Matthew 21:16

This past week, I was struck by how incredible a thing it is worship God with your children at church. I was helping my 5 yr old son, Joshua, read the lyrics on our song sheet during our evening prayer gathering and he began singing with great gusto – totally void of the inhibitions and fear of man that mutes the singing of so many adults!

While this is not an unusual practice for us, it struck me what I was hearing my son singing. He hasn’t learned all the verses to many of our regular songs, but he does know many of the choruses by heart. So, as I am finish moving my finger across the words, he begins to sing things like….

O the wonderful cross, O the wonderful cross!
Bids be come and die, and find that I may truly live.

You are worthy, Father Creator.
You are worthy, Savior, Sustainer.
You are worthy, worthy and wonderful;
worthy of worship and praise.

Grace, grace, God’s grace,
grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
Grace, grace, God's grace
grace that is greater than all our sin!

Hearing him sing not only brought tears to my eyes, but it also reminded me of a couple of things.

First, the songs we sing have a tremendous impact on our theology – what we believe about God, Christ, the Bible, the Christian life, etc. What we teach our people in church is just as important as what we teach our children to sing. Do not misunderstand though and think we only have our kids sing ‘adult’ songs. No, we also sing songs like,

There’s a flag flying high in the castle of my heart,
in the castle of my heart, in the castle of my heart.
There’s a flag flying high in the castle of my heart,
for the King is in residence there…

Nevertheless, one of my kids’ favorite songs (which can often be heard echoing down the hallways of our home) is ‘He is Exalted.’

Second, our children are so ready to soak up anything we put before them. I do not believe my son is a Christian yet. However, I do think he has a tremendous grasp of the cross. One of the teachers in our mid-week missions class told me Joshua wanted to pray to dismiss the class at the end of their time. Part of his prayer went … “I’m sorry that your Son had to die for our sins.” What we say, read, pray, and do around our kids affects their thinking and eventually their lives.

Third, parents have the primary responsibility for their children’s spiritual maturity. I realized that I should sing more with my children, I should read the Bible more with my children, I should pray more with my children. Regardless of how great the church programs are, my kids are my responsibility.

I hope Joshua keeps singing of the glories of God. And I hope that his exposure to the Bible in song, in teaching, and (hopefully) in the example of my wife and I will be used by God’s Spirit to bring him to a saving faith in Christ. Until then, I will continue to pray for him and will continue to unashamedly glory in hearing him loudly sing to the Lord of the Universe.

Praying to Stand Firm: A Meditation on Ephesians 6:18-20

Paul says, “Stand therefore … praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints” (6:14,18-20).

We are given a picture of prayer that shows it to be foundational for the deployment of all other spiritual weapons given to us by God (6:10-17). It is in the context of prayer that the armor is put on and the sword is put into action. Thus, prayer is crucial if we are to stand firm in the spiritual battle.

So how do we pray to stand firm? Paul gives us five instructions for how we are to pray.

We Should Pray in the Spirit

What does it mean to pray in the Spirit? As always, context is king. Look back to verse 17, “take … the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication” (6:17-18). I think the key to understanding what Paul means here is seeing the connection between the word and prayer.

The New Testament is clear that God’s Spirit doesn’t work apart from God’s Word. People need to hear the gospel for the Spirit to convict; people need to hear the Scriptures explained for the Spirit to mature them. Likewise here, there is a relationship between the Spirit and the Word. The Word is the Spirit’s sword – he is the one who makes it sharp and effective. If Paul wants us to pray in the Spirit, surely he wants us to pray in a Spirit-directed way. That is, we should allow him to direct our prayers as we better understand God’s will from his word.

To pray in God’s Spirit is to bring your request into conformity to the Spirit-inspired word. The painful truth then is that our prayers are only ‘in the Spirit’ insofar as they conform to God’s Word.We Should Pray at All Times It’s easy to pray in the midst of trouble, but here we are told to pray at all times. The good, the bad, the ugly; times of blessing and peace as well as poverty and conflict. We should pray on vacation; we should pray at work.In the immediate context, we are to be praying at all times, because that is what keeps us strengthened in God’s armor. One Puritan pastor writes, “Now because of ourselves, we are as children, and no better able to wield this Armour of God, then David the Armour of Saul, the apostle adds that heavenly exercise of prayer.”

