Prayer, Decision-Making, and Bearing Fruit
Making the best decision leads to the fruit of righteousness.
This links back to Jesus saying that it is when we abide in Him that we bear much fruit (John 15:5). Therefore, any decision we make that enhances our abiding in Christ is the way to go.
However, as Paul has demonstrated, it requires prayer to achieve this. If we are too busy to pray, that means we are too busy to abide. Then we should bid farewell to bearing fruit.
However, sometimes it depends on what we say in prayer. When we limit our asking to what is within our reach, we are limited. That is why the prayers of Paul that we can glean from his epistles are important.
One thing you will notice about them is that they are prayers that do not have an endpoint. And they lack specificity, which means the answer to the prayer in the life of individuals is distinct.
Those prayers also reflect God’s desire. Those are prayer foci that are clearly from revelation.
If Paul did not write them down, we would not even know them. But God providentially makes them available, not for us to look at them and admire them, but
- for us to take them as the word of God
- to think of them as the aim that God has for us on this earth, as we have become Christians
- to think of them as something to continually draw us into the presence of God and not rest on our laurels
- for us to continue with a sense of neediness
And they are filled with spiritual things, elevating us from mundane prayers for things of this world.
Those prayers are full of eternal values, things that God values rather than what men value.
The prayers themselves drive us to be dead to the desires of this world.
They are reflective of the mind of God:
- Things above rather than things on the earth (Colossians 3:1)
- Things reserved for the children of God, rather than more general things, that all humans also benefit from Him.
- Things that have to do with the supply of the Spirit of God in the new creature.
- Things that count when we appear before the judgment seat of Christ
- Things that multiply our impact on the earth for Christ’s sake, as the parable of the talents shows (Matthew 25:14-30)
- Things that may not be registering on the Richter scale of this world, but of heaven.
- Things that do not reflect the love of the world, rather the love of the Father (1 John 2:15-17)
- Things that are echoes of the prayer of Solomon for wisdom so that he could make the best decision, which God praised and rewarded him for not asking for the common things of the earth (1 Kings 3:5-14)
The prayers are also messages in their own right.
The prayer that has been recited for the last two verses up to now reveals that the people could benefit from more knowledge and insight, not in isolation, but rather, to help them make the right decision.
And one thing is clear: once you make the best decision today, that will not be the end of the need for decision-making.
You still have to make decisions tomorrow, and decisions have a compounding effect.
This prayer also highlights the primary role of love as a motivating factor. That love, however, does not stand alone.
Faith, hope, and love abide (1 Corinthians 13:13); therefore, it’s not just about love.
God loves the world, but it is not the end of it. You must also express faith in God, who gives us the gift of faith (Ephesians 2:8-9), and we hold on to the hope of eternal life in His Son, Jesus Christ (Titus 1:2). Love and hope reinforce each other (Romans 5:5).
And there is something here that is important, which is the fruit.
When a tree bears fruit, it is not bearing the fruit for itself.
Fruit is our life's positive influence.
God does not want his work to end with us, but to flow through us in influence to others.
And what that looks like is different from person to person. It is written, we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10).
And we are supposed to lay aside every weight and the sin that easily besets us and run with patience the race set before us (Hebrews 12:1).
We are supposed to, like Paul, lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of us (Philippians 3:12).
Those prayers give us a pointer on how to get from where we are to where God wants us to be.
