Colossians 4:2-4

2 Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. 3 Pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ. That is why I am here in chains. 4 Pray that I will proclaim this message as clearly as I should.

The Christian life is about journeying with God; unfortunately many of us miss the intimacy of this journey because we have gotten on the wrong road only to experiencing an entirely different trip. None of us are immune from this excursion, we’ve all been fellow passengers on several occasions and sad to say I have even served as your tour guide on some of these trips. The name of these trips is Guilt and some of us have been taking these trips for a very long time. Guilt is never a comfort cruise but a cursed one where we end up battered by the waves of anger and the winds of resentment. Many of us hear the words “Devote yourselves to prayer” and all we see is something more we need to do, so we miss the call to intimacy. Prayer is a vehicle to intimacy with the Father, yet many times we focus on the work of prayer instead of the where of prayer, where it will take us. When we forget to entertain the destination of prayer we stop focusing on the Father and we focus on effort. The focus of prayer is not in the doing but the going because prayer is not something we do its somewhere we go.  Are you focusing on the destination of prayer? Where is your prayer life taking you? Where do you want it to take you? Guilt trips are dead ends because guilt is an evil motivator, sure it gets us to do the work buts its destination is never relational, instead of transporting us into intimacy it dumps us into despair. Today I want to invite you on a different trip I want you to trade in your guilt trip for a grace trip. Guilt may get you to do the work of prayer but only grace can truly bring you to your knees. Will you come with me and focus on what we need (intimacy with the Father) not what it takes to get there (prayer)?

Colossians 4:2-4 falls into two parts with two questions.

1. How do we pray?
2. What do we pray?

Today we will look at the question, “How do we pray?” and discover three helpful guidelines from verse 2

• Devote

To devote yourself means to give yourself to, it’s an unrelenting persistence and is the opposite of “hit and miss.” It reminds me of the early church, Acts 2:42: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” In Luke 18:1, “Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” Paul is saying something quite simple, keep praying, don’t bail, don’t give up, be faithful. You will have dry times and days when you don’t know what to say, but give yourself anyway. You can always tell those who are a devoted to their sports team, it’s not based on how the team is doing, they are cheering regardless of whether they are winning or losing. What are you giving yourself to? Have you made prayer about the results or the relationship?

Paul doesn’t leave us with just an exhortation to devotion he also gives a couple tips on how to remain devoted in our praying:

• Watchful

Verse 2 continues by saying that we’re to be “watchful” or awake when we pray. This exhortation brings to mind the words of Jesus to His disciples on the night when He was betrayed, Mark 14:34, 38: “Stay here and keep watch…Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” Watchful prayer provides the spiritual fortitude to face down temptation. Peter did not stay awake, instead he traded prayer for sleep and he gave in to the temptation to denied Christ just a few hours later. Think for a moment about the difference between two military sentries: One is guarding the local armory here in small town USA the other is guarding a platoon in Tora Bora, Afghanistan. Which one is probably going to be more attentive, more watchful? The one who realizes he’s in a battle. Do you know that you are in a battle, a spiritual battle? 1 Peter 5:8 paints a real picture of the war we are in: “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” We need to stay on high alert at all times.

• Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving deals with the attitude of prayer because gratitude is a stimulus to prayer. Regardless of the circumstances that surround us we can always thinking of at least one thing to thank God for. In this life there are times when we have to look into the abyss of our circumstances, it may be a health concern, a relational loss or a financial failure. Yet in the pit of despair He is there, His presence, His provision, His pardon, His promises, and His purposes. Paul knew crippling circumstances in his own life and he didn’t just preach thankfulness he practiced it.  Listen to his heart of thanksgiving recorded in Colossians:

· 1:3: “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you.”

· 1:12: “Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.”

· 2:7: “Rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”

· 3:15-17: “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

Is it time for you to trade in your guilt trip and travel the highway of grace? Is it time to devote yourself to an intimate relationship, to wake up and be watchful with a thankful heart?

