Prayer – Page 3 – Peter Adam

‘We have sinned’

Paraklesis

[‘encouragement’, ‘exhortation’, for life and ministry]

July 2022

Peter Adam

Dear friends,

Last month I wrote about personal confession of sin, which is a crucial ingredient of our daily prayers. For each of us knows not only our sins, but our sinfulness, and how frequently we sin against our gracious, holy, and forgiving heavenly Father. No wonder Jesus taught his disciples to pray, ‘Forgive us our sins’.

This month I want to point out an even more neglected prayer, in which we pray that God would forgive the sins of his people, of his church. This is expressed in either personal or corporate confession of corporate sin [‘corporate’ here refers to ‘church as the body of Christ’, not big business!].

Can churches sin?

According to the Old Testament, God’s people can engage in shared, corporate sin. Moses said:

‘Remember this and never forget how you aroused the anger of the LORD your God in the wilderness. From the day you left Egypt until you arrived here, you have been rebellious against the LORD. At Horeb you aroused the LORD’s wrath so that he was angry enough to destroy you’ Deut 9:7,8].

Daniel prayed:

‘Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our ancestors, and to all the people of the land. Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame …’ [Dan 9:4-7].

Hosea said:

‘Return, Israel, to the LORD your God. Your sins have been your downfall! Take words with you and return to the LORD. Say to him: “Forgive all our sins, and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips”’ [Hos 14: 1-2].

Jesus addressed his contemporaries as bearing corporate sin, guilt, and responsibility:

‘”You unbelieving and perverse generation”, Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you and put up with you? … Jesus said, “This is a wicked generation” … “Therefore this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world … Yes I tell you, this generation will be held responsible for it all …” [ Luke 9:41, 11:29, 11:50-51].

Here are some examples from Christ’s words to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3.

‘To the angel of the church in Sardis write: Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent’ [3:1-3].

‘To the angel of the church in Laodicea write … But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent’ [3:14-19].

In these two cases, the whole church and every member of it is called to repent for their corporate and shared sin.

In Pergamum, the whole church is complicit in the sins of someone within the church within the church. The church has to repent.

‘To the angel of the church in Pergamum write … I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality. Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Repent therefore! [Rev 2:12,14-16].

Paul accused the churches of Galatia of a common and shared corporate sin:

‘To the churches in Galatia … You foolish Galatians! I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel … Who has bewitched you?’ [Gal 1:2,6,3:1]. And Paul summoned the church of Corinth to be reconciled to God. ‘We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God’ [2 Cor 5:20].

[We who read the Bible in English are so often deceived, because the English word ‘you’ can be refer to one person, or to many people. Because we are natural individualists, we read plural ‘you’ as singular ‘you’. This distorts our understanding of the Bible. Individualistic Bible reading, and individualistic preaching, blind us to corporate sins. In the Old and New Testament, God most often addresses his people as a body, not individuals. Perhaps we should use ‘youse’ in our Bibles!]

How can we identify corporate sins?

Imagine a prayerless church. The intercessory prayers on a Sunday are non-existent or dutiful, not expectant. Not many husbands and wives pray together, there is not much family prayer, and friends only pray together in emergencies. Missionaries are supported, but not with fervent expectant prayer. This means that prayerful individuals are discouraged, and young people and new believers follow the pattern they see, and are similarly prayerless. In this situation, prayerlessness is the norm for the community, and, as sin blinds us to its presence, the community is corporately blind to this sin. Prayerlessness binds the community together. It is a community value, or rather, a community disgrace!

What needs to happen is corporate repentance, in which the leaders challenge themselves and the people to repent of their sin. They need to repent of their individual prayerlessness, but also repent of their shared sin of neglecting prayer in every part of the life of the church, and establish prayer as a priority in every part of the life of the church.

This kind of corporate repentance is much more demanding that individual repentance. If I hear Paul’s corporate instruction ‘devote yourselves to prayer’ [Col 4:2], it is not enough for me to devote myself to prayer. I must continue to pray and exhort and encourage the leaders to lead in prayerfulness, and to pray and exhort and encourage others until everyone in my church is prayerful, and until prayer has an established role in the daily life of the church!

How serious are corporate sins?

Very! As I have pointed out above, God and Christ are really concerned about corporate sins. Sinful church dishonour God. And a church’s sins are its most serious problem.

And corporate sins infect every member of the church, and if the members of this church join other churches, they will carry the plague of prayerlessness with them. People who go out into gospel ministry from the church are also likely to be prayerless. For we are all powerfully shaped by our primary community of faith, for good, or for ill.

What does repentance of corporate sins look like? [Let’s take prayerlessness as our example.]

The leaders remind the people that Christ came to cleanse his church: ‘Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless’ [Ephes 5:25-27].
The leaders name the sin, allow time to ensure that the people recognise the sin, call people to repentance, and, when they are ready, lead the people in a public prayer of repentance.
The leaders remind the people that ‘the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin’ [1 John 1:7].
The leaders and every member of the church resolves to pray fervently and frequently on their own, in families, with friends, in every ministry of the church, and on Sundays!

