Week 3 - Praying for Humility

Hi Ladies,

When was the last time you heard a TV show or news reporter praise someone for their humility? In some ways it’s antithetical to the “self-made man” and the American dream. We’re taught (directly or indirectly) that we can achieve whatever we want if we just believe enough, work hard enough and don’t let anyone get in our way. 

Humility quickly fades into the background. 

But honestly, it’s not just modern America. Back when the Spirit inspired Paul to write all that he did about humility, the culture was not much different. In fact, we hardly find the Greek word in any secular writings of the time. The few times we do, it communicates something very negative. 

And yet, Scripture is clear that humility is foundational to the life of the believer. As imitators of Christ, we are to have His mind, who “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:5-8). And with this same mind, we are to consider others more significant than ourselves (v. 3). 

As we continue our focused prayer for our elders, it’s important that we pray for humility. While we are all called to this virtue, leaders can have an even greater challenge living it out. Perhaps this is why the Bible specifically addresses elders and humility several times. 

But before we look at those passages, I want to make sure we are all on the same page about what humility is. The Greek word is a compound word that means “lowliness of mind.” As C.S. Lewis so aptly wrote, 

Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call 'humble' nowadays: he will not be a sort of greasy, smarmy [insincere] person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is nobody.

Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him.

If you do dislike him it will be because you feel a little envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily. He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all. (Mere Christianity)

Biblical humility has its gaze on Christ. The more we know and love our Triune God, the more we want to please Him, so the more we study Him, learn Him, imitate Him, image Him…. (Abide!) 

And the more we focus on Him, the more accurately we see ourselves in light of who He is, leading to healthy humility. Do you see, just as we’ve seen how holiness and love go hand in hand, humility is joined as well?

Interestingly enough, our view of God and view of self have an inverse relationship. The higher our view of God grows, the lower our view of self becomes… not because we actually become more sinful, but because we more clearly see our sin in light of His perfections. As a result, our appreciation for Christ’s work on the cross grows as it spans the ever-increasing gap between who God is and who we are. This is biblical humility. (See a helpful image of this at the end.)

Now that we have this understanding in mind, I want to close with three passages that highlight the importance of our pastor/elders being men of humility. 

Paul wrote to two young men who were (among other things) training or establishing elders, and he highlighted this qualification in both letters. 

First, to Timothy he wrote: “He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil” (1 Tim. 3:6). 

Second, to Titus he wrote: “He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered” (Tit.1:7). 

By prohibiting both the young in the faith and the arrogant/quick-tempered, these two passages show the weightiness of the elder’s calling. Shepherding is spiritually demanding to say the least, and there is no room for pride. For the sake of Christ and His Bride the Church, Paul by the Spirit declares humility an essential qualification. 

Third, Acts 20 describes Paul’s humility toward the elders he had trained. He didn’t just require it; he lived it! I wish I had time to detail the significance of Paul’s calling these Ephesian elders to come see him, but you can read here for that. But here is Acts 20:17-22: 

“Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. And when they came to him, he said to them:
‘You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.’”

Paul’s humility was not weakness, as his description clearly demonstrates. It was an all-consuming passion to love and serve His Lord by passing on the glorious Gospel. 

Let’s pray for Pastor Jason and our other elders that their gaze would be fixed on Christ. 

And let’s pray that their view of Him would not be static but would continue to increase as they behold Him, so that their view of self would rightly decrease. 

And finally, let’s pray that as they model this to us, we in turn would live the same as we seek to know and spread the glorious Gospel of Christ!

❤️🙏🏼 

Anna 

Week 2 - Praying for Holiness

Hi Ladies,

Last week, I shared four character traits that we’ll focus our prayers on for Pastor Jason and our other elders this month. As we move from praying for love to praying for holiness, I hope you’ll see that they are not disconnected. In fact, I’d suggest that you can’t have one without the other. But let me show you from Scripture… not simply my own thoughts! 

Jesus told His disciples, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (Jn. 14:15). 

