Introduction

THE PRAYER OF CYRUS BROWN

by Sam Walter Foss

"The proper way for a man to pray,"
Said Deacon Lemuel Keyes,
"And the only proper attitude
Is down upon his knees."

"No, I should say the way to pray,"
Said Reverend Doctor Wise,
"Is standing straight with outstretched arms
And rapt and upturned eyes."

"Oh, no, no, no,"
said Elder Slow,
Such posture is too proud.
"A man should pray with eyes fast-closed
And head contritely bowed."

"It seems to me his hands should be
Austerely clasped in front
With both thumbs pointing toward the ground,"
Said Reverend Doctor Blunt.

"Last year I fell in Hidgekin's well
Headfirst," said Cyrus Brown,
"With both my heels a-stickin' up
And my head a-pointin' down.

"And I made a prayer right then and there,
The best prayer I ever said,
The prayingest prayer I ever prayed,
A-standin' on my head."

One of the strange facts of the Scriptures is that in regards to prayer there is no definitive declaration on what position that we should pray in. In fact, in the only specific teaching on how to pray, that given by Christ to the disciples; when they ask him how to pray, he doesn't mention anything at all about how often we should pray, or in what position, or where we should pray; he just gives them a simple prayer, which of course contains much truth.

It is against that curious fact that we take up our passage this evening. It is a simple, elegant teaching on prayer. Open up your Bibles to Col 4. We will begin reading at vs. 2:

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. [3] At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison- [4] that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.

Paul is following a familiar pattern when we get to Colossians 4.2. The first part of his letter to the church at Colossae, as with most of his other letters is doctrinal. He is instructing the Colossians on certain truths regarding the Christian faith. He instructs them concerning the fact that Christ is God in the flesh and that He is the only way for us to reconcile with God. Then her turns to certain practical instructions concerning those who would attempt to make us adhere to rules, as if we could be saved by doing certain things and adhering to certain laws and regulations. “ Don't fall into that trap,” Paul tells the Colossian church. He continues with practical instructions, in regards to how we put faith into action as we live out our daily lives. He warns them against sexual immorality and covetousness, and then encourages them to be holy, compassionate and kind. He then turns to instructions to wives, and then husbands, and then to slaves.

Then all of the sudden we come across this simple admonition to pray, it lasts for 3 verses, two of them being a specific prayer request that he has for them to pray for him, and then he is on to how we should talk and how we should act toward unbelievers. What are we to make of this?

Stop and think for a minute. Do any of the letters to the early church ever contain definitive instruction on prayer? They do not. There is constant reference to prayer, but in no place can you go and find a long explanation of what prayer is, how to do it, how often to do it, where to do it, or, like Cyrus Brown, what position of prayer is best. This fact becomes all the more interesting when we realize that very often, Paul and Peter and John were addressing Gentiles who had come to faith out of paganism and had no knowledge or understanding of prayer, a sharp contrast to those who had come to faith out of Judaism. So we have to ask ourselves the question, “Why is this statement so short, as if it were almost unimportant?” and, “why do the New Testament writers never give any systematic instruction on prayer?”

First we must remember that New Testament believers were not like us. We can go to the Bible and do a computer search of every reference to prayer, and in very short order, get a good idea, of what we are to pray for, and have a pretty good “picture” of prayer. The New Testament believers could not do that. The church at Colossae would have known as much about prayer as they had been taught verbally and now, what was contained in Paul's letter to them. So let's not think they had all the resources that we do.

Second, there are constant admonitions by the New Testament writers to pray, even though they never give systematic instruction concerning it.

Romans 12:12

Be constant in prayer.

1 Cor. 7:5

Do not deprive one another, [speaking of the physical relationship within marriage] except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer

Ephes. 6:18

praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,

Philip. 4:6

do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

1 Thes. 5:17

pray without ceasing,

1 Thes. 5:25

Brothers, pray for us.

2 Thes. 3:1

Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you,

1 Tim. 2:1

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people,

1 Tim. 2:8

I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling;

We could go on and on, but you get the point. Believers are to pray. Believers are to pray. So why do we never have systematic instruction on prayer? I think for two reasons. First, one of the things that is obvious from the Scriptures is that prayer is to have a free form. By that I mean, we are not forced to adhere to a certain pattern when we pray. We can adhere to a pattern if we want, if that helps us to pray and makes us more disciplined, that is fine, but prayer is meant to come from the heart and everyone's heart is different so we would expect everyone to pray a little differently wouldn't we. That is one of the beautiful things about the gospel, it fits so perfectly with each of our personalities, you will not pray like I pray, and I will not pray like you, and God is pleased because what comes to Him, comes from our hearts.

Second, we don't have systematic instruction concerning prayer because I think that the assumption of the New Testament writers is that it is something that ought to come naturally to a believer. If we have come to faith, the Holy Spirit resides in us, and He will stir us up to pray, and if he stirs us up, then we will pray, we ought to pray. From the depths of our hearts come prayer and no one needs to sit down and explain to us how to pour out our hearts do they, it comes to us naturally, it is easy. Have you ever heard a new believer pray? I think the most profound prayers often come straight from the newly converted, because it isn't filtered by what they have heard of other believers, it comes straight from the depths of their hearts, and oh, what prayers come from the depths of a new believer. Beautiful!

The implied message behind this simple instruction on prayer is that believers are to pray. It is as if Paul is saying, “Dear praying believers, I know you are praying, so here are some instructions to help focus your prayers, to help you along as you grow in the faith.”

