Last week during our
church prayer meeting, whilst we were supposed to be all praying, I was
thinking...thinking about how I can more accurately pray for our church, when
suddenly I had a new, old revelation, I guess you could call it a re-revelation!
It is obviously a lesson I keep needing to re-learn as I never seem to learn it
for long enough. My mind jumped to Ephesians 5:25-27, “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself
up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of
water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in
splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy
and without blemish.”
Here Paul speaks of how the Church is the bride of Christ, and tells us of a
day when both Christ and His Church shall be gloriously brought together, never
to be separated again.
This set my mind off in an interesting direction, I began to think
about my wedding day and how I felt when I saw my beautiful bride enter into
the church and make her way to me. She was, and still is, truly beautiful, her
wedding dress sparkled, her face was radiant, what a sight! I remembered how
much time I had spent praying for our wedding day, praying for our future marriage
and our family, I prayed with such fervency, affection, I could think only good
thoughts and pray for only good things. Even now as I think of my wife and our
two children, I can only think good thoughts and praise God for them, I can
only pray in a positive direction for them, I have such a deep affection for
them, I pray for them with earnestness, I pray with tears of repentance over my
ill-treatment of them and my lack of grace, I pray that God would lead them
closer to Christ despite my often poor example, I plead for the salvation of my
children and pray for God to exercise His divine power to graciously protect my children, even though they are sinners that are yet to come to Christ.
As my mind was racing through all these thoughts, there was a sudden,
sharp prick in my conscience; one of those unpleasant pains that you
immediately know is going to lead to conviction, sorrow, confession and
repentance. It was as though the Lord was saying to me, “You are sitting here
thinking about your wife and family with such joy in your heart, able to think
only good about them and pray to me asking me to work for their constant good,
but why do you so often feel the opposite about the Bride of my Son, about my
children, why do you seldom pray for them with the same intent?”
What came home to me was that if I want to pray accurately for the
Church, then I need to start thinking accurately about the Church. I am so
often critical of other churches, of my church, and especially of those members
who I am convinced are designed for the further sanctification of their pastor!
Now at this present moment I am just starting out in a new church, and thus I
am yet to discover who these blessed members are, and I am still enjoying the
honeymoon phase, all things are going full steam ahead and there is so much
exciting progress, development and potential. So it is easy for me to think
only good and pray good for the church, but I do know my own heart and
condition, it will be only a matter of time before I degrade into my state of
being overly critical and having a lack of grace and patience.
The Church is not perfect, yet; hmm...what a glorious thought that is
it is not perfect yet, one day it will be! The Church, however, with all its
current imperfections is still the Bride of Christ, and its members are the
children of the Father. When God the Son looks upon His Church, He sees it as
His beautiful bride, longing and looking forward to that great wedding day.
When God the Father looks upon the Church, He sees His children, whom He dearly
loves and has reserved eternity for them. They have an intensity of love that
is unfathomable, they long to see its progress, growth in grace and holiness,
and while this is a hard truth for us to grasp, they also both take joy and
delight in the Church, this gathering together of sinners saved by grace, in
fact they are glorified when we gather together! But now I have to speak to
myself, in fact I need to challenge myself with this every time I stand before
the church to minister, or visit individual members, that I am looking at
Christ’s bride, and at the Father’s children. Do I then have the right to
complain against them, to pray for God to edify the church by removing those
members who sanctify me most? Do I have the right to look at the church and
resent them for their lack of growth, failure to change at the rate I want them
to change, or unwillingness to serve and work in the church to the level I want
them to, to criticise and lament their shortcomings?
I guess the crucial question is which heart, mind and attitude needs
to be dealt with most, mine as the pastor, or the church members? The answer is
both, but it is not my work as the pastor to do this changing work in the
hearts, minds and attitudes of the members, that work can only be done by God
through His Spirit. Yes, I must boldly, without shame, fear or compromise
preach and teach the fullness of Scripture, I must lead them in godliness, and
set them example for them in all things. But I must do all this in faith, praying
and trusting that God will then in His grace work through this all to produce change,
and to then be patient as God works their hearts in accordance to His sovereign
will. I am, however, responsible for my own heart, mind and attitude, and right
now God is graciously prompting me through His Spirit to start thinking again
more accurately about His Church. To think about it, to look at it, to feel
about it, to pray for it, to love it, to treat it, to speak of it, the way in
which He does.
The Church is the beautiful, radiant bride of Christ, whom he died to
saved, whom He sanctifies daily through the Holy Spirit, and one day He shall
come in splendour to gather her, and by His grace and power she will be pure,
radiant, without spot or blemish. The members of the church, they are also the
beloved children of the Father, the apple of His eye, to whom He will one day
say, “Well
done, good and faithful servant... Enter into the joy of your master”!
Oh, Lord much grace is needed in this proud, stubborn, hard heart of
mine, to look at and love the Church as You do!
Allow me to end by asking you, how do you think about and pray for the Church and for your local church?
