One of my favorite passages in the psalms says:
“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain” (Ps. 127:1).
There is an interesting balance between the ideas of divine sovereignty and human responsibility in the Scripture that continually fascinates me.
Yes, there is the practical sense that in building the temple it will not be accomplished unless men go to work. However, there is a deeper sense that apart from God’s help and endorsement of that project it will be pointless.
I believe this reality characterizes a lot more than temple-building and city-watching though. I would venture to say that apart from the Lord’s help, we can do nothing (see John 15:5). At least, nothing of eternal value.
As the apostle Paul draws his letter to the believers at Colossae to a close, he puts forth a call for prayer. First, that the church in general would be steadfast in prayer and thanksgiving (Col. 4:2), and then he makes an appeal:
“At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— 4 that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak” (Col. 4:3-4).
We consider Paul to be a great missionary who was highly successful and he was. Yet, we must be careful to give credit to whom credit is due.
Certainly, Paul lived a surrendered life and was a vessel for God’s glory, but apart from the help of God Paul would not have converted a single person.
For truly, salvation is a spiritual work.
No one can be born of God through human agency! It must be a work of the Spirit of God wrought in a person’s heart. As a result, we are at best the middleman. We make the introduction, but God does the work. Thus, Paul requests prayer for an open door and a clear message. He needed God’s help.
All ministry success is more indebted to the help of the Lord and the work of prayer than anything else.
It is easy, especially in the modern church, to spend countless hours preparing for services and events—while spending comparatively few minutes in prayer.
Now, I do not believe that for prayer to be effective it needs to have a four-hour time slot. We need not think that we will be heard for our many words (see Matt. 6:7) and we can and should pray simply. In fact, Jesus’ model prayer could be prayed in about 30 seconds.
However, my concern is that we lose sight of the fact that any and all success we have is utterly dependent on God’s hand at work in response to our prayers. So, while we may not need to spend hours upon hours in prayer, we at least need to make it a priority.
The apostle will go on to close this letter with final greetings that can seem monotonous to us. However, we should be encouraged with the knowledge that the Kingdom of God is composed of everyday people whose names are not written in lights, who likewise helped to build that Kingdom.
Truly behind the great and well-documented ministry efforts of Paul were the prayers of countless believers whose names we have never heard and will never hear this side of eternity. I think even to the example in Peter’s life when the prayers of the people brought angelic deliverance and then he showed up at that very same prayer meeting a free man!
I do not know exactly how prayer factors into God’s perfect plans.
But I do know this: God hears and answers our prayers. The Scripture testifies to this on page after page. Numerous passages in the New Testament admonish us to pray. Prayer is one means that God uses to accomplish His ends.
With that, I would kindly ask that if you have a moment, pray for me and please take a moment to pray for your pastor too.
Pray for our ministry. Pray for our steadfastness to keep our hands to the plow. Ministry is very unique in its blessings and hardships and I am certain that I am more indebted to the prayers of the saints than I will ever know. Thank you.