“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.” Philippians 1:9-11
Each person has a life message; that is the one string you play on more than any other. You may wonder, what is a life message? It is the passion, priorities and perspective through which you filter your values, resources and choices. On the shelf of life, there are many life messages from which to choose:
Ø If your life message is “life is a party,” then you evaluate your quality of life based on whether or not you are having fun.
Ø If your life message is “life is a race,” then you analyze the quality of your life based upon whether or not you’re winning.
Ø If your life message is “life is left to chance,” then you examine the quality of your life based upon circumstances.
The life message you choose influences your life in every way and at all times. For many, their life message(s) will not last beyond this world. Measured against eternity, many life messages will not stand the test of time.
“The world is fading away, along with everything that it craves. But if you do the will of God, you will live forever.” 1 John 2:7 (NLT)
So, how do I find the will of God for my life? Another way to put it is, how do I find my life message? Eugene Peterson, author of the Message Bible, gives a glimpse as to how to pull this off:
“You take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work and walking around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him. Don’t become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what He wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” Romans 12:1-2 (Message)
So, what does God want? He wants you to adopt a life message that brings the best out of you and develops a well-formed life of maturity. One of the Bible’s life messages is clearly spelled out and spread out over 200 times:
Life Is A Test
Several years ago a preacher moved to Houston, Texas. Some weeks after he arrived, he had an occasion to ride the bus from his home to the downtown area. When he sat down, he discovered that the driver had accidentally given him a quarter too much change.
As he considered what to do, he thought to himself, you better give the quarter back. It would be wrong to keep it. Then he thought, “Oh, forget it. It’s only a quarter. Who would worry about this little amount? Anyway the bus companies already gets too much fare; they will never miss it. Accept it as a gift from God and keep it.” When his stop came, he paused momentarily at the door, and then he handed the quarter to the driver and said, “Here, you gave me too much change.”
The driver with a smile replied, “Aren’t you the new preacher in town? I have been thinking lately about going to worship somewhere. I just wanted to see what you would do if I gave you too much change.” (1)
This story clearly depicts that life is a test. God is testing you every day of your life. I grew up in the era of television when an announcement came over the airwaves every night saying, “This is a test. For the next 60 seconds, this will be a test.”
The picture would go to some type of screen test pattern, the same one every time. Then a moderate hum would come out as volume. It happened nightly. I knew exactly what was going on. All I could do was wait patiently until the test was completed. Then it would go back to its regularly scheduled program. With the same regularity, God is announcing to you and me, “This is a test. For the next 60 seconds this will be a test.”
If you accept the premise that life is a test, then it stands to reason that nothing happens by chance. Every day is an opportunity to strengthen your faith, deepen your character, and develop your prayer life.
When you accept the reality that life is a test, you can see that all the circumstances of life can reveal and develop your character. The tests you face daily will certainly expose the habits of your hidden life with God. Your life message is being chronicled (recorded) and crowned (rewarded) by what you do in your daily routine. The success of your life message is based on what you do daily.
Chronicled
The Bible tells us that Daniel prayed daily.
“Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on His knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. (Daniel 6:10)
There you have it! What you do as daily routine exposes and expresses the life message residing within your heart. The only thing that determines your success is the habits you cultivate on a daily basis. Successful people do daily what unsuccessful people only slip into occasionally.
A few years ago a US AIR airplane crashed near Pittsburgh. The cause of that crash was a mystery because the plane just seemed to fall from the sky. So it was with great interest that the investigators listened to the information recorded in the plane’s black box. CNN played a portion of that recording on the air, revealing that there were just a few seconds from the time the pilot detected trouble until the plane crashed. The black box revealed these sounds from the cockpit: “First, there was an ‘Oh,’ followed by profanity and a string of ‘curse words,’ then came the crash and silence.” (2)
It was in those final moments that the pilot’s real habits and life message were laid bare before the whole world. When down to our last few moments, all of us are reduced to the lone instincts of our heart. You would have no time to deliberately think through your response. That which comes most natural would be your only hope. All of life’s tests expose the content of our life message. Some tests are very real and life threatening. Others go completely unnoticed, even by the most carefully scrutinized life.
Crowned
One thing is true of all of life’s tests: they come with a reward. When the grades of your life’s tests are posted outside the professor’s office, if you have passed you get a reward. God carefully oversees the execution of every test in your life and He makes plans to reward you personally in eternity.
James lets us in on the truth that no act of service or test done on behalf of the Lord Jesus Christ will ever go unrewarded.
“Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.” (James 1:12)
How do we get a reward? By loving Jesus more and more as we encounter demanding tests, trials, and tribulations in life. If your love for the Savior diminishes through attitudes, bitterness, or resentment, then you “are the weakest link.” You are voted off the island; you are the last team to arrive; you have been eliminated.
