Prayer

Introduction:

There is one thing in the life of a Christian that is probably the most important thing that we should do, but this one thing is what the enemy will fight against the most.

He will do everything in his power to distract us from doing this one thing.

This is our connection with God and is the most powerful thing in the life of a believer.

This discipline that I am talking about is prayer.

This is not going to be a “feel good” message to leave here today feeling good about yourself, but this message will challenge each one of us to rearrange our lives to make prayer a priority.

Richard Foster, in his book “Celebration of Discipline”, says that prayer catapults us onto the frontier of the spiritual life. Of all the spiritual disciplines like fasting, Bible reading, and meditating on God’s Word, prayer is the most central because it ushers us into perpetual communion with the Father.

Martin Luther declared, “I cannot get on with my business without spending 3 hours daily in prayer.”

John Wesley was convicted if he did not spend at least 2 hours every day in prayer.

David Brainerd, was a missionary and revivalist in the 1700’s, who was known for his life of prayer. He spent days away in a cottage in prayer with the Lord.

Another missionary to India, John Hyde, was nicknamed “Praying Hyde”. He prayed 7 times a day and said, “To breathe was to pray.”

Everyone throughout the Bible and history that had an impact on the course of human existence had a tremendous prayer life and nothing would keep them from praying.

Moses prayed for the Israelites in Exodus 32 that God would not destroy them like He said, and Moses’ prayer actually changed the mind of God.

In 1 Kings 17, Elijah prayed that it would not rain and it did not. He then later prayed for rain and it rained.

Jesus prayed on a boat to calm the seas from a storm and the storm listened.

I can almost some people in hear, “Come on Pastor Tom, that was Jesus.”

It was Jesus who was fully God but also fully Man.

That same Spirit that empowered Jesus is also inside of us and empowers us.

Wrap your mind around that.

We all talk about how we struggle with certain things, how we want more of God, how we just want an answer or direction from Him about something.

We can have all of these if we are willing to be disciplined enough to make time to pray regularly.

We often pray for things like:

more power

for God to show up in a great way

The Lord’s anointing

He has already promised these things. We just need to go after them.

Ephesians 6:18 says, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”

After Paul wraps up explaining the armor of God and the importance of it, he then tells the believers to pray in the Spirit on all occasions.

Open with me to Mark 1:35-39 and Luke 6:12-16.

When we read the Gospels, we need to always remember that the Jesus we are reading about is God in the flesh.

Jesus says, in John 14:9 “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”

Jesus, being God in the flesh, should be our number one person to look for to model our life after.

If Jesus did it we too should do it.

If Jesus loved His enemies, we too should love our enemies.

If Jesus preached and lived out the Kingdom life, we too should do this.

If Jesus prayed to the Father, we too should pray.

As I mentioned before, prayer is the most important thing that we can do.

One pastor said, “If our prayer life is weak, we too are weak.”

Every religion has prayer as a major emphasis because prayer is our way to communicate with God.

Muslims are required to pray 5 times per day (their whole lives) while facing Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

They pray at:

Dawn

Midday

Afternoon

Sunset

Between sunset and midnight

Amanda has family that are very devout Muslims, and we have witnessed them stopping everything to pray.

Amanda’s Aunt told us that the live life between prayer.

Most Christians pray if they have time, but Muslims stop everything to pray to a false God that has no power.

Muhammad's body is buried in Saudi Arabia, but the body of Jesus is not in a tomb because he was raised from the dead conquering death, hell, and the grave.

This single fact proves that Jesus Christ is the only true savior of the world.

All power and authority has been given to us by Jesus and many Christians do not pray.

Prayer is the connection that we have to God.

Prayer is our lifeline.

You can say that prayer is to a Christian as an umbilical cord is to a baby.

A baby that is developing has an umbilical cord that supplies the young life with the nutrients and oxygen that it needs.

A baby cannot survive if the umbilical cord is not working properly.

Prayer is our connection to our source of life and without it we cannot survive.

Martin Luther said, “To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.”

A.W. Tozer said, “To desire revival… and at the same time to neglect (personal) prayer and devotion is to wish one way and walk another.”

Jesus prayed regularly because He knew that this was His connection to the Father and Heaven.

Jesus knew that for Him to have the strength, wisdom, direction, and faith to do what He was sent to do, He had to pray.

In Mark 1:29-34, Jesus just healed Peter’s mother-in-law, other sick people, and demon-possessed people.

Jesus woke up early the next morning, when it was still dark, to go out to a quiet place to pray.

Jesus has all these great things happening in ministry, He is at the height of what He came to the earth to do, but He slips away by himself.

“Come on Jesus. You have all these great things going for you. Keep your foot on the gas and strike while the iron is hot. This certainly is not the time for you to leave.”

Many of us only pray when things are bad, but when we begin to make prayer something we do all the time we find find ourselves in a place we never thought possible.

When we pray more we will find our faith increasing and things like fear, anxiety, and worrying, being absent.

Prayer is our main connection to the Father and if we are not praying regularly we will suffer drastically.

The Lord gave me the word this year of GROWTH.

Growth not geared towards numbers but us growing spiritually.

Prayer is the most important thing that we can do to grow spiritually.

We will not grow spiritually if we are not praying.

In Luke 6:12-16, Jesus went away to pray and then came to the disciples choosing the 12.

I believe that Jesus knew the importance of the decision He was about to make in choosing the 12, so He went away in prayer to get direction from the Father.

When we have decisions to make we too need to get away to a solitary place to seek direction from our Heavenly Father.

When we get alone with God He will give us direction and decisions to make.

The more that we spend time with him in prayer we will find ourselves being lead by Him.

Prayer shows our desire for God

When we pray we are showing our dependence on God.

If we never pray for our marriage, we are saying that we can do it on our own.

If we never pray for our family, we are saying that we can make it without God.

When we do not pray about our finances, we are saying that we have it all under control.

When we pray we are asking God to intervene in our lives.

His desire is to be part of every area of our life.

He is just waiting for the invitation to do so.

We can make the choice today to begin praying more.

I’m sure that there are some of you in here today that are thinking, “I am ready to change my life to pray more. I am excited and ready to do this.”

I would like to encourage you to do this.

I’m sure others are thinking, “I haven’t prayed in awhile and everything that was preached speaks right to me because I have failed in the area of prayer.”

Don’t beat yourself up about it.

Decide today that you are going to make time to pray no matter what happens.

Just begin by setting side 5 minutes in the morning and 5 minutes in the evening to get alone with God in prayer.

Make it a point to turn off your radio in the car every once in a while and begin to pray as yo are driving.

Just don’t close your eyes.

Conclusion:

No matter who you are, we can all decide that we need to spend more time in prayer.

This is the most important that that we can do as a Christian so we need to get this right.

No one decides to run a marathon today and does it in a few weeks.

They get their self in shape by running.

They will be able to run faster and longer next month than they can now.

You will find yourself praying more next month than you are now if you begin today to pray regularly today.