Decades ago, in his book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey popularized a simple time management tool. He observed that 100% of everything we do can be broken down into four basic quadrants. First, you categorize things along a vertical axis. Some things are IMPORTANT (weighty); some things are NOT IMPORTANT. Then additionally, you categorize things along a horizontal axis. Some things are URGENT; some things are NOT URGENT.
Now there are a couple of ways we can use this tool spiritually. Take prayer for instance. In what quadrant would you place the practice of prayer? And let me just say, none of this is intended to be a drive-by guilting, okay? Just reflect. Would you say prayer is important? Would you also say then, it’s urgent?
Sadly, for many people, prayer is not important, and not urgent. I really think this is our default setting. How easily we can neglect prayer. We can go a day(s) or even week(s) without prayer. And, it’s not like anyone holds you accountable about it. Worship, Bible reading, prayer, fasting… this applies to all the spiritual disciplines. Prayer is one of the single easiest things to neglect. This mentality can infect a whole family, a whole church, a whole nation.
For some prayer is important, but not urgent. In other words, prayer is a matter of conviction, you understand its value, it’s at the top of your list. But your phone is buzzing, the baby is crying, someone is at the door, life is happening, deadlines are flying, stuff keeps popping up in your social media feed, or for the first time in weeks you’ve got a real shot at beating your high score in Wooduko. You know it’s bad when you spend more time gaming than praying. It takes incredible discipline and intentionality to put important things on the front burner where they belong. I think that is something we ask God’s Spirit to help us with.
For some prayer can be urgent but not important. Maybe this happens when you’re unexpectedly asked to pray and maybe you bristle about it under your breath. You’re at a family gathering. You get called up in church, or small group. “Ugh my greatest fear, getting called out!”
Overwhelmingly though. There are those for whom prayer is/becomes urgent and important. Usually, it’s some circumstance that makes prayer urgently important. There is a crisis, a medical emergency, you received shocking news, danger rears its ugly face. There are moments when in a panic, prayer becomes a kind of SOS signal, or a spiritual 911 call. A fair question is this: “Besides a crisis, what would ever make prayer an urgent priority for you? Is prayer only for urgent crises and emergencies?”
Last week, I mentioned some areas where, through the years, I’ve been growing in my own prayer life. I don’t ever want prayer to be degraded to a place of mere duty or discipline. Prayer is an occasion to delight in the Lord! I don’t ever want prayer to become a kind-of magic escape hatch. I’ve learned that God is far more vested in changing my character than my circumstances. We grow in faith as we learn to depend upon God through hard things. And finally, I don’t ever want to see prayer as a zero-sum-game where everything has to come out in the win column in this life. Prayer is an eternal-sum-game—where everything ultimately works to the glory of God and the good of those who love Him. Sometimes a loss now, in this life, is a great gain in the Divine economy. These are life-long lessons.
But this morning I want to share another lesson I’m learning about prayer. I’ve thought a lot about this. Why isn’t prayer as urgent in my life as it should be? Why isn’t prayer as important in my life as it should be? I’m not saying it’s not urgent at all. I’m not saying it isn’t important at all. But there are days when maybe I’ve spent way more time in Wooduko than in the Word, or in Prayer. There are days when I’ve spent myself in service to God—doing his works, sharing his word, loving those he loves—but maybe I haven’t spent time with God.
Let me confess. Jon Morrissette doesn’t do so well on spiritual auto-pilot—and maybe you don’t either? When it comes to spiritual time management, I’m no Stephen Covey. I’m so easily distracted, or diverted away, or I get lazy. One of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, the final of nine in the list, is self-control. Maybe self-control is the apex of Christian maturity. Either way, it’s a work of God’s Spirit—and may God bring us all to greater discipline and control so the important becomes urgent.
But I think there is a lot more to talk about. Why isn’t prayer the urgent priority that it should be? There is a saying of God, that appears throughout Scripture, that is quite troubling to me. It appears in various forms in places like Psalm 138:6; Proverbs 3:34; Proverbs 29:23; Matthew 23:12; Luke 1:52; James 4:6; or 1 Peter 5:5. The saying is this: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (and/or favors/blesses the humble)” Now this verse appears in the Old and New Testament. It’s telling us not just about the nature of God, but the nature of the Spiritual life.
What does the Bible mean that God opposes the proud? In what manner does God oppose the proud, and to what extent does God oppose the proud, and just who in the world are the proud? Let’s unpack this a moment.
In what manner does God oppose the proud? There are two possibilities. Does God “actively” oppose the proud, or “passively” oppose the proud? When I read passages like Romans 1:18-32, I get the sense that yes, God “passively” opposes the proud. In Romans 1 people continually harden their hearts against God. In fact, there are like five different progressions, and five different times where is just says, “God gave them over” to idolatry, to their perversions, to whatever… you name it. Sin carries its own inherent punishment—God sometimes releases us to something so that we’d wake up, come to our senses.
