Encouragements from the Familiar (or habit-forming praying brings joy to the mundane)
Some years ago, I remember reading the sage comment from George MacDonald: ‘nothing is so deadening to the minister as the habitual dealing with the outside of things.’ I took it on board as a timely warning and came up with a proposition: ‘that familiar things used rightly can become our best friends’. Let me suggest six familiar Prayer Book prayers, which if prayed regularly with a good heart, can keep us refreshed and joyful in local church ministry. They are not instant cure-alls, but have been one reason why so many pastors have been, and remain, faithful in this noblest of all tasks: the pastoring of men and women, boys and girls, in local churches, small and large, across our nation and beyond.
Habitual work, as with any vocation, be it parenting, spousing, farming, researching, labouring, teaching, administrating, health care, business, governing, policing and the trades require the establishment and practice of healthy habits. Ministry is no different in this regard, since as noted by Logan Pearsall Smith: ‘The test of a vocation is the love of the drudgery it involves’. Without good habits the mundane can easily divert us from our calling. However, habits that bring us into God’s presence can fill us with joy as we remember the big picture enterprise God has called us to. Habits that enable us to attend to the often mundane and unexpected demands, unnoticed and unappreciated, difficult as well as the easy are vital. By drawing us into fellowship with our Chief Shepherd we will have a better chance of avoiding the deadening effects of the ‘outside of things’. We will be kept from being defined by our role, helping us to be defined by our relationship with the Lord Jesus, as adopted children of our heavenly Father. These priceless prayers can keep us from falling into the ministerial hazards of comparing ourselves with other pastor’s, their gifts, churches, prominence or personalities, releasing us to be grateful to God, content to serve where He has called us to, loving and fully committed to the people of our church and quick to encourage our fellow pastors and leaders.
The prayers are all from the 1662 Prayer Book. For clarity I have used the AAPB 1978 version of each text. Some will be better known than others. Each is memorable, and I am very grateful to God and the pastors who led our services, and glad to testify that along with the Bible, have become part of my DNA as a believer since 1964 and a pastor since 1975. I share them with my fellow Anglican pastors and have no hesitation in commending them to fellow pastors from other denominations. They are entirely consistent with the Bible and have stood the test of time in encouraging and shaping pastors and believers through the ages. My only regret is that many of my fellow evangelicals may not have benefitted as much as they might have, given the demise of the full range of prayer book services. Pastors and their congregants may have been unwittingly robbed of this rich source of habitual encouragement at a time when, for various reasons, it has been difficult to stay on track as disciples and when local church ministry has never been harder.
They may help us face John Piper’s challenge: ‘that the first responsibility of the minister each day is to pray him/herself into happiness’. I am not suggesting that they should be prayed every morning (though we could do worse), nor that they are a silver bullet, but by keeping the big picture of ministry before us in prayer, the mundane and familiar become infused with large doses of God’s grace in our dual callings, as disciples and pastors.
My own conviction, borne out of experience and observation, is that these prayers, and others like them, refresh our minds, continue to captivate our hearts with love for our Saviour, ensuring our ministries are exercised ‘under God’, for His glory and for the people under our care (Gal 2:20, 1 Thess 2:8 and 1 Peter 5:1-4).
Habits are clearly commended in Scripture (Eph 6:17-20 with the four traditional means of bible, prayer, church and witnessing noted, 1 Tim 4:7b-8 with its emphasis on training and Gal 6:7-10 with its sowing metaphor outlined thus:
If you sow a thought, you reap a word.
If you sow a word, you reap an act.
If you sow an act, you reap a habit.
If you sow a habit, you reap a character.
If you sow a character, you reap a destiny.
1. Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hidden: cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy name, through Christ our Lord. Amen. (Holy Communion AAPB)
This prayer, like the double-edged sword of Heb 4:12-13 (was it in Thomas Cranmer’s mind as he penned this prayer?) has awful consequences for those praying it trying to run from or hide sin from God. However, those who come humbly, find the remarkable assurance of Heb 4:14-16 filling their contrite heart with confidence before His throne of grace. This re-centering has many applications including:
Warnings to be heeded if we are lazy with our use of time, cherishing sin, thankless or cranky with those we are ministering with and to (Col 3:17,23; Psalm 66:18; Eph 4:3; Phil 2:1-5).
Encouragement to the weary pastor that God knows who and where we are (Ps 139, 121), our struggles and weaknesses (2 Cor 4:7-12;11:28-29;12:7-10), promising strength in our calling (1 Thess 5:24), and assurance that His Sovereign hand can always be trusted for good (Rom 5:3-5; 8:17 and 26-30).