John, through the Spirit, brings this point home multiple times in his writings. Here are just a few:

“Whoever says ‘I know him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected” (1 Jn. 2:4-5).

“By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments” (1 Jn. 5:2-3).

Paul connects love and holiness as well. It’s easy to miss with the chapter break, but in Ephesians 4-5, Paul tells believers that they’ve already been taught in Christ “to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness….. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us” (Eph. 4:24, 5:1-2). 

Love and holiness go hand in hand. Positionally, we’re “holy and beloved” (Col. 3:12). But practically, we have to work hard by the Spirit to live this out…. Even our elders! (Titus 1:8) But the more we (they) know God and love Him, the more we want to do what pleases Him, and the more we image Christ.

An English Puritan named Thomas Watson famously said, “'Til sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet.” Who am I to mess with a Puritan… but I think it might be even more accurate to say the inverse: 'Til Christ be sweet, sin will not be bitter. In other words, holiness is not fundamentally about not doing bad things… or even about doing good things. It’s about being devoted to a Person - His words, His will, His way. The more we treasure Christ, the more we come to hate what He hates. Sin loses its appeal. As the song goes, “The things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”

Holiness also does not mean sinlessness. But for the elder/under-shepherd, it means a life that is devoted to the Great Shepherd. Nearly all of the biblical elder qualifications are about character, not skill or charisma. Because God takes this seriously, we should too - not holding it over their heads in critical judgment, but rather praying specifically and consistently that our elders would be known both by God and by others as holy, devoted men.

So this week, let’s pray that our elders would be holy men of God who are devoted to the Word and to prayer (Acts 6:4), so that they know and treasure Christ above everything else and model and lead us toward this same holiness, for His glory and the good of His Bride, the Church. ❤️🙏🏼

Anna

A Month of Prayer for our Pastor/Elder Team

Hi Ladies,

I like for us to take each October to pray specifically for Pastor Jason and the elders. Even though Pastor Appreciation Month is a modern invention, the concept of showing honor to whom honor is due is deeply rooted in Scripture: 

- “We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work” (1 Thess. 5:12-13).

- “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching” (1 Tim. 5:17).

- “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you” (Heb. 13:17). 

- Under the Old Covenant leadership structure, leaders were also to be respected (Ex. 22:28; Num.12:7-8; Deut. 4:1, 18:15). 

There are many things that we could pray for over the next month, but I have narrowed it down to four character traits. This list is certainly not comprehensive, nor is it meant to communicate that our elders are failing in these areas! These are simply the four qualities the Lord brought to mind as I prayed for His guidance on how best to pray for them this time around. So, for the next four weeks we will focus on praying for love, praying for holiness, praying for humility and praying for wisdom. 

First, a quick note about why we will not only pray for Pastor Jason, but also for our elders. The New Testament words for these spiritual leaders - presbuteros (elder), episkopos (overseer/bishop), and poimen (pastor/shepherd) - are all used for the same office (Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 5:2). While some elders are paid and tasked with the more formal role of preaching and teaching, and some are lay or non-vocational, all of them are elders who are accountable to the same list of qualifications given in Scripture (see 1 Tim. 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9). So while it is right and good to show extra appreciation to Pastor Jason this month, let’s not forget our other elders. 

Why begin with love? I believe there are several good reasons. First, Jesus does! When summing up the greatest commandment, He says, “‘And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mk. 12:30-31). This is true for all of us, but especially for our spiritual leaders.

Paul echoes this in 1 Corinthians 13 by saying that nothing good or spectacular or “spiritual” is worth anything if it is not rooted in love. No matter how good Pastor Jason is at preaching, no matter how good our elders are at overseeing the ministries, if their efforts do not flow from a heart that loves God and spills over in love for others, the Bible tells us it is spiritually meaningless. 

That is sobering.

Let’s pray that our elders would know, feel and act on the love that God has poured into their hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to them (Rom. 5:3). 

Second, sheep (a.k.a. you and me) can be hard to love. (Surely not you. It’s the other person. 😉) I don’t think I need to try to prove this point. Rather, I want to highlight that the Bible tells us over and over that love covers a multitude of sins and offenses (Prov. 10:12, 17:9; James 5:20; 1 Pet. 4:8). 