Please take time to reflect on this issue. Next month I will continue this series of three on sin, and write about sins of ministry. [So the series is ‘personal sins’, ‘sins of churches’, and ‘sins of ministry’].

Let’s end with Paul’s prayer:

‘To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ … May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it’ [1 Thess 1:1,5:23,24].

May our faithful God himself sanctify our churches. Amen! Amen! Amen!

With warmest good wishes, beloved friends and fellow-workers.

Yours,

Five prayers to ask God to reduce bullying in your church

Peter Adam

Lord Jesus, you loved your church, and gave yourself up for her, to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing of water through the word, to present her to yourself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. Make our churches holy by your cross and by your word; rid us of sin, cleanse and purify us by your blood, that we might live together for your glory, in purity and holiness. Amen.

Lord Jesus, you are gentle and humble in heart. Work your miracles of grace among us in our churches, that as ministers, leaders and people, we may in humility value others above ourselves, and clothe ourselves with humility toward one another, knowing that God opposes the proud, but shows favour to the humble. Amen.

Lord Jesus, prince of peace, may the spirit of justice and peace reign in our churches. Root out our sins of arrogance and pride, and bring us to repentance. May the fruit of the Spirit flourish among us, as love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness faithfulness, gentleness and self-control abound. Hear us in your mercy and grace. Amen.

Gracious God, please grant us your heavenly wisdom, which is pure, peaceable, peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and sincere. As you have promised, may peace-makers who sow in peace, reap a harvest of righteousness among us. In Christ’s name. Amen.

Lord Jesus, you came among us as the suffering servant, and served us by your death on the cross, giving your life as a ransom for many. You dignified service, suffering, and self-denial. Help ministers, leaders, and members of our churches to follow your ways, and walk in your steps, as you came among us as one who serves. Amen.

A vision of a praying church

A praying church:

Comes to God our Father in prayer through the atoning sacrifice of Christ our mediator and high priest, prompted and taught by the Holy Spirit and his Bible, and lives as it prays.

Relates constantly to God our Father, in praise, thanksgiving, worship, intercession, confession of sins, lament, self-offering and trust, and casts all its cares on God

Prays for the church, for the community, for the nation, for the world, and for God’s great gospel plan.

Knows that all it does depends directly and constantly on the power of God, and so does not finally trust in good plans, gifted people, correct theology, hard work or busyness, but on God alone.

Lives and works and prays for God’s glory alone, not for its own happiness or success.

Is constantly alert to the danger of drawing close to God with their lips, but with hearts and lives far from him.

Shapes its prayers by God’s priorities, not its own needs and wants, while still being honest and open to God and brings those needs and wants to him in prayer.

Trusts in our God who hears our prayers, and does not trust in their praying.

Does not think that God’s ‘no’, or ‘not yet’ is an unanswered prayer.

Prays with long-term gospel goals for its local communities, and prays long-term for God to achieve those long-term goals.

Prays with long-term global gospel goals, and prays long-term for God to achieve those long-term goals: praying for missionaries, for overseas churches and ministries, and for nations.

Prays that God will raise up from among the congregation workers for God’s gospel harvest in Australia and overseas.

A praying church:

Is a church in which individuals pray, married couples pray together, families pray together, friends pray together, ministry teams pray together, and the church prays together.

Is a church in which people pray big prayers to our big God to achieve his big gospel plan, and also a church in which people know they can pray little prayers about the smallest details of their lives, trusting in their loving heavenly Father.

Is a church in which young people and new Christians learn to pray by watching the example of the church and its praying, and by taking part in that praying.

Is a church in which people are taught how to pray, coached in their praying, and who are life-long-learners in their praying.

Is a church which repents of prayerlessness.

Is a church in which people plan to pray, make time to pray, and also pray spontaneously alone and with each other.

Is a church where everyone is encouraged to pray by the prayerfulness of everyone else.

Is a church which knows that God is always more ready to hear our prayers than we are to pray, and that he is able to do far more than we ask or imagine, and that he will bring glory to himself in the church and in Christ Jesus.

Please pray that God would raise up more praying churches!

Peter Adam

Create in me a clean heart

Dear friends and fellow-workers,

Time for a medical! Let’s test your life, actions, words.

Here are the three tests; please administer them to yourself.

‘The mouth speaks what the heart is full of’ Matthew 12:34.
‘Out of the heart come evil thoughts’ Matthew 15:19.
‘The thoughts and attitudes of the heart’ Hebrews 4:12.

How is your ticker? Is your heart in good shape?

Here is a prayer to pray to our good and loving physician. Why not pray it daily slowly each day for a month? There are no bad side-effects!

[These prayers are taken from the Bible. It is a Bible-patchwork prayer].

Create in me a clean heart, O God.

O lord our God,
You know, test, and examine our hearts. Our hearts are open to you. Pierce the thoughts and intentions of my heart by the sharp sword of your word. Please test and probe my heart.
When my heart is unfaithful, give me a trusting and obedient heart.
When my heart is deceptive, cleanse it by your truth.
When my heart has turned away from you, turn it again to yourself.
When my heart is hard and callous, soften and bend it.
When my heart is perverse and proud, break it and mould it.
When my heart is blighted and withered, revive and refresh it.
When my heart is in anguish and dismay, transform it to rejoice in you.
When my heart melts like wax in terror, strengthen it to trust in you.