Whatever life message you choose to live by should answer the following question:
What does God intend my life to count for?
Since life is a test, what resources has God given me so I can successfully pass the test? If you want to increase the potential for more regularly answered prayer, then learn the biblical admonition to pray specifically; i.e. “Give us this day our daily bread.” (Matthew 6:11)
Prayer is the most powerful weapon you have to meet life’s tests head-on. But for many it lies rusted and unused. It is often the last element of a believer’s life that generates any interest. Most Christians in America pray about 7 minutes a day while they spend 23 hours a week in front of the television!
The words, pray, prayer or praying show up over 530 times in the Bible. First Timothy 2:1, summarizes God’s mandate for the believer’s life: “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for everyone.”
This passage provides an introduction to 4 types of prayers in the New Testament: prayer, the prayer of supplication, the prayer of intercession and the prayer of thanksgiving.
Why Should We Pray?
1. Jesus Christ left us an example (Matthew 14:23; Mark 1:35).
2. Prayer is God’s strategy for releasing joy (Acts 16:25).
3. Prayer keeps us spiritually fit and alert (Matt. 26:41; Jude 20).
4. Prayer transforms us into the image of Jesus (Luke 9:28-29).
5. Prayer moves God’s hand to work in your life (Exodus 3:7).
6. Prayer is an anti-toxin for worry (Philippians 4:6-7).
7. Prayer releases the power and blessing of God (Acts 4:31).
Specific prayer always begins with seeking God, not what we want Him to do for us. Prayer that gets God’s interest and attention is the prayer that is primarily motivated by the desire to come into God’s presence. That’s why, when I am praying, I often go back and forth between worship and prayer. I may be praying for a few minutes then burst out with the song: “Our God is an Awesome God!”
Prayer is not something you do like Bible study, worship and giving, it not another spiritual habit to be learned. Prayer is what drives everything you do.
What if all of your answered prayer was released once you worshipped and connected with God’s heart? If you are going to learn to pray specifically, you have to learn to worship wondrously. For most people, praying is seeking God’s hand. The problem is that in seeking God’s hand you miss His face. If seeking His face is your utmost priority and your highest ambition and motivation, then you’ll get His hand.
Prayer draws us into communion with Almighty God. It is the primary means of developing intimacy with God. That’s something to enjoy - being in the presence in of God.
Our invitation to pray is not…
you ought to pray,
you have to worship,
it’s…
you get to pray,
you get to worship.
When your prayer life moves from ought to to get to, your desire and drive will build. Daniel rushed home to pray in spite of the ordinance against it.
If you can’t learn to pray when things are going well, God will put you in a place where you have no choice! In the book of Philippians we see how to experience Joy While In Jail. Specific prayer brings us to a place of happiness and joy in our prisons.
God wants each of us to have someone praying for us. Paul’s opening words to the Philippians makes clear the truth that God wants you to be sustained by the prayers of others. The most effective prayers are those that have a specific ring to them.
You Are Not Alone
What an encouraging practice in the body of Christ, to be a part of a community where believers make praying for each other not a hit and miss proposition, but a regular aspect of a mature walk with God. When you come to understand that someone is praying for you specifically, then you rejoice in the truth you are not alone.
Before I show you several specific things Paul prayed for the Philippians, let me tell you 3 reasons why you need a prayer partner.
1. All of us need resources greater than we possess.
No person possesses all the giftings, talents, and abilities to pull off the Christian life. We need each other.
2. All of us get tired and weary being in battle against the enemy.
If one characteristic marks the 21st Century Christian it is that he or she is exhausted and tired. The intensity of the battle is too much of a burden. You need two types of prayer. You need to pray for yourself and you need others praying for you.
3. All of us need the Lord to do the fighting, and this will only happen through prayer.
Prayer Principle: Learn To Be Specific (Philippians 1)
1. God’s desire is that your love for Him and mankind never stop growing.
“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,” (verse 9)
Paul’s desire was that the Philippians’ love abound more and more. The Greek word here means “to overflow, to gush out in unlimited measure.” What a prayer request. What a need. Since God is love, the most important assignment on earth is to learn how to love. And it is just as important to love others as it is to love God.
“The whole law can be summed up in one command: ‘Love others as you love yourself’” Galatians 5:14 (LB)
God wants you to be rightly related and in close fellowship to others who are irritating, imperfect, and impatient so you can learn to love. Life that fails to be established in love is really a worthless life.
