Keeping our Hearts unto Prayer, Part 8 (Praying with an Eye to Eternity)

Flavel's final exhortation to Christians regarding our duty to pray is to "consider what influence these have unto eternity."

He goes on to write:

These are your seed-times, and what you sow in your duties in this world, you must look to reap the fruit of it in another world, Ga. vi. 7, 8. If you sow to the flesh, of that you shall reap corruption; but if to the Spirit, life everlasting. O my soul, answer seriously, wouldst thou be willing to reap the fruit of vanity in the world to come? Darest thou say, when thy thoughts are roving to the ends of the earth in duty [prayer], when thou scarce mindset what thou sayest or hearest; now, Lord, I am sowing to the Spirit; now i am providing and laying up for eternity, now I am seeking for glory, honour and immortality; now I am striving to enter in at the straight gate; now I am taking the kingdom of heaven by an holy violence? O such consideration as this should make the multitudes of vain thoughts that press in upon thy heart in [prayer], fly seven ways before it.

It has been foolishly and erroneously preached from many a pulpit that there are Christians who are so heavenly minded that they are of no earthly good. 

Flavel, and more importantly, the Bible, would strongly disagree. In fact, the opposite is true: many Christians are of no heavenly good because they are so earthly-minded.

Solomon himself says, "The discerning [person] sets his face towards wisdom, but the eye of a fool are on the ends of the earth" (Proverbs 17:24), and the apostle Paul exhorts those who "have been raised with Christ" to "keep seeking the things that are above" and "keep thinking about things above, not things of the earth" (Colossians 3:1-2, NET).

In the movie "Gladiator", there is an epic scene at the beginning of the movie where the Roman army is squaring off against the Barbarians. Maximus, the leading general of the army, concludes his exhortation to his troops with a truth that is repeated throughout Scripture: "What we do in life, echoes through eternity."

Dear believer, never forget eternity before you pray, when you pray, and after you pray! 

In Christ, and for His glory to the ends of the earth,
pastor ryan