But withal prepare me also a lodging, for I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you. Philemon 22
Several years ago, shortly after the iron grip of communism was dropped from most of the eastern European countries, a group of mostly young Christians from England made plans for a weekend expedition to one of those countries. Their plans were to spend the weekend distributing Bibles and other literature. But when they reached the border crossing point, the border officials threw up a bureaucratic stop sign. It would take several days, they insisted, to examine the materials loaded into the vans to make sure it was appropriate to bring into the country. So the vans were parked and the Christians started to pray. One of the leaders of the group sent out an email message on the GH forum, explaining the situation and urging others to join in praying for the materials to be released in time for them to be distributed. I recall opening the email message and bowing my head to join in the prayers for the need. But instead of praying, I began thanking God for answering prayer, because I had an overwhelming assurance that the issue had already been resolved. And so it had. The leader sent a second email message within a short time, telling of how, because of our prayers, God had miraculously worked in causing the border officials to release the materials for distribution. God truly does answer prayer. But do we expect Him to?
Our text provides a beautiful illustration of the power of prayer. Imprisoned in Rome, Paul plans to go to Colosse to visit his dear old friend Philemon. But instead of asking for Philemon’s prayers for his release, Paul assures Philemon that he has utmost confidence in the value of Philemon’s prayers. So much confidence, in fact, that he reminds Philemon to get the spare bedroom ready for him. Why are we amazed at such confidence on the part of Paul? Is our amazement at Paul’s confidence in Philemon, or at his confidence in God? Probably both. We forget that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much (James 5:16). That expression ‘availeth much’ means much more than the ‘has great power’ that we find in most of the modern versions of the Bible. It means that the prayers not only have great power but that they also accomplish their purpose. If you and I truly believed that, we would be much more on our knees in prayer for those things that are upon our hearts.
Paul was a great prayer warrior. And he knew that Philemon was, too. And with our text today, he provides you and me with encouragement to pursue our prayers with greater fervency, greater expectation, and greater frequency. We know that God CAN answer our prayers. Let us lay hold on the confidence that He WILL answer our prayers. -Jim MacIntosh