from the sermon by Jonathan Edwards, entitled: ‘Hypocrites Deficient In The Duty Of Prayer’. This is a two part sermon from Edwards, so we will also be staying in this same subject this week. The scripture he drew from was Job 27:10, and subsequently we drew from that but extended it to Job 27:2-10.

Before we read the verses, I want to read our puritan prayer tonight, which is selected in line with the topic which is being taught tonight. We could of course say the same prayer we did the last time, called ‘Help me cry Lord’, seeing as this is really the second part of this teaching. However, let me read another just as fitting, and for the sake also of learning more of the puritan prayers. This one is from the ‘Valley Of Vision’, so we know not the writer of this prayer, which does not weaken it one bit. The prayer is entitled: ‘After Prayer’ (page 276).

Oh God of grace, I bewail I bewail my cold, listless, heartless prayers; their poverty adds sin to sin. If my hope were in them I should be undone, but the worth of Jesus perfumes my feeble breathings, and wins their acceptance. Deepen my contrition of heart, Confirm my faith in the blood that washes from all sin. May I walk lovingly with my great Redeemer. Flood my soul with true repentance that my heart may be broken for sin and unto sin. Let me be as slow to forgive myself as thou art ready to forgive me. Gazing on the glories of thy grace may I be cast into the lowest depths of shame, and walk with downcast head now thou art pacified towards me. O my great High Priest, pour down upon me streams of needful grace, bless me in all my undertakings, in every thought of my mind, every word of my lips, every step of my feet, every deed of my hands. Thou didst live to bless, die to bless, rise to bless, ascend to bless, take thy throne to bless, and now thou dost reign to bless. O give sincerity to my desires, earnestness to my supplications, fervour to my love. 

In terms of buying a copy of ‘The Valley of Vision’ that we’ve been reading from. We are in a church where we deeply care about reading and studying and writing. In reformed theology, very few books, if any, are novels. Therefore, it’s important to get out of the mindset that you are buying a novel where you need to finish a book before you move onto another or buy another. For instance, if you were to read the whole works of John Owen, it would take your 4, 5 or 6 years to get the benefit. I’ve found personally that when you buy a book and you open it straight away, it gets you into the habit of reading. Also, you are reading different things at different times for different reasons.

Also, to mention the book ‘Gentle And Lowly’ by Dane Ortlund that I recommended on Sunday. Like most books, often when the author is drilling into something, they can negate others truths, they often overly absolute their points in order to get them across. This is often the case: I’ve critiqued books in seminary that required me to do so, and most of the critique was based on over-emphasis to get a point across.

Not all books are deep doctrinal ones but I do agree they also should not negate those truths to get a point across, ‘Gentle And Lowly’ does at times. But for me, unless you’re reading it from that perspective, it’s not near as damaging as what maybe some people believe. If someone who is totally ignorant to any form of doctrine and are not greatly acquainted with the doctrines of depravity, I think the book could come across more as antinomian, or hyper grace.

Okay, let me read out the verses and then get to the key verses for us in this teaching in Job 27 verses 8-10. John MacArthur’s subheading for this passage is ‘Job Maintains His Integrity’, which tells us really the heart of Job and him declaring no matter what, I will honour God. And even when things were appalling in his life, and to all intents and purposes it looks like God has deserted him, he is still upholding the Lord as the almighty, and submitting to Him and not blaming Him or in any way lowering his level of faith.

Job 27:1-7

¹Moreover Job continued his discourse, and said: ² “As God lives, who has taken away my justice, And the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter, ³ As long as my breath is in me, And the breath of God in my nostrils, ⁴ My lips will not speak wickedness, Nor my tongue utter deceit. ⁵ Far be it from me That I should say you are right; Till I die I will not put away my integrity from me. ⁶ My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go; My heart shall not reproach me as long as I live. ⁷ “May my enemy be like the wicked, And he who rises up against me like the unrighteous.

And the key verses which Edwards used:

Job 27:8-10

⁸ For what is the hope of the hypocrite, Though he may gain much, If God takes away his life? ⁹ Will God hear his cry When trouble comes upon him? ¹⁰ Will he delight himself in the Almighty? Will he always call on God?