Let’s pray that the Lord would give our elders tender-loving hearts to overlook what needs to be overlooked and also to pastorally address what needs to be addressed. (And, it wouldn't hurt to pray that we would respond better than the average sheep!)

Third, ministry is really hard. Most of us have no idea how much weight Pastor Jason and our elders carry. The enemy would love to use these weights to harden their hearts in self-protection or cause them to become cynical toward God’s sanctifying work in the flock. Let’s pray that our elders would have Christ’s love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (1 Cor. 13:7).

Perhaps you can think of more reasons. But these three should be enough to motivate us to pray that the Lord would fill our elders’ hearts with love. And as you pray for them this week, consider ways the Lord might want you to act on these prayers and show your love and appreciation in tangible ways. 

Thank you for joining me in prayer for the leaders God has graciously given to us! 🙏🏼❤️

Anna

Ephesians 1:15-23, part 6 - Wrapping up with gifts

Hi Ladies,

As you have meditated on Paul’s prayer over these last weeks, you may have wondered where he stops praying and starts communicating directly to his readers again. That’s a great question, and it’s hard to tell. Paul seems to move in and out of prayer so seamlessly. Perhaps this is one way to apply “pray without ceasing” - speak, respond in prayer, speak, respond in prayer. What might it look like for us to model this in our own lives? 

Regardless of where the prayer ends, Paul’s thought continues through the end of this long, rich sentence that we have been reading the last five weeks, and we’re going to do that one final time: 

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all (Eph. 1:15-23). 

The fact that God has put all things under Christ’s feet is not simply a re-statement of what Paul has just stated before this. It’s also a quotation from the Old Testament. In Psalm 8, David is exalting the Lord and asking, “What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet” (Ps. 8:4-6). 

Although mankind was called to rule and have dominion over creation, we blew it (Gen. 1:28; 3:1-19). And the overarching story of Scripture is God’s sovereign plan to right the wrong through the gift of a perfect and obedient Man - the second Adam - His one and only Son, Jesus Christ. 

Paul knows this, and he quotes David’s statement twice in his writings. We’ve seen the first one in his prayer above, but look also at 1 Corinthians 15: “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For ‘God has put all things in subjection under his feet’” (vv. 21-27a).

Why does Paul speak of this subjection in both the “already” and the “not yet” sense? (Reread the bold sections if you missed it). This "already/not yet" dynamic is true of much of the Christian life on this side of the cross. What was inaugurated in Christ’s first coming will be consummated at His second coming. While we rightly live in this tension of the “already/not yet,” we can do so with confidence and purpose, as Paul explains as he wraps up his prayer:

“He put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” 

Not only has God put all things under Christ’s feet, but He has also gifted Him to us, the church, to be our Head - our Authority and Supplier and Sustainer! This is not a distant, authoritarian relationship. Spiritually speaking, we are intimately connected to this Head, just as our physical body is fully connected to our head. The head controls everything. 

Because of this connection, we have been called, equipped, and empowered to be Christ’s body to the world. Christ said that it was good that He go away for a time, but that He would send His Spirit to live within us, providing all we need until He returns to consummate our union with Him. We are just a “vapor” away from that day…. But for now, we have all we need to continue being the hands and feet of Jesus, spreading His fragrance, and seeking to fill this needy world with Him. 

What a gift!! What a responsibility!! As we conclude studying this incredible prayer, let’s not conclude our prayers from it. Rather, let’s pray for one another, that we would constantly grow in our understanding of, and our response to these amazing realities. May we treasure Christ our Head so much that every part of our lives is oriented around His loving authority. May we be so convinced - so filled with Him - that others can’t help but experience Christ in us! 

We’ve been given a mission, and we've been given all we need to obey it. But, we need Spiritual eyes to see and believe it.

Lord, may it be so for this dear family at Abingdon Bible Church. 🙏🏼❤️

Anna