Prayer does not need to be boring. This message was preached on 8/4 at California Road Missionary Church. It is based on Colossians 4:2-6. If you have trouble being consistent in your prayers, this text might be just what you need.
For those who prefer to read the ms. (there are always differences between the written version and the spoken one), you can read below. Be sure to post comments!
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Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. (Colossians 4:2-6)
A great problem with Christianity in America (and perhaps elsewhere) is that it is boring. Christians spend an hour or more each week in a church service with two-hundred-year-old music and a preacher who drones on for thirty or forty minutes.
Christians read (or are supposed to read) a book that is thousands of years old, which hardly anyone understands. And they are required to pray. But the moment they close their eyes, they either drift off to sleep, or their mind rushes to its worries or escapes to its fantasies.
But guess what? Bible reading and prayer are not inherently boring. They are only boring when bored people are doing the reading and praying. They bring their boredom with them. If we pray boring prayers, it probably means we are leading boring lives. Jesus’s praying was not like that, but then he led an interesting, sometimes intense, and always purposeful life.
Our desire to follow Jesus has been thwarted by a misconception. We think the Christian life is about doing religious things like going to church, reading the Bible, praying—and in some circles, giving ten percent of your income to the church and teaching a Junior High Sunday School Class.
What we’ve done – or our adversary has done to us – is separate the Christian from the life. It is as if we have a life – our real life – to which we add Christian things, like church attendance, Bible reading, and prayer. But a life does not become Christian because a person does religious things; it becomes Christian when a person does everyday things “in the name of Jesus Christ” (Col. 3:17). It was everyday things that the apostle was writing about just before this section on prayer: how one treats a spouse, relates to children and parents, and works a job.
If prayer is boring, it is because bored people are praying about things that have little to do with “real” life. Boredom is a serious condition. Bored people are easy prey for distractions, addictions, and temptations. So much of what happens today on the American religious scene is focused on alleviating Christians’ boredom.
Until prayer is released from religion and taken into everyday life, it will be boring. It is significant that, while prayer is mentioned over 160 times in the New Testament, it is hardly ever spoken of in connection with a religious service. The only time that I can think of is when Jesus said, “Do not be like the hypocrites who love to pray in the synagogues” (Matthew 6:5).
That means that prayer needs to make its way out of the church building and into our homes, workplaces, and relationships. When was the last time you talked to God when you were at work? Or talked to God about work when you were at home? When was the last time you talked to God about how to love your spouse or be patient with your kids? When prayer is locked up in church, it grows pale and sickly, and is soon too frail to accomplish anything.
But for the person who does whatever he or she does in the name of Jesus (that is chapter 3, verse 17), prayer is not a matter of religious devotion but of personal necessity. You cannot do whatever you do in the name of Jesus without prayer. Now, I am not talking about going off by oneself to pray, though there is a time and a place for that. I have gone on annual prayer retreats for years, and I spend a half-day in prayer once a month. Jesus frequently went to the mountains or into the countryside to pray. Paul went into Arabia.
Private prayer is important, but in this passage, Paul is not talking about going away to pray. He is talking about going about your day to pray—doing your normal things, but all the while communicating with God. And not just when you have something to pray about, but when God has something for you to pray about. You see, when God wants to get something done, he begins by looking for a person who is ready to pray. Prayer is the foundational way we work together with God.
The phrase (v. 2), “Continue steadfastly in prayer,” translates an interesting Greek construction. It reads something like, “As to prayer, kept in readiness.” We find this word in Mark’s Gospel (3:9) when Jesus, “told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him.” “Ready for him” is the same word we have here.
We find it again in Acts 10, where the Roman centurion Cornelius kept a soldier at the ready, in case something should come up. In Romans 13, Paul uses this word for government officials who “give their full time to governing,” as the NIV puts it. It could be translated, “who are always on call.”
God wants us to be on-call for prayer, so that we can engage with him whenever and wherever we are: work, home, restaurant, doctor’s office. He is in those places and is already at work there, and he wants us to join him in what he is doing. This kind of prayer is the catalyst of adventure.
