Devoted to Prayer
So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. And they devoted themselves to…the prayers… (Acts 2:41-42)
I was recently organizing old photos on an external hard drive. In the process, I came across some screen shots of particularly meaningful text messages Courtney and I exchanged while we were dating and married. It’s the millennial equivalent of saving old love letters exchanged during a distanced courtship.
Text messages became the way we could still communicate while we were apart. And because I had fallen deeply in love, I availed myself of that medium often. I was constantly texting her. I wanted to be in an unbroken stream of communication with her because of the delight I found (and continue to find) in her.
The same is true, to a much greater and more profound degree, in the gift of prayer. While we are physically separated from God, we are given a medium to continue communicating with Him. It’s a stream we return to time and again because we so delight in His love for us. And according to Acts 2, it is the fourth characteristic of a community gathered around its common faith in Christ.
Text messages became the way we could still communicate while we were apart. And because I had fallen deeply in love, I availed myself of that medium often. I was constantly texting her. I wanted to be in an unbroken stream of communication with her because of the delight I found (and continue to find) in her.
The same is true, to a much greater and more profound degree, in the gift of prayer. While we are physically separated from God, we are given a medium to continue communicating with Him. It’s a stream we return to time and again because we so delight in His love for us. And according to Acts 2, it is the fourth characteristic of a community gathered around its common faith in Christ.
The General Pattern of Prayer
I could go so many different directions in a post about prayer precisely because prayer is so glorious, so multi-faceted, and so fundamental to the Christian life. When centuries of Christians were unable to read the Bible, whether due to illiteracy or the lack of a translation in their native tongue, it was prayer that fueled their delight in and communion with God.
But perhaps the best place to start is by exploring the general pattern of prayer in the New Testament: that prayer is offered to Father (Matt. 6:8-9, 7:11), in the name of the Son (John 15:16, 16:23), and by the power of the Spirit (Rom. 8:26-27).
John Owen, the prolific Puritan author, published Communion with God in 1657 to show believers the Triune dynamic of prayer. As we pray to the Father, in the name of the Son, and by the power of the Spirit, we enjoy communion with all Three in unique and soul-satisfying ways.
But perhaps the best place to start is by exploring the general pattern of prayer in the New Testament: that prayer is offered to Father (Matt. 6:8-9, 7:11), in the name of the Son (John 15:16, 16:23), and by the power of the Spirit (Rom. 8:26-27).
John Owen, the prolific Puritan author, published Communion with God in 1657 to show believers the Triune dynamic of prayer. As we pray to the Father, in the name of the Son, and by the power of the Spirit, we enjoy communion with all Three in unique and soul-satisfying ways.
Communion with the Father
“Assure yourself, then, that there is nothing more acceptable to the Father than for us to keep our hearts filled with Him as the eternal Source of all that rich grace with flows out to sinners in the blood of Jesus. Many saints have no greater burden in their lives than that their hearts do not constantly delight and rejoice in God.” 1
In our recent journey through the Sermon on the Mount, we witnessed Jesus elevate a unique dimension of our relationship with God when He repeated referred to Him as “you Father” (Matt. 5:45, 48; 6:1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 14, 15, 26, 32; 7:11, 21). Not just the Father, designating the First Person of the Trinity from the other Two, but your Father, alluding to the essence of the covenant relationship Jesus was about to purchase. We have been, in Paul’s words, “predestined for adoption to [the Father] as children through Christ Jesus” (Eph. 1:5).
We saw in another recent sermon the specific glory the Father gave to the Son: that the Son would be the One through whom the world was reconciled to the Father (John 17:20-26; 2 Cor. 5:17-21). In doing so, the Son revealed the true heart of the Father, which is that He would be the all-satisfying Object of our affections and worship. Such was the degree of His desire that He “did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all” (Rom. 8:32) in order to accomplish it.
To be a Christian means the Father’s love, revealed in Christ’s death for us, has become our soul’s greatest treasure. In the dry wasteland of this world, the Well that will never leave us thirsty presents itself time and again in our access to Him and in His receiving us with the delight of a Father in His child.
