Day 76 - Issue 42
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1 Timothy 2:1
'I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them.'
Although the number of people who attend church services is constantly shrinking, it is very good to see that prayer isn’t going out of fashion. It’s often assumed that people pray as they get older, however a ComRes opinion poll in 2021 revealed that twice as many people in the 18-34 age group prayed, compared with those aged over 55. But the question is: what do we do when we pray? In our verse today Paul encourages Timothy to have the right focus in his prayers.
Our natural condition is to be self- centred, and so it is very easy for us to see prayer in an entirely selfish way. We pray for ourselves, our happiness, our health, our family, our future and so on. All of those things are perfectly proper subjects for prayer but if they become the exclusive focus, something has gone seriously wrong. Paul reminds Timothy that the priority of his prayer life needs to be to pray for others – and particularly to pray for those in authority. This was particularly challenging at the time, because many of the rulers in Paul’s day were violently opposed to Christianity. However, Paul tells his young friend that they needed to be on his prayer list.
What strikes me is that Paul saw prayer as Timothy’s priority. There is no doubt that Timothy had huge, demanding responsibilities as a leader. He had pressing issues to deal with every day. He needed to be robust in defending the truth of the Gospel, particularly because there were many who were seeking to destroy the Church. He had an incredibly busy ministry but, amid all his vital work, Paul told him that prayer needed to be top of his list. That’s an important observation for us all because it is often tempting to see activity as our priority. We feel we should be busy when what the Lord really wants is for us to be prayerful. In short, if we are too busy to pray, we’re too busy!
I am convinced that prayer still needs to be our priority. We will all be busy with 101 different things. But prayer needs to be number one because this is God’s work. In prayer we show our dedication to working in partnership with him.
Question: Is prayer your priority? If it is, rejoice! If it isn’t, spend some time today thinking through how this could happen.
Prayer: Loving God, please help me to take prayer more seriously and to place it at the heart of my life. Amen
Released on 25 Sep 2022
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