Priorities in Prayer, Philippians 1:3-6
3I thank my God every time I remember you. 4In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Paul begins many of his letters in this same fashion, stating that in all his prayers he gives thanks for those to whom he is writing (1 Corinthians, Philippians, Romans, Colossians, 1,2 Thessalonians, and Philemon). This love that compelled Paul not only to pray for all these disciples, but write these epistles, is none other than the love of Christ Himself, shining and working through Paul by the power of the Holy Spirit.
We too, as believers, have this same Spirit dwelling in us, yet many of us do not seem to have this same magnitude of love flowing out of our lives. I believe that this is greatly due to our culture's tendancy to focus on self. It is a culture that says, "I, I, I," and "me, me, me". We want our rights, our freedom, our way. It's all about me. But this attitude is completely contrary to everything the Bible teaches, and to the very nature of God Himself.
The Bible teaches that we ought to lay our rights down for the sake of others, give our freedom for the freedom of others, and give up our way for God's way (Matt. 16:24-25). When asked what was the greatest commandment, Jesus replied (Matt.22:37-40),
"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
If we spent half as much time praying for others as we do for ourselves, what a different world this would be! There is an easy way to remember what priority the things in our lives should have: J.O.Y. comes when we put Jesus first, Others second, and Yourself last! We need to put God's will and God's purposes first and foremost, the needs of others before our own. Jesus taught us to be a servant to all when he washed His disciples' feet (John 13:5-8). In Mark 10:45 Jesus says,
"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."
We should keep our priorities straight in prayer as well. We should not just sit down as lay a bunch of requests at God's feet and then leave, this is hardly fellowship and communication. We need to spend time and reflect on the glory of God and praise Him for all that He does for us. Jesus Himself modelled this in the "Lord's Prayer" (Matt.6:9b-13):
"Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen."
Though this sounds like a good idea, in practice we fall short all too often. It is just our human tendancy to be self-centered and self-absorbed. But this doesn't make it okay to be self-centered or self-absorbed, it only means that we ought to seek the Lord and pray that He would change our hearts to reflect His priorities and not our own selfish priorities.
In my own walk with the Lord I have noticed that if I first spend time praising Him and thanking Him for all He's done in my life, all the silly little things I would have prayed for seem to fade away into obscurity. That is, when I take note of how much the Lord has truly blessed me, I no longer feel a need to ask for those other little things, because I really didn't need them anyway. I see that I wasn't really seeking those things, but I was seeking Him.
If we go into prayer first petitioning the Lord for the things we want and desire, and then give thanks, we are more likely to ask for things we don't really need, things that may not be in God's best plan, and we are more likely to take for granted the abundance of blessings already showered upon us. We may come to God with a sort of "magic geanie" mindset, expecting Him to just grant all our requests, thinking that if they were granted we would be happy and satisfied. When we do this, we are only robbing ourselves of the close fellowship with God we really desire, and of taking joy in God's goodness, grace, and mercy.
Our attitudes, our actions, and our deep-down, heartfelt priorities need to reflect this order of God first, others, then ourselves. We need to die to ourselves and seek the good of others, seek God's will. When we constantly strive for our way, no matter how subtle the struggle may be, we are living in a state of unrest and strife. God doesn't want us to be struggling and striving, He wants us to rest in His love, His grace, His mercy, and His forgiveness.
"But," you may say, "If I don't strive to get this done or get these issues that surround me and affect me straightened out, and spend all my time thinking of other people and their problems, how will anything get resolved in my life? Who is going to make sure this and that gets done? Is God just going to say, 'die to yourself' and leave me 'dead'? Won't I end up being just a push-over that everyone walks all over?"
These thoughts come flooding into my mind whenever I read any verse that has to do with giving up yourself for God and others. I read about how Paul was willing to be poured out as a drink offering for his brethren, to be accursed from God to save the Jews, and it baffles me. How could Paul be so selfless? I couldn't ever be that way, as nice as it sounds.
But Paul wasn't just "born that way", and he didn't just wake up one morning and decide to put into submission his will and his own ambitions and desires. This is what Satan would have us believe, and it's not true. Paul did not become the selfless saint we all know him as by his own resolve, rather, by the power of furvent prayer and the work of the Holy Spirit.
There are several verses in the Bible pertaining to God's taking care of us and providing for us. My favorite though, is when Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:25-34,
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
This shows us, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that God will provide for our physical needs. Philippians 4:19 also makes it clear, by telling us,
"And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus."That's a lot of riches and glory, folks! There is immesurable riches and unimaginable glory in Christ Jesus. And He wants to supply all our needs in the same, bountiful manner!
"That's great that He will supply all my needs. But I have other needs as well. What about those?"
God has told us through Paul the apostle (Romans 8:28) that,
"...we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."So we don't have to worry whether or not a certain plan of ours falls through, or if we get the promotion, or if we make it to that gathering. We need not be upset if something doesn't go the way we'd like it to, because we know that in all things God works for our good. Not just general good, but our own good. That means that if something doesn't go the way we thought it would or the way we wanted it to, that it was for our own good! God loves us too much to give us something that would hurt us just because we've asked for it. He only wants the best for us, and we shouldn't be satisfied with anything less!
"So He's got my best interests in mind, and He's promised to take care of all my needs. What about my wants? Will He just overlook those things which I want, but don't need?"
This has got to be the question that has run through my mind the most! It's a bit of an inigma, since He wants us to focus on the spiritual aspects of life, focus on Him, and serve others. He has promised to take care of all we need and that all things work for our good. But we still have wants, we still have desires. Will God bless us with those things we want, even if we don't really need them? Isn't that being covetous or greedy?
It's about this time when I praise the Lord that I am not Buddhist, for the whole basis of the Buddhist religion is to completely rid oneself of all material desires and wants. But this is impossible! There is no way that would, or could, ever happen. And God knows this. He doesn't expect us to just give up enjoying material things or wanting things. He only asks that they not be the focus of our lives.
Our lives are not to be centered on the material, nor are we to spend all our time and effort concetrating on the material. But material things, in and of themselves, are not bad. There is no rule, and I praise the Lord for this, telling us what we can or can't handle. Paul condemns trying to follow such rules in Colossians 2:20-23:
"Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations-- 'Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,' which all concern things which perish with the using--according to the commandments and doctrines of men? These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh."He tells us also that all things are lawful, but not all things are beneficial (1 Cor.6:12). So it is not necessarily bad to want something, but if wanting that thing consumes you and masters you (1 Cor.6:12, Paul says that he will not let anything master him), then you've got a problem. Just take an honest look at what it is that you desire. Is it beneficial to your walk with the Lord? If it is, go ahead and seek His perfect timing and His will for it. If it would hinder your walking with the Lord, put it far from you! Don't let anything come between you and the Lord.
"If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." -2 Corinthians 5:17The key is just to step out in faith and rely upon the Lord. It's not what we can do for Him, what we can do to purify ourselves, but just putting Him first and loving Him; everything else comes as a result of putting the Lord as your first priority. When you believe Him and trust Him, love Him and have faith in His love for you, you realize all that He gave for you, and it isn't so much a struggle to live for Him and His purposes, because we just stand in awe and wonder at the awesome sacrifice He made to reconcile us to Himself. When you love someone, thinking about them and doing what pleases them is no duty, but a joy.
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