We Should Pray with All Prayer

When my dad was little, all he liked to eat was hamburgers – plain hamburgers. No ketchup, no lettuce, no onion, no pickle – nothing. And if they went out to eat somewhere that didn’t have hamburgers he wouldn’t eat anything. Eventually, his parents broke him of that stubborn habit. And with good reason, what kind of nutrition was he going to get from only eating hamburgers?Similarly, when we think of our spiritual health, how can we be nourished spiritually if we only pray the same kinds of prayers all the time?

When we look to the Scriptures, there are all kinds of prayers. We must mingle together our prayers, including praise of God. This is worshipful prayer for what God has done, not only in our lives, but in years past in the lives of his people. The focus of praise should of course be for what God has accomplished through Christ. Confession of sin is essential for warfare praying. The devil delights to come at us with accusations, playing to our guilt. But by confessing and repenting of our sins, because of Christ’s sacrifice for us, we will be encouraged, and well equipped to ward off such attacks. Thanksgiving is another important part of the Christian’s prayer life. Thanksgiving works in tandem with our petitions like the double action of our lungs – in petition we seek something for God, and in receiving it, the natural response is to exhale our grateful prayers of thanksgiving. Finally, there is petition or supplication. This comes in two forms – requests for ourselves and intercession for others. Like Moses for Israel, Abraham for Sodom, and Jesus for Peter, we must learn to intercede to God on behalf of others.

We Should Pray with All Perseverance

The Gospels tell us that Jesus told his disciples a parable, “to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1). Do you give up easily in prayer? Do you get frustrated and pout, not giving things over to God in prayer? Do you get down and disappointed and so lose heart, not seeking encouragement from God?

I am the kind of guy whose emotions can go up and down with ease. It doesn’t take much to excite me, or get me in the dumps about something. There is no way I would be able to continue in my ministry without prayer. One pastor has rightly said: “We must always pray or else we will give up.” If we are not praying, we will easily be choked by life’s riches and pleasures.We always make time for that which is important to us. We will not make time for prayer unless we understand how important it should be.

We Should Pray for All the Saints

Earlier we made the point that we must pray because we have an enemy. And we identified who that enemy was – the unfortunate thing is that we sometimes forget who that enemy is. Sometimes we mistake other people as the enemy – specifically, other Christians. Instead of fighting against spiritual forces, we want to fight each other.

But Paul here, corrects that sin. He says, pray “make supplication for all the saints.” We aren’t fighting a private war. We are all units in the same army; fight on the same lines. Therefore, we must pray that others may be able to stand and persevere as well.

If we are to stand firm against the attacks of the enemy, we must be devoted to prayer.

D. A. Carson - A Scholar's Scholar and a Pastor's Pastor

D. A. Carson is one of my favorite writers and preachers. He is comfortable in both the halls of academia and the pulipts of churches around the world. And both are better off for him being there. I have probably learned more about God, the Bible, and how to live the Christian life from his books and sermons than any one pastor or professor I have had.

Recently, Mark Dever (pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D. C.) has waxed eloquent about why Carson is important to the church, and given us a preview of one of his new books. Go check out Pastor Dever's blog and you'll see why Carson is one of those few men who can truly help lead you closer to Christ.

You can also listen to some of Carson's sermons and read some of his popular and more scholarly articles and essays at Christway Media. All of his books are available at Amazon.com.

Edwards Online

The Jonathan Edwards Center has recently put several thousand pages of Edwards' works online, free for use. This includes, sermon, notes, theological works - you name it. Furthermore, they are planning on putting up several volumes for the printed series in the near future, making the Edwards Center's site the largest online library of Edwards material, much of which is unavailable anywhere else.

For those of you who are already Edwards fans, this is great news. For those of you who don't know why Edwards is so important, check out the Center's main website or the excellent page devoted to Edwards at Monergism.com.