Comfort to the pastor unsure of the congregation’s acceptance. God who knows our, and their hearts fills us with confidence that irrespective of our feelings or their attitudes toward us we are secure in His acceptance of us, as believers through justification by faith and as pastors, as dearly loved sheep and under-shepherds of His flock (Rom 5:1- 2. Jn 10:11-21; 1 Pet 5:4; Rev 2:2,9,13).
Challenge to live for the praise of God alone. His praise is never fickle or mere flattery. Knowing He is in our grandstand cheering for us, come what may, means we can relax, finding our comfort from Him.
2. Almighty and most merciful Father, we have strayed from your ways like lost sheep. We have left undone what we ought to have done, and we have done what we ought not to have done. We have followed our own ways and the desires of our own hearts. We have broken your holy laws. Yet, good Lord, have mercy on us; restore those who are penitent, according to your promises declared to mankind in Jesus Christ our Lord. And grant, merciful Father, for his sake, that we may live a godly and obedient life, to the glory of your holy name. Amen. (AAPB Morning prayer p20)
The general Confession is ever so realistic since it reminds us that we who gather, stand on unholy ground, together. We can only come to God through repentance and faith. This hearty reminder not only keeps us in tune with the teaching of the New Testament (1 John 1:8-2:2) but ought to fill our hearts with gratitude for God’s gracious pardon through Jesus Christ. Any sense of pride or one-up-man-ship evaporates as we meet together with hearts open, not only for God’s nourishment and correction, but ready for any and every opportunity to serve each other, whether we like them or not. The reality is that there is only one kind of person we are able to church with each week: and that is a fellow sinner! The same goes for them with us! This unflattering, but joyful truth, is borne out in that all the exhortations in the New Testament to forgive, to be patient, to esteem, to love, to serve, to encourage are written to believers. This prayer will keep our expectations grounded and realistic (church is more like a hospital for sinners than a sanctuary for saints!). To be sure we are treated by God as saints (61/62 times plural in the NT) but we are to earnestly seek to become more and more like our Saviour in obedience. The local church is a crucible where our Lord grows us as we patiently exercise grace laden responsive service to fellow sinners. Every time we meet, this prayer reminds us to thank God for His grace to everyone else who has gathered with us. Grace that reminds us: we stand together on holy ground through Christ.
3. Clothe your ministers with righteousness: and make your chosen people joyful. (Psalm 132:9). Lord, save your people: and bless your inheritance. (Psalm 28:9). These ‘versicles and responses’ come from Morning and Evening Prayer (AAPB p.27/32) and are two of six prayers from the Psalms that are full of encouragement and challenge for ministers. The minister is prayed for by the congregation, who in turn are reminded that they, along with their ministers, are ‘God’s chosen people’ and ‘inheritance’. Nothing is as ennobling for believers to be reminded of this high calling, or as challenging to ministers to be Godly and faithful in lifestyle and ministry. God’s chosen people will be (or at least ought to be) joyful when their minister knows they are justified (counted righteous) in God’s sight by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This will keep ministers from relying upon the size of our church, popularity or abilities, which can only cause us to push our congregations to fulfil our own agendas or be impatient with them if they won’t or can’t.
It will also mean that the minister, like every other believer, should be seeking to live righteously in every aspect of their life. As pastors we are to be examples to our congregations and communities. Like Paul we want to be able to say to people: whatever you have … heard or seen in me-put it into practice (Phil 4:9). Our chief desire will be to watch our life and doctrine closely (1 Tim 4:16). Because we will be watched, we are wise to watch our lifestyle knowing that the God who watches us, welcomes us as justified sinners and adopted children. We therefore covet this prayer of His people. It goes without saying that God’s chosen people will rejoice when their minister preaches the great truth of ‘justification by faith alone, in Christ alone, by grace alone for the glory of God alone’. No doctrine is as full of encouragement to believers as this, nor as humbling to proud and self-reliant sinners. For these reasons here is a prayer for pastors to pray for each other since it will keep us on track, encourage the Lord’s inheritance, issue forth in good works, deliver joy to all who respond and perseverance in faithful preaching when people want to foolishly justify themselves before God.
4. O God, the author and lover of peace, in knowledge of whom stands our eternal life, whose service is perfect freedom; defend us your servants in all assaults of our enemies, that, surely trusting in your defence, we may not fear the power of any adversaries, through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (AAPB p.28).
