PARENTHOOD
a divine stewardship

PRAYING WITH PERSEVERANCE AND WALKING IN WISDOM

A. Persevering in Prayer

In Colossians 4:2-4 Paul turns to the matter of prayer. In verse 2 he says, "Persevere in prayer, watching in it with thanksgiving." To persevere is to continue persistently, steadfastly, and earnestly. In prayer we need to be watchful and alert, not negligent. Such watchfulness should be accompanied by thanksgiving.

If we would express Christ in our human living and preserve the grace we have received from the Lord, we need to persevere in prayer. As we spend time to consider the revelation of the all-inclusive Christ in Colossians, we shall surely receive grace from the Lord. Eventually, we shall see that Christ and we are one, that His peace is arbitrating within us, and that His word is filling us. Then we shall be able to live Him out and express Him. However, no matter how much grace we receive from the Lord, it will leak away if we fail to persevere in prayer. Only prayer can maintain the grace we receive. Only through prayer can this grace become prevailing and living in our experience. To be sure, the Christian life is a life of receiving grace. But this life needs to be sustained by prayer.

The most important matter in the maintenance of our physical life is breathing. Breathing is even more important than eating and drinking. We can go for days without eating or drinking, but only a few minutes without breathing. Prayer is spiritual breathing. To pray is to breathe.

When some saints hear a word about prayer, they immediately ask how to pray. We should forget about how and simply pray. For example, a child learns to walk by walking. Few parents teach their children to walk. In the same principle, we learn to pray by praying.

In 4:2 Paul charges us to persevere in prayer. This means that we should not merely continue in prayer, but we should strive to continue. Almost everything in our environment is contrary to prayer. In order to pray, we must go against the tide, the current, of our environment. If we fail to pray, we shall be swept downstream. Only prayer can enable us to go against the current. Therefore, we need to persevere in prayer, to pray persistently.

Day by day we need to exercise ourselves to pray. We should even set aside certain times each day for prayer. Do not excuse yourself by saying that you do not have the burden to pray. Pray even when you seem to have no burden, or when apparently you have nothing to say to the Lord. You have much to say to others. Why not go to the Lord and tell Him the very things you tell them? If you do not know what to say to the Lord, pray like this: "Lord, I come to You, but I don't know what to say, and I don't know how to pray. Lord, teach me to pray and tell me what to say. Lord, in this matter have mercy on me." If you do this, you will find that often when you pray in this way, some genuine prayer will come forth. When you feel that you are burdened to pray, your prayer may not be genuine. But when you go to the Lord in prayer even without a burden, telling Him that you have nothing to say, you will find yourself refreshed in the Lord and able to pray genuinely. When we open to the Lord and admit that we do not know what to say to Him, we breathe in fresh spiritual air, and we are preserved in the Lord's grace.

Paul also encourages us to watch in prayer. We need to be watchful against the enemy. We do not know what will happen in the next few minutes. We need to be watchful because the Christian life is a life of fighting, a life of warfare.

B. Walking in Wisdom

In 4:5 and 6 Paul says, "Walk in wisdom toward those who are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one." To redeem the time is to seize every favorable opportunity to minister life. This is to be wise in our walk. In this evil age, every day is an evil day, full of pernicious things which destroy, spoil, and waste our time. Therefore, we must walk wisely that we may redeem the time, seizing every available opportunity.

To walk in wisdom is to grasp each opportunity to redeem our time. This redeeming of the time is related to the way we speak to others. Often I must confess to the Lord my foolishness in talking to people. By talking to them in a certain way, I wasted time. I did not use wisdom enough to minister life and thereby to avoid friction. Instead, I wasted time by engaging in conversation in which there was no ministry of life. We need to pray that the Lord will grant us wisdom in our contact with others. If we walk in wisdom in speaking to others, we shall redeem our time. We all have missed opportunities to minister life because we spent the time in foolish talk.

The best way to redeem our time is to pray perseveringly, to be watchful, and to walk in wisdom. If we do these things, we shall grasp all the favorable opportunities to minister life. If we do not persevere in prayer and if we are not watchful, we shall fail to grasp opportunities to minister life. Whenever we contact others without the exercise of wisdom, we waste time. On some occasions we may waste a half hour in conversation where nothing of life is ministered. We all must learn to pray, to watch, and to seek the Lord for His wisdom so that we may redeem our time.

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