New Covenant Prayer: Session 3 – Seeing the Big Picture

Notes:

Seeing the Big Picture    See Session Slides Here

Do our prayers for our friends and loved ones line up with God’s purposes for them?

As we have seen that new covenant prayer for ourselves is vastly different to much of modern-day prayer so it is with Paul’s prayers for others. The goal of many of modern prayers is for temporal benefits and blessings. The goal of his prayers was for spiritual benefits. For example, Gal.4:19;  1 Thes.5:23-24.

Remember, he was governed by the big picture – the kingdom of God, the glory of God. When he prayed for people his prayers were shaped by the ultimate purpose God has for them. We are ‘the called according to His purpose’. He said all things work together for good, i.e. with this purpose in mind. Don’t confuse the means with the end. ‘So that…’ Rom.1:9-11; 15:13; Eph.3:16-19; Phil.1:9-11;  2 Thes.1:11-12.

Col.1:3-14

Col. 1:3-4. Paul prays for Christians he has never met (Col. 1:9). He prays for 2 things: 1) their faith in Christ Jesus and, 2) their love to all the saints.

They are the only 2 commandments under the NC.  ‘And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment. Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us’ (1 John 3:23-24).

  • There are only two requirements that God has for us in an imperfect world – faith in Him and love for others.
  • If we can believe that God loves us perfectly in spite of our behavior then we can love others perfectly too. Paul looked for the growth of these two things in all the churches.
  •  These two things do not happen synonymously. They are sequential. Love rises out of faith.
  •  2 Pet.1:5-7. Love is the bond of perfection. It is the goal. But it can only come from faith,  1 Tim.1:5.
  • Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. So when Paul said he wanted to come to the Romans to impart a spiritual gift, he meant he wanted to come to them with Apostolic teaching of God’s Word.
  • He prays for the Thessalonians the same he prayed for the Romans, i.e. that he might come to them and impart a spiritual gift, i.e. a truth to believe in that will change their lives forever. ‘For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomedit not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe’ (1 Thes.2:13).

This is what Paul prayed and worked for and so should we

‘Timothy has come to us from you, and brought us good news of your faith and love’ (1 Thes.3:6).

 ‘We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other’ (2 Thes.1:3&4).

 ‘I thank my God, making mention of you always in my prayers, hearing of your love and faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints’ (Philemon 5).


# Answers to this quiz are found in the notes above. Click on quiz to commence. Only correct spelling is recognised. A minimum 70%  correct is required to advance to the next session.