Laboring to Enter Into Rest: Always Laboring Fervantly

The last few posts were spent examining the actual intensity of the schedule of an intercessory missionary. The conclusion being that even a very committed intercessory missionary has ample time for leisure and rest. Almost 40% of their time being spent either sleeping (rest) or other engaged in personal activities which could not be constituted as ‘work.’

There is another key question though: Is prayer actually a form of work? And if so, what is the nature of that work?

Anyone who has spent more than ten minutes a day trying to pray will tell you that time in prayer can feel like work – but what does the Bible say? Does God classify prayer as a form of work? Finally, if prayer is work, do we actually need to take a rest from prayer at times? The first question will be addressed in this post; other posts will begin to dig deeper into the very heart and nature of prayer, leisure, and work – using Josef Pieper’s Leisure the Basis of Culture as a sort of guide on this journey.

Colossians 4:12 concretely addresses whether prayer can be rightly called work, it says: “Epaphras…a bondservant of Christ, greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.”

Some Bible translations translate the Greek word ‘labor’ here more literally as ‘wrestle’. Paul seems to be recalling and hinting back at his exhortation in the first chapter of Colossians where he says, “[Jesus] we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.” (Col 1:28,29)

The word ‘striving’ or ‘wrestling’ used in these verses is the same; and there is also a common theme of presenting the Colossian church as a gift to Jesus.

The word labor here implies actual pain because of an exertion of strength. Now, obviously, in Epaphras’ situation he was not principally wrestling against a human opponant or exerting physical effort – but there is a clear assertion is that it cost him real strength in order to pray for the Colossians.

This stands as a clear New Testament example of prayer being likened to work or labor. This passage is specifically highlights intercession as a valid form of labor for believers. Certainly, other passages from the New Testament could be examined to illustrate that there is an actual labor and effort associated with prayer (Rom 8:23 comes to mind); but these verses in Colossians illustrate the basic premise of of ‘prayer as labor’ concisely enough to get started.

Next: The question of what God calls true rest and what God calls true work.

 

 

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