Prayer and Ministry must focus on GOD

As I studied 1 Timothy 2: 1-8, God reminded me that prayer and ministry must ultimately draw strength and direction from Him.

We have a direct access to God in prayer, and we have become His ministers and workers because Jesus saved us from sin. At the very heart of this passage is a confession that there is one God, that there is one mediator between us and God-- Jesus Christ. And this mediator died for us on the cross that we may live and do the ministries He has prepared for us to do.

We are called to pray

There is a call to pray for one another-- for fellow believers and unbelievers. By our intercession, thanksgiving and supplication, we break strongholds and open Gospel opportunities. Jesus Himself prayed, and He did in countless occasions.

Now if the Son of God marked His entire ministry with prayer-- great and small--how much more should we? The silent longings of our heart, our overflow of joy, the plague of anxieties within us, when we lift them all to God, we acknowledge our inequity and God's ability.

"Pray unceasingly," Paul reminds us. With prayer, we can live peaceably with people around us while testifying to the Gospel through our lives. We build bridges to people which God uses to sow seeds of Truth.

A life of prayer and a good testimony glorifies God. Such life is good and pleasing in His sight.

May Paul's closing reminder on prayer be committed in our memories, "I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger and disputing."

We are called to be ministers

There is also a call to teach and preach Jesus. Paul recognized that he was called to the Gentiles to share the Messiah's message of salvation. Without the passion, death and resurrection of Christ there is no message.

This is also our message as ambassadors to the world. We are to preach Christ through every means possible. In my experience, however, our lifestyle is a powerful message. They will measure Christianity and Christ by how we live our lives. We may bear the message, we may teach the Truth, but if our lives belie what we say, people will not believe us.

Thus, we must pray that everyday, God will conform us to His image and likeness so that our lives will always affirm our message.

The centrality of Christ

In both calls, God is the center. We can pray because of the open line through Jesus. We have a message because of His passion, death and resurrection. The calls to pray and to minister, then, are calls to draw more to Christ.