You Don't HAVE to Pray!

When God came to earth in Christ Jesus, He gave us new wine: Himself unveiled! And in order to rightly mediate this new wine, there had to be a new wineskin. Jesus addresses this in Mark 2:18-22 when speaking about fasting; I believe, however, that this truth can probably apply to all that has to do with the gospel, including prayer.

The purpose of the wineskin is to contain the wine in order to experience it; in other words, it “mediates” the wine. If Jesus is the new wine, then there must be a new wineskin in order to experience Him. The old wineskin cannot mediate His life adequately.

The apostle John makes a startling statement in John 1:17 “The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” Until Jesus came, what humans knew of God was mostly through the wineskin of the law. With the appearance of God in the flesh, the way we encounter Him now is through an entirely different medium or wineskin. Under the law, we experience God as Judge; under grace and truth, we experience God as Father.

When it comes to prayer (and other issues in God), the paradigm shift that has taken place through Jesus’ coming is that there is no law to pray. Part of the good news (gospel) is that you don’t have to pray! The old wineskin was about law/obligation/ requirement; the new wineskin is about voluntary acceptance of God’s loving invitation to participate with Him.

Apart from this new wineskin, we can’t experience Jesus rightly; He is too untamed to be contained (mediated) by the old wineskin of law.

So when it comes to prayer, if need be, ask the Lord for grace to see it through a new wineskin: grace and truth (God's gracious invitation to participate with Him).

Ground of Confidence in Prayer

C.S. Lewis said something to the effect that it is a much safer practice to meditate on the love of God for us than to meditate on our love for God. This is true, of course, because our love for Him flounders and is weak, but His love for us is strong and unrelenting and unending.

The Scriptures are full of different ways of encouraging God's people to depend and trust in His unfailing love for us. Ultimately this is the only place of peace and rest for the human soul. When all looks hopeless and impossible in the natural, we find rest in knowing that God is love and that He will not relent nor quit in His pursuit of us and in His pursuit of those that we pray for.

He is an all-consuming Fire of desire for weak humans, and He is filled with divine energy to tirelessly seek and chase us down! This is where I find my confidence in prayer for myself and for others - not in my zeal nor my intercession nor my efforts nor my love, but in His unrelenting zeal, His unceasing intercession, His divinely initiated works, and His selfless love. The cross of Jesus is the highest expression of this reality in God, and this is the solid ground on which I plant my feet when my zeal falters and I'm surrounded with impossible situations. If my focus and trust is in my love for God, I will be discouraged; if I meditate and trust in His love for me and for those I pray for, my heart will be strengthened to believe and to remain steady even while trembling.

All praise to God, the Father and Son and Holy Spirit! May His name be known and loved by more men and women and children because we, His own, trust in His steadfast love to accomplish it...He is worthy!