2025-05-25 Opposition to Prayer

Alright, well, we are continuing our conversation this week about prayer. And there were a few items that I wanted to touch on last week, but for the sake of time I left them out. So this week we are going to kind of pick up where we left off last week.

But, to kind of cover what we’ve been through so far, we have been talking through these sort of layers or methods of prayer. Remember that when we talk about Prayer we don’t think of it in terms of having a singular definition, like, “This is the ONLY way to pray.” but more in the reality that / / prayer throughout scripture is shown as the method, or ways in which we as humans, created BY God, communicate and commune, or connect, with God, as he reveals Himself to us as the Loving, Kind, Caring, and Almighty God that He is.

So, in the first three weeks David talked through three aspects of prayer:

/ / Talking TO God,

Talking WITH God,

LISTENING to God,

and last week we covered BEING with God.

Now, no matter which of those we are talking about, Talking to, with, or listening, or just simply spending time with God, / / what matters more than ‘how we pray’ is that we actually ‘do pray’.

I made the statement last week, / / to employ a contemplative prayer life, we must employ a more contemplative life itself. Or, a slowed down pace of living.

In the greater conversation of Spiritual Disciplines, or practices, we are learning that to connect with God we must make an intentional, concerted effort to actually be WITH Him in times of prayer. That takes rearranging our lives, or reorienting our lives around God. It means learning to set aside dedicated time to intentionally be with God, in order to become like Him, and partner with Him to do what He’s called us to do in the world.

But it doesn’t happen if we aren’t intentional about it, right?

So, / / building a life of prayer takes work, but the practice of prayer, although sometimes feeling like it, is far from being ‘work’.

Prayer is conversation.

It’s communion.

It’s rest, as we saw last week.

Sure, sometimes it’s intercession, deep travail before the throne of God, and even though that might feel like work, it is ultimately connecting with the God in whom we trust and rely on.

If you recall, the very fact that Jesus introduces us to this phrase, “Abba, Father”, I personally believe is incredibly significant for our lives as Christians. The fact that our bibles leave Abba as Abba, but Father as Father is interesting in the first place. It shows there must be some sort of difference here because Abba, isn’t English, and it MEANS father.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, in his desperate time of need, Jesus prays this way, / / “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” (Mark 14:36)

/ / Abba is an Aramaic word, meaning father.

And / / pater is the second word, a Greek word meaning father.

So, why both? Is Jesus saying, “God, God”, or “Father, Father”? Or is this kind of like one of our bilingual families here one of your children coming up to you and saying, “Padre, Father”…. Do I respond, “Si” or “Yes”? Which language are we using right now?

But, I think the true meaning goes beyond just two languages, and touches on the value of these words individually.

/ / Abba - some scholars define as having a very childish tone to it, that it’s the way we might today say, “Daddy” or “papa”, while others propose that it simply is a more familial or colloquial way of saying “father”. Either way, it’s the term a son would use of a father in close and intimate relationship. Of that we can be clear.

pater, or the second word Jesus uses for Father, carries that creator, originator, father of all creation feel.

So, when Jesus prays, saying “Abba, Father”, what I hear is, / / “Father, the one who loves me and I love. Father, the one who created me and all things, who is all powerful, almighty God.”

We’ve talked through that before, so why bring it up again? Because this is / / the heart of prayer. To be in close communion with both a loving, kind, caring, intimate God, who is also Creator of the Universe, God Almighty, eternal, all powerful God.

He is not just God who creates. He is God who loves.

He is not just God who rules. He is God who cares.

He is not just God who is eternal. He is God who is with us right here and right now.

This is a powerful distinction when it comes to prayer. Hold both in reverence and awe. Go to God in prayer as the loving caring all powerful creator of the universe.

Sometimes people get bent out of shape because they want to advocate for just one or the other.

He’s loving and caring. He’s papa, daddy God. He’s gentle and meek and mild.

