David Jackman

Problems in prayer—and possible solutions

~ Nelima ~ 3 Comments

I really need to follow the advice in this post. I hope it’s helpful to someone else as well.

Prayerlessness

  • Plan to pray. No one drifts effortlessly into disciplined prayer.
  • Repent of disobedience and unmortified sin. We don’t have to be perfect to approach God, just repentant.

Wandering thoughts

Isn’t it strange that at prayer time your memory suddenly comes alive and you recall all things you need to do and haven’t done?

  • Have a notepad or something similar where you can write down all the things you remember you need to do. Attend to the list after you’ve finished praying.
  • Pray aloud if that helps keep your mind concentrated.
  • Pray the Scriptures. As you read a Bible passage, you can turn the truths therein into prayers. Alternatively, you could adopt biblical prayers as models

Spiritual dryness

There are times when God seems so distant and prayer feels like a futile exercise.

  • Expect periods of dryness to happen.
  • Go on faithfully praying, pouring out your condition before God

Unanswered prayer

  • Read Psalm 77: the psalmist starts out dismayed and ends in worship. Why? Because he reminded himself of all the things God had done in the past for His people (Psalm 77:10-12).

Prayer is a routine and a rut

  • Don’t focus on your performance; focus on God and your relationship

Too tired to pray

  • Schedule prayer time for when you’re at your maximum energy level
  • You may need to get more organised and/or get more sleep

Sources: David Jackman’s talk Problems in Prayer and chapter one of Don Carson’s book A Call to Spiritual Reformation.

How to inherit eternal life

~ Nelima

These are my notes on a sermon on Luke 18:18-30 (the story of the rich young ruler) by David Jackman (length 28:32). The sermon is an oldie-but-goodie from the City Lunchtime Talks initiative, in which churches in London seek to evangelise the thousands of workers in the city.

Jesus taught in parables in order to challenge wrong ways of thinking. Two questions in this passage (verses 18 and 26) reveal misconceptions held by the rich ruler and the disciples.

A direct translation of the rich man’s question would be, “What having done shall I be sure to inherit eternal life?”

The first misconception is that you can do something to inherit. Either you are an heir or someone chooses you.

In order to inherit eternal life, it’s not what you do but who Jesus is.

Having heard Jesus’ parable on camels and needles, the people are perplexed. Their reasoning may have gone something like this: Rich people can do lots of good with their money; if anyone deserves to enter God’s kingdom, it’s them. If they can’t, then who can?

The second misconception is that it’s what you have that matters.

It’s not what you have that saves you, but what God gives.

Jesus says that salvation is God’s gift, not man’s achievement (verse 27). Only God can produce the supernatural change that results in submission to Christ.

Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
–Luke 18:35

Countless explanations have been given to try to make sense of what Jesus was saying. If you were to change one vowel in the Greek, you’d go from camelon (camel) to camilon (thick rope). Having a sufficiently large needle, you could thread a camilon. Or, the more common explanation of the Eye of the Needle gate in Jerusalem which required unloading camels and having them enter on all fours. No evidence has been found for the existence of such a gate.

Rather, Jesus was going for the ridiculous. Just as it is impossible for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, no sinner can enter the kingdom apart of God’s grace.

There’s no way I can save myself. Eternal life can only be received through the impossible working of God.