You are in the checkout line at the supermarket. The woman in front of you is losing patience with her four-year-old. God calls you to pray for her, for peace and perspective. While you are praying, he may or may not bring something to your mind to say. But only if you “continue steadfastly in prayer,” that is, only if you are on-call to pray, will you be able to participate with him. Otherwise, you will miss the opportunity.
You are at work, and a co-worker is talking about money problems. If you are on-call you can pray for him. You are at home when an ambulance drives down your street, sirens blaring. If you are on-call, you can pray for the EMTs, the person they are going to help, and for the family of that person.
But prayer is not a substitute for action. C. S. Lewis once wrote, “I am often, I believe, praying for others when I should be doing things for them. It’s so much easier to pray for a bore than to go and see him.” The kind of prayer Paul is talking about is not a substitute for action; it is preparation for it.
Now look at the next part of the sentence: “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it…” That is a verb, a participle: literally, “watching in it.” “Be on-call for prayer, watching in it.” Watching for what?
We watch for the things God wants us to pray about. He wants us to join the adventure, to live in the world with him, and prayer is the door through which we enter the adventure. And so, we go through our days with our eyes open, ready to pray at the whisper of the Spirit. Out of that prayer will come action and out of that action will come answers – wonderful answers that will encourage us and others to trust God. Some, who have walked this way many years, have become keenly attuned to God’s call to pray.
When Jim Stegalls was nineteen, he shipped out to Vietnam. He carried a small Gideon New Testament in his shirt pocket, though he never read it. For him, it was good-luck charm. While in Vietnam, Jim saw friends die, and the fear of dying grew inside of him. He was in country when he turned twenty. He was still there when he turned twenty-one.
On February 26, 1968, Jim woke up with the certainty that he would be dead before nightfall. He couldn’t explain it, but he was sure that he was going to die. That day his base came under attack, and Jim heard an incoming rocket. He actually told himself, “Three seconds to live…two…” and then…
A friend shoved him into a grease pit, there was a terrible crash, things falling all around him, and he waited for the explosion. It didn’t come. He couldn’t get out of the grease pit – he was trapped – so he waited, worried all the while that the rocket with which he now shared a room would suddenly detonate. It took five hours for an explosives team to come and safely defuse the rocket.
During that time Jim read his pocket Testament. He started in Matthew 1 and he read through chapter 18. He later said that when he got to verses 19 and 20 of that chapter, he knew he would be alright.
After Jim returned home, he visited his wife’s grandmother, who told him about a night when she had awakened in terror. All she could think about was Jim, in Vietnam. She began to pray to God to spare his life. Because of her arthritis, she couldn’t kneel, so she lay prone on the floor, reading her Bible and praying all night.
Just before dawn she read Matthew 18, verses 19-20: “Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”
She called her Sunday School teacher, who got out of bed and went to her house to pray with her for Jim. They kept praying until they felt sure that God had answered.
After telling Jim that story, Grandma opened her Bible to Matthew 18 and showed him where she had marked that passage. In the margin she had written: “Jim, February 26, 1968.” Things like that happen to people who live the adventure with God, who are on-call to pray, and are watching.
What do we watch for? We watch for God to open doors for us to share Christ with others. Verse 3: “…At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ…” We pray for clarity as we relate to others. Verse 4: “that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.” We pray for the people we meet, for opportunities to express God’s love and purpose to them. Verse 5: “Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.” We pray for grace and wisdom. Verse 6: “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”
One of his students piped up, “If that is so, why do we work so hard doing all these spiritual practices?”
His teacher answered, “To be as accident-prone as possible.”2
So, we watch for people and things to pray about, but we also watch for answers. The psalmist says, “In the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation” (Ps. 5:3, NIV) That man lived the adventure. He was watching to see what God would do in response to his prayer.
I see answers to prayer regularly. If you do not, it does not mean there haven’t been answers. It may just mean that you were too distracted to notice. “Be on-call in prayer, watching in it.”
