2 Timothy 1:3 – Nine Quick Links between a Clean Conscience and Persevering Prayer
3 I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day 2 Timothy 1:3, New King James Version
Martin Townsend in a Reel documentary on Patrick Swayze notes that the dying actor did not try to hide his illness or its impact on him. He still signed autographs, letting fans get close enough to see his weakened condition. "There's a grace," notes Townsend, "that comes when we refuse to let fear rule us."
Paul knew something about this connection between fearlessness and gestures of grace. He puts the two ideas in proximity in 2 Timothy 1:3. He has come to terms with his own past, recognizing God's prerogative to convict and change Paul's convictions in His own time, declaring that as for Paul his conscience was clear. This thorough absolution motivated Paul to serve, and motivated him to look backward from a place of grace and declare that his forefathers, in their turn, also served with a clear conscience.
Paul's sense of security could have been fragile. He could have preserved it as an elusive oasis of mental calm to be protected from triggers that might remind him of his past, or the certainty of disappointment with other people. Instead, the peace that now rules Paul is a dynamic concern, as he immediately moves from it to the grace to pray night and day for Timothy. Let's look at some of the ways our own peace with God and peace with our past can fuel persevering prayer.
(1) We deal with less distraction by our own drama, either from actual conviction of sin or from our conscience lying to us.
(2) We have more empathy for other people's struggles because we have more of a sense of the weight from which we have been delivered.
(3) We are steadied by a resolution to fill the windows of time with something other than navelgazing. Paul's prayer role is part of his identity now, something he says he does night and day, not something he clocked in and out of to address in the impending sense of guilt.
(4) We are more willing to tarry before the throne because we don't have the same fear of what might be discovered there. Our focus is no longer on managing the impression and focus on the topic of the most pressing need, as we might for a powerful and busy person whose help we need. We can linger and actually discover new aspects of the righteousness of Christ at work within us.
(5) We are drawn into a more comprehensive view of prayer. If we start with generation-spanning cathedral thinking with respect to our forefathers in God's work in our own lives, as Paul did, it might be catching. Our restored sense of awe impact the amount of material we have to pray over for those we care about.
As we react to meet to God's idea of wholeness not constrained by fleeting time or stretched resources, our prayers blossomed from the root of, "Lord, feed them and get them out of this jam," and blaze as, "Lord, we pray for the spouse they are going to get, or the kids they are going to impact, or the kind of grandparent they are going to be, or the perseverance they are going to demonstrate in the difficulties of old age.
Part of the reason we don't pray day and night for particular individuals the way Paul does for Timothy, I think, is because we run out of material and keep saying the same things. We border on pain repetition, and we strain our flesh's need for novelty. But if we begin to grasp the comprehensive nature of God's care and God's work that He will finish, we will delight to pray longer and more specifically. If we run out of petitions, we might just ask for more.
(6) We might tap into a more urgwnt sense of necessary forgiveness. God cursed the land of Israel. When His leaders inquired why, David found out that his predecessor King Saul had harmed the Gibeonites who were under God's agent protection. As we become more accustomed to a clean conscience, we will be more responsive to the slightest twinge of responsibility to make things right, and find more place for holy fear as God pledges to protect those whom we have wronged.
(8) We mature into more of the sense that we are joining Jesus in persevering prayer. Christ is not just the Source of the answers that come at our best, we want for those we care most about. He is ever making intercession for them, Scripture says. As the woman in song of Solomon takes the invitation to be closer to the shepherd by going with him on his work of caring for his sheep, so we, as we tarry in prayer, here are the inflections of His voice and pay closer attention to His character in action.
(9) We are exalting God's Word. There is no measurable meter of the effectiveness of prayer. 20 minutes of it will not yield certain results as though we are fulfilling a contract or wearying God into complying with their wishes. Nevertheless, He is the One Who says the fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. When He declares us righteous, as Paul senses He has over himself and his ancestry, our effectiveness is tied in with the validity of Scripture. God will honor what He says.
