Love and Prayer

Pause:

Before you start reading this devotional, take a moment to stop what you’re doing, slow down and focus on Jesus. 

Pray and ask him to open your eyes to see as you read the scriptures, and to open your ears to hear as you wait on the leading of the Spirit.

Read:

2 Timothy 1v1-4: “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, for the sake of the promise of life in Christ Jesus: ² To Timothy, my dearly loved son. Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. ³ I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience as my ancestors did, when I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day. ⁴ Remembering your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy.”

Going Deeper:

All of us have got our own stories and experiences of relational losses and sacrifice at this time. 

For our family, our 12-week old daughter has not been able to see her grandparents for the last 10 weeks. Which means that they are missing special moments as she gets bigger and crosses into new developmental stages.

Our daughter has also never been to a Sunday Church Gathering, and many people from Harbour City have never met her, been able to see her in the flesh, hold her, and celebrate her with us in person.

We’ve joked a few times that our daughter only has one friend, and that is the nurse she goes to see every couple of weeks. Which is both a little funny, and a little sad.

Similarly, in our Churches, I see the relational losses we are enduring, as Groups are unable to meet in person and have to navigate the clunkiness and awkwardness of Video Call interactions.

I see the loneliness of people missing friends who are family. And for some, currently going through big or hard moments, and doing it without the close in-contact connection with Church family members.

I have been part of so many Zoom calls, catch ups, prayer meetings, Bible studies, discipleship chats etc. which are so good, but which are also far from the same as the in person reality of being face to face with people you love.

And while we endure this time, we can think that we are on our own in this. That we are unique. But we see similar isolation and separation stories throughout the scriptures, and often in the New Testament as the Church faced persecution.

In 2 Timothy, Paul is writing from prison. He is most probably in an underground dungeon in the Mamentine Prison in Rome as he writes this, his last known letter before his execution. And he is separated from the individuals and churches that he knows and loves so deeply.

And in this letter addressed specifically to Timothy, and in these first 4 verses, we see the kind of love that should exist between believers, and the familial nature of the Church.

Paul loves Timothy like a son. He thanks God for him. He remembers fondly their times together in the past. And he writes that he can’t wait to see him again in the future, that he “may be filled with joy.”

One friend said to me yesterday, that we don’t see a macho kind of love between them here, because this is not a macho way for men to speak to men. But we do see a beautiful, Christ-like, brotherly love that should exist in our churches and relationships.

So at this time, while we remain separated as we are, verse 3 has challenged the way I love and pray for my brothers and sisters in the Church.

Paul writes: “I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day.”

Now to some of us, we might pray for some special people occasionally, weekly, every couple of days, or even daily. But how many of us have confidently told someone “I’ll pray for you!” only to never think of their prayer request again?

But Paul is praying for Timothy constantly, throughout the day, day and night, while he is in prison. 

Paul isn’t full of self-pity and misery at the difficulty of his situation. But instead, he chooses to use his time fruitfully to pray for the people in his life, and for the mission of God to continue.

Recently, an older friend told me that he prays for me every day. And I know it is true. He has showed me his prayer journal, with a list of hundreds of names that he slowly and intentionally prays for at the start of each day, early in the morning, so that he won’t be interrupted.

Now, I am a words guy, and words of encouragement mean a lot to me. I’m the kind of person that screen shots encouraging text messages, and saves cards and letters that have been given to me.

But the encouragement that I got from the fact that this man prayed for me every single day, both made me feel deeply loved, and also emboldened.

At this time, maybe we aren’t able, or at a place where we can pray “constantly” “night and day” for the people in our lives. But, what if we took the time to write a prayer list, and made it a habit to regularly pray for the people that the Holy Spirit puts on our hearts? 

And from time to time sent people a message to say: “I love you and I’m praying for you.”

Pray:

Respond to God in prayer by speaking to Him about what stood out to you from this passage this morning.
 
Listen:

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you this morning?
 
Apply:

What are you going to do in response to what God is saying to you from the text and by the Spirit?