We respond of God’s answers with thanksgiving. Our verse says, “Be on-call in prayer, watching in it with thanksgiving.” Thanksgiving is the lens through which we watch. Without it, we just can’t see clearly; hence, we cannot pray powerfully.
Before I had cataract surgery, when I was in the barbershop getting my hair cut, people would come in and sit down and start talking, occasionally to me. “Hey, I liked your column this week!” And I’d say “Thanks.” But all the while, I’d be wondering who that person was. Without my glasses, I was as blind as the proverbial bat.
When it comes to recognizing our opportunities and God’s answers, without the lens of thanksgiving, we are as blind as the proverbial bat. Thanksgiving is the lens that corrects spiritual myopia. If you’re not thankful, your missing answers and opportunities.
A few years ago, a man came home to find eight thieves in his house. I suppose they were a gang of teenagers. They fled, but the homeowner gave chase and managed to push one of them into the backyard pool. He immediately realized that the guy couldn’t swim, so he jumped in and pulled him out. He saved his life.
The thief returned the favor by pulling a knife on the homeowner. He still wanted to rob him, even though the man saved his life. So, the homeowner knocked him right back into the pool.
Are we all that different from the ungrateful thief? We demand things of God, then when we get into trouble, we ask for his help. Once he has helped us, we go back to demanding things. It would serve us right if he threw us right back into our troubles, but he usually doesn’t.
Paul says, “Be on-call in prayer, watching in it with thanksgiving.” Thanksgiving is not one more of a long list of virtues you need to add to your life. Rather, it is like the paper on which that list of virtues is written. Thanksgiving provides the backdrop on which the other virtues – courage, faithfulness, perseverance, patience, joy – are displayed.
Do you know what kind of person is consistent in giving thanks? A thankful person. If you’re thinking, “That may be the lamest thing I’ve ever heard,” let me tell you why you’re wrong. To be the kind of person you want to be, that God wants you to be, it is not enough to give thanks. Anyone can do that for a short time. You need to be thankful. There is a big difference. When it comes to following Jesus, it’s always more about who you are than what you do.
How do we become thankful people at the core of our beings? Well, we live the adventure we have been talking about. On-call for prayer, watching in it. It is transformative. But let me give you three suggestions that may be helpful for living that way.
First, to live this kind of life, we must be convinced that God is here, is already at work, and wants us to join him in what he is doing. We can’t live this adventure without that confidence. We need more than head knowledge. This needs to be our basic operating assumption. If you are not convinced about this (and most of us are not), ask God to convince you.
Secondly, when you don’t see God at work around you (which will be much of the time since we are all spiritually myopic), choose to walk by faith, not by sight. You cannot do this if you are focused on circumstances, so lift your eyes above your circumstances. I have been lost in the woods before, tried to guess my direction and ended up more lost that ever. But when I looked above the trees and saw the westering sun, I knew which way to go. As the sun towers above the trees that hemmed me in, so the cross towers above the circumstances of life. Trust God’s love. Look up. Look to the cross.
Thirdly, living this way takes practice. The easiest place to start practicing is with thanksgiving. Don’t worry if it does not feel natural. That takes time.
You might be able to walk over to the piano and play a few notes, or even a song or two, without being a pianist. Just so, a person can give thanks without being thankful. But if you ever want to be a real pianist, you must play the piano, and you must play it often. If you want to be truly thankful, you must give thanks, and you must give it often. Practice giving thanks. In good times – meals, warm house, good kids, health. In hard times – sickness, loss, anxiety, disappointment. When you give thanks in hard times, it moves knowledge and commitment from your head to your heart, from what you do to who you are. So, start thanking God for working out his purpose for you in everything. Practice makes perfect.
“Continue steadfastly in prayer being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”
Blessing/Sending (Philippians 4) Rejoice in the Lord always. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. Our Lord is near. Don’t be anxious about anything, but in every situation, bring your requests to God by prayer and petition with thanksgiving. And the peace of our God, which far surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
The Way Home 