Pray Without Ceasing: Trusting God’s Faithfulness

Reading of the Word

Proverbs 3:5–6 NASB 2020

Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.

Prayer of Illumination

Heavenly Father,

As we turn to Your Word, help us to trust in You with all our hearts and lean not on our own understanding. Open our minds and hearts to Your wisdom, and guide us in acknowledging You in all our ways. Illuminate our path, Lord, and lead us in Your righteousness.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

Introduction

What if prayer doesn’t seem to be working? We live in a society that throws things away so easily. Everything is about us and what works for us.

Have you ever met someone who always seemed to be in and out of fads? Like, they were really into skateboarding and bought all of this stuff, but it only lasted for a month. They tried it for a while, and then it wasn’t their thing anymore.

I remember as a kid when the trolls were the latest fad. I loved everything about them: their looks, and especially their hair (yes, i’m jealous). I loved how there were so many different ones you could collect. But by the time I got to high school, they were only a memory of the past. I forgot they existed. I gave up on them and moved onto something else.

Maybe we view prayer this way sometimes. “I prayed for a few days, and nothing changed, so I stopped!” This is where we make our mistake.

God is listening and moving, even when it seems like nothing is happening.

Prayer Is About Relationship, Not Transaction

Our relationship with God is where everything of our faith hinges.

It is what saves us.

It is what sanctifies us.

It is what follows us to eternity.

Prayer is how we intimately communicate with God, nurturing our relationship with Him.

It's about sharing our deepest thoughts

It’s about listening to His guidance

It’s about fostering a profound connection with our Creator.

It’s about drawing closer to God and experiencing His love and wisdom in our lives.

The world screws up the definition of prayer and makes it to be simply a time where we can present God with our wish list and say pretty please.

They make it to be where we do all the talking and demanding and then expect God to just bow down and magically do everything we ask.

He already knows what we need. But it is about relationship that makes it where he wants to hear it from our own heart.

It is easy to wonder if prayer works, but prayer isn’t about fulfilling our desires.

“If He knows … what we need, why must we pray? Not to instruct Him, but to prevail with Him—to be made intimate with Him by continuance in supplication, to be humbled, to be reminded of your sins” (adapted from John Chrysostom, “Homilies of St. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople on the Gospel according to St. Matthew,” Nicene and Post-Nicene, 1st series [New York: Christian Literature Company, 1888], 10:133).

My prayer is that my praises outnumber my requests to show the world how grateful I am.

Does God Really Answer Our Prayers?

Before we can look at the answers, we have to look at a verse that explains something critical about God.

Isaiah 55:8–9 NASB 2020

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.

The answers we receive are with our best interest in mind.

Yes.

Our will is in line with God’s will. It is for our best and he wants to bless us.

Answered prayers gives us a testimony to share with others.

No.

This is not my favorite answer.

Sometimes I think that what is for the best really isn’t. But by the Lord saying no, he looks out for our best interest and many times protects us from something that would harm us more than benefit us.

Wait.

Keep asking. Keep seeking. Keep praying.

Don’t give up. Trust God and ask God for the strength to endure this time of waiting upon him.

Psalm 27:14 NASB 2020

Wait for the Lord; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the Lord.

Let God deepen your faith and draw you closer to him.

In God We Trust

Dependence on God over self-reliance: Let's walk through our text while focusing on trusting God above all else.

Trust.

In Who? in the Lord.

With what? All your heart.

and what? lean not on our own wisdom.

To do what? acknowledge God in all our ways.

What’s the result? he blesses us as he directs our paths.

Nothing else in this verse or in the rest of the chapter is possible without trusting God. He is our all in all!

We need to depend on God to provide the answers because he is God and we are not.

As I reflect on the presidential debate that was held on Thursday night, both candidates had a goal in mind: to get their listener to place their trust in them as president of the United States. But as I quickly found out, trust rapidly was out the window and replaced by fear. During the commercials, I scanned Facebook to see what those I know and love were thinking about this debate. God quickly reminded me through a friend to keep the whole of everything as the central focus. Here is what I saw.

Here are some other everyday examples of trust that we run into in everyday life.

-Your employer wants you to trust them to pay the bills.

-Your friend wants you to trust them with your deepest secrets.

-The financial adviser wants you to trust them as they invest your money.

Initially, it may seem like each person has your best interests at heart. However, as time passes, the truth can emerge, revealing hidden agendas that can shatter your trust in them. This betrayal often occurs under the mask of trust.

The devil wants to feed you the world and have you trust in everything except God. When the truth is ultimately revealed, his next aim is to cause fear in your heart.

Fear is not of God. Fear is used as a tool of the enemy to replace trust in God with chaos.

The words “ do not be afraid” are so that he can take your fears and replace them with his perfect peace.

When we don’t see anything happening even though we are praying, it causes frustration and fear. It makes it seem like God is a million miles away and that we are alone trying to figure this out.

