Devotional
Priorities of Prayer
By Nick Price
As a school teacher at St James Lutheran College, I have the privilege of leading my students in a devotion each morning. Our routine involves a prayer time where students put up their hand to give prayer points which they later pray. There is always a prayer about rain, sometimes a request for more rain, sometimes for no rain. In fact we had to place a limit of one rain prayer request per day because we were ending up with little Jimmy praying for no rain and little Johnny praying for lots of rain. God must have been confused...
Throughout the trivial prayers, there are some prayers that stand out. Prayers that I just can't help but say, "that's a lovely prayer request." Prayers such as: "help us to obey you always," "thank you for sending your son Jesus to Earth," or "thank you for sending Jesus to die on the cross so we can be forgiven." It warms my heart when I hear these prayers from 8 year olds. But why do these prayers seem "better" than the other prayers?
Prayer is an integral part of being a Christian. We should pray privately, and we should pray corporately. It is something we should prioritise, because it is only through God that we can do all things. In short, we should prioritise prayer because we are reliant on God. As Paul said, "pray continually" (1 Thessalonians 5:17). What then should we pray for? Can we learn from scripture the things we should be praying for?
I think it would be fair to say that when we as Christians pray for each other, we often pray for "little answerables." These are the everyday "fix its" of life. Perhaps financial needs, weariness, sickness, or practical needs such as needing a new washing machine. These prayer requests are fine to pray for, as it says in Philippians 4:6:
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."
Even though the "fix it” prayers can be a way of loving each other as the body of Christ, I would suggest most of the time we don't focus on the bigger kingdom things and we are missing out because of it. We need to have a greater focus on kingdom prayers. You see even Paul, after telling the Philippians to bring everything to God in prayer, follows on in the next verse to suggest a kingdom reason for doing so.
"And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:7
A kingdom prayer is something that has lasting value and importance in the kingdom of God. Praying for a new washing machine is not a kingdom prayer. It is a "fix it" prayer. Praying for God to give peace to the anxious person with no washing machine and praying for them to trust God that He would provide for their needs is a kingdom prayer.
What if we were more daring with our prayers? What if we prayed for God to teach us patience? That's risky isn't it, because God will likely give you opportunities to demonstrate patience. What if we prayed for opportunities to share the gospel? Do we want these opportunities or are we quite comfortable leaving our faith to a Sunday, and therefore, would prefer to just ask prayer for our sore knee or the busy week ahead. I'm frankly quite challenged by this myself and I hope you are too.
I simply don't have the time to share all of Paul's example of praying for others, but I would encourage you to notice that in all his letters, he prays kingdom prayers, prayers that are of lasting value and importance in the kingdom of God. If you are interested in reading more about the type of things prayed for by the early Church, please read this summarising article by John Piper.
Jonathan Graf is the president of the Church Prayer Leaders Network, a ministry that equips and encourages pastors and prayer leaders to grow their churches deeper in prayer. He says this:
"Oftentimes we want to pray people out of things and God wants to use things in people’s lives to grow them to be more kingdom-minded, to cause people to be drawn to things of the kingdom. That is what Paul had in mind."
I challenge you to consider the following this week:
As a school teacher at St James Lutheran College, I have the privilege of leading my students in a devotion each morning. Our routine involves a prayer time where students put up their hand to give prayer points which they later pray. There is always a prayer about rain, sometimes a request for more rain, sometimes for no rain. In fact we had to place a limit of one rain prayer request per day because we were ending up with little Jimmy praying for no rain and little Johnny praying for lots of rain. God must have been confused...
Throughout the trivial prayers, there are some prayers that stand out. Prayers that I just can't help but say, "that's a lovely prayer request." Prayers such as: "help us to obey you always," "thank you for sending your son Jesus to Earth," or "thank you for sending Jesus to die on the cross so we can be forgiven." It warms my heart when I hear these prayers from 8 year olds. But why do these prayers seem "better" than the other prayers?
Prayer is an integral part of being a Christian. We should pray privately, and we should pray corporately. It is something we should prioritise, because it is only through God that we can do all things. In short, we should prioritise prayer because we are reliant on God. As Paul said, "pray continually" (1 Thessalonians 5:17). What then should we pray for? Can we learn from scripture the things we should be praying for?
I think it would be fair to say that when we as Christians pray for each other, we often pray for "little answerables." These are the everyday "fix its" of life. Perhaps financial needs, weariness, sickness, or practical needs such as needing a new washing machine. These prayer requests are fine to pray for, as it says in Philippians 4:6:
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."
Even though the "fix it” prayers can be a way of loving each other as the body of Christ, I would suggest most of the time we don't focus on the bigger kingdom things and we are missing out because of it. We need to have a greater focus on kingdom prayers. You see even Paul, after telling the Philippians to bring everything to God in prayer, follows on in the next verse to suggest a kingdom reason for doing so.
"And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:7
A kingdom prayer is something that has lasting value and importance in the kingdom of God. Praying for a new washing machine is not a kingdom prayer. It is a "fix it" prayer. Praying for God to give peace to the anxious person with no washing machine and praying for them to trust God that He would provide for their needs is a kingdom prayer.
What if we were more daring with our prayers? What if we prayed for God to teach us patience? That's risky isn't it, because God will likely give you opportunities to demonstrate patience. What if we prayed for opportunities to share the gospel? Do we want these opportunities or are we quite comfortable leaving our faith to a Sunday, and therefore, would prefer to just ask prayer for our sore knee or the busy week ahead. I'm frankly quite challenged by this myself and I hope you are too.
I simply don't have the time to share all of Paul's example of praying for others, but I would encourage you to notice that in all his letters, he prays kingdom prayers, prayers that are of lasting value and importance in the kingdom of God. If you are interested in reading more about the type of things prayed for by the early Church, please read this summarising article by John Piper.
Jonathan Graf is the president of the Church Prayer Leaders Network, a ministry that equips and encourages pastors and prayer leaders to grow their churches deeper in prayer. He says this:
"Oftentimes we want to pray people out of things and God wants to use things in people’s lives to grow them to be more kingdom-minded, to cause people to be drawn to things of the kingdom. That is what Paul had in mind."
I challenge you to consider the following this week:
- What do your prayer requests reveal about your priorities in life? Do you need to be more kingdom focused?
- Will you pray for others in a daring way, to allow God to build his kingdom and to receive glory?
Posted in Devotional