No, that’s not reverent. He’s all mighty God. You can’t reduce him to papa…

Guess what. Both can, and are true.

God is a loving caring Father who also holds infinite power.

Jesus is the word who created the universe AND the word who became flesh and gave his life for us for the sake of love.

The Spirit of God is power that raises life from the grave, but also, his Fruit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

One and the same. Both And, not either or.

So, in all of these aspects of prayer, remember that.

As David stressed a couple weeks ago, if God is a loving God, if God is close to us, if God’s desire is to be in relationship with us, then we can suppose that God also wants to talk TO us, which means we need to make an effort to Listen TO Him, not just pray TOWARD him. So we spent a week talking through that, the art, or the need to listen to God. Which also takes slowing down, doesn’t it?

So, how is that going?

Do you feel like you’ve been hearing the voice of God these past weeks?

How do you feel about it?

This might just be me, but, How many wish that God ONLY Spoke in big booming undeniable ways that we wouldn’t ever have to figure out if it was actually Him or not?

Sometimes I struggle with what I read in the Bible vs. what I experience in real life. The Bible is full of absolutely wonderful, fantastical stories. I would like God to talk to me in those ways. We get these glimpses of how God has spoken in these moments, and the stories are sometimes just wild, right? But, of course they are, that’s why the stories are told! It’s the fantastic stories that are worth telling, worth writing about!

So, I appreciate, and David did a great job through this series in leading us to the order of understanding when it comes to hearing from God.

/ / When we discern what we believe to be the voice of God, we can be most assured of it when we know the Word of God.

I am convinced that the Holy Spirit does not speak in contrast to written Scripture.

That doesn’t mean he doesn’t say things that aren’t in Scripture, it means that what he says will align with Scripture.

That means, if you hear something, and it does not line up with what we know to be true about God in Scripture, then it is not God. I am confident to say that full stop.

/ / If you hear, what you believe to be God, but it does not line up with what we know to be true, from a correct interpretation of the Bible about the character and truth of who God is, then it is not God.

Think about it. / / How else would we discern what is or is not the voice of God? Who else would tell us?

We have to have a foundation, a structure, a framework by which we live and follow.

1 John 4:1-2, / / Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.

/ / First: If we aren’t supposed to believe every spirit, that means that there are in fact multiple spirits talking, or at least communicating in some way, by the very nature of that statement.

/ / Second: we must TEST the spirits.

The question is, what does that mean? Do we test by intuition, or test by a standard of some sort? Do we test by how we feel, or test by what we know?

/ / Third: others have been hoodwinked before. So, this is a caution for all of us to stay humble in our estimation of how we ‘hear God’.

Ok, before we ask the question of how to test the spirits, let’s make a simple, but maybe obvious connection here. John 1:1 says:

/ / (1) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…

(14) And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (15) John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”…

So, we believe, and confess that Jesus is that Word spoken of in John 1. We also believe that Scripture is the written word of God.

You may have heard the terms, the Written Word and the Living Word. Now, I’m not saying The Bible is Jesus, or Jesus is the Bible, or that the Bible is God or Divine itself. But, and we read this last week, Hebrews 1:3 says that / / Jesus is the exact representation of God in the flesh. He reveals to us the character of God through His life.

So, that is the Living Word of God, Jesus Christ, the Word spoken of in John 1, who created all things, by him and for him all things were created, who became flesh, dwelt among us, gave his life for us, redeems us from sin, and leads us to the Father - that Word, the living Word, is the very character and nature and essence of God.

And, this is where we can make connection, Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that / / All Scripture (that is, the written word) is breathed out (or inspired) by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

So, we have the Living Word of God, who expresses the very nature and character of God.

And we have the Written Word of God, that is breathed out by the Spirit of God for our teaching, correction, training, and equipping.

And this is not a stretch here. / / We know what we know about Jesus, the Living Word of God because of the Bible, the God-breathed, Spirit-inspired, written word of God.

