I'm tired of beating the Air

Beating the Air is a good picture of utterly pointless activity. It has the appearance of action and effort and of being something productive, yet nothing results. Recently, I've come to suspect that beating the air is a good picture of what we're doing when we pray. Or rather, that's what it seems like when we meet together to pray. Maybe your prayer gatherings are different, but in my neck of the woods we seem too ready to lower our sights to the minutiae of everyday life, to focus on problems and pitfalls, anticipated and imagined difficulties, while being somehow reluctant to raise our focus upwards to the one to whom and with whom we speak, and to grasp the higher themes of what we are about as God's people.

That being the case, I drew up a list of things I felt we could focus on in place of the endless detail or vague generalities. (Its not that I'm against detail or even generalities, but those are the easy targets, they are comfortable to our old sinful natures because they don't take us too close to God, His character and will, or make us take much notice of our own coldness and heart-failures)

It went like this :

Real Conversions - Ie. tangible heart-change, not merely statistically significant hovering around church people

Real Joy & Delight in the Gospel (in old and new believers) - Ie. either this is the word of life, a matter of life and death, or we're playing games

Deepening faith (confidence) in God (his character and heart) - evidenced in a change from 'maybe' thinking to 'expectant' thinking

Real Shoulders to the Work - evidenced in hands on deck when there is a real need

Real Compassion for our lost neighbours/friends/relatives/loved ones - manifested in prayers, intercession, even tears for the lost (why should there be only one person who's voice cracks when praying for those she loves ?)

Embracing the folly of the Gospel - evidenced in our willingness to be 'fools' for Christ as we invite folks to hear the message

Embracing "Ourselves as your servants for Jesus's sake" - evidenced as we give ourselves to those coming to faith that they might grow in the knowledge of Christ, Ie, no fly in fly out speaking the gospel into peoples lives

Wrestling - evidenced as we square up to the enemy's grip on the unsaved, the world's darkness, and the necessity of God sovereignly shedding light and giving new birth

Forgiveness, mutual love & respect - evidenced as we refuse to let our sin, folly, daft ideas, mistakes and misunderstandings muddy our relationships or mar our fellowship (horizontally or vertically!)


As soon as I'd finished the list, an esteemed colleague reminded me that I'd forgotten one or two of the most important things. God's Glory, and Paul's frequent prayer that we might know Christ better. It was obvious really - they should have been 1st and 2nd. So much for my spirituality and insight !

Funny how the really important often drowns under one's own well meaning ideas.

Look not only to your own interests.

I've been asked to preach another sermon.  Nothing surprising there I suppose, but the passage is a little more difficult than usual.  Its from Paul's letter to the Philippians, Chapter 2 and the last dozen verses.  Paul is telling his Philippian readers that fairly soon he will be sending his trusted friend Timothy to see them, so that he (Paul) may have first hand news of how they're getting along, and be encouraged thereby.  But first, immediately, Paul is sending back their own man Epaphroditus, (probably the one who carried Paul's letter to the Philippians), because Epaphroditus, in Paul's words "longs for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill". 

But Paul doesn't then move on to other topics, rather, he urges them to welcome Epahroditus and adds a remarkable commendation; "Welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor men like him, because he almost died for the work of Christ".

Imagine being commended by perhaps the greatest hero of the Christian Faith. Imagine having the approval of the mighty Apostle and have him say of you 'honor men like him'.  But Paul is only doing what Jesus did.  Jesus called his disciples 'friends', and when he spoke of Saints long dead, he didn't call them by their failures, indeed he doesn't really name their failures, for example Jonah is not called Jonah the Nationalist or Jonah the Racist, but Jonah's preaching is compared to the Saviour's own preaching.

So one question is, how do we view one another ?  Do we see each other's labour for Christ, or do we see each others faults and failures, and build hierarchies of value among the people of God ?

And of course, Paul's commendation of Timothy and Epaphroditus serves to illustrate not only their relationship with the Apostle and the esteem he held them in, but exemplifies the principle he has laid out earlier in the letter ; "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus..."

Now, to preach that without sinking into mere 'thou shalt' moralising, that is my difficulty.