‘Pray for me’, I hear quite frequently, as you no doubt do too. You may walk away saying OK or in most cases, you will stop and ask for what specifically. And the responses vary widely. One instance of a request for prayer came to mind the other day as I myself was praying.. It was Paul writing to the Ephesians and at the end requesting prayer; and it again reminded me of how much I admire Paul.
In the sixth chapter of Ephesians Paul asked for prayer that he might speak boldly and freely and make known the mystery of the gospel and then he added ‘as i ought’. And that is the clincher. It is not just a desire of Paul’s it is a recognition by Paul that there is a way things should be, and he wants them to be that way. Anything else would be abnormal. It struck me that for every area of our lives there is an ‘as i ought’, defined by God only and to which only God has the key.
When it come to your prayer life, there is an ‘as I ought’; if you are a preacher there is an ‘as i ought’ for your preaching. There is one for bible study, for business, for family, for relationships etc. In other words, there is a way that the Christian life should be lived and that the Christian should be. And we should pray that we live it and be it. My take on the Pauline prayer is ‘Lord, make me what i ought to be spirit, soul and body’.
We seek much, we crave much, but the only thing that matters is that we be and do as God desires. And perhaps you don”t have the details or perhaps you are tempted to fill in the blanks based on your own perspective, but how about praying that God will help you to think as you ought, help you believe, speak, relate to people, work, serve, praise and be as you ought.
Shalom