A Prayer

Here is a prayer I came across this morning (from Valley of Vision) that captures much of what we have seen in Luke 12:

LORD OF ALL BEING,
There is one thing that deserves my greatest care,
That calls forth my ardent desires,
That is, that I may answer the great end for which I am made--
to glorify you who have given me being,
and to do all the good I can for my fellow men;
Verily life is not worth having
if it be not improved for this noble purpose.
Yet, Lord, how little is this the thought of mankind!
Most men seem to live for themselves,
without much or any regard for your glory,
or for the good of others;
They earnestly desire and eagerly pursue
the riches, honours, pleasures of this life,
as if they supposed that wealth, greatness, merriment,
could make their immortal souls happy;
But, alas, what false delusive dreams are these!
And how miserable ere long will those be that sleep in them,
for all our happiness consists in loving thee,
and being holy as you are holy.

Joining in Prayer, Some More

Those of us who are naturally inclined loners may need to grab ourselves by the shirt collar and give ourselves a stern scolding, something along the line of: My true identity before God is marred if I indulge this attitude of emotional withdrawal and keeping my relational distance. It does not allow me to be fulfilled; I am not growing in grace as long as I indulge myself in inner detachment in this way; my children and my friends are not benefitting as they should from my example of shared faith. My call from God as one of his people is to be transparently close to others in fellowship, ready to open my heart to share my own testimony, just as I need to receive the testimony of others, and I should be as ready to pray with them as they are to pray with me. (J.I. Packer, Praying, p. 254)

Joining In Prayer

In preparing for this week's Sunday School class (on prayer in fellowship with others) I came across this excellent descriptiong by J.I. Packer of some of what ails the church (as a whole) nowadays. Packer writes about what he calls an overly individualistic "piety":
'The popular form of pietism that we no face... is this priority of "personal relationship with God" pulled out of shape by this modern, secular, Enlightenment-bred type of individualism that teaches us to see ourselves as distinct from, if not actually against, all existing forms of society (family, school, political consensus, cultural consensus, church, whatever). In secular contexts this individualism glorifies the rebel; in Christian contexts it makes recognition of churchly identity as part of our Christian identity difficult.... The popular pietist way is to value church services... as we value gas stations and maybe college lectures too: we show up in order (in one sense or another) to fill up and then go on our way without any sense of continuing commitment to the source of our filling.'
The antidote is found in 1 Corinthians 12, where Paul speaks of the church as a body; or Ephesians 4, especially vv. 11-16, where, growing up into Christ, the whole body makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. So close are we in Christ, and so dependent on one another. Come and reflect on this together Sunday in Sunday School.