Don’t let fear hold you back from God’s best. Remember, we find God’s best in prayer. Pray anyway!

I’ll take on the mentality of the person who came up with this thought “In God we trust, all others pay cash.”

The mistake we make is we give it to God, fear comes back and takes over and we take that burden back upon us because we haven’t seen God answer it.

Have you given him time to move?

Do you totally trust him “with all your heart”?

Do we really have the power within us to change everything and make it ok?

“Self-sufficiency is the enemy of salvation. If you are self-sufficient, you have no need of God. If you have no need of God, you do not seek Him. If you do not seek Him, you will not find Him.” - Fulton J. Sheen

Application

As I prayed and considered how to connect this with daily life, a question arose in my mind:

Does God really even care?

This becomes the question that the world asks. If God cared so much, where was he when my 6 year old child died of cancer? If God cared so much, why does he let me suffer everyday with chronic pain?

There is a beautiful poem entitled “Footprints in the Sand” where the man feels this same way and questions God about it. God showed the man that even when the prayers aren’t immediately answered, even when it seems like God is a million miles away and you are left to do life alone, God has kept his promise of being with us and helping us through the storms of life.

One night I dreamed a dream. As I was walking along the beach with my Lord. Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life. For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand, One belonging to me and one to my Lord.

After the last scene of my life flashed before me, I looked back at the footprints in the sand. I noticed that at many times along the path of my life, especially at the very lowest and saddest times, there was only one set of footprints.

This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it. "Lord, you said once I decided to follow you, You'd walk with me all the way. But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life, there was only one set of footprints. I don't understand why, when I needed You the most, You would leave me."

He whispered, "My precious child, I love you and will never leave you Never, ever, during your trials and testings. When you saw only one set of footprints, It was then that I carried you."

I noticed one thing over and over as I read and reread this poem. God never chastises the man for asking the tough questions of life.

One of the biggest misconceptions in the church today is that we are not to question God.

In our relationship with him, we will NEVER get answers unless we ask God questions. It’s a very important part of every relationship. Reveal to God the deepest yearnings of your heart. Sometimes, it is through our actions that God finds the perfect opportunity to move and answer our prayers.

The Bible proves again and again through other people the nature of God’s caring heart.

Psalm 55:22 NASB 2020

Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.

1 Peter 5:7 NASB 2020

having cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares about you.

Psalm 23:1 NASB 2020

The Lord is my shepherd, I will not be in need.

God hasn’t left us alone for the world to spin out of control. God is there, he cares, and is intimately involved in every area of your life that you let him have access to.

So what do we do when we think God is just leaving us hanging?

Pray to know God’s will

Ask and listen.

Pray with faith.

Trust in him with all your heart.

When the devil wants to replace trust with fear, repeat these words: Jesus, I trust in you.

Be patient and faithful.

This is the hardest part.

God is strengthening our faith in him.

To Sum It Up: We might feel like prayer isn’t working, but God wants to change us, not just give us what we want.

Conclusion

As we close, let's reflect on Proverbs 3:5-6

Proverbs 3:5–6 NASB 2020

Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.

These verses remind us to place our full trust in God, letting go of our need to control and understand everything ourselves. When we acknowledge Him in all areas of our lives, He promises to guide us and straighten our paths.

This week, challenge yourself to trust God more deeply. Submit your plans, worries, and decisions to Him, and watch as He leads you with wisdom and love.

May you experience the peace and direction that comes from trusting fully in the Lord.

Prayer Following Message

Dear Lord,

We thank You for the message we have received today. As we leave this place, help us to truly trust in You with all our hearts and to lean not on our own understanding. Guide us in every aspect of our lives to acknowledge You, trusting that You will make our paths straight.

Grant us the wisdom to apply what we have learned, and may Your Holy Spirit continue to remind us of the truths we have heard. Strengthen our faith and help us to depend on Your guidance daily. Lead us in Your righteousness, and let our lives be a reflection of Your love and wisdom.

We commit our ways to You, Lord, and trust in Your perfect plan for our lives. Thank You for Your constant presence and unfailing love.

In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

Introduce Prayer Initiative

Blessings and Prayers: The Faith Jar

I have put a bowl of stones and Sharpies next to a Jar (usually with a lid to cap it when full). They initial the rock and drop in the jar. We are remembering that up to this point God has been our help and He continues to hear or prayers. When we release the stone into the container, it signifies that we have totally given our prayer to God and we cannot take it back.

We have special red rocks that signify answered prayers. Initial them too and it allows us to see that God answers prayer and he does care for us.

Drop the stone in before service, during the service, after the service and even come and do it during the week. I want to use the altars because it is the critical element that will be needed for this church to thrive.

Benediction

May the Lord bless you and keep you. May He guide you to trust in Him with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and may He make your paths straight. Go in peace, knowing that His wisdom and love will lead you always.

Amen.