Colossians 4:12-13 Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, salutes you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers… I. Prayer is religion in action, and is the noblest kind of human exertion. It is the one department of action in which man realizes the highest privilege and capacities of his being. And in doing this he is enriched and ennobled almost indefinitely. 2. That this view of prayer is not universal is notorious. It is thought an excellent thing for clergymen, recluses, sentimentalists, and women and children generally; that it has its uses as a form of desultory occupation, an outlet for feel ing, a means of discipline, but altogether less worthy of the energies of a thinking man than hard work in study or business. 3. In response to this let those speak who have really prayed. They sometimes describe prayer with Jacob, as a wrestling together with an unseen power, which may last even to the break of day (Genesis 32:24), or with Paul, as a concerted struggle (Romans 15:30). They have their eyes fixed on the Great Intercessor in Gethsemane (Luke 22:44). Importunity is of the essence of successful prayer (Luke 11:8; Luke 18:5; Matthew 15:27-28; Mark 7:28-29); and importunity means not dreaminess, but sustained work, and of an energetic character (Matthew 11:12). Bishop Hamilton, of Salisbury, once said that "no man was likely to do much good in prayer who did not begin by looking upon it in the light of a work, to be prepared for and persevered in with all the earnestness which we bring to bear on subjects which are the most interesting and necessary." This will appear if we take an act of prayer to pieces. To pray is — I. TO PUT THE UNDERSTANDING IN MOTION, and to direct it upon the highest object to which it Can address itself. How overwhelming are the truths which pass before us — a boundless Power, an eternal Existence. Then the substance of the petition, its motives, the issues which depend on its being granted or refused present them selves to the mind, as does the Intercessor who presents our prayers. II. TO PUT THE AFFECTIONS IS MOTION. The object of prayer is the uncreated Love, and to be in His presence is to be conscious of heart expansion; and when the matter of prayer is blessing for others and not for self, all the best emotions and sentiments are called into play (Matthew 15:8; 1 John 3:21-22). III. TO PUT THE WILL IN MOTION, just as decidedly as we do when we sit down to read hard, or to walk up a steep hill against time (John 9:31; Matthew 7:21; James 4:7-8; all of which imply that prayer in which the will is not engaged is worthless. That sovereign power does not merely impel us to make the first necessary mental effort, but enters most penetratingly and vitally into the very action of prayer itself (Genesis 32:26). These three ingredients of prayer are ingredients in all real work, whether of the brains or the hands. The difference is that in prayer they are more equally balanced. Study may in time become intellectual habit, which scarcely demands any effort of will; handiwork may in time become so mechanical as to require little or no guidance from thought; each may exist without the co-operation of the affections. Not so prayer. It is always the joint act of the will and the understanding, impelled by the affections; and when either will or intelligence is wanting, prayer at once ceases to be itself, by degenerating into a barren, intellectual exercise, or into a mechanical and unspiritual routine. (Canon Liddon.) Parallel Verses KJV: Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. |
    |