O Lord our God:
Give me a broken and contrite heart.
Help me to pour out my heart to you.
Encourage my faint and feeble heart.

O Lord our God:
Give me a trusting heart.
Give me a wise heart.
Give me a steadfast heart.
Give me a blameless heart.
Give me an undivided heart.
Give me a pure heart.
Give me a clean heart.
Give me a joyful heart.
Give me a faithful heart.

O Lord our God:
Write your words in my heart.
Turn my heart to your words.
May my heart tremble at your words.
May I keep your words with my whole heart.
May I love you with all my heart.
Help me speak the truth from my heart.
Be the strength of my heart.

May the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. For Christ’s sake, Amen.

Let’s pray it together!

With my love in Christ, and my prayers for God’s blessing on your life and ministry.

Yours,

Peter Adam – March 2022.

A praying church

Dear friends,

Here is a vision of a praying church:

This, then, is how you should pray:
‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one’
Matthew 6:9-13

I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Saviour, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people [1 Timothy 2:1-6].

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God [Phil 4:6].
Philippians 4:6

Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water [Hebrews 10:19-22].

A praying church …

Comes to God our Father in prayer through the atoning sacrifice of Christ our mediator and high priest, prompted and taught by the Holy Spirit and his Bible.
Relates constantly to God in prayer, praise, thanksgiving, worship, intercession, confession of sins, lament, self-offering and trust, and casts all its cares on God
Prays for the church, for the community, for the nation, for the world, and for God’s great gospel plan.
Knows that all it does depends directly and constantly on the power of God, and so does not finally trust in good plans, gifted people, correct theology, hard work or busyness, but on God alone.
Shapes its prayers and intercessions by God’s priorities, not its own needs and wants, while still being honest and open to God and brings those needs and wants to him in prayer.
Trusts in our God who hears our prayers, and does not trust in their praying.
Does not think that God’s ‘no’, or ‘not yet’ is an unanswered prayer.
Which prays with long-term gospel goals for its local communities, and prays long-term for God to achieve those long-term goals.
Which prays with long-term global gospel goals, and prays long-term for God to achieve those long-term goals: praying for missionaries, for overseas churches and ministries, and for nations.
Which prays that God will raise up from among the congregation workers for God’s gospel harvest in Australia and overseas.
Is where individuals pray, married couples pray together, families pray together, friends pray together, ministry teams pray together, and the church prays together.
Is where in which people pray big prayers to our big God to achieve his big gospel plan, and also a church in which people know they can pray little prayers about the smallest details of their lives, trusting in their loving heavenly Father.
Is where young people and new Christians learn to pray by watching the example of the church and its praying, and by joining in that praying.
Is where people are taught how to pray as part of their discipleship, coached in their praying, and who are life-long-learners in their praying.
Is where the church repents of prayerlessness.
Is where people plan to pray, make time to pray, and also pray spontaneously alone and with each other.
Is where all are encouraged to pray by the prayerfulness of others.
Is where all know that God is always more ready to hear our prayers than we are to pray, is able to do far more than we ask or imagine, and that he will bring glory to himself in the church and in Christ Jesus.
Is where leaders lead in praying, providing prayer leadership by example and by their encouragement to others in their prayers.
Is a church in which the ministers are committed to ‘prayer and the ministry of the word’ [Acts 6:4].

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Ephesians 3.14-21

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains … Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured [Colossians 4:2-3,12].

Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, 21 equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Hebrews 13:20.21

With warmest good wishes.

May we all grow daily in faithful prayer and thanksgiving.

Yours,

Peter Adam

Prayer; praise-filled, thanks-filled, trust-filled

Dear friends, I hope you are doing the hard slog of intercessory prayer. I find it so moving that in his letter to the Colossians Paul tells them that he is struggling or wrestling for them: agōn, and I assume that wrestling includes writing his letter. At the same time, Epaphras is struggling, wrestling for them in prayer: agōnizomai. [Col 2:1, 4:12]. Wrestling in ministry is backed by wrestling in prayer!

Peter Adam | July 2021 | stjudes.org.au/peteradam

I hope God has provided prayer warriors in your church, that you have asked some people to pray regularly for you, and send them a regular prayer letter, and that you yourself are learning to be a prayer warrior, to wrestle or struggle in prayer.

I often think about our relative prayerlessness in the church in the Western world at present. [Golden Rule for Ministry: Offer food and they will come: offer a time of prayer and they will stay away!] Then I reflect on the situation of humanity in Genesis 1. We were created utterly dependent on God and his work in the world: but also with real work to do, and real responsibility for that work to God. We Western Christians often focus on the responsibility, and forget our constant dependence. This is why we find it easier to plan, worry, and work, than we do to pray. We regard work as evidence of energy, competence, strength and ability, and prayer as evidence of weakness and lack of ability. We even sometimes say, ‘I couldn’t do anything useful, I could only pray’!!!