Edwards writes:

We may continue to attend prayer meetings as long as we live, yet may never truly call on the name of the Lord. They are present only for the sake of their credit. They may be present at prayer meetings but have no prayer life of their own.

Edwards then says this in his sermon, which I said floored me and continues to be an astounding measuring stick and challenging statement, and one I think we can draw on throughout our sanctification journey:

If your own experience of the nature and tendency of your hope won’t convince you of your falseness of it, what will?

What Edwards is saying is if you can convince yourself that you’re better then what you are, if you can justify your level of commitment at times, if you can within yourself do just enough to get by and show up enough to look the part. If that way of living, if those actions are not enough to convict you of your own hypocrisy and fakeness, then nothing will. Edwards really is only honing in on one line, it’s the second part of verse ten: ‘will he always call on God?’ And here is our challenge also, ‘will we always call on God?’

Yes, as we said, we may well at the prayer meeting be in that place, or even just after, but do we sustain it, do we continue when we are satisfied? Or even still, do we stop when we feel all is lost? The answer was no, the result is in, the verdict is cast and we never got what we were seeking. Do we still seek Him regardless of the outcome? Do we still desire that intimacy when we are either satisfied, or we know all is lost?

Edwards says:

How is your conduct consistent with loving God above all if you have not the spirit to love God above your dearest earthly friends, and your pleasant earthy enjoyments.

Surely if our greatest joy is in the things of Lord and the Lord Himself, then that would be where we spend most our time and devotion. Yet we don’t, most of the time God gets the dregs of our time and our devotion. Prayer gets the token clock-in at the end of the day, or at times when we have a moment. Listen, any time is a good time, but that time needs time.

Edwards says:

It is the nature of love to be adverse to absence.

Isn’t it amazing that we can miss people so much, miss our kids so much, miss money so much, miss a holiday so much, miss cakes so much, miss intimacy so much. We can crave all those things, all those fleshy things, but don’t miss God at all. I’m not saying missing kids is wrong or loved ones, my point is that we miss so many things and crave them but not intimacy with God.

Why do so many crave love from man but not intimacy with God? Well the main reason is that love from man satisfies the flesh (as do cakes). But the intimacy with God crucifies the flesh and satisfies the soul. However, intimacy with God first crucifies flesh before it stirs and fulfils the soul. Our flesh of course knows that, and truly does not want to go there. It may seem extreme but when Edwards says:

He that lives a prayer-less life, lives without God in the world.

But if we think on that, it’s true. It’s not that God doesn’t exist, it’s that it’s as if He doesn’t exist in our life at that time. I’m sure we can all say ‘well at times I’m better than others’, but that I’m sure is not the prayer life we ought to have, the devotional life we ought to have. A prayer life that is driven by circumstances and driven by emotion, or pain is never going to be sustained. By that I mean one that is in fits and starts to either try to convince other people we are more holy than what we are, or one that we are trying to somehow convince ourselves, so as not to further commit.

We spoke of this the last time, when Edwards talks of praying just enough not to ‘shock our peace’, or another way of putting it is: to pray just enough, say just enough, and do just enough to keep us from being truly convicted and/or confronted about our carnal pursuits, and lack of devotion.

Edwards says:

It is not likely that you will ever be constant and persevering in this duty, (prayer) until you shall have obtained a better principle in your heart.

Edwards then shares four in depth points on perseverance that will indeed give us that better principled heart. I won’t read them but draw some things from them.

Was it not that the church in Corinth which we spoke of on Sunday night, that their issue really was a total lack of persevering in the Word in which they had been taught? Is this not the overall instruction Paul gave to Timothy in his second epistle to him? - To persevere.

2 Timothy 1:13

¹³ Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

‘Hold fast’ - ἔχω- echo - To take hold, to possess, to own.

Throughout Paul’s letters there is always a call to persevere; to stick with it. Peter in his first epistle tells us to take our prayer life seriously:

1 Peter 4:7

⁷ But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers.

Peter uses two similar words here: ‘serious’ and ‘watchful’; ‘sober’ and ‘watchful’.

‘Serious’ - σωφρονέω - Sof-ra-nay-o - sober minded, to be self-controlled.

