Remaining Prayerful, Hopeful, and Eager
By Jerry Tankersley
Several years ago, eight of our Presbytery pastors gathered with Dallas Willard for a three-day spiritual formation retreat. Willard published The Divine Conspiracy text that many of us were reading and seeking to absorb. We wanted to understand the faith and commitment needed to follow the traditional spiritual disciplines of the Christian life.
Willard led a discussion on Philippians 4:4–7. At the heart of that text the apostle Paul wrote this:
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (vv. 6–7).
During the conversation, I told Dallas and my colleagues that there were times when—in the process of lifting up my inner concerns, needs, anxieties, fears, and circumstances to the Lord—I felt like I might have an emotional meltdown.
I have carried Dallas’s response in my soul ever since. “Jerry,” he said, “what better place to have a meltdown than in the presence of the God of peace?” He added, “God is able to guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
His words liberated me spiritually. They reminded me that I ought not to fear praying about anything that was happening either inside or outside of me. After all, the Lord knows me better than I know myself.
Paul’s Troubled World
The Lord has been listening to His people from the beginning of time—and most certainly in the midst of threatening and trying circumstances. Jesus Himself walked through the valley of the shadow of death in the presence of His enemies (as foreshadowed in Psalm 23). He learned to trust, to pray, to weep, and to hurt before His Father. He also learned, as Paul did, that the Father of mercies is the God of all comfort (2 Cor. 1:3).
Paul wrote his letter to the church at Philippi while he was in prison. We are not sure, but most likely he was imprisoned in Caesarea, Ephesus, or Rome. I personally believe it was Rome because he had appealed his case to Caesar.
After a terrifying journey by boat around the Mediterranean (which he barely survived), he lived under house arrest in Rome, waiting for his case to be decided under Roman law. He hoped to be found innocent of charges brought against him by the religious authorities of Jerusalem. He longed to continue his mission of spreading the gospel of Christ, but if convicted he would likely be executed as a martyr to the faith. In fact, tradition says that he and Peter lost their lives during Nero’s persecution of the Christian community in the mid 60s of the first century.
Apparently, the Philippian believers met resistance and persecution in their city. Paul founded the church despite great personal persecution that included an attack from a mob of people, severe flogging, prison—and even an earthquake (Acts 16). Despite being thrown into jail, Paul and his fellow missionaries sang hymns of praise and joy through the night. By God’s grace they were released the next day, but not without a confrontation with the political authorities.
Paul continually encountered trouble from all kinds of powers throughout his missionary journeys (2 Cor. 11:23–30). Through it all he found God’s grace sufficient. When he was weak, then he was spiritually strong (2 Cor. 12:10). The strength of his heart and mind came from the living Lord with whom he continuously communed in prayer.
After all, Paul’s mission was God’s mission. His life was inspired, guided, and blessed by the Holy Spirit. From beginning to end, the apostle knew and trusted that in life and in death he belonged to God. He was sustained through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit.
Through all his hardships, sufferings, and joys, Paul made this confession of faith:
I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead (Phil. 3:10–11).
He had not achieved this yet, but he pressed on to his high calling in Jesus Christ, straining forward into God’s future for him. And he exhorted those mature in mind and spirit to also press on.
Our Own Troubled World
We too live in a hostile world. As I have faced trials of my own, here are a few things that have helped me:
First, I worship on the Lord’s Day with the Lord’s people. Then I daily pray the Psalms (the prayer book of Israel) and the prayers of Jesus.
In the early 1990s I was as close to burnout as I could be. The stresses were great. I had a panic attack that I thought was a heart attack. During that period of my life I took a two-week course with Eugene Peterson on “Spirituality and Ministry.” Peterson, the author of The Message, taught us to establish a pattern of praying Psalms 1, 2, and 5 every day, and then praying five consecutive psalms each day. In this way, one can pray through all 150 psalms in one month’s time.
This rule, along with other Bible guides and devotional readings, as well as corporate Sunday worship, have become the foundation of my prayer life. In fact, prayer has become the oxygen of my soul, bringing a deep focus and growing peace.