I hope you are wresting in prayer! But the hard work of intercessory prayer needs to be leavened with praise, thanks and trust, or else it can descend into merely articulating our worries. I remember that I used to do most of my praying last thing at night, but then I would often stay awake for a few hours worrying about the things I had prayed about! And prayer which is a form of worrying just leads us to work harder to solve the problem, with less energy!

Do you remember Martin Luther’s words to his wife Katie? ‘Pray, and let God worry’.

So we should follow the Bible’s lead, and pepper our prayers with praise, thanks, and trust.

Look at Psalm 31, for example.

Prayers for deliverance: vv. 1,2,4,6,9,10, 11,12,13,15,16,17,18.

Praise: vv. 1,3,7 8,19-22.

Thanks: vv. 19-22.

Trust: vv. 1,3,5,14,15,23,24.

The more we praise God, thank God, and tell God that we trust him, the less we will worry. It is so important to tell God we trust him. We honour him when we do this, and we are also more likely to trust if we tell him we trust him. Pray peppered prayers!

I have also picked up from Paul his habit of thanking God for people before he prays for them [Ephes 1:15-23, Phil 1:3-11, Col 1:3-14, 1 Thess 1:2,3, 2 Thess 1:3,4, 2 Tim 1:3-5]. When we thank God for people, we are reminded of the great things that God has already done in them and through them, and this encourages us to pray big prayers for them.

As you will see in these two diagrams the less praise-filled, thanks-filled, trust-filled praying the more likely we are to take on too much responsibility: and the more we do the more we are likely to remember that we are God’s fellow-workers.

As you see in these two diagrams, the less praise-filled, thanks-filled, trust-filled praying we do, the more stressed we will be: the more we do the more the less stressed we will be.

[I am grateful to Vera de Vere at St Jude’s for the diagrams! You are welcome to make use of them.]

I remember the old saying: ‘Work as if it all depends on you; and pray as if it all depends on God’.

This is not quite right! How about ‘Work as if you have real responsibility, but remember that ultimately God is responsible, and that God will also give you strength to work for him; and pray that God will use your wrestling in prayer for his good purposes, trusting him to do so.’

However, I also know that there are times when things are so dire, that all we can manage is to pour out our hearts to God in pain, suffering, frustration, impatience, hurt, anger and fury because of our own suffering, or the suffering of others.

God hears these prayers too. I remember in my deepest depression being immensely comforted by Psalm 88, which is unrelenting gloom from beginning to end. No happy ending there! Truly there is a Psalm for every season. But, of course, the wonderful thing about Psalm 88 is that the Psalmist is pouring out the lament to God, not bottling it up, or speaking angry words against God to others without also speaking to God.

However, the bigger Bible picture is that we should praise, thank and trust God. We may not feel like doing so, but we should do so because of who God is, not how we feel. Even on our worst days, we should thank those who help us and care for us. So too, we should learn to praise, thank and tell God that we trust him, even as we take up the burden of long-term intercessory prayer.

Resources.

If you would like to read a good book on ministry, here are three recommendations.

Derek Tidball, Skilful Shepherds, IVP.

Allan Chapple, Ministry Under The Microscope, Latimer.

Jonathan Griffiths, The Ministry Medical, Proclamation Trust.

NB. And you might like to have some copies on your shelf, so that you can lend them to people who are thinking about the possibility of going into full time trained gospel ministry, or who should be thinking about this option. There is an Australia-wide and world-wide shortage of people in full-time trained gospel ministry.

With warmest good wishes.

May you grow daily in godliness and good ministry, and in praise-filled, thanks-filled, and trust-filled praying.

Yours,

Peter Adam

Embrace your suffering

Dear friends; To the horror of our Western world, suffering is a part of life, despite the best contributions of wealth, science, and medicine. And rather than being shielded from all suffering by God’s protection, believers in Christ are often called to endure greater suffering, for God’s glory, for Christ’s sake, for the benefit of others, and for our own sanctification. And people in gospel ministry and leadership are often called to even greater suffering, for the sake of the gospel, and for the sake of the church. Of course there are many consolations, and sometimes God relieves our sufferings, in his kindness. But sometimes he allows us to suffer, in his kindness.

Peter Adam – May 2021 | stjudes.org.au/peteradam

I love the story of the woman in Queensland who took part in a marathon run, planning to exit at the half-way mark. She took the wrong turn, ran the whole marathon and won! But we often run the happiness marathon, rather than the holiness marathon, because we are frightened of suffering. Lots of our prayers are about relief from suffering. But suffering is a daily reality. No one gets through life unscarred.

Here are three clues to facing suffering.

Don’t run away from it, on the contrary, embrace it.

The more you run away from it, the more fearsome suffering becomes. Face it and embrace it willingly.

You won’t feel very brave when you are anticipating it, but trust that God will provide sufficient strength when you need it.

I confess that I don’t feel at all confident that I would continue to stand for Christ when someone was about to remove my fingernails to make me renounce him! But I trust that his grace will be sufficient at the time!