So, now to the question: / / How do we “test” the spirits?

1 John 4:1, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits…

The word test, when John says test the spirits is the same word we see in Romans 12:2, / / …be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God…

/ / The word test means to prove. Not a perfect analogy, but think of it as a stress test. If you are going to test this, you are going to apply weight to it to see if it can hold that weight and prove that it is what it proposes it is.

So, / / if you hear something in your heart, your mind, your spirit, and you believe it to be God, put it to the test.

How do we do that? What does that mean?

It means apply the weight of Scripture to it, the written word of God, and see if it withstands the pressure. Does it match up to what Scripture says to be true, or does it match up what Scripture says of the character of God, or the working of God, or the way in which God operates, speaks, moves, or functions? IF it does, it has passed that test and is at the very least in line with the Word of God - it is something God WOULD say, and at the best, it is God speaking to you in that moment.

Why labor over this?

Because if we want to be a Godly community who are not deceived in a time when there is much deception, we must both be people of the Written Word of God, and people who rightly discern the Living Word of God. Because not every voice that tries to tell you it’s the good shepherd, is actually the good shepherd. John 10:1-5, / / “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be someone who thinks they are being led by the shepherd, and I’m actually being led by a stranger, who is a thief and a robber!

This is why it is so important to know and understand Scripture, because if it is our measuring stick…if it is the thing by which we test the spirits, test the voice, test the impulse to move in our lives, then we MUST know and rightly understand what the Bible says.

This is not just HOW God speaks to us, it’s WHAT God speaks to us, and our ability to trust that what we hear is, or at least may be from God.

Think about it. And this might just be me, but, / / HOW God speaks to us can be confusing.

A couple weeks ago week David read from Revelation 1, / / a voice like a trumpet… and his voice was like the roar of many waters. Psalm 18:13, / / The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice, hailstones and coals of fire.

Like I said earlier, I would love if God ONLY Spoke in those big booming voices. But this isn’t the only way.

Do you know the story of Elijah from 1 Kings 19:11-12.

Elijah has been led up a mountain to encounter God. vs 11-12 says, / / And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him…

So maybe there’s a reason that Silence and Solitude are often matched with Prayer. Why fasting, removing distractions and physical wants and desires, is linked with prayer.

This is why Jesus got away by himself to have time with the Father.

So, two things here. First, / / we are learning to discern and follow the leading of God in our lives. Second, / / we are learning to embrace what we talked about last week, simply being WITH God, sometimes without any agenda at all. No words, no expectations, but simply to be with Him, staring at His glory, allowing Him to work in us to transform us from glory to glory more and more into the image and likeness of Christ.

And if it was all easy, we’d all be doing it.

If it came naturally, we’d all be masters of it.

So why doesn’t it feel like it’s that easy sometimes? Why does it feel like things can end up being stacked against us? Why is it so hard to hear, and to discern, and to follow?

Today I want to talk a bit through / / Opposition To Prayer.

Smarter people than I have proposed our struggle in this world comes down to / / three entities of opposition: The World, The Devil and The Flesh.

/ / The world being what goes on around us, the effect other people have on our lives, either directly or indirectly. When it comes to opposition in prayer, this might be peer pressure, fear of rejection, concern over what people think of us etc… and any manner of other effects the world and it’s people around us have on our lives. Romans 12:2 encourages us, / / Do not be conformed to this world… Galatians 1:10 says, / / For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

The expectations and influence of people can have a profound effect on us.

/ / The Devil, this is an obvious one. 1 Peter 5:8 says, Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Paul says in Ephesians 6:12, / / For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

If it weren’t so, Jesus wouldn’t have taught us to pray, / / “deliver us from evil…” (Matthew 6:13) The NLT says it this way, / / “…rescue us from the evil one.”