This rule has transformed my inner life, my view of the world, and my obedience to the truth of God’s Kingdom. In Walter Brueggemann’s book The Message of the Psalms, he analyzes the Psalter according to three types of psalms: Psalms of Orientation, Disorientation, and New Orientation. I have incorporated these perspectives into my prayer life.
- Psalms of Orientation: Sometimes psalmists prayed to God when all was well, life was in balance, and personal peace and harmony prevailed. In those times they gave thanks for all the good gifts of creation and history. (See Psalms 1, 8, 14, 15, 19, 24, 33, 37, 104, 119, 131, 133, 145.) Most of us would like to stay at that place throughout our life journey. I love these psalms, but they have not captured the totality of my experience as a person of faith.
- Psalms of Disorientation: Often a psalmist prayed when all was not well. Perhaps he was surrounded by his enemies; maybe he was ill and facing his own mortality and felt like he was walking through the valley of the shadow of death. Other times he was afraid, anxious, insecure, and afflicted with the awareness of his own personal sin and guilt. The author may have been angry with God over His absence or silence during various circumstances. Sooner or later, everyone’s life will spiral into disequilibrium. These psalms encourage us to open our souls to the Lord, seeking an assurance of His love and comfort. I love these expressions—for I have been in these places. (See Psalms 13, 35, 74, 79, 86, 137.)
- Psalms of New Orientation: In these psalms the psalmist had seen his enemies defeated. He had been healed of a disease, his depression had lifted, and his fear had been conquered. Good had come with restored faith, hope, and love! The discernment process led to clear resolution and trust in God’s will.
As Jesus Himself prayed, He was empowered to do the Father’s will with courage and confidence that nothing would separate Him from His Father’s love.
The apostle Paul prayed this way, too. He penned Romans 8 out of his lifetime of abiding in Christ, dying to sin, coming alive in the resurrection Spirit, walking in the light of Christ, and being reconciled to God and to one another in the church. Those of us who believe in prayer need to remember that God welcomes us to pray every dimension of our life experience. (See Psalms 29, 30, 34, 47, 65, 98, 99, 103, 114, 124, 129, 138, 146, 150.)
More and more, God has imparted to me the gift of the transformed mind by my praying of the Psalms. Renewed energy also has come. As Paul says, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want” (Phil. 4:12).
This is the transformed mind that Jesus seeks to form within us. In my life and in the life of my church, the work is not yet complete. But, like Paul, “I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in [us] will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6, esv).
Anticipated Joy
I pastor a congregation of people who represent the diversities of our secular, materialistic, ideological, polarized nation. Preachers like me now struggle with how to preach to congregations that are politically diverse. We worship, fellowship, serve, and pray together—and we face many difficult issues, conflicts, and relationships. We are committed to promoting the peace, the unity, and the purity of the body of Christ. But if we seek to press all our members into one mold with the same way of thinking, they may end up frustrated, angry, and alienated.
We are not always on the same page when it comes to understanding our Scriptures and their teachings. The surrounding culture has shaped us far more than we know. How can we engage the “principalities and powers” with the truth of God in Christ, while also maintaining a model of civility in rhetoric, attitude, and service? When we feel like we’re about to have an emotional meltdown, like I mentioned earlier, we can remember that we are always in the presence of our powerful God.
I believe we are living between “the already” and “the not yet” of the Kingdom of God. Our present world is deeply conflicted. In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote that we live in “enemy-occupied territory.” There has been a rebellion in this part of the cosmos, but the good news is that there has also been a divine invasion. “The rightful king has landed” in our world.
In Lewis’s book The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, he also describes a world that has been frozen over, where it is always winter and Christmas never comes. But the snow is melting. Creation is awakening with anticipated joy. I, like Lewis, believe the spring thaw has begun. Aslan, the Christ lion, is on the move. “He isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
This is our story, as well, as we eagerly wait and pray with the hope of “Come, Lord Jesus.”
JERRY TANKERSLEY has served as senior pastor of Laguna Presbyterian Church, Laguna Beach, CA, since 1972.