Don’t wait until suffering comes before you start preparing yourself and praying.

Plan ahead, prepare ahead, and pray ahead!

Here are some mediations and prayers you can pray ahead of time, as well as praying when a particular situation arises. Notice that they cover a variety of contexts in which suffering may arise. Plan and prepare by praying now!

Please do the meditation on the Bible verses before you pray the prayer.

Gracious God and loving heavenly Father.

Please help me to embrace suffering as your will.

Meditate on:

‘Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?’ Job 2:10; ‘You intended to harm me, but God turned it for good.’ Gen 50:20; ‘In all things God works for the good of those who love him.’ Rom 8:28; ‘Not my will but yours be done.’ Matt 26:39.
Pray:
Gracious God and loving heavenly Father. Please help me to trust you and embrace suffering as your will.

Please help me to embrace suffering for your glory.

Meditate on:

‘I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake I do this… I will not yield my glory to another.’ Is 48:10; ‘On the day the Lord comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marvelled at among all those who have believed.’ 2 Thess 1:10; ‘a great multitude … wearing white robes … they cried with a loud voice “Salvation belongs to our God … and to the Lamb” …These are they who have come out of the great tribulation.’ Rev 7:9,10, 14.
Pray:
Gracious God and loving heavenly Father. Please help me to trust you embrace suffering for your glory.

Please help me to embrace suffering that comes from living in a fallen creation.

Meditate on:

‘I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us … For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed … the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.’ Rom 8:18-21.
‘Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more deathor mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’ Rev 21:3,4; ‘He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.’ Rev 22:20.
Pray:
Gracious God and loving heavenly Father. Please help me to trust you and embrace suffering that comes from living in a fallen creation.

Please help me to embrace suffering for the sake of Christ.

Meditate on:

‘The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.’ Acts 5:41; ‘For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him.’ Phil 1:29; ‘Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.’ 2 Tim 4:12; ‘If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you … if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.’ 1 Pet 4:14,16; ‘They triumphed over [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.’ Rev 12:11.
Pray:
Gracious God and loving heavenly Father. Please help me to trust you and embrace suffering for the sake of Christ.

Please help me to embrace suffering for the truth of the gospel.

Meditate on:

‘If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.’ Mark 8:38; ‘Striving together as one for the faith of the gospel.’ Phil 1:27; ‘So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God.’ 2 Tim 1:9; ‘Contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people.’ Jude 3.
Pray:
Gracious God and loving heavenly Father. Please help me to trust you and embrace suffering for the truth of the gospel.

Please help me to embrace suffering for doing good.

Meditate on:

‘For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering … if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.’ 1 Peter 2:19,20; ‘Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed … For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.’ 1 Peter 3:13,14,17.
Pray:
Gracious God and loving heavenly Father. Please help me to trust you and embrace suffering for doing good.

Please help me to embrace suffering for the benefit of others.

Meditate on:

‘I fill up what is still lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, the church.’ Col 1:24; ‘I endure everything for the sake of the elect.’ 2 Tim 2:10; ‘We always carry about in our body the death of Jesus … life is at work in you.’ 2 Cor 4:10,12.
Pray:
Gracious God and loving heavenly Father. Please help me to trust you and embrace suffering for the benefit of others.

Please help me to embrace suffering in serving others.

Meditate on:

‘Whoever want to become great among you must be slave of all … the Son of Man came … to serve, and give his life as a ransom for many.’ Mark 10:45; ‘I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.’ John 13:14.
Pray:
Gracious God and loving heavenly Father. Please help me to trust you and embrace suffering in serving others.

Please help me to embrace suffering for my own sanctification.

Meditate on:

‘We rejoice in our sufferings … suffering produce perseverance; perseverance Character: and character hope.’ Rom 5:3; ‘God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.’ Heb 12:10; ‘Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance … that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.’ James 1:2,3.
Pray:
Gracious God and loving heavenly Father. Please help me to trust you and embrace suffering for my own sanctification.

Please help me to embrace suffering in order to forgive as I have been forgiven.

Meditate on:

‘Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.’ Luke 11:4; ‘Do not repay anyone evil for evil.’ Rom 12:17; ‘Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.’ Ephes 4:32.
Pray:
Gracious God and loving heavenly Father. Please help me to trust you and embrace suffering in order to forgive as I have been forgiven.

Please help me to embrace suffering with the comfort of the promise of future glory.

Meditate on:

‘Our light momentary afflictions are achieving for us an eternal weight of glory.’ 2 Cor 4:17; ‘If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will reign with him.’ 2 Tim 2:11; ‘You may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith … may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.’ 1 Pet 1:6,7; ‘the one who is victorious will be dressed in white.’ Rev 3:5.
Pray:
Gracious God and loving heavenly Father. Please help me to trust you and embrace suffering with the comfort of the promise of future glory.

Please help me to embrace suffering to follow the Lord Jesus.