The other word, ‘watchful’ is very similar in meaning:

‘Watchful’ - νήφω - Nay-fo - To again be sober minded but also adding don’t be over emotional; to be dispassionate. And by this we don’t mean lack passion, but to not be swayed by feelings. What does Jesus say in the garden? We mentioned it last time at the prayer meeting.

Matthew 26:40-41

⁴⁰ Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? ⁴¹ Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

It seems Peter has got the message. Peter knows how fleshy he was in the garden, and how susceptible to weakness and temptation, yet we see him now in his epistle with a different level of devotion, it’s like he’s a different man.

‘Watch’ - γρηγορέω - Greg-o-re-o

You may wonder why it’s a different word, I’m sure for most if I never said you wouldn’t know. An example would be in English: Telling a child to watch, if they are about to break something and being carless. Then watch if they are in imminent danger, watch! The point Peter is making is the same but less intense. It’s of future lack of perseverance, and danger.

Jesus is talking of imminent danger and temptation. It’s all addressing what indeed Job is saying: ‘Will you always pray?’ Or will you only do so when you’re feeling emotional or you like it? The charismatic church is awash with lack of sober-minded prayer. They do so after emotions run high, they need, it seems, the emotion to believe and lead them into action. That type of prayer life will never be sustained.

With prayer we can say to ourselves: ‘I will do it now I’ve been warned, or I will do it now I am around people who expect it’. John MacArthur says in his commentary:

Godly thinking and spiritual alertness are crucial for the purpose of prayer. Prayer is the access to all spiritual resources, but believers can’t pray properly if their minds are unstable due to worldly pursuits.

For sure, worldly pursuits will at best only produce worldly prayers, but even those prayers will only persist for a period until the emotion subsides. Hence why I would see charismatics lying on the floor and manifesting all sorts of stuff during a meeting, and literally have no sign of change or deeper devotion even an hour or so later.

Edwards poses a very sobering challenging conundrum when he says:

To move you to perseverance in the duty of prayer, consider how much you always stand in need of the help of God.

So much of what we do we think as things not spiritual and not in the realm of His kingdom, when all is. What does Paul say in the Areopagus at Mars Hill in Acts 17:28a?

²⁸ …in Him we live and move and have our being…

Paul was saying to the stoics and epicureans that we can do not a single thing without God, yet you’re picking and choosing what you need Him for. Do we not also only seek Him in certain times and for certain things? How can we bear fruit without Him?

John 15:5

⁵ “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

Apart from Me. Richard Sibbes, who we have spoken much of in our prayer meetings, in his writing on the spiritual man’s aim he writes:

If I have Christ, what can I want? Christ is the food of my soul, all other food, the sweetness of it is gone within a quarter of an hour. Therefore labour for that, that will feed us for everlasting.

I will simply close by reading the exact thing I said when we went through John 15:5

14 months ago:

Surely the real battle lies not in what we have in Christ, but what we still hold onto in the world? Is not our lack of fruit bearing because we still think the things in the world can nourish us and somehow give us a sense of peace and purpose? Do we not hold on in the hope that somehow they can intertwine with the things of God, and we can somehow have our feet in both vineyards.

Is it not that we hold on, and keep going to the things we need to let go of for way too long and attempt to make them conform to Christ? Is it not that we only loosen a finger at a time, as we deceive ourselves into making letting a go a process because we are unwilling to stop being driven by the world.

Surely then the only way to, truly let go, is to have our whole soul and mind and body firmly set on Christ. It requires us to allow the vine master to do the pruning and not be a self-employed gardener, deciding what you think will work and what you are willing to allow.

Look at the areas of life, where you are not allowing the gardener, the vine master to touch, and I will show you a form of fruit that does not line up with Christ or His Word.

• A type of love that’s fearful, and compromising,
• A type of joy that is based on circumstances,
• A type of peace that is based on the lack of tension, compliance, relief, and a good feeling.
• Patience that’s not patience at all but apathy and acceptance
• Kindness that’s not self-sacrificing, but self-fulfilling.
• Goodness that’s not free from agenda,
• Faithfulness that’s not attached to obedience,
• Gentleness that’s only towards some while being harsh to others,
• And self-control which is more about pride and acting sorted than actually being like Christ when He denied Himself.

In order to truly bear good fruit, we will surely have to take up the challenge of Job and say yes, we will delight ourselves in the Almighty; we will always call on God.

Amen.