-A CALL TO SPIRITUAL REFORMATION- BY DA CARSON

"What a man is alone on his knees before God, that he is, and no more". –M’Cheyne

Sometimes in Scripture an aspect of the Christian life is seen as so central, that the biblical authors saw explicit command as unnecessary. An example of this would be the importance of the local church. There are very few places where a New Testament author says explicitly, “Join a church and attend that church every week. This is important.” What we do see is the overwhelming assumption of the New Testament authors that every Christian will be involved in a local expression of the body of Christ. Prayer is much the same way. There are several explicit commands to pray, but more than that, we see Christ, Paul, and others in the Bible simply assuming that Christians WILL pray—a much stronger argument than a few proof-texts. Prayer is important, thus a good book on prayer is a helpful book for a Christian to read.

There are few authors who have been as spiritually useful in preaching, writing, speaking, and teaching as D. A. Carson. He is as consistently careful in his writing as he is prolific (authoring or editing over 45 books). Time and time again, in a sea of sloppy, novel and unbiblical ‘Christian’ books, I find myself commending not only single volumes by Carson, but Carson himself. Trust this man! He has clearly articulated the Gospel over and over again. The Bible is his sole authority. And his teaching is accompanied by a life that has borne much fruit (the type of teacher Christ tells His disciples to trust).

His book, A Call to Spiritual Reformation, contains no pithy acronyms or cute illustration-centered chapter titles. It doesn’t furnish me with a long list of killer quotes, or clever new ideas. The power of this book lies in its simply systematizing what the New Testament epistles teach us about prayer. Carson has single-handedly changed the way I pray—that is, how I think about prayer and what I pray for. By pointing to the Apostle Paul, he has helped me to make three crucial category shifts:

1. Individual to corporate

I bet 90% of my prayers before reading this book were egocentric. These prayers weren’t categorically bad—Paul prayed for himself, as did Jesus. But the model we’re given in the New Testament epistles for prayer is radically other-centered. Therefore, Carson says, “If in our prayers we are to develop a mental framework analogous to Paul’s, we must look for signs of grace in the lives of other Christians, and give God thanks for them.” Paul was constantly praising the Lord for and interceding for his brothers and sisters through prayer. This is one big reason why we have a member directory at Sojourn. The design is that we would work through that directory page-by-page, praying for our brothers and sisters in Christ. Carson’s book taught me how to pray biblical prayers for these brothers and sisters.

2. Material/physical to spiritual

Most believers have experienced some sort of prayer meeting when the majority of the time is taken up by requests for so and so’s grandmother’s surgery next week, etc. Not a bad request. Bad if that is the steady diet of a prayer meeting. When Paul encounters churches facing intense physical challenges: persecution, famine, etc., he doesn’t pray for what we might—deliverance from these enemies and good health—material and physical concerns. Rather, he prays that they would, “have growing faith” and “increasing love”, be “holy and blameless before the Lord at Christ’s coming”, and “filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding”, “bear fruit in every good work”, and “grow in the knowledge of God”. Paul’s words echo the teachings of Jesus: “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28) As followers of Jesus, we adopt his teaching that the most important and vital battles are happening not in the physical world, but in the spiritual. This book taught me how to pray in light of that fact.

3. Temporal and temporary (the here and now) to Future and final

It’s natural to be affixed on what’s right in front of you without much of a future perspective. We think about our present situation to the detriment of the future. The phenomenon of credit card debt alone furnishes us with proof of this tendency in sinful men and women. But Christianity doesn’t offer us our full hope here and now. We’re waiting for something. Paul says that he longs to “strike the tent” and go home—he’s merely camping in the wilderness of this world (Philippians). Our faith is built on the truth that we are hoping and waiting towards a future event. Carson says, “Can biblical spirituality long survive where Christians are not oriented to the world to come? And, in this context, can we expect to pray aright unless we are oriented to the world to come?” And we shouldn’t forget that the Bible ends on just this note: “Come Lord Jesus!” A Call To Spiritual Reformation has reminded me of these truths and given me a model of prayer that aims towards the future and final.