Meditate on:

‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.’ Luke 9:23; ‘Christ left you an example, that you should follow in his steps … he did not retaliate … he made no threats … he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.’ 1 Pet 2:21-23; ‘Rejoice that you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.’ 1 Pet 4:13.
Pray:
Gracious God and loving heavenly Father. Please help me to trust you and embrace suffering to follow the Lord Jesus.

Please help me to embrace suffering and experience Christ’s sympathy, understanding, and strength.

Meditate on:

‘Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted … Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered … Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.’ Heb 2:18, 5:8, 4:16.
Pray:
Gracious God and loving heavenly Father. Please help me to trust you and embrace suffering knowing Christ’s sympathy, understanding, and strength.

I love the story of the evangelist George Whitefield, a working-class man, recently converted, who went to be a student at Pembroke College, Oxford. Because he was poor, he was a ‘servitor’, acting as personal servant to wealthy and high-class fellow-students. Here is his account of his first year:

But when religion began to take root in my heart, and I was fully convinced my soul must totally be renewed…I was visited with outward and inward trials … I incurred the displeasure of the Master of the College … who threatened to expel me, if I ever visited the poor again … I said, if it displeased him, I would not … I immediately repented, and visited the poor at the first opportunity … My relations … counted my life madness s… I daily underwent some contempt at college. Some have thrown dirt at me … two friends forsook me.

He then evaluated the benefits: ‘These, though little, were useful trials. They inured me to contempt, lessened self-love and taught me to die daily’.^¹What a positive response to suffering!

I must confess that I have not arrived at being able to ‘count it all joy when you meet various kinds of trials’! [James 1:2]. But I have managed to experience Hebrews 12:11,

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

And my testimony is that while I have found suffering a great challenge at the time, as I look back over my life I can see that it has all been of benefit to me; of blessing to others; and, I trust, brought glory to God.

Furthermore

I recommend this article by Rory Shiner: https://au.thegospelcoalition.org/article/out-thought-or-out-discipled-mission-and-ministry-in-2020s-australia/

With warmest good wishes for your life and ministry.

Yours,

Peter Adam

Endnotes

1 These quotations are reduced and modified from George Whitefield, Whitefield Journals, London, Banner of Truth, 1960, pp. 50,51.

Delighting in weakness

Dear friends, It all came about last Monday because I had prepared a meditation on the cross for the ordinands at Ridley College. I decided to challenge them to reflect on aspects of the cross of Christ which were not familiar to them.

During the time for their personal meditation, I thought I should join in too! My eyes fell on these words in 2 Corinthians 12:10, ‘I delight in weaknesses’.

Well, I have several life-long personal weaknesses, and am now experiencing a new one, the declining energy of old age. I thought to myself, ‘I have come to terms with my weaknesses, accepted them, but I have never delighted in them.’

So I wrote this prayer.

Dear heavenly Father, I am very far from delighting in my several weaknesses [naming them]: instead, I constantly feel their pain, get discouraged and disheartened by them, and at most I grudgingly accept them and try to live and work despite them. Please forgive me and change me.
Please renew my heart, mind, emotions, reactions and self-perceptions, that I may grow to delight in my weaknesses, knowing that Christ’s strength is made perfect in my weaknesses, and that our sufficiency in ministry comes from you. Help me find your strength in my weakness. Help me know that light momentary afflictions work an eternal glory, and that you are renewing me inwardly day by day. In Christ’s name, Amen.

In the context in 2 Corinthians, Paul has written of his ‘thorn in the flesh’ [a ‘messenger of Satan’!]; his fervent prayer that God would remove it; and Christ’s reply, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is perfected in weakness.’ [10:9].

Paul’s response is to ‘boast all the more gladly about his weaknesses’ [10:9]. And then to ‘delight’ in them [10:10]!¹

The full verse is ‘For Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.’ [12:10]. Here it seems that Paul has in mind four kinds of weakness: ‘insults, hardships, persecutions, difficulties’.

On his statement ‘when I am weak, then I am strong’. Paul Barnett comments,

Such strength is not automatic to weakness. Rather, weakness … creates the human context of helplessness and utter vulnerability in which Paul … pleaded with the risen powerful Lord … who is now strong in resurrected power, to give his grace and power to the one who calls out to him.²

In the first years of our ministry, we delight to discover our God-given strengths and gifts, and rejoice to see how God uses them for the benefit of others, and for his glory. It is often in later years that we come discover our weakness; that God can use us despite our weaknesses; how God can use us and our weakness; and then learn to delight in our weakness.

This illustrates this basic truth: ‘We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us’ [2 Cor 4:7]. If we are truly doing gospel ministry, it will be beyond us.

Basic management and administration and ministry maintenance are mostly within our [God-given] power: gospel leadership, gospel transformation, gospel prayer and gospel ministry are beyond us. But when we are weak, then we are strong in Christ’s strength perfected in our weakness.

May we share in this delight together!

A paper for Ridley College Anglican Institute

Furthermore:

Here is another new prayer I have written.

