For much of my Christian life, I have been struck with the phenomenon of spiritual revival: a time in which God’s Holy Spirit is palpable among His people. Revival results in total surrender, the conviction of sin, repentance, and Biblical love, like that of which we read in the Word of God, saturating the early church.
How do we experience this? What do I do to be a part of this?
One of the most arresting books on prayer that I have read described prayer as a practice and a lifestyle. This is a topic that I believed I understand already. Of course, there is a tremendous difference between knowledge and practice. As I ferociously ripped through this book, I ran across a sentiment that I can no longer run from. The author, in critiquing how Christianity is lived out in the west, strikingly and memorably penned, “we do not spend time in prayer, because it is inefficient.”
-Talk about a gut punch.-
Trust me when I say that I have done all I can to ignore this accusation. I point my fingers at others in self-righteousness. In false humility, I critique myself without the intention or the action steps to change. I push others to take prayer seriously because it is necessary. However, my view has not changed. Let me be as honest as I can be... I think prayer is inefficient.
Why continue to run from it? Prayer. Is. Inefficient.
Hopefully, you have gotten over how amazingly unspiritual I am (I agree), so let us move on. Instead of throwing the proverbial baby out with the bath water, we need to answer a few greater questions, like... who cares? What is efficiency? Since when has God called His people to submit our calling to the culture in which we have been dropped?
...who cares?
I do! I have. I do not want to anymore. In talking to a crowd of thousands, Jesus said, “...if anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23) How frequently we ignore this statement until it might make us look a little better. Jesus never told me to overload my schedule in order to fulfill this call. Jesus did not tell me to live in such a panic that no one could question my work ethic. Jesus did not tell me to ignore my wife, to become a martyr by missing sleep and pushing away (seemingly) meaningless conversations with those near me in order to carry my cross.
Jesus told me to die to this world, to die to my desires, to put away and banish my prerogatives. Jesus told me to leave anything and everything behind that is not for Him. Here is the horrifying irony: Jesus went on to ask, “For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself?” (Luke 9:25) Instead of living for God and bowing down to Him, I have chosen to re-categorize what the world wants with what Jesus wants from me!
We have been duped. Misled. Fooled. Call it what you want, we have been led to sin, submitting to another master. Is this not along the same lines of what Paul avidly fought against in Philippians 3? In referring to a group of false teachers in Philippi, he says, “For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies off the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. (Phil. 3:18-19) Keeping our feet moving is not the same thing as working for God. Sometimes it is a hindrance.
The Bible makes it very clear that the “lord” of this world is Satan (see 2 Cor. 4:4, Eph. 2:2, John 12:31, etc). Now, we also know that the enemy of God masquerades as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14), so what makes us think that he is going to solely try to kill and destroy in very obvious ways? Satan is cunning, sneaky, and smarter than any of the rest of us. It would not be advantageous for him to only operate in outlandish, Hollywood-style ways. Instead, the primary way that Satan tricks, lies, and deceives is by using the “kosmos.” This is the word that the Bible translates as a world system, and it describes the idea that Satan orchestrates the way the world operates in order to pull people further from God. The outcome of this plan can be an outright denial of God, obvious sinning, or even (and most likely) just distracting us from following God. This is why Corrie ten Boom could say, “If the devil can’t make you sin, he will make you busy…”
If we understand this correctly, we can recognize that Satan is just as happy seeing you make irreconcilably bad decisions as he is to watch you distract yourself with the progress at home and at work. Satan’s ultimate end is far more important to him than the means that he uses to employ it. For example, if he can get us to focus on sins of commission (the “do nots”) in order to dupe us into caring less about sins of omission (like choosing not to admonish a brother or sister in sin), his job has been done all the same. The lie of efficiency causes us to fall into sin that is just as serious as any other category of sin.
Daily we submit to this lie that being efficient is the calling card of godliness. Says who? And who cares?
John Hyde (known as “Praying Hyde”) was thought to be lazy by his fellow missionaries. Seemingly all that the poor man did was stay in his room day in and day out, crying to God for the souls of those around him. Partially deaf and struggling to learn the native language of Punjab, India, Hyde looked like a failure on all accounts. He went on to pray that the Lord would save a soul a day for a year. 400 people submitted themselves to Jesus. The next year, he prayed that the Lord would save two souls a day. 800 were added to the Kingdom. The following year, four souls a day. His battle cry was “give me souls, Oh God, or I die!” Praying Hyde’s life appeared thoroughly inefficient to those around him...who cares?
...what is efficiency?
Forgive me if it appears that I am throwing dirt on the Biblical work ethic; that is not my intention. I recognize that there are a number of Proverbs, several comments by the apostle Paul, and a number of statements by our Savior Himself in regard to work and laziness. We are called to do all that we do as if we are working for our God; those that do not work are not supposed to be fed; talk alone leads to poverty. What I am critiquing is not working hard. What I am opposed to is the lie that efficiency and production mean that our work is more meaningful and pleasing to God.
Let me put it this way: stress does not make you spiritual. Efficiency says that for every minute on the clock, the output of tasks, responsibilities, and products must increase. If my calendar has no blank spots, if my phone has no unreturned calls, if my social media status is up to date then I have done well. Ask yourself, does that sound more like a Godly work ethic, or a schematic way to keep our feet moving without addressing the bigger issue? In pleading to the Thessalonians, Paul spares no punches toward those that were not working, but he also reminded them not to walk as “busybodies.”
As Christians, we live to bring glory and praise to the Name of the One True God. We want to see Him lifted up; we wish to see Him as the ultimate answer for truth and satisfaction. Why, then, do we so frequently walk like the world, with our checklist under our arms and our feet bolting in different directions without conscientious submission and prayer?
We have been lied to. Efficiency is nothing.
Do not stop working, but recognize who it is for. If you cannot recognize who it is for which you are working, what is the point of the work? Eternal life is not resting amongst the things we have earned or playing with the toys we have bought. “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.” (John 17:3)
Provide for those whom God has entrusted to you, but do not submit yourself to your work. Submit yourself to the One who has made you. Surrender your life, not to your calendar, your meetings, or your “holy” checklist. Instead, surrender your life to the One who knows your every need. Quit chasing after efficiency; quit chasing after busyness. Chase after the King of kings, who simply asks us to kneel before Him and share His love with others.
Remember that the final call that Jesus made to His disciples was not, “work no less than 40—hour weeks so that you can do my will.” What He said was “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20).
Do you know Him? Do those around you know Him? Spend hours in His Word. Spend nights in prayer. Spend days loving others, even when it means nothing productive will come of it.
Be inefficient.