When Christmas comes around each year, many of us give time, thought, energy and money to find the "perfect gift" for a loved one. It is, in fact, the thought, the time, the energy and the money expended that convey the love that is in our hearts - rather than the material things themselves. We want to convey through something valuable, visible and tangible the sentiments of our hearts that are not so easy to see. We want to give a gift that will be valued and will give pleasure to the one we love.
In our text this week, Paul is urging and pleading with the young pastor, Timothy, concerning something he wants to see in the church. Here, God reveals to us something we can give Him as as a fellowship that He will find valuable and pleasing - we can pray. And we do not have to wait for a certain season of the year to do this - we can offer this to God all year round!
Here is what Matthew Henry has to say about this passage:
"Here we may observe,
1. Christians are to be men much given to prayer: they ought to abound herein, and should use themselves to prayers, supplications, etc.
2. In our prayers we are to have a generous concern for others as well as for ourselves; we are to pray for all men, and to give thanks for all men; and must not confine our prayers nor thanksgiving to our own persons or families.
3. Prayer consists of various parts, of supplications, intercessions, and thanksgivings; for we must pray for the mercies we want, as well as be thankful for mercies already received; and we are to deprecate the judgments which our own sins or the sins of others have deserved.
4. All men, yea, kings themselves, and those who are in authority, are to be prayed for. They want our prayers, for they have many difficulties to encounter, many snares to which their exalted stations expose them.
5. In praying for our governors, we take the most likely course to lead a peaceable and quiet life. The Jews at Babylon were commanded to seek the peace of the city whither the Lord had caused them to be carried captives, and to pray to the Lord for it; for in the peace thereof they should have peace, Jer. 29:7.
6. If we would lead a peaceable and quiet life, we must live in all godliness and honesty; we must do our duty to God and man. He that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile; let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and pursue it, 1 Pt. 3:10, 11.
Now the reason he gives for this is because this is good in the sight of God our Saviour; that is, the gospel of Christ requires this. That which is acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour we should do, and should abound in."
So let's remember this in the coming week - through our prayers, offered through Christ and in the Spirit, we can do something in which God finds value, something which pleases Him! Shouldn't this knowledge help us overcome our hesitancy, lay our sloth on one side, put prayer at the top of our daily priorities? Shouldn't it encourage us to gather and to pray as Paul pleaded with Timothy that the saints in the fellowship of which he was pastor would do?
If we are looking for something to give to God that we know He will accept and will please Him this week, let it be our hearts, surrendered to Him in joyful sacrifice and our prayers, offered to Him in gladness and sincerity!