Dear heavenly Father, help me to: love lavishly, without recognition; serve generously, without reward; give cheerfully, without grudging; listen lovingly, without impatience, forgive fully, without resentment; forbear fruitfully, without frustration; minister patiently, without murmuring; serve hopefully, without hesitation; remember thankfully, without regret. May I live in your love, stand in your grace, grow in your wisdom, walk in your ways, and serve in your power, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and for your glory.

Here is a useful article to help us understand the various political stances of Reformed Evangelicals in the USA.

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevin-deyoung/why-reformed-evangelicalism-has-splintered-four-approaches-to-race-politics-and-gender

Here is a useful article to help you understand how others dismiss you, and how you dismiss others [unhelpfully].

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/c-s-lewis-on-the-ubiquitous-fallacy-that-lies-at-the-foundation-of-modern-thought/

With warmest good wishes for your life and ministry.

Yours,

Peter Adam

Endnotes

1 Gk εὐδοκῶ. NIV 11 has ‘I delight’, ESV ‘I am content’, HOLMAN ‘I take pleasure’. The parallel with ‘I will boast’ in v. 9 suggests a very positive meaning.

2 Paul Barnett, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, NICNT, Eerdmans 1997, 577.

Practising the presence of God

Dear friends and fellow-labourers, what a year it has been: unexpected uncertainties, patterns and rhythms of personal and family life overturned, plans disrupted, usual ministry impossible, and new ways of ministry to learn. On the upside, greater dependence on God to do his work, unexpected opportunities for evangelism and practical support, increased realisation of how valuable it is to meet together, and greater thankfulness for many of God’s gifts that we take for granted. While many have had the challenge of doing ministry, family life and schooling in a confined space, my experience has been more time alone. This has provided an opportunity to grow my prayer life, as I have been learning to ‘practise the presence of God’.

Peter Adam | November 2020 | studies.org.au/peteradam

The expression ‘practising the presence of God’ comes from a book by Brother Laurence. It means putting into practice, whenever possible, a conscious awareness of God’s presence, meditation on God’s word, praise and thanks or lament and grief expressed to God, and intercession.

My prayer life has always been at set times. I have been learning to practise God’s presence and pray to him whenever I can. Many Christians do this; I am just catching up with other people! If you don’t already do this, I hope you will give it a go. If you already do this, you may find my experience encouraging.

‘Practising the presence of God’ is the usual expression. Its danger is its self-centredness. I prefer to think of it as ‘Practising = being aware of and responding to God’s presence’, ‘Practising = being present in the presence of God’.

[‘Practising = ‘putting into practice’, or ‘making a habit of’ not, ‘trying to make it happen’!]

God’s is present everywhere: we should be constantly aware of him

‘The LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other’. Deut 4:39.
‘Can a man hide himself in secret place so that I cannot see him? declares the LORD Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord?’ Jer 23:24.
‘In him we live and move and have our being’. Acts 17:28.

God is present whether we are believers or not. He is present everywhere even if we do not recognise his presence. God is omnipresent. God is present everywhere in his Son, sustaining this universe: ‘For by him all things were created … and in him all things hold together’. Col 1:16,17.

We should honour and praise Christ for his work of creation, as well as salvation.

We can never escape God’s presence, and we can never invite him to be present.

He is present everywhere, and he is present before we are present.

‘Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?’ [Ps 139:7]. Answer: nowhere!

To meet God in everyday life, to be aware of being in the presence of God all the time, is not subjective experientialism, it is reality.

God not only created all that is, he also sustains it, moment by moment. As we look at the sky, we see the stars God causes to shine.

Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these?

He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing. Is 40:26.

All living creatures receive their daily food from God.

The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season.

You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing. Ps 145:15,16.

As Calvin wrote,

[God] revealed himself and daily discloses himself in the whole workmanship of the universe… he shows his glory to us, whenever we and wherever we cast our gaze. … this skilful ordering of the universe is for us a sort or mirror in which we can contemplate God…¹

And again,

O, if we were only truly committed to God! I assure you: all the elements would sing to us and we, we would get to hear in this world a melody made in heaven, so utterly beautiful.²

God provides for all, believers and unbelievers alike. Jesus said, “He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” Matt 5:45: Paul said, ‘he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness’. Acts 14: 17.

When humans refuse to ‘honour him as God or give thanks to him’ [Rom 1:21] as they see his invisible power and divine nature in the creation, they are condemned.

You may say: ‘Is not the Bible God’s sufficient and clear word, why should we see God’s power in the world around us?’ But the Bible not only summons us to read it and meditate on it, it also points beyond itself: ‘The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork’. Ps 19:1.

God’s presence and the gospel: believers should have a greater and clearer awareness of being in the presence of God through Christ

Not only is God present in our world, he also invites us into his presence through his Son and his gospel. In Genesis 3, God’s judgement is to send out, to drive out sinners from the place where he met with them every day. Gen 3:22-24, 9. When God scatters his people, he judges them. Deut 28:64-68. However, through Christ and through his sacrifice, we are summoned into God’s presence.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus … and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith … Heb 10:19-22.

