Prayer 120125
A man was in a bit of trouble while flying his little plane. He called the control tower and said, “Pilot to tower, Pilot to tower, I’m 300 miles from the airport, six hundred feet above the ground, and out of fuel. I am descending rapidly. Please advise. Over.” “Tower to pilot, Tower to Pilot” came the reply, “Repeat after me: “Our Father Who art in heaven…'”
We all pray in a crisis! But that’s a bit late to start! I want to talk today about our need to find our prayer life with God.
I think we are going to see 2 opposite developments this year. We’ll see the world get more crazy and weird – and more against us. But we’ll see throughout the nation new people coming to Jesus and lives being changed. To be part of that let’s walk with him!
Have you ever broken a limb, an arm or a leg? One of yours I mean. Did you have a plaster on it? As a 15-year-old, I woke up after a cartilage operation in desperate need of the loo: without thinking I stepped out of bed onto my bandaged leg and splat!….
It took a long time to get that muscle to work again because of the operation. If you’ve had an arm or a leg in plaster for a while you may have wondered where the muscle had gone when you took the plaster off. It had wasted away through all the inactivity.
Some of us have just been giving our muscles a rest for a while. But Col 4.2 says “devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.”
You’ll hear people saying we should pray more and read the bible more. But why should we? Because we don’t do it enough, they say. But how much is enough? And how will we feel when we’ve done it enough?
The Christian life is not about living up to something but about living something.
You can’t live by the oughts and the shoulds. You ought to do more. You should do better. You should pray better! Do more!
You never will be as good as your conscience says you should. But the objective is not to hit some standard where you can feel good enough at praying!
Mt 6:5-7 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.
Prayer is talking to somebody that you know, and that knows you. It is so far from an ought to or should do. But be prepared to be changed!
Jesus said in Jn 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.”
Jn 16:26 In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf.
27 No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.
The Father loves us and coming to him in prayer is life-giving. So in the midst of all we have to do in life, that seems so important, we have to come to him.
Perhaps we sometimes treat the temporary like it is eternal and the eternal like it is temporary. For instance my garden seems to be permanently full of weeds. They come in waves. It feels like a permanent thing. They keep regrowing and my house becomes untidy. Maybe that feels eternal. But it is temporary. Yes I need to do it but It is not what I need to fill my mind with.
God very clearly is eternal: you could describe that as being every day for ever. He is always our priority.
Maybe because he’s eternal it’s easy to leave him until tomorrow. Yet this is something that for many of us needs to change.
So How Can I Build Up my Prayer Muscles Again?
1/ Yield
Psalm 139 is an incredible Psalm where David talks about all the ways that God knows and loves him. Then at the end he says this
Ps 139:23 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
It’s like he has twin doors on his brain, flings them open, and says, ” Lord, look at everything I’ve ever thought, good or bad. I am completely open!
We spend every Sunday morning and many other times talking about the way Jesus loves us and what he’s done for us.
But surely our response has to be, like David, to throw open the doors and say Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
A real prayer life begins right there! Do it regularly.
2/ Decide to trust him
a/ We are all affected by good and bad things that have happened in our lives. We may have certain attitudes we have developed over the years. But we need to trust him.
What are you expecting this year from God?
Ps 62: 5-8 says –
Yes, my soul, find rest in God. My hope comes from him.
Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.
My salvation and my honour depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge.
Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.
If we trust, we will come to him.
Jesus said in Mat 11:28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
Now there’s worry and worry. We all feel concerned and get nervous about things. Yet there is a state that we get in when our worries wear us out, where we are troubled and burdened, or when we are simply thinking about stuff all the time. But he says –
Phil 4:6-7 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
God will lay his peace on your heart when you take your worries and fears, and those you pray for daily to him. Jesus said that the peace that he gives is not like the peace that the world gives. What did he mean?
The peace that the world gives is only there when everything is sorted or going well. It depends on how well you are doing. It is an absence of stress. But the peace God gives is only dependent on his presence, not circumstances. There can be peace, and a rest within you even when the world is going mad.
3/ Give him centre stage
a/ 2 Chr 16:9 For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.
This is about where he is in your priorities. If your life is a stage, where is he on it and what part does he play? Make him the part around which your whole story revolves!
Psa 85:8 I will listen to what God the LORD will say; he promises peace to his people, his saints– but let them not return to folly.
It is folly to put our faith anywhere else than in the Lord. Take time to listen to him. Stop being independent and controlling. That is folly. Instead, locate your life in God, rather than locating God into slots in your life.
b/ 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
You can go through the day conversationally with God, letting him be part of everything. Treat him like he is there. Each day can be spent with him. Between the desk and the restroom talk about what you are doing with him. When you come back, he will be at your desk with you. In the end, you will be thankful.
4/ Walk with God!
a/ Psalm 1
1 Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers.
2 But they delight in the law of the LORD, meditating on it day and night.
3 They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season.
Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.
4 But not the wicked! They are like worthless chaff, scattered by the wind.
5 They will be condemned at the time of judgment. Sinners will have no place among the godly.
6 For the LORD watches over the path of the godly, but the path of the wicked leads to destruction.
Everything else seems so important. But once you do commit to a life of prayer, you’ll see that God will work in your life, helping you move beyond selfishness, helping you move closer to Him, to those you love the most, to the calling he has in mind for you, and making you more like him…. Your roots will go down and down.
Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance but cooperating with His willingness.
This is how to live!
1 Sam 16:7; God does not view things the way men do. People look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
Isa 41:10 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.