Over the last couple of years, I’ve been asking a lot of people for prayer regarding several situations, a particularly heavy one of which is yet to be resolved. As wearying as the situation itself is, I’ve found myself also becoming weary with continually asking for prayer. It’s easy to feel like I’m being annoying at best or burdensome at worst for the small army of prayer warriors God has amassed around me.
But as the Lord does so often, He’s used something He
showed me years ago, before this difficult situation was even on my radar, to
remind me of the importance of prayer and of sharing our needs with others.
That something He showed me was from a few verses in 2 Corinthians, and I wrote
about them in some of the first blog posts I ever wrote, back in 2015. So
today, I’d like to share a slightly edited version of those early posts, and I
pray that it encourages you in whatever season of life you find yourself in to
be persistent in prayer and diligent in allowing others to come alongside you
to pray.
In several posts here on An Iris Awaits, I’ve talked about
how God can reveal things in the Bible that have previously gone unnoticed to
us. When this happens, it’s almost like the verse jumps out at you like a page
in a pop-up book saying, “Look! Right here! Look at me!” So here’s an example
of one such “pop-up verse” from my own life.
I was reading in 2 Corinthians 1 one day. Verses 3-7 in this
chapter make up one of my favorite passages of Scripture. They identify God as
the God of comfort and explain the purpose behind our receiving comfort from
him, namely that we can in turn comfort others. But this time as I was reading
the chapter, verse 11 jumped out at me:
“You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our
behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.” (ESV)
I’d never really noticed this verse before, but as I read it
and reread it that day, I realized just how much meat is really there. The
context is Paul telling the Corinthians how he and Timothy had reached the end
of their own strength and were learning to fully rely on the power of God to
sustain them (vv.8-9). In the preceding
verse, he expresses his complete confidence in God to continue to provide
deliverance (v. 10). Then he writes,
“You also must help us by prayer…”
At first glance, this might seem disingenuous of Paul; if he
really believes God will deliver them, why ask for prayer? Why must
the Corinthian believers also pray
if God will already sustain and provide?
“…so that many will give thanks on our behalf…”
I love those two little words: so that. Whenever we see them
in Scripture, we know that whatever follows is an explicit answer to the
question “why.” And this verse is no exception. Why does Paul want the
Corinthians to pray? So that many people will give thanks to God. In other
words, the more people who are praying, the more people will be praising God
when He responds. So with that one little phrase “so that” we see the
motivation behind the request: for God to receive more glory.
But what are the people giving thanks for?
“…for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.”
Paul knows that as his fellow believers pray, God will hear
and will bless him and Timothy. Yet he is clear that this blessing will come
“through the prayers of many.” Paul speaks of the power of prayer here, for
even though he is thoroughly confident in God’s deliverance, he knows that
there is still blessing that God will provide when His people pray. So from
this one verse, we can see that prayer is important, that it makes a
difference, and that one result of prayer is God being glorified. Which when you
think about it, is the best result of all.
But there’s more. Whenever you come across a “pop-up verse”
like this, it’s always a good idea to look deeper into the surrounding verses
as well. As I did so with the verses preceding 2 Corinthians 1:11, I found more
implications for the Christian life when it comes to prayer, our view of self,
and God’s glory.
“For we do not want
you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we
were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.
Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to
make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us
from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope
that he will deliver us again.” 2 Corinthians 1:8-10 (ESV)
“For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we
experienced in Asia.”
Paul does not hide his struggles from his fellow believers.
To the contrary, for them to be “unaware” of his “afflictions” is precisely what
he does not want. Coming on the tails
of the comfort passage (vv. 3-7), this statement is clearly connected to the
fact that as affliction is shared so will comfort be, but, as we saw earlier, this
verse also leads to Paul’s asking for prayer in verse 11. Thus, part of the
reason he wants the Corinthian believers to be aware of his struggles is so
that they may pray for him.
Let’s fast-forward to 21st-century America for a
moment. Our society takes pride in individualism, exalts the “self-made man,”
and encourages a certain level of isolation. Self-sufficiency is lauded, and
anything that might reveal weakness is avoided like the plague. Sadly, this
mindset often creeps into the church as well. Christians who are suffering—whether
from physical ailment, emotional affliction, or spiritual struggle—often hide
their pain and their neediness for fear of looking weak or spiritually immature
or of unnecessarily burdening others with the weight of their own problems.
But look at what Paul’s dealing with:
“For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired
of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death.”
That’s some pretty serious suffering—and I don’t think he’s
just being melodramatic. Neither is he trying to collect sympathy. He is
acknowledging that his own strength is not strong enough; he is admitting he is
weak. But he doesn’t stop there.
“But
that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.”
In the very same breath, Paul directs the attention to God
and praises Him as the One powerful enough to raise the dead. As Paul reveals
his own weakness, he testifies to God’s strength. He shows that he and Timothy
were brought to the end of themselves so that they would trust in God’s
sufficiency rather than their own. And the result?
“He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On
him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.”
By sharing about his struggle, his weakness, and his
dependence on the Lord’s strength, he is able to share about the deliverance
God provides, which in turn leads to God’s receiving glory. If people didn’t
know about Paul’s afflictions, they wouldn’t see the power of God at work in
his life. If people were unaware, they would not be praying and thus, as verse
11 shows, would not be able to give thanks to God when their prayers were
answered.
So it is with each of us. If we keep our struggles to
ourselves, not only do we deprive our fellow members of the Body of Christ from
being able to do their job, but also we miss an opportunity to encourage others
by letting them see God’s hand at work in our lives. Pretending that we’re
strong enough doesn’t harm just us; it affects our brothers and sisters in
Christ as well. And when it comes right down to it, projecting an image of
self-sufficiency diminishes the glory given to God.
Let’s not be afraid, then, to ask for prayer when we are struggling.
Let’s not deceive ourselves by thinking we can be self-sufficient. Instead,
let’s encourage one another, pray for one another, and rejoice with one another
as we see the work that God will do. That way, He’ll get all the glory.
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