The parents among us will agree that the delight we have in our children prexists their ability to achieve it. We love them completely as they grow in their mother’s womb. We proclaim over them the words the Father spoke at Jesus’ baptism - “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17) - before they can even hold up their own head. And if we who are evil know how to love our children thus, how much more our perfect Father who is in heaven.
Prayer is a medium so much deeper and richer than a genie in a bottle or call to a first responder. It’s the place we go to experience again and again - as much as our hearts can stand! - how good it is to be loved by our Father who is in heaven. This gift, like all gifts, was purchased and given by Another, which moves us to the second dynamic of communion with God: that we pray in the name of the Son.
We saw in another recent sermon the specific glory the Father gave to the Son: that the Son would be the One through whom the world was reconciled to the Father (John 17:20-26; 2 Cor. 5:17-21). In doing so, the Son revealed the true heart of the Father, which is that He would be the all-satisfying Object of our affections and worship. Such was the degree of His desire that He “did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all” (Rom. 8:32) in order to accomplish it.
To be a Christian means the Father’s love, revealed in Christ’s death for us, has become our soul’s greatest treasure. In the dry wasteland of this world, the Well that will never leave us thirsty presents itself time and again in our access to Him and in His receiving us with the delight of a Father in His child.
The parents among us will agree that the delight we have in our children prexists their ability to achieve it. We love them completely as they grow in their mother’s womb. We proclaim over them the words the Father spoke at Jesus’ baptism - “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17) - before they can even hold up their own head. And if we who are evil know how to love our children thus, how much more our perfect Father who is in heaven.
Prayer is a medium so much deeper and richer than a genie in a bottle or call to a first responder. It’s the place we go to experience again and again - as much as our hearts can stand! - how good it is to be loved by our Father who is in heaven. This gift, like all gifts, was purchased and given by Another, which moves us to the second dynamic of communion with God: that we pray in the name of the Son.
Communion with the Son
“If all the world should drink free grace, mercy and pardon from Christ, the Well of salvation; if they should draw strength from one single promise, they would not be able to lower the level of the water of grace in that promise one hair’s breadth...because the promise is supplied from an infinite, bottomless reservoir.” 2
The author of Hebrews promises that we will “receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” when we approach the Father in prayer (Heb. 4:16). This is not automatic, and we sense it. That’s partially due to our own experience with our earthly Fathers, the best of whom can be unpredictable in their reaction to our needs. They are human as we are human. More than that, we sense the inadequacy in ourselves to ever approach so holy a thrown.
So where is the author’s confidence that we will always find mercy and grace from the Father when we approach Him? It is that this response has been guaranteed for us, purchased and delivered as a gift by our “Great High Priest who has passed through the heavens” (Heb. 4:14).
A once-for-all payment has been made, the debt is paid, wrath is satisfied. All other possible responses we might receive from the Father have been fully and eternally poured out on the Son in our place. All that remains is mercy and grace. In this way, the Son has purchased the gift of our access to the Father and the Father’s delight in us.
I treasure my favorite gifts not only because the thing itself brings joy, but because at each fresh experience of the joy I have in the gift, I am reconnected to the glove of the one who gave it. In enjoying a certain pen holder, Bible, meat smoker, or homemade card, I am reminded that someone sees me, attends to me, cares for me, delights in me. The human soul was designed to be nourished in this way, and ultimately in the attentive and affectionate love of our Creator.
Receiving mercy and grace from my Creator, rather than the wrath my sins deserve, was a gift like any other I’ve received, in the sense that it was purchased with my joy in mind and delivered to me undeserving and unwarranted, completely motivated by love. So every time I enjoy communion with the Father through prayer, I am reconnected to the love He has shown in His son.
Put another way, every time we conclude a prayer with the words “in Jesus’ name,” we connect our delight in the gift to the love of its Giver. We experience in real time the love of the Son for His bride. Which is to say, we commune with the Son when we enjoy the love of the Father, because the love of the Father is for His Son. The gift is our adoption and all its attendant delights, and the Son purchased that gift with His life.
