Declare The Gospel

During this coronavirus, what have your prayers sounded like?  

Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada, and the way we pray reveals a lot about us. Like, when you pray, what’s the first thing you bring before God’s throne? Especially during COVID-19. Okay so, vaccines are on the way and, yes, we know how to better treat this virus, and yes, statistics show fewer people are succumbing to it. But as you look back, overall, how has this season full of challenges shaped your life of prayer? Well, I’ll confess that at first I struggled, like, “Oh, God, what are you doing?! I’ve got to cut back on caregiving help? I can’t get out of the house?” Okay, that was me. But let’s take a look at how seasons full of challenges influenced the way at least one Christian prayed.  

Let me take you back, okay? The scene is in a prison cell in Rome. Paul is older, with many more aches and pains from past stonings and floggings. He’s been in chains for over two years. He’s tired, his shackles are heavy, his leg irons bite into his ankles, and as he sits in prison, he’s most likely thinking of his many missionary travels – all the ones he’s been on, all those he’s yet to take, missionary trips to people in distant lands who have yet to hear the Gospel. Perhaps he’s sitting there thinking of the fledgling churches in Philippi or Galatia that need his encouragement. And so he picks up his pen, knowing he’s got one chance to write his friends in Ephesus. With all the many needs on his mind, with all his problems and wants and wishes, he dips the pen into the inkwell, so to speak, and asks them to pray. 

Yet among all the pressing problems out in the field, among all his own struggles in prison, what does Paul ask them to pray about? That his aches and pains might ease? That Caesar might grant him a pardon? That the charges against him be dropped? That his jail cell be warmer, or that they’d give him an extra blanket? Did Paul ask for prayer about the prison food? That God might send, as he did for Peter, an angel to miraculously fling open the prison doors? No, none of that. In the last chapter, in the concluding sentences, Paul sums up his most important prayer request: he asked his friends in Ephesus that they would pray that Paul might remember to share the Gospel whenever he opened his mouth. He asked them to pray that God might give him fresh words in witnessing about Christ and that the Lord might empower him to declare the Gospel fearlessly.  

From a human point of view, it would have been understandable if Paul, this elderly man with aches and pains – it would have been understandable if he would have asked for himself. If he would have requested that his friends in Ephesus pray for his needs. But no. For him, it was all about the Gospel going forth. His prayer requests were all focused on Jesus, on kingdom advancement and for courage to speak the word of truth boldly. Oh, friend, this strange season with the virus has great potential to misshape our prayers and make them self-centered. So… 

Today look at the needs in your life as opportunities to make much of Jesus. Ask the Spirit to prompt you to give God’s Good News whenever you open your mouth. Ask him to give you fresh words to suit whatever occasion. Most of all ask the Spirit to give you courage, how ’bout it? Courage to help you declare the Gospel fearlessly. Because if an apostle needed courage to be bold in witnessing, you know what? We need it, too! So get out there and give Jesus!