Peripatetics: The Art of Walking
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
I remember when I first started working with teenagers.
I was getting some really good training from an organization called Youth for Christ. It's the same organization that launched a guy you might be familiar with: Billy Graham. An organization like that takes training seriously.
One of the first things they taught us was that our spiritual life was vital to the long-term (and short-term, for that matter) well-being of our ministries. After that, we were told that we needed to trust God with our teenagers...hence, praying for them was going to be one of our primary concerns.
I took that very seriously in those days. I take that very seriously in these days.
I prayed for one teen that he would be able to deal with his Cystic Fibrosis.
I prayed for another that she would make the cheerleading squad.
I prayed for another that she wouldn't give in to the physical temptations her boyfriend was pressuring her with.
I prayed for one of them as he gave his first sermon as a senior at his church.
I prayed for one that he would get that football scholarship.
I prayed that one would stop dealing drugs and turn to Christ.
I prayed that one kid's parents would get back together.
I prayed that one would overcome his addiction to alchohol.
I prayed that I could develop a relationship with one particular teen who hated churches and their youth ministers.
I prayed that several would support their own youth minister during a stressful time in his ministry to them.
You get the idea. I took it seriously. I loved those kids...just like I love my teenagers now. So I prayed for them. I prayed for them to experience God's love and respond to the abundant life He offerend.
But it sounded so much more simple than Paul's offering for his people. Check this out, from Ephesians 1: 15-17, "For this reason, I too having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you while making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him..."
Paul and I were praying the same thing, I guess. But, manalive, his just sounds great! But let's make a few observations:
First, he had heard of the faith in the Lord. This means that they must've been being salt and light within their culture (which, by the way, was very Vegas-like...and that's putting it mildly), but it's safe to assume that at the very least they were having a worthy walk.
Second, this worthy walk resulted in love for ALL the saints. The readers had gotten the point that Paul discussed in his letter to Timothy...that the very goal of his instruction was LOVE.
Third, he prayed without ceasing. See the entry from Feb. 14 for more detail.
Fourth, he told them he was praying for them. This is always an encouragement to the hearer of these words, and in this case, I'm sure it meant a lot to have the apostle Paul say them to the church at Ephesus.
But what was he praying for? As best as I can discern, he was praying for two things at this juncture in our reading:
First, he prayed that God would give them an spirit of wisdom. This means an attitude of being intelligent. An attitude of being discerning. In other words, he was praying that they would take great care to be wise people. People that were "doers" of the word, not just "hearers."
Second, he prayed that God would give them revelation in the knowledge of Him. "Revelation" means something similar to an "unveiling." The idea here is like if you went to see the unveiling of a painting. If it were on the wall with a cover on it, you could still make out some basic facts...maybe make an estimate of the size of the painting, if it were framed, where the lighting is, etc. Once they took off the cover, the veil, you would see it more completely...the subject of the painting, the type of painting style, the brush strokes used, the colors, etc. That's the idea of God revealing Himself.
And Paul wanted this revelation to be of the knowledge of him. That we would know Him progressively, intimately and personally.
When you think about it...if that prayer were answered, then all the other prayers I prayed for my teens would be taken care of. Sure, there's nothing wrong with the prayers I prayed for my teens early on...
...but praying that God would reveal Himself to others is really what we're asking for.
So today, I'm praying for my students this very prayer...And I wouldn't mind at all if they prayed it for me...or for each other today. That God would reveal Himself to us all, that we would know Him deeply and experience Him on the most intimate of levels. I'd bet the rest of our needs, wants, hopes, desires and all that would become "strangely dim" in light of the other.
Brent 3:51 AM
Comments:
sometimes it seems that we can easily spin our wheels over topic concerns and forget the heart of the issue which is to know God progressively, intimately and personally as you put it. that's a good prayer. i like it.
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