We might think that we are born again, forgiven, justified, and adopted, but remain at a distance from God. Not so: we come into God’s presence. And this describes our reality, not just what we feel when we pray. Paul puts it even more strongly: God is in Christ, we are in Christ, and have to fulness of life in him [Col 2:9,10]. We are seated in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus: we have been brought near by the blood of Christ [Ephes 2:6, 13]. We as a church are a temple of God’s holy Spirit, and are individually temples of God’s holy Spirit [1 Cor 3:16, 6:19]. God is around us and within us: he is closer than breathing.

Practising = making a habit of being aware of and responding to God’s presence: some useful habits

Here are some of the habits I have been working on, when I am waiting for the kettle to boil, the computer to warm up, when I am walking, in a tram, having a break, when I wake during the night, when nothing much is happening!

Daily mundane tasks. I remind myself to ‘offer my body to God as a living sacrifice’ [Rom 12:2], and to ‘serve the Lord Christ’ [Col 2:24], as I wash prepare food, wash the dishes, wash the dogs, go shopping, etc.

People. Whenever I think of someone, or meet someone, or see someone, I pray for them and commit them to God. If they are believers, then I follow Paul’s example and thank God for them before I pray for them. I try to practise ‘constant prayer’ [see Col. 1:9]. If no one comes to mind, I pray for family, friends, my church, people in ministry in Australia, overseas mission partners, Australia’s indigenous peoples, those in need, my neighbours, Australia, the nations of the world, etc.

My body. Truly I am ‘fearfully and wonderfully made!’ [Ps 139:14]. So I try to remember to thank God for keeping me alive. The gift of fresh air and lungs what work; the gift of food and drink and a digestive system that works. The gift of seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling. The gift of a heart and blood to keep me alive. And increasingly I ask God to repair bits that are not working so well, and/or to help me live wisely with them.

The creation. I love the sky, clouds, the sun, moon and stars. I want to get into the habit of praising God for anything that is in my mind or that I see or smell or feel or hear. They are all works and gifts of God.

Worries, plans, regrets. If I don’t fill my mind with intentional thoughts, it fills itself with worries, plans, and regrets. I deal with these by turning them into prayers, entrusting these matters to God.

I reflect on verses from the Bible. These are from parts of the Bible I had read recently, or from the sermon I heard last Sunday. I ponder them, meditate on them, and then turn them into praise, prayer, lament, confession, or trust.

The daily news. So much news is bad news, and we are humanly powerless to do much about much bad news. So whenever I think of an item of news, I turn it into a prayer that God would act, and that if he wants me to act, that he would prod me to do so.

I reflect on God’s global gospel plan for people from every nation to become believers in Christ. So if I think about a nation, I pray for gospel ministry there. If I think about a church or a minister, I pray. And then I often pray my default God’s global gospel plan prayers, that God would raise up workers for his great harvest, that God would convert ‘unconvertible’ people, that Jesus would build his church, that he would bring his church to maturity, and that God would sustain gospel workers, care for those being martyred today, and help all believers to grow in grace, godliness, and usefulness to God.

On a walk. Here I spend half my time praising God for the beauty of all he has made, and half my time praying for the people I see, or, if there is no one around, for the people who live in the houses I see.

Distractions. I am easily distracted. I try to turn my distractions into prayers. For my distractions are usually my worries or fears. The best thing to do is to pray them.

God. I praise him that he is an ‘anytime, anything’ God, that I don’t have to make appointments to pray, that nothing is too small or too big to bring to him in prayer. I praise him for his power, holiness, majesty, wisdom and steadfast love. I praise him for his gospel plan for this world to save sinners and make saints. I praise him for creation and salvation. I praise him for the Lord Jesus, and for the Holy Spirit. I rejoice, lament, grieve, trust, give thanks, entrust, submit, and offer myself to him, to live for his glory.

My activities today and in the next few days. I ponder these, ask God to direct me, and pray for the people I will serve. I also ask God to prepare me for the unexpected events and activities, and that I will accept them graciously rather than grumpily! I tell God that I trust that he has the details of my daily life in his hands.

My activities over the past week. I ponder these, thank God for them, ask God to forgive and over-rule the mistakes and sins I have committed, and pray for the people I have met, served or helped.

The big issues in my life. These often come into my mind, so I commit them to God, ask for his wisdom, and pray that he would work out his good purposes in my life.

In all of this, I am trying to live my life and do my ministry coram Deo, in the presence of God. I am aiming to be aware that I am in God’s presence, and to be fully present in God’s presence as I can.

I am trying to make a habit of being present in the presence of God.³

I hope you find this helpful.

I will be on holiday [in the presence of God!] in December, so the next Paraklesis will be in January 2021, DV.

Thank you for your fellowship in ministry.

With warmest good wishes,

Yours,

Peter Adam

Endnotes

1 John Calvin, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, 1.5.1, The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1960, p. 52,53.

2 Calvin’s Lecture on Jeremiah 5:25, as cited in Marijn de Kroon, The Honour of God and Human Salvation: Calvin’s Theology according to his Institutes, T&T Clark, Edinburgh and New York, 2001, p.208.

3 These prayers complement my daily planned prayers, when I pray for myself and for others in a more organised way!