02 - Praying with Paul

In the previous post we looked at how Paul seems to challenge a narrow view of praying, giving us good example of how to pray in a more broad and expansive way; a type of prayer that reflects the infinitely broad and expansive nature of God, who is able to accomplish all things!

There are two things worthy noticing in the very first sentence, we shall look at one here... Paul prays 'GOD would enable them to live a life worthy of their calling.' What is significant to note is that God is the one who 'enables us', he is the initiator of all things. Just as he is the initiator of our faith, giving us the faith to believe in the saving work of the Cross, so he gives us the power to continue in the course of Christian discipleship also.

Satan would easily tell us the lie that pursuing God is a completely personal endeavour, which is a test of your own will and single mindedness. Paul reminds us that we should pray for God to help us in our journey into his likeness. In fact our success in transformation is utterly dependant on the grace of God in every aspect of our life, enabling us to be transformed into a better reflection of Jesus Christ. To 'go it alone' in our Christian faith is surely to lead to failure. I shall leave with a few useful quotes from the Jonathan Edwards (1703 - 1758) who gives good insight into describing our utter dependence on God.

'You stand in need of daily supplies of God. Without Him, you can receive no spiritual light, or comfort, can exercise no grace, and can bring forth no fruit. Without God your souls will wither and pine away, and sink into a most wretched state. You continually need God's intructions and directions. What can a little child do in a vast, howling wilderness without someone to guide and lead the child in the right way? Without God, you will soon fall into snares, pits and many calamities.'

or...

'After a true conversion, the soul is increasingly aware of its own impotence and emptiness. It is aware of its universal dependence on God for everything.'

Examine yourself for a moment; are you truly aware of own incapability of living the Christian life and in turn aware of your utter dependence on the grace of God? How differently do you think your life would look like without God being the most SINGLE IMPORTANT thing in your life? Would your world fall to pieces around you, or would it continue to look much the same?