“The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers. Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.”
1 Peter 4:7&8
The word disciplined in the above verse means calm, circumspect, or alert. Some translations of the Bible use the word sober. Why would Peter say we must be alert, calm, circumspect, and sober in our prayers? And how do we do it?
For me, prayer has been the hardest of the spiritual disciplines.
Partly, my mind wanders toward my to-do list for the day. You see, I am a “doer.” Part of the struggle, if I am being completely transparent, is that my trust in God’s sovereignty is so great that the urgency of prayer shrinks. You know the thought; God has it all anyway. What will my prayer do? Of course, we both know that this is truly an excuse for being lazy about prayer. God calls us to pray, and over and over in Scripture, we see what a difference prayer makes.
I am learning this lesson; prayer matters and is always a good use of time!
I have been thinking about why Peter gives us the directive to pray with disciplined alertness. Take a look at what direction Peter spells out for us in the very next verse. “Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.” Peter moves swiftly from earnest and alert prayer to love, which covers a whole lot of sin.
Peter implores us to keep fervent in our love for one another. Fervent here means to stretch or strain. So, our love for one another isn’t going to be easy- it will require some stretching and straining to accomplish this directive to love.
Wow! Okay, so what we know from all of this is that we must pray calmly, circumspectly, and with disciplined alertness BECAUSE LOVING IS GOING TO BE HARD sometimes!
How hard, you might ask? Hard enough that the love we extend will cover a MULTITUDE of SINS. How many sins? A multitude! I am not sure what a multitude looks like but we can assume it is a whole lot of sin.
Isn’t this exactly the love God had for us when he sent us his Son? Didn’t Jesus have to stretch out his arms of love to be nailed to that cross, isn’t this the best definition of stretching love?
So, the question for us is this, is there someone that God is asking us to stretch and strain in love toward right now? And if he is, Peter tells us that the way to do this is to be disciplined and alert in prayer first. Alertness in prayer MAKES IT POSSIBLE for us to have a deep, deep love that is like God’s love for us- a love that covers an ENTIRE MULTITUDE OF SIN.
So, who is God putting on your mind right now? Might it be time to get earnest in prayer?
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Anne Farnum 