2 Chronicles 14:8-12

8 King Asa had an army of 300,000 warriors from the tribe of Judah, armed with large shields and spears. He also had an army of 280,000 warriors from the tribe of Benjamin, armed with small shields and bows. Both armies were composed of well-trained fighting men. 9 Once an Ethiopian named Zerah attacked Judah with an army of 1,000,000 men[d] and 300 chariots. They advanced to the town of Mareshah, 10 so Asa deployed his armies for battle in the valley north of Mareshah. 11 Then Asa cried out to the Lord his God, “O Lord, no one but you can help the powerless against the mighty! Help us, O Lord our God, for we trust in you alone. It is in your name that we have come against this vast horde. O Lord, you are our God; do not let mere men prevail against you!” 12 So the Lord defeated the Ethiopians in the presence of Asa and the army of Judah, and the enemy fled.

Where does the victory come from? Does it come through prayer? When Asa became king the people were worshipping other gods so he challenged the people to turn their hearts back to God. As he prayed and listened to God, others started to turn away from their false gods and began to tear down their altars.  10 years into his rule after the reforms were in place King Zerah brought a vast army toward Judah.  Asa’s army was half the size of Zerah’s army and technologically inferior because Zerah’s had the latest war technology. War chariots, the equivalent of the modern tank, able to provided shielding and mobility for archers, allowing troops to arrive at the front fresh and rested.  This threat tested Asa’s leadership and even though he had a lot of worldly resources at his disposal he trusted in God. Asa was on his face before the Lord crying out “We’re not trusting in our army [our resources] but in you Lord.”

Asa revealed a willingness to hope and trust in God and turning to God’s heart in prayer admits human helplessness. So the Lord struck down Asa’s enemy and they fled in fear, broken and scattered and Asa gathered a great plunder. 25 years later (chapter 16) Asa was again threatened, and he faced a similar situation to what he had faced before. What would you do? This time (2 Chron 16:3) “Asa then took the silver and gold out of the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and of his own palace and sent it to Ben-Hadad king of Aram, who was ruling in Damascus.” “Let there be a treaty[a] between you and me like the one between your father and my father. See, I am sending you silver and gold. Break your treaty with King Baasha of Israel so that he will leave me alone.”

Asa had wealth from God’s blessings in the past and now he tries to use it to work out his problems on his own. The crazy part is that it worked, Asa and Ben-Hadad advanced, Baasha retreated and Asa was able to break the enemy and get even more plunder.  Everybody was happy, well almost everyone: (Chapter 16)

7 At that time Hanani the seer came to King Asa and told him, “Because you have put your trust in the king of Aram instead of in the Lord your God, you missed your chance to destroy the army of the king of Aram. 8 Don’t you remember what happened to the Ethiopians[c] and Libyans and their vast army, with all of their chariots and charioteers?[d] At that time you relied on the Lord, and he handed them over to you. 9 The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. What a fool you have been! From now on you will be at war.” 10 Asa became so angry with Hanani for saying this that he threw him into prison and put him in stocks. At that time Asa also began to oppress some of his people.

Asa stopped trusting God and turned to leaning on self, he eventually had a foot disease that took his life and even in his last days he did not turn to the Lord for help. The contrast between chapter 14 and 16 is stark:  Ch 14 He trusted in God when everything was on the line.  Ch 16 He trusted only in self and turned away from God. It’s not the start but the finish that counts and it’s easy to start out strong and finish weak. How did the change take place? I wonder if Asa began to take God for granted, maybe he began to think that God was lucky to have him. He stopped praying, and instead leaned on his own ability and resources to solve his problems. I even wonder if he began to congratulate himself for his own success. How is your prayer life today?  Has God answered some of your prayers, so many that you have forgotten him? Have you gotten the girl, or the job, or the home, and now you no longer need God.  Has your passion for prayer slipped away? As you reflect on the experiences of your life, what happened when you were on your knees, what happened when you were not? Faith is about trusting God and prayer is an invitation to step into a deeper reliance on Him and see His power at work. Prayer is always about change, it is one of the vehicles that God uses to transform us. If we are unwilling to change we will abandon prayer and it will not become a practiced part of our lives. The closer we come to the heartbeat of God the more we see our need and the more we desire to be conformed to Him.

Leonard Ravenhill said, “Poverty stricken as the church is today in many things, most stricken in the place of prayer. We have many organizers, but few agonizers; many players and payers, but few prayers; many singers but few lingerers; lots of pastors but few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, but little passion; many interferers, but few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters. Failing here, we fail everywhere.”

So where does the victory come from? Where did it come from for Asa, where are you turning, is it to God in prayer?