Martin Townsend in a Reel documentary on Patrick Swayze notes that the dying actor did not try to hide his illness or its impact on him. He still signed autographs, letting fans get close enough to see his weakened condition. "There's a grace," notes Townsend, "that comes when we refuse to let fear rule us."
Paul knew something about this connection between fearlessness and gestures of grace. He puts the two ideas in proximity in 2 Timothy 1:3. He has come to terms with his own past, recognizing God's prerogative to convict and change Paul's convictions in His own time, declaring that as for Paul his conscience was clear. This thorough absolution motivated Paul to serve, and motivated him to look backward from a place of grace and declare that his forefathers, in their turn, also served with a clear conscience.
Paul's sense of security could have been fragile. He could have preserved it as an elusive oasis of mental calm to be protected from triggers that might remind him of his past, or the certainty of disappointment with other people. Instead, the peace that now rules Paul is a dynamic concern, as he immediately moves from it to the grace to pray night and day for Timothy. Let's look at some of the ways our own peace with God and peace with our past can fuel persevering prayer.
(1) We deal with less distraction by our own drama, either from actual conviction of sin or from our conscience lying to us.
(2) We have more empathy for other people's struggles because we have more of a sense of the weight from which we have been delivered.
(3) We are steadied by a resolution to fill the windows of time with something other than navelgazing. Paul's prayer role is part of his identity now, something he says he does night and day, not something he clocked in and out of to address in the impending sense of guilt.
(4) We are more willing to tarry before the throne because we don't have the same fear of what might be discovered there. Our focus is no longer on managing the impression and focus on the topic of the most pressing need, as we might for a powerful and busy person whose help we need. We can linger and actually discover new aspects of the righteousness of Christ at work within us.
(5) We are drawn into a more comprehensive view of prayer. If we start with generation-spanning cathedral thinking with respect to our forefathers in God's work in our own lives, as Paul did, it might be catching. Our restored sense of awe impact the amount of material we have to pray over for those we care about.
As we react to meet to God's idea of wholeness not constrained by fleeting time or stretched resources, our prayers blossomed from the root of, "Lord, feed them and get them out of this jam," and blaze as, "Lord, we pray for the spouse they are going to get, or the kids they are going to impact, or the kind of grandparent they are going to be, or the perseverance they are going to demonstrate in the difficulties of old age.
Part of the reason we don't pray day and night for particular individuals the way Paul does for Timothy, I think, is because we run out of material and keep saying the same things. We border on pain repetition, and we strain our flesh's need for novelty. But if we begin to grasp the comprehensive nature of God's care and God's work that He will finish, we will delight to pray longer and more specifically. If we run out of petitions, we might just ask for more.
(6) We might tap into a more urgwnt sense of necessary forgiveness. God cursed the land of Israel. When His leaders inquired why, David found out that his predecessor King Saul had harmed the Gibeonites who were under God's agent protection. As we become more accustomed to a clean conscience, we will be more responsive to the slightest twinge of responsibility to make things right, and find more place for holy fear as God pledges to protect those whom we have wronged.
(8) We mature into more of the sense that we are joining Jesus in persevering prayer. Christ is not just the Source of the answers that come at our best, we want for those we care most about. He is ever making intercession for them, Scripture says. As the woman in song of Solomon takes the invitation to be closer to the shepherd by going with him on his work of caring for his sheep, so we, as we tarry in prayer, here are the inflections of His voice and pay closer attention to His character in action.
(9) We are exalting God's Word. There is no measurable meter of the effectiveness of prayer. 20 minutes of it will not yield certain results as though we are fulfilling a contract or wearying God into complying with their wishes. Nevertheless, He is the One Who says the fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. When He declares us righteous, as Paul senses He has over himself and his ancestry, our effectiveness is tied in with the validity of Scripture. God will honor what He says.
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