Tuesday, April 1st, 2008
I’ve Got Your Back!
“I’ll pray for you!” I sometimes make this promise more to assure a person of my concern than actually to pray. Sometimes I forget in my busyness or sometimes I just forget. I do not want to pretend to be a prayer warrior when I am not. I do not think I am alone in feeling that my prayer life is much less than it should be.
We are emphasizing prayer during our 60th anniversary, with the theme, “Celebrating Sixty Years: Advancing on Our Knees.” Our theme verse is Ephesians 6:18. As I continue to meditate on this verse, it challenges me by what it says about prayer.
Our advancement on the spiritual battlefield requires prayer. We are engaged in a spiritual struggle and our times can certainly be characterized as evil days. We must make sure that we are equipped head to toe with the full armor of God. But what do we do as a soldier of Christ? With the full armor, with the shield of faith, and with the sword of the Spirit, we are to pray.
Verse 18 is an unexpected verse. We might expect further instruction about raising the shield of faith or about wielding the sword of the Spirit. Our advancement in the battle, however, is by prayer. Writes Vincent:
In all that precedes we get no intimation of the personal contact of the Christian warrior with his Divine Leader. This is given us in prayer. We have the Word of God to the soldier; but in prayer we have the soldier’s word with God, the contact and communion of soldier and general; and it is not without a purpose that the Word of God and prayer are brought together here. The Word of God gathers up into itself, expounds and interprets Christian truth, hope, faith, righteousness, readiness; but the Word of God becomes a living power, something to strike and to slay with, only through the living contact of the Christian with Christ, and this contact is afforded by prayer only. (from The Biblical Illustrator Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2006 Ages Software, Inc. and Biblesoft, Inc.)
I confess that I have been more concerned about having my armor on than by joining the battle with prayer. Prayer is not one of many things I should be doing but is the thing I should be doing.
This verse has more surprises in store. The thrust of prayer in the evil day, in the day when we face the spiritual battle, is for others. Looking to direction and wisdom from the indwelling Holy Spirit (in the Spirit), we are to offer petitions for all the saints. We do so in a spirit of watchfulness and alertness which, given the context, would speak to our awareness of how others are doing in the battle. We do so with “all perseverance,” continuing faithfully to bring fellow believers before the throne of grace.
How often I have imagined the scene described in Ephesians 6:10-17 as a soldier (me) standing alone on the battlefield. That is not the right view at all! It is a scene of myriads of Christian soldiers all joined together in battle by prayer. My victory depends upon the victory of others and their victory depends upon my prayers. I must faithfully pray for others and others must pray for me if I wish to stand in the evil day. The UBS New Testament Handbook Series quotes Beare:
The unsleeping alertness is to be shown especially in persevering intercession on behalf of all his comrades in the fight. We are not engaged in single combat with the powers of evil, but are members of an army; and we must be concerned with the welfare of all who fight alongside us. (from the UBS New Testament Handbook Series. Copyright © 1961-1997, by United Bible Societies.)
The Navy ingrained this concept of battle into our son Caleb. After his graduation from boot camp, Carole and I took Caleb out to dinner. When we returned to base, a group of graduates gathered at the dropping off point. They were checking each other’s uniforms, especially each other’s backs, to make sure everything was exactly in place. If one had something misplaced in his uniform, they would all suffer. I don’t know whether the phrase, “I’ve got your back” comes from this practice but they had each other’s backs and were happy to do so. They will carry the same watchfulness for each other into battle.
Unfortunately, sometimes it seems that Christians are less apt to have this attitude. Some are more likely to criticize a pastor than pray for a pastor. Some pastors are more apt to criticize a church member than pray for a church member. Do you think our current spiritual battle would progress any differently if we all took our responsibility to pray for one another more seriously? Based on this verse, R.W. Dale comments on the importance of prayer for the pastor:
You come to listen to me on Sunday, and I have nothing to say that adds vigour to faith, or fervour to love, or that enlarges your knowledge of duty or of God. It is plain that during the week I have had no clear vision of spiritual truth, or that, if I have, the vision has faded away. You are naturally disappointed, perhaps discontented. It is partly my fault. But is it not possible that the fault is as much yours as mine? If you had prayed for me with earnestness and faith, might not the vision of God bare come to me, and the revelation of spiritual truth and the baptism of fire? In the absence of your intercessions, God may have given me truth for myself, but not for you. (from The Biblical Illustrator Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2006 Ages Software, Inc. and Biblesoft, Inc.)
The dynamic of a local church would change considerably if every member took this verse seriously.
On a wider scale, this verse has implications for Village Missions as we minister in the country places of North America. The battle is raging-raging in the country places we serve, raging in finding couples and singles willing to go to country places, raging in finding the financial support necessary to send them, raging in ministry in general. Clothed in the full armor of God, we must engage the battle with prayer. And we simply must watch each other’s backs.
