Advancing On Your Knees

Advancing on Your Knees

We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God. Colossians 1:3

PAUL WAS DRIVEN BY A VISION OF JESUS and a mission to reach the world with the gospel. He had an exceptional work ethic, was relentlessly evangelistic, and ceaselessly discipled believers and grew churches. He labored for years, enduring extreme hardship, persecution, and stress. He said he knew how to handle times of both abundance and need, but we get the impression that times of need were more frequent. If anyone could change the world through hard work, Paul could.

But hard work alone was not enough. He understood the balance and necessity of prayer. Praying without working is laziness, but working without praying is fruitless. So Paul prayed—a lot. He also requested prayers for his ministry. He recognized that the power of the gospel is not in persuasive words of wisdom but in demonstrations of a supernatural God (1 Corinthians 2:4). No amount of preaching, teaching, and persuading can change the human heart if the Holy Spirit hasn’t first prepared it. Human effort and divine power go hand in hand, with divine power necessarily taking the lead. The most effective ministries, then, are those that proceed on their knees. So Paul prayed often and at length—with gratitude as the ever-present seasoning on his prayers—for the people and churches he had known, and he was never reluctant to tell them so.

That’s our model for virtually everything we do. Jesus told his followers that without him, they could do nothing (John 15:5), so everything we do requires his motivation, involvement, and strength—attributes of the divine nature we can experience only through prayer. Though living faithfully and fruitfully requires frequent and repeated acts of our will, willpower is not enough. We have to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit. We need to live prayer-saturated lives.

Make that the highest priority every day. Yes, you likely have a long to-do list, but nothing meaningful and lasting can actually be done without the power of God. That’s why great saints and servants of ages past have spent hours on their knees, literally or figuratively. You’re called to join their company. Your prayers are essential for living with purpose and power.

Prayer is striking the winning blow. . . . Service is gathering up the results.