“No matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.” 1 Peter 2:17b (CEV)
2. God’s design is that you learn how to prioritize and purify your life.
“So that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ,” (Philippians 1:10)
Say those two words with me: priorities & purity. If you spent the rest of your life focused at this level you’d never exhaust God’s work for your life. We are people given to extremes. Learning to establish right priorities is not a given, but it is work. Always remember it is what you value that drives your priorities. It is your schedule that helps you instill your priorities into daily life.
Purity on the other hand is simply God’s great desire to make us like Jesus. To learn to love, laugh, and learn like Jesus.
God wants to be your best friend. Do you know why so many people struggle with this part of their walk with God? Because their Christianity is a weekend religion!
Two specific insights into God’s desires for our prayer life make it possible to pull off this second admonition.
First: Learn to pray without ceasing. (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
Praying without ceasing means enjoying conversation with God while you’re shopping, at the theater, driving, working, or performing a task during the day. We tend to feel that the most blessed way to enjoy God is to be alone with Him. Yes, Jesus modeled that you need alone time with God, but this is only a fraction of the time you should be using for God. The balance of your life should include God in all you do. You can do this by staying aware of His presence.
Second: Pray all the time. (Ephesians 6:18b)
For centuries Christians have been practicing this principle through what is called, “breath prayers.” (3) Breath prayers are one sentence or a simple phrase that can be repeated to Jesus in a breath throughout the day:
“You are with me.”
“Oh, how I love you.”
“Draw me close, to you.”
“Never let me go.”
“Help me see your hand.”
“You are my desire.”
“No one else will do.”
“Help me find my way.”
“You’re all I want.”
“You’re all I ever needed.”
You can also quote short portions of scripture. “Seek ye first the Kingdom,” (Matthew 6:33), “As the deer pants for cool water brooks, so my soul longs for you” (Psalm 42:1).
Learning to pray and practice God’s presence is a skill. Just as a musician works tirelessly for hours on one piece to maser it to perfection, so you must work to master bringing your thoughts to a constant awareness of prayer.
3. God’s delight is that your life be filled with the development of the qualities of Christ in an on-going basis.
“Filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.” (Philippians 1:11)
Never forget that God is always more concerned with what you are than what you do. As many have said, “We are human beings, not human doings!” You are a work in progress that won’t be completed until you breathe your last breath. In fact, it will only be finished in heaven - by Jesus.
Today, God wants to impart to you that special ability to pray individually and as a part of a group, with more intensity, for longer periods of time, and with greater joy and satisfaction while seeing greater results as you hear clearly from God.
If I were to highlight the components of a person’s prayer life that have on-going satisfaction, they would include:
1. The ability to pray longer.
2. The drive to pray with more intensity.
3. An on-going satisfaction.
4. Increased frequent and dramatic results.
Richard Dehaan tells of a soldier who was doing sentry duty on the front line in WWI. After being relieved of duty, as a Christian, he wanted to pray, to thank God for protecting him and to ask specifically for his continued protection. But the enemy lines were very close and he couldn’t go far, so he just walked a little way from where he had been standing guard and began to pray aloud.
The sentry who replaced him heard his voice and thought he was speaking to someone in the enemy lines. So he reported him. The officer in charge said, “You’ve been accused of revealing secrets to the enemy. How do you respond?” The soldier said, “It’s not true.” The officer replied, “Then what were you doing when you were standing out there facing the enemy and talking?” He said, “I was praying.”
“You were praying out loud?” “Yes, I was.” The officer said, “Show me. Pray right now.” So the young man got down on his knees and prayed. When he finished the officer dismissed the charges. “Because,” he said, “nobody can pray like that unless they have been practicing.” (2)
Today, you are learning how to become best friends with God through the conversation of prayer. Becoming a friend of God will never happen by just attending church. It will only happen through sharing all your life experiences with Him
For some of you that journey is about to start here today. The teachings of Jesus show us that there are two elements that determine everything about our eternity.
The first is our belief. This key unlocks the door to eternal life and let’s us know where we will spend eternity.
“But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:31)
“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation of everyone who believes; first the Jew, then for the Gentile.” (Romans 1:16)
The second key is our behavior. This key unlocks the door to rewards that determine how we spend eternity. (4)
“If what he has built survives; he will receive a reward.” (1 Corinthians 3:14)
End Notes
1. Source Unknown. Sent to me as an e-mail. “It’s Only A Quarter”
2. Melvin Newland: Pray With Thanksgiving,
SermonCentral.com. Pg. 2
3. Rick Warren. The Purpose Driven Life, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2002, pg. 89.
4. Bruce Wilkinson, A Life God Rewards, Multnohmah Publishers, 2002, pg. 15.
Edited by Diane Gardner
