1Pe 4:7 The end of all things is at hand; therefore
be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.
This is an interesting verse in its motivation of prayer to
be self-controlled and sober-minded. We
probably would think that we should exercise self-control and sober-mindedness
in order to be godly and effective in service or to save ourselves from fleshly
addictions and so on. But here Peter
exhorts us to be vigilant for the sake of our prayers.
I see two ways to take this.
He could mean that we need to be careful to be godly so that our prayers
will be heard. This would be in keeping
with chapter 3:7 where he tells husbands to live in an understanding way with
their wives so their prayers are not hindered.
This is assumed to mean that God won’t answer your prayers if you are
living in known sin especially in your relationship with your wife. I think there is something to be said about
this interpretation but there also might be more here than just having our
prayers heard; especially in the text above.
Perhaps Peter is thinking back to the night of Jesus’
betrayal when instead of praying he and the other disciples slept. It is clear from the Gospel accounts that the
disciples had no clue as to what Jesus was about to face in his cross work. It is also clear that Peter was overconfident
in the flesh as seen in his encounter with the girl where he ended up denying Jesus
three times. He does this after
promising the Lord that he would never deny him.
So as they enter the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus asks them
to pray with him but they are not being vigilant, sober-minded, and
self-controlled because they are not aware of the danger they and the Lord were
in. They are overcome with the flesh as
they grow weary and instead of praying they pamper the body with sleep. There is nothing wrong with sleep, of course,
but in this case prayer and the sustaining power of God both in their lives and
their Master’s was much more needed.
So perhaps the point Peter is making in 4:7 is not to be
diligent in godliness so that God will answer our prayers but more so that we
will recognize how important praying is and be vigilant to pray often. Too often we look at prayer as the last
resort; “When all else fails, pray!” But
I think we are better off to be proactive and always be praying and anticipating
our needs rather than walking through life unaware of the enemies of the flesh
and our souls. Had the disciples not
been “intoxicated” with a kingdom in which they had positions of honor over
their enemies and had they been more in tune with the will of Jesus they would
have realized how important prayer was that fateful night. Instead they run; they deny; they fear and
the only thing that gets them through all this was that Jesus prays for them
that their faith will not fail.
Peter’s point then could be that we have to see life as it
really is; to have a biblical worldview.
God uses our payers to keep us dependent on him and his Word. We are told to prayer constantly, 1Th 5:17
pray without ceasing, because we are dependent on the Lord at all
times for everything. When we have the
mindset that God just wants me to be happy and have ease and health and things, we will not have any real need to pray and seek God’s face, his help and his
will. At best our prayers will be a
quick prayer at meal time because we have no real sense of our need for his
power.
Part of godliness and successful service is having an
attitude of prayer. It isn’t a last
resort, it is how God sends his power and blessings to us so we can be
effective for him. If we aren’t vigilant
and spiritually minded, we will not be effective and constant prayers. In fact, we might not pray much at all.
