pray it! gentle in our time - ephesians 6:10-24

Finally.

Paul begins our final part of the passage with finally.

All this gentleness has been building toward something.

And it's wonderful. 

If you haven't read Ephesians 6:10-24, I suggest you do so, now!  Check it out here!

To maintain gentleness in the manner of Jesus, in our time, requires a prayerful and complete abiding in God, resulting in powerful victory when we utilize His resources and provision as He intends.  Check out our Ephesians passage and notice a few key words.  It requires a completeness.  (ie we don't put on just part of our armor, half-heartedly.  We put on the whole armor.  We don't wield our shields of faith in just some circumstances, but in all of them.  We also don't go through the effort of donning all of our armor just to plop back down on the couch and decide that we're just done now because armor is heavy and it's nap time.  Oh no!  What then is it, that we do, having done all this other stuff?

We pray! 

At all times! 

In the Spirit! 

For everyone. 

And all of this is possible because we are doing this all in the strength of the Lord. 

Yay prayer! 

How many of you are thinking "Yeah, yeah, sure we pray, but I have all this armor on and ALL I REALLY WANNA DO IS HIT MY ENEMY RIGHT NOW!"??? 

I get it!  Perhaps prayer is more key to that endeavor than what we like to believe.

We have an enemy who, as this passage suggests, is not our fan.  Paul clearly felt a need to remind us of this.  In a passage that promotes victory and abiding... faith and truth... prayer... vigilance and awareness... we also get a clear reminder that we are indeed in a battle.  And it's serious.

Prayer is actually... pretty easy.  Prayer is a conversation with God.  Yet, when it comes to our "to-do" list, prayer often gets bumped for more tangible and concrete tasks.  Ask the Holy Spirit to take inventory of you (remember, He does this in kindness, not to make us feel bad.)  Ask God to show you the moments and reasons when and why does prayer not "make the cut" in your life.  Ask God to help you with this.

Much like our gentleness struggle, it's tempting to want to gravitate toward things that look like strong exhibitions of power and might, when in fact it's the gentle, humble, Jesus-route that is effective and strong.  The same is true for prayer.  For example, it may be tempting to take the concrete route of offering our immediate advice to "fix" a situation (ie "Quit!  or "Dump him!"), when in fact, our first response should likely be a prayerful one (ie actually involving time in prayer).

In light of this passage, this week, and in light of gentleness in general, how should we pray it "in our time."  I would suggest that we pray with and pray for a sense of urgency.  We need this sense of urgency restored.  Imagine the transformation that can and will happen as our continued gentle responses are coupled with the single-minded, undeterred focus of a whole group of God's kids who are aware of their source of strength, and act upon it.  Prayerfully.  Mightily. 

Blessings,
Pastor Celia

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