So what does he say? First, he says, “Continue steadfastly in prayer.” Continue steadfastly in prayer. The two words “continue steadfastly” in the English are one word in Greek, and it means “be devoted to,” or “persevere in.” Paul uses the same word in Rom 12.12 when he says, “be constant in prayer.” It is also used in Acts 6.4, when the apostles tell the new church, Acts 6:4, “but we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word." Continue steadfastly also has an element of courage and strength to it. The Greek version of the Old Testament uses the word Paul uses here to translate Numbers 13.20, which says, “Be of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land." Be of good courage is this same word. So when Paul says, “continue steadfastly,” he means, “be devoted to prayer with courage and strength,” or “be persevering in prayer.”

Now notice that when Paul says, “continue steadfastly,” the implication is that they are already praying. The tense of the verb Paul uses indicates that. He is assuming that they are already praying and he wants them to press on with strength and perseverance. He is, in essence, directing a moving vessel. Now that is significant. Never do you find in the Scriptures the writers admonishing the believers for not praying, or them saying, “you haven't been praying, now you know that is one of our duties, so make sure you do it.” To the gospel writers, the idea of a non-praying believer was unthinkable. Prayer was the life-blood and breath of a believer, so to instruct them to start praying was about the same as explaining to a child how to sleep. No one ever instructed us how to fall asleep, it comes naturally when we are tired.

When Badger was about three, we took him to Knott's Berry farm in California. Knott's is an amusement park, so we spent the day going on numerous rides and walking around. We sat down for dinner that evening, Knott's is famous for fried chicken dinner, and as we ate, he began to do that bobble thing, that babies do when they are tired, but don't want to fall asleep. The next thing we knew, he was face down in his mash potatoes and gravy, he had fallen sound asleep. We didn't have to instruct him to sleep, it came naturally, as a result of his being tired.

Christian's shouldn't be instructed to pray, it should come naturally, as a result of being a Christian, this is why Paul doesn't say, “Begin praying,” he says, “Continue on as you are!” So I say very dogmatically and forcefully to you, that if you do not pray, if you have no interest in prayer, and no interest in pouring out your heart to God, then you are not a believer. You cannot be a believer! So rather than encourage you to start praying, I encourage you to search out your heart and first ask yourself, “am I a Christian at all?”

If you are a believer, then we say, with Paul, continue on. Press on. Persevere in prayer with courage and strength, be devoted to it, continuously. “Continue steadfastly in prayer.”

Then Paul says, that while you are praying, be watchful in it. “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it.” We don't have to search to far to figure out what he means by that, do we? He means to keep alert. Keep alert in prayer. Paul is a physician of souls, isn't he. He knows the human condition. I suspect that if I asked what was the chief hindrance to you as you pray, the number one answer would be, “I so often get distracted.” “I do not stay alert.” My mind wanders. Mine does! I'm guilty of that. We daydream. We begin thinking of other things. We let our minds wander. These are normal human failings. Don't feel bad if you struggle with being alert, acknowledge it and then address the problem. That is what Paul is doing here. He isn't condemning them for not being alert, he is saying, “I know the human soul, I know my own soul, and isn't it difficult to stay alert in prayer sometimes, so watch out for it. Be aware of it. Don't let it become a habit.

Being alert implies that one is serious about something. This is why it is so important to Paul. If I am alert in prayer, then I am truly serious about it. If we are praying with blood earnestness, then we don't have problems with being alert do we. If we are praying for our child who is in rebellion, or a family member who is struggling between life and death with illness, we are blood earnest, we are serious, we will not let our minds wander will we.

When I joined the Marines and went to Officer Candidate School, there were four platoons of 40-60 people in the building that I slept in. Each night we had to post a fire watch. The watch's responsibility was to patrol the building and sound the alarm in case of fire. He served for two hours and then woke up the next guy, who watched for two hours. This lasted from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m., when we had to get up for the next days fun activities. When the sergeants explained the fire watch's duties to us, they said that if we fell asleep or neglected our duty we would be court-martialed for dereliction of duty, for not caring out our duties as ordered, and if there was a fire on our watch and everyone didn't get out, well, we didn't even want to think about that. Now, I can tell you, after a long day of physical activity, running, marching, and classes, we were dog-tired when we hit the rack at night, but none of us ever had a problem staying alert when we were fire watch. We were too scared to be tired!

When you are serious about something, you will be alert. So carry blood earnestness into your prayers. You are going before the creator of the universe, the king of your soul, the one who made you and cares for you, and hears your prayer, so approach prayer as if he does. Approach it with utmost seriousness and gravity and faith and you will by and by overcome problems with being watchful in prayer.

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it, with thanksgiving. Paul says, that thanksgiving ought to be a prime component of our prayer. It should seep through everything that we pray about and every prayer that we make in some fashion, in some way.

It is a fact that thanksgiving is overlooked in our culture and if we are honest we have to say that it is overlooked by believers. It does not come naturally to us, as humans does it. Did you have to teach your children to be thankful, to so thank you? Yes! It doesn't come naturally.

What does it mean to be thankful in regards to prayer? I think it means simply to give God the glory for all that He does in my life. So then, why should we be thankful? Why does Paul want our prayers to overflow, to bubble over with thanks.

First, when our prayers are filled with thanksgiving, we are giving glory to whom glory is due. We express our dependence upon God by praying, by saying, “Lord, here are my concerns and my needs,” and God gets the glory as he provides our needs. We adorn God by being thankful. By that I mean that thankfulness is a sweet aroma that points me and points others to God. In prayer, I express my dependence upon God and receive from him what I need, and God receives the glory for being the Giver.

Second, if you are a thanker in prayer, then you will be a thanker in life. Thankfulness in prayer naturally spills over to thankfulness in life.