There are many hazards of discipleship for all believers, not least for ministers of the gospel in the front-line ministry of local churches. There are assaults of enemies of the gospel and from the great deceiver himself. The chief of these is to take back what we once surrendered to Jesus when we were converted and then set apart for ministry. The reminder that the One who saved us for eternal life, did so for the purposes of installing and investing us for a lifetime of consecrated sacrificial service, is timely given post-covid pressures, hedonism and public opposition. The world and Satan conspire to cause us to see our privileged call as either drudgery, joyless duty or too demanding to maintain. My attraction to this prayer has been that simple but wonderful phrase ‘whose service is perfect freedom’. It has served to recall me to the heart of my Saviour and Lord whose pattern, in incarnation and atonement was initiative taking, sacrificial and other-person service. This He freely gave on behalf of his people (Acts 20:27-28, Jn 3:16, 10:11, Gal 2:20), calling us to replicate and imitate in our lives (Jn 12:23-26) and find blessing in our emulating obedience (Lk 9:24, 10:20, 11:27-8, 12:32-4,37,17:29-30). The freedom of being justified by faith is a freedom to serve the Saviour. It knows nothing of laziness, self-serving or holding back (as shown by Jesus), and comes with the assurances of (Mt.28:20, 1 Cor 15:58, 2 Tim 4:6-8, 2 Peter 1:10-11, 1 Jn 3:2-3). Freedom, spoken of by Jesus in Jn 8:31-32 comes as we hold to His teaching. Like all good prayers the truths that underpin the freedom of service have the power to keep us joyful through every challenge of our calling to be serving children and servants. This prayer has the power to deliver us from the seductive ‘individualised personal Trinity of my Holy Wants, my Holy Needs, and my Holy Feelings’ (Eugene Peterson: Eat This Book page 31) so prevalent in our day in our culture and so easily imbibed by us believers.
5. Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we your unworthy servants give humble and hearty thanks for all your goodness and loving kindness to us and to all men; we bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for your amazing love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace; and for the hope of glory. And, we pray, give us that due sense of all your mercies, that our hearts may be truly thankful and that we may declare your praise not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be all honour and glory, now and forever. Amen (AAPB p35).
This prayer reminds us of the two main reasons why we ought to give thanks to God. The common grace gifts enjoyed by all people, summed up by ‘our creation, preservation and all the blessings of this life’ and the saving grace gift of ‘the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ’ furnish us with unlimited reasons to thank God. Forgetfulness of this command to ‘thank God’ (I Thess 5:18) is as crippling to the pastor’s joy and perseverance as the disobedience of thankless pagans in Rom 1:21-23. Hearty thanks should be the heartbeat of every believer. We who are pastors have further reasons to be thankful since God calls us to be among His people sharing our lives as well as the gospel (1 Thess 2:8). As we do we get to sit and pray with fellow believers who remain faithful in chronic sickness, bereavement, temptations, troubles, trials of every kind, opposition, depression, disappointments and the snares of riches. Seeing people turn up on Sundays for worship and fellowship, give us further evidence of God’s grace. Thankfulness does many things for us like: keeping us from the diabolical tendency of allowing our anxiety and disappointment over those who have not turned up to be felt by those who have! Thankfulness keeps us from the idolatry of satisfaction with gifts rather than with our generous Giver, by doubling our blessing as we share them with God. Thankfulness keeps us from the happiness killers of preciousness about money, time and housing.
Thankfulness helps us navigate difficulties well, as means of our growth and as opportunities to be living sermons showing that we really do believe the wonderful doctrine of Romans 8:28 and endorse God’s purpose of conforming us to the likeness of His Son (Rom 8:29).
6. Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness and put on the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came among us in great humility; that on the last day, when he comes again in his glorious majesty to judge the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen. Advent (AAPB p.180).
Our Lord’s gracious warning that in the last days ‘the love of many will grow cold…and that he/she who endures to the end will be saved’ (Matt 24:12) has been echoed by fellow ministers: ‘when Christ calls a man he bids him come and die’ (D Bonhoeffer), ‘if Jesus Christ be God and died for me, no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him’ (CT Studd) and ‘in the Christian life we do not stand still, we use our gifts and make progress or we lose what we have’ (Leon Morris). If thankfulness bids us to look up to God, then this prayer summons us to look forward, not to our dream church call, nor to retirement, but to the consummation when: elect from every nation…the great church victorious, shall be the church at rest. As we are taught in Scripture, the great Day of our Lord’s return in glorious majesty will be the time when the fruits of faithful living, loving preaching, Christlike example, sacrificial service, plodding pastoral care and winsome witnessing will be displayed before our very eyes gathered around the Throne of grace. We stand in awe that God’s great plan will come to fruition by His faithfulness, and in our small way, as our efforts play their part. Our Lord’s return in glory invests our work with honour and purpose. In this way we will be kept from giving up, seeking earthly recognition, neglecting evangelism or thinking (our) ministry of the gospel futile. This eternal perspective will give texts like 1 Cor 15:58, Matt 6:20, 24:31, 42-43; Eph 5:27 and 1 Tim 6:19 new currency. Riches given to sustain and bless us (Gal 6:9-10).
Peter Brain