The greatest love Jesus could show us is to pay the highest possible price to restore us to our highest possible joy. Our delight in that love is empowered by the Spirit who dwells in us and who completes our delight in communion with God.
So where is the author’s confidence that we will always find mercy and grace from the Father when we approach Him? It is that this response has been guaranteed for us, purchased and delivered as a gift by our “Great High Priest who has passed through the heavens” (Heb. 4:14).
A once-for-all payment has been made, the debt is paid, wrath is satisfied. All other possible responses we might receive from the Father have been fully and eternally poured out on the Son in our place. All that remains is mercy and grace. In this way, the Son has purchased the gift of our access to the Father and the Father’s delight in us.
I treasure my favorite gifts not only because the thing itself brings joy, but because at each fresh experience of the joy I have in the gift, I am reconnected to the glove of the one who gave it. In enjoying a certain pen holder, Bible, meat smoker, or homemade card, I am reminded that someone sees me, attends to me, cares for me, delights in me. The human soul was designed to be nourished in this way, and ultimately in the attentive and affectionate love of our Creator.
Receiving mercy and grace from my Creator, rather than the wrath my sins deserve, was a gift like any other I’ve received, in the sense that it was purchased with my joy in mind and delivered to me undeserving and unwarranted, completely motivated by love. So every time I enjoy communion with the Father through prayer, I am reconnected to the love He has shown in His son.
Put another way, every time we conclude a prayer with the words “in Jesus’ name,” we connect our delight in the gift to the love of its Giver. We experience in real time the love of the Son for His bride. Which is to say, we commune with the Son when we enjoy the love of the Father, because the love of the Father is for His Son. The gift is our adoption and all its attendant delights, and the Son purchased that gift with His life.
The greatest love Jesus could show us is to pay the highest possible price to restore us to our highest possible joy. Our delight in that love is empowered by the Spirit who dwells in us and who completes our delight in communion with God.
Communion with the Spirit
Faith considers the promises themselves, looks up to the Spirit and waits for the Spirit to bring life and comfort into them. No sooner does the soul being to feel the life of a promise warming his heart, freeing him from fear, worries and troubles, than it may know, and it ought to know, that the Holy spirit is doing His work.” 3
When I think of gifts, my mind goes to the Christmas mornings I’ve spent assembling toys that my sons had just finished unwrapping. While they were tearing apart fresh wrapping paper, I was already hard at work with a screw driver, putting pieces of plastic together in a way that made the toy itself come to life. But often, the very last step in the process was to give the toys power by adding the batteries.
Consider the utter dependence of my sons in the scene I just described. Someone else purchased their gift and assembled the gift, and batteries powered the gift. After all that, they simply enjoyed the gift, along with the tangible link it provided to the love of the giver.
In the same way, we are completely dependent on the Spirit to enjoy even one ounce of our adoption by the Father which was purchased by the Son. What is begun by the Spirit cannot be completed by the flesh (Gal. 3:3). See therefore, in the provision of the Spirit, the depth of the Father’s love and the extent of the Son’s gift. Without the Spirit, our salvation is an assembled toy with no batteries. The angst would be all the more pronounced in seeing the joy we might experience but cannot because the essential ingredient is missing.
The Son is no such incompetent Giver. He gives the gift all the way by providing the Spirit. It is the Spirit empowers us to pray when we don’t know how (Rom. 8:26). It is the Spirit who keeps the beauty and glory of Christ front and center in our minds (John 16:14). It is the Spirit who convicts us of sin that would inhibit our prayers and enables us to put to death our sinful desires (Rom. 8:13)
We are utterly dependent on the Spirit for all these things. So when they happen, when we are able to cry out to the Father in the name of the Son and find mercy and grace to help in time of need, this happens because the Spirit is lovingly at work in us. It can happen no other way.
Consider the utter dependence of my sons in the scene I just described. Someone else purchased their gift and assembled the gift, and batteries powered the gift. After all that, they simply enjoyed the gift, along with the tangible link it provided to the love of the giver.
