We are continuing in our study of prayer as part of the PPOG or the Predestination provided by God for the believer in eternity past for the purpose of determining just how and what we should pray for as we function in his plan for our lives.
At the moment we are examining Paul's prayers, and we have seen in our study of his prayers in Eph 1:18; Eph 3:14; Phil 1:3; and Col 1:9; that the focus of his prayer was for believers to appropriate by Grace the spiritual resources that God has provided and from that Grace provision, be enlightened, enabled and empowered to advance by Grace and through Faith in God's predetermined plan.
We are continuing in our examination of Paul's prayer for Timothy who was a pastor-teacher in 1Tim 1:2; Last time we continued our discussion of the Peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord that Paul was praying for Timothy to experience.
We saw that the emphasis of this peace translated from the Greek word "eirene" is placed on spiritual prosperity, which provides capacity for temporal prosperity, and God also provides the mature believer who has this spiritual peace with temporal prosperity according to their capacity in his way and his timing, Prov 8:18; Psa 23:5-6.
This peace of God provides mental stability.
Mental stability is a key issue in the spiritual life, for spirituality is a mental attitude produced by the filling of the Holy Spirit and the application of Bible doctrine that has been learned and metabolized which results in the believer living inside the PPOG. 2Tim 1:7;
Mental stability is the ability to have the thinking of TLJC through the PMA of Bible Doctrine and from that have divine viewpoint when under pressure, which results in confidence in God and is manifested as courage toward people and circumstances.
This is the ability to make correct and accurate application of metabolized Bible Doctrine in time of testing. It is the spiritual ability to pass thought testing as a category of momentum testing.
Prov 19:8; NET (see notes)"He who gets wisdom (metabolized Doctrine) loves his own soul (spiritual self-esteem) he who keeps or cherishes understanding will find good (prosperity)."
Phil 4:7;b, The word translated "guard" is the Greek word " phroureo", which we have seen recently that means to protect by a military guard, either in order to prevent hostile invasion, or to keep the inhabitants of a besieged city from flight.
It comes to mean to mount a guard, to garrison or to patrol. The peace of God guards or garrisons the believer's Frame of Reference, the conceptual structure in the soul where doctrines, principles, and categories of Scripture are related.
Paul is praying for this peace of God which will guard Timothy's "heart and mind" translated from the Greek words "kardia"and "nous", referring to both lobes of the soul where Bible Doctrine received as "gnosis", metabolized and circulated as "epignosis" and applied as wisdom or "sophia"
This peace with God that is established through Christ's work on the cross would contribute serenity to Timothy during the varying experiences in the ups and downs of his of ministry.
Timothy could experience the answer to Paul's prayer by having poise under pressure because he understood that his in irrevocable position in union with TLJC all was well, and he could be at ease, and not be disturbed no matter what happened.
This peace Paul prayed for him to have would also become the basis for his own capacity for prayer from a "pure heart" 2Tim 2:22;b Remember the only prayer that God hears apart from a "pure heart" is the prayer that acknowledges known sin 1John 1:9;
If the believer has unacknowledged Sin, God does not hear their prayer. Isa 59:2;NET note 3 Psa 66:18;NET
1Tim 1:2d; The source of this Grace, Mercy and Peace is God the Father and TLJC
These Grace benefits that Paul is praying for Timothy to receive are requested from God the Father and are provided because of TLJC.
As we have seen Paul had previously interceded for the believers at Ephesus Eph 1:15-23; Eph 3:14-21; He is now interceding for Timothy who is their pastor.
He prays to the one God and he has access to God the Father because of TLJC the one mediator between God and men 1Tim. 2:5;
1Tim 1:2; The Word order Paul uses is “God the Father" followed by "Christ," "Jesus." Our Lord.
He directs his intercession to God the Father and along with Him Christ, the anointed one, the Messiah Psa 2:6-8; Dan 9:25; who is "Jesus", His human name means and designates Him as "Saviour." Matt 1:21; Net Note 18
Jesus Christ, "our Lord," the Sovereign one has received all authority in heaven and on earth Matt 28:18; and in whose name that Paul functioning as apostle to the Gentiles. Matt 28:19-20; 1Tim 2:7-8; and who makes intercession for us at the right hand of the father. Heb 4:14-16; Heb 7:24-25;
Paul later refers to, Christ Jesus our Lord as "the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords; who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light to Him be honor and eternal dominion" 1Tim 6:15-16;
By describing TLJC as "Our Lord" Paul accents the personal possession that Christ Jesus is for those who "believe in Him for eternal life" 1Tim 1:16;
God the Father is "ours" as well, a reality that Christ Jesus Himself had taught His disciples to claim when they prayed the millennial prayer and addressed God the Father as "Our Father" Matt 6:9;a
Some principles that we can derive from Paul’s intercession for Timothy in this passage.
As Paul did with Timothy, it is good to intercede for someone that our personal ministry has helped and who as a member of the Royal Family of God and fellow servant in the church, the Body of TLJC.
It is important to pray for spiritual blessings from God that will empower those we pray for in their advance in the spiritual life. Often believers pray for all kinds of temporal concerns for others, without explicitly requesting the crucial spiritual benefits such as grace, mercy and peace.
Remember, for believers, temporal prosperity follows spiritual capacity and temporal prosperity without spiritual capacity becomes a curse.
Paul provides us a model for our prayer because he makes these spiritual blessings the priority of his intercession. Without Grace, Mercy and Peace all of the other temporal blessings one can have cannot be appreciated.
It useful to pray thinking of the blessings of God as personally coming from the Father and from Christ and to think of them as Persons and not simply as impersonal sources of good things. James 1:17;
Believers are related to their Savior 1Tim 1:1;"God our Savior", God is not simply a great Reservoir; He is the Father, not just a never failing source of provision; we pray to him personally, as "God the Father" not to an abstract source of blessing.
In Prayer, think of God as being a personal God who has already demonstrated his infinite love for us. Rom 5:8; Rom 8:32;
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We will now consider an example of Jesus' own prayer that is described in Heb 5:7-10; that is a good model for how believers can pray.
This example is part of a series of arguments about the superiority of His priesthood as compared with the Levitical priesthood that was inaugurated by Aaron. Heb 4:14;
His prayer fits into the context of TLJC being the believers' great high priest Heb 4:14-16; with His priesthood being established after the order of Melchizedek
This superior priesthood is introduced after a discussion of the Levitical priesthood that God had set up in Israel and which gave the Old Testament priests the honored role of representing Israel to God
It is in the discussion of the greater priesthood that he gave to His Son Heb 5:4-6; where His prayer comes view.
Heb 5:7a; Just as TLJC did "in the days of his flesh", believers also pray "in the days of their flesh", they often pray intensely, they look to God and have the same spiritual life that he pioneered.
Believers also gain His audience in their prayers, are sons who learn obedience from things they suffer, and are in the process of growing and maturing and being completed in God's PPOG for their life.