Now when I read the Psalms, I get the sense that God not just “passively” but also quite “actively—directly” opposes the proud. I’ve read throughout the course of my whole life—but maybe I wasn’t paying attention. The Psalmists (much like the Prophets too) attribute actions to God few if any Christians would attribute to God today. And if you did try to attribute them to God, you’d be considered a wacko extremist fundamentalist and driven out of town along with God.
In the Psalms there is absolutely nothing neutral about God at all:
• God Examines, Weighs, Shakes, Tests, Proves, Judges, Grieves, Anger Flares, Doesn't tolerate…
• God Disciplines, Subdues, Terrifies, Torments, Silences, Cuts off, Hides, Summons, Rebukes, Shames, Makes Foolish, Humiliates, Breaks, Laughs, Ridicules, Displaces, Harasses, Confuses, Confounds, Burdens, Holds back, Provokes, Strikes, Abandons, Gives over, Overwhelms, Distances, Shuts in, Spurns, Repudiates…
• God Arises, Opposes, Frustrates, Confronts, Fights against, Disgraces, Drives away, Drives back, Rejects, Scatters
• God Repays, Punishes, Destroys, Pulverizes, Tramples, Devours, Thwarts, Wipes away, Erases, Crushes, Devastates, Tears apart, Sentences, Banishes, Uproots, Rips away, Brings down, Annihilates, Crushes, Stretches Out Hand, Kills, Ruins, Plunders, Shortens days, Ends lives, Avenges, Wipes Out, Throws Aside, Binds, Shackles
So, this answers not just “how” (actively, not just passively), but also to “what extent” God opposes the proud. As the writer of Hebrews (Hebrews 10:31) observes, “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the Living God.” A mark of depravity is when there is no longer any fear of God in the land. And this answers our third question about just who the “proud” may be. The proud are those for whom God is neither important, nor urgent.
We ought not assume that prayer doesn’t “work” because “God is dead”, or “Christianity or the Bible is false.” Because I don’t have the right wording, or the right technique or formula. What if God is opposing you because you’re proud? What if you’re not feeling the favor of God because you’re too arrogant to need him, want him, seek him, delight in him, worship him, praise him, thank him, love him, serve him! Now I’m not suggesting we go about attributing evil to God. I’m not suggesting we go about interpreting every bad thing as evidence that maybe God’s against you. But neither should you expect to have some super compelling, supernatural prayer life if in your heart of hearts God for all practical purposes is dead to you. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (and/or favors/blesses the humble)
Isn’t the purpose of prayer to humble ourselves before God? Isn’t the purpose of prayer to seek God’s favor and blessing? If you are worried that God is opposing you, you only need humble yourself. Matthew 5:3-7, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 Blessed are the humble, for they will inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” Prayer comes down to this? Do you want God opposing you or blessing you?
The Psalmist had much to say about God’s favor/grace.
• God Foreknows, Predestines, Creates, Calls, Elects, Adopts. Grafts, Ordains, Atones, Justifies, Sanctifies.
• God Covenants, Pursues, Promises, Gathers, Carries, Delivers, Spares, Defends, Protects, Rescues, Fights For, Frees, Secures, Establishes, Intercedes, Upholds, Preserves, Helps, Keeps, Vindicates
• God Delights, Favors, Comforts, Satisfies, Prospers, Feeds, Fills, Supplies, Quenches, Clothes, Shields, Guards, Supports, Dwells, Tabernacles, Encamps
• God Reveals, Illuminates, Leads, Guides, Shepherds, Teaches, Counsels, Warns, Signals, Humbles, Weans, Quiets, Calms, Disciplines
• God Hears, Watches, Searches, Remembers, Forgets (sin), Answers, Cares
• God Forgives, Cleanses, Refines, Purifies, Washes, Heals, Strengthens, Sustains, Restores, Renews. Redeems, Blesses, Rewards, Exalts, Glorifies, Lifts up, Relieves, Crowns, Confirms, Grants success.
• Ephesians 1:3 says, “Blessed is the God who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”
Prayer doesn’t work so well for the proud, who make no room for God. But for the humble, for whom God’s grace is an urgent and important matter—there is everlasting grace and peace, everlasting favor and blessing. Humbly invite God in!
James 4:5-6, “Do you think it’s without reason that the Scripture says: The spirit he made to dwell in us envies intensely? But he gives greater grace. Therefore he says, “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
James 4:10, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”
Proverbs 3:33-34, “The Lord’s curse is on the household of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the righteous; He mocks those who mock but gives grace to the humble.”
Micah 6:8, “Mankind, he has told each of you what is good and what it is the Lord requires of you: to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God.”
Luke 14:11, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
2 Chronicles 7:13-15, “13 If I shut the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the grasshopper to consume the land, or if I send pestilence on my people, 14 and my people, who bear my name, humble themselves, pray and seek my face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land. 15 My eyes will now be open and my ears attentive to prayer from this place.”
Psalms 149:1-4, “Hallelujah! Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of the faithful. 2 Let Israel celebrate its Maker; let the children of Zion rejoice in their King. 3 Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with tambourine and lyre. 4 For the Lord takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with salvation.”