In the same way, we are completely dependent on the Spirit to enjoy even one ounce of our adoption by the Father which was purchased by the Son. What is begun by the Spirit cannot be completed by the flesh (Gal. 3:3). See therefore, in the provision of the Spirit, the depth of the Father’s love and the extent of the Son’s gift. Without the Spirit, our salvation is an assembled toy with no batteries. The angst would be all the more pronounced in seeing the joy we might experience but cannot because the essential ingredient is missing.
The Son is no such incompetent Giver. He gives the gift all the way by providing the Spirit. It is the Spirit empowers us to pray when we don’t know how (Rom. 8:26). It is the Spirit who keeps the beauty and glory of Christ front and center in our minds (John 16:14). It is the Spirit who convicts us of sin that would inhibit our prayers and enables us to put to death our sinful desires (Rom. 8:13)
We are utterly dependent on the Spirit for all these things. So when they happen, when we are able to cry out to the Father in the name of the Son and find mercy and grace to help in time of need, this happens because the Spirit is lovingly at work in us. It can happen no other way.
A Praying Church
As we contemplate our mutual commitment to treasure Jesus Christ together for the joy of all people, I hope this brief reflection shows that prayer is absolutely indispensable to that end. Just as the love of the Father in Christ is most tangibly experienced in our love for one another, the joy of prayer is most clearly felt when we pray together.
Humbly, as I survey the seven habits of a gospel-centered church, I am convinced that this habit is the one where we stand to grow the most. I don’t say this because we’ve graduated the other six. I say this because I observe my own life. I now how quickly I reach for strategy to achieve and outcome, how much I rely on my to-do list to order my day, how many hours pass without a thought to the treasure of joy unlocked for me by the blood of Christ, how rarely I return to God in thanksgiving when our desired outcomes actually occur.
I don’t refer to any big ministry program or new strategy. That would be oxymoronic to prayer itself. I refer to a renewed commitment to steep all that we do in prayer. Which is to say, experience the real-time joy of the Father’s presence, purchased by the Son, and empowered by the Spirit, in all that we do.
Humbly, as I survey the seven habits of a gospel-centered church, I am convinced that this habit is the one where we stand to grow the most. I don’t say this because we’ve graduated the other six. I say this because I observe my own life. I now how quickly I reach for strategy to achieve and outcome, how much I rely on my to-do list to order my day, how many hours pass without a thought to the treasure of joy unlocked for me by the blood of Christ, how rarely I return to God in thanksgiving when our desired outcomes actually occur.
I don’t refer to any big ministry program or new strategy. That would be oxymoronic to prayer itself. I refer to a renewed commitment to steep all that we do in prayer. Which is to say, experience the real-time joy of the Father’s presence, purchased by the Son, and empowered by the Spirit, in all that we do.
The Future of Prayer
Because the communion we enjoy now in prayer is, as I like to say, and appetizer that preps our stomachs to receive a feast. Just as Courtney and I took full advantage of our ability to text each other when we were apart, our text conversations were no substitute for being together in the same place - for looking into each others eyes, for enjoying the smile and sharing the tears.
Just as prayer is a gift the value of which we will never be able to express, it’s just an appetizer. It’s just a bridge that holds us for the day our faith that God hears us when we pray will become sight. When we will see our God’s face (Rev. 22:4) and feel His hand gently and permanently wipe every tear from our eyes (Rev. 21:4).
In the meantime, prayer is the closest we can get. So let’s feast on the joy of the Father, in the name of the Son, and by the power of the Spirit, and let's do it together.
Just as prayer is a gift the value of which we will never be able to express, it’s just an appetizer. It’s just a bridge that holds us for the day our faith that God hears us when we pray will become sight. When we will see our God’s face (Rev. 22:4) and feel His hand gently and permanently wipe every tear from our eyes (Rev. 21:4).
In the meantime, prayer is the closest we can get. So let’s feast on the joy of the Father, in the name of the Son, and by the power of the Spirit, and let's do it together.
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