A Proper Prayer

The following collect comes from the "Book of Worship" of the Evangelical & Reformed Church (1947). It's for the 1st Sunday of Lent:

"We beseech thee, O Lord, by the mystery of our Savior's fasting and temptation, to arm us with the same mind that was in him toward all evil and sin; and give us grace to keep our bodies in such holy discipline, that our minds may be always ready to resist Satan, and obey the direction of thy Holy Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."


I was delighted (and a bit surprised) to see this collect in a Reformed book on worship.

1st-it begins "by the mystery of our Savior's fasting and tempation...".  The collect assumes and embraces the important idea that our Lord's 40 days of fasting in the wilderness, and His temptation, was for us and for our salvation. Most folks read Matthew 4.1-11 as, "Here are the three steps I need to follow to overcome sin." But in the collect we look to His trials in the wilderness as being on our behalf.

2nd-the collect then goes on with "to arm us with the same mind that was in him toward all evil and sin". This is the proper place to go, taking its lead from 1 Peter 4.1-2,

"Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God."


3rd-Then this prayer handles the ancient idea of  "askesis" in a proper way! "and give us grace to keep our bodies in such holy discipline, that our minds may be always ready to resist Satan, and obey the direction of thy Holy Spirit". Askesis (which is where the words ascetic and asceticism come from) means discipline, training for a sports event, and was used by the earlier church pastors and theologians for the idea of training for the ultimate "event" of martyrdom. Therefore,until that day, we train by prayer, by resisting Satan and temptation, by growing in godliness, by bodily discipline of fasting at set times, etc.

This delightful prayer is Biblical and properly Christ-centered.

Blessings,
Mike

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?" (Rev. Ed.) by John Fea. A Review

Image
  John Fea is a professor of history at Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, PA. A university founded in 1909 by the Brethren in Christ Church. He originally published "Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? A Historical Introduction" in 2011, and it was revised in 2016. This 328-page paperback is packed full with Colonial and American history, drawing from original sources to answer that question. It is a book written "for the historically minded and thoughtful reader who is looking for help in sorting" out this question, avoiding polemics (xix). Since we live in a sound-bite culture, Fea recognizes that it is difficult to have a sustained dialogue on this topic, but he makes a valiant effort toward having that sustained dialogue. The book reads fairly straightforward, and doesn't seem to get bogged down in the contentious mudpuddles or bogs. In the end, Fea seems to get his point across. To answer the reigning question if America was founded as a Christian...
Read more

Union with Christ - An Application

Image
  (This was my weekly letter to my congregation on Wednesday, 21 February 2024) This morning in my devotional reading, I was working through 1 Corinthians 8. Though I’ve read these words a huge number of times over the years, today one verse caused me to stop and take stock.  Paul wrote, “ Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ ” (1 Corinthians 8:12). What struck me is a couple of things. First, in God’s saving work, we are – by grace alone – united (hitched, bonded, ingrafted) to Christ so much so, that what happens to us happens to him, and what is his becomes ours (think of Galatians 2:20, for example). As Sinclair Ferguson put it, “through union with Christ all that is his by incarnation becomes ours through faith” (“The Christian Life,” 110). Let that percolate in your heart for a while. Your fear, anxiety, tears, and so forth, he feels. And his “ Peace, be still ” is yours. Second, the way we treat one an...
Read more

"Ah, Lord! We are Animated by Anger and Anxiety, Fear and Fury..."

Image
I hesitate to put this out there because of the combative environment we are in at present. But I think some souls will take courage from this, and some will also join with me as we get to the end of this little composition. I am struck by the words of God in Zechariah 8. As he rehearses the waywardness and faithlessness of his people in the past, he clearly declares that he " set every man against his neighbor " (8:10). That got me thinking long ago. I started putting the pieces together and realized that one of God's acts of judgment is division, setting a man against his neighbor. That's what happened when he divided his people into the northern tribes and southern tribes (see 1 Kings 11:26-40). Because of Solomon's turning aside, allowing his wives to turn his heart away from the God of his father, David, the Lord brings about a rift in God's people. And this pattern of divisive judgment runs throughout Scripture. On the other hand, truthful unity is the g...
Read more