So, the world, the devil, and then of course, / / the flesh. Our own desire to either do something other than what we ought to do, or simply to not do what we should. Paul says in Romans 7:15, 18b - 19, / / For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. (18b) For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. (19)For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

This is why Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane, / / “Not my will, but yours be done.”

We all have a desire, a will of our own, and it is at odds with the way of the Spirit.

Galatians 5:17, / / For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for they are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

Ever have a time where you wanted to pray, but also, you didn’t want to pray?

You wanted to read the bible, but also, you just didn’t want to read the bible.

You wanted to fast, but you woke up and really wanted to eat breakfast.

Me too!

Welcome to the wrestle of the flesh vs. the Spirit.

So, keeping these things in mind, the wrestle we have with the world, the devil and the flesh, I want to go through three oppositions to prayer that you might encounter. And although this is not an exhaustive list, it will hopefully begin to help you discern what’s going on should you encounter that internal struggle.

These will also be true of more than just prayer, these things impact the rest of our lives, and the rest of the spiritual practices we’ve been talking about. And they can become a difficulty no matter what emphasis you are employing in prayer, whether you are praying scripture, praying from your heart, listening for the voice of God, or simply wanting to be in His presence, beholding His glory.

So, / / three major challenges that oppose you when you attempt to engage in prayer:

Distraction // Hurry // Fear

/ / 1. Distraction

When you finally take the time to quiet yourself before God one of the most common problems people encounter is that your brain will do it’s very best to interrupt that quiet. And this happens for two different reasons.

First, / / it’s probably not used to quiet, so it’s going to get busy, loud, obstructive. You have things you’ve wanted to think about. You have things you want to contemplate. Also, the world, the devil and your flesh will try to take over as you attempt to quiet yourself before God.

And second, / / because your brain has things to deal with. Remember, God gave you a brain, and it’s got a job to do, and it’s going to try and do it. That doesn’t mean you’re doing prayer wrong, it means your brain is actually doing what it’s supposed to be doing. Reminding you of things.

You might suddenly have a flood of your own to-do’s…. or that growing honey-do list…

Maybe it’s a reminder to check the finances, check the bank account, did you pay that bill? Did you transfer those funds? Did your paycheck go through so you can cover the rent? Wait, will we have enough after that for food this week? I better just check that.

Here I am jumping into Neuroscience again. I promise, this won’t become a regularity. But I was reading one article that was explaining what’s called the Default Mode Network. I’m just going to read it - / / “the default mode network is a group of brain regions that seem to show lower levels of activity when we are engaged in a particular task such as paying attention, but higher levels of activity when we are awake and not involved in any specific mental exercise. It is during these times that we might be daydreaming, recalling memories, envisioning the future, monitoring the environment, thinking about the intentions of others, and so on - all things that we often do when we find ourselves just “thinking” without any explicit goal of thinking in mind.”

What’s that all mean? It means this is literally how your brain works. As soon as you stop thinking about something intentionally, there are literally parts of your brain that go, “Alright, my time to shine!!!”

So, you’re like, “I’m going to quiet myself before the Lord and spend time in the presence and Glory of my savior…”

do - di - do - di - do….and you’re suddenly off to daydream land…

Now, to bring a point of clarity. As we talked through last week, spending time WITH God is NOT some weird new-age “empty yourself of thoughts” and just “go with the the flow”. Remember what we read in 2 Corinthians 3:18, / / And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

I think this is why I love Philippians 4:8, / / …whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Why does Paul have to tell us that? Because the mind won’t automatically do that, we have to direct our attention to the good things of God.

And this isn’t just your mind. This is all manner of things. The experts have noticed, as I’m sure you have, that as soon as there’s a moment of silence, people instinctively more and more reach for their phone.

How many times have I done this? And I pick up my phone, sometimes because out of the corner of my eye someone else picked up their phone, and I’m sitting there like, “What did I want to do?” It’s like I have to make up something to distract myself from the silence of that moment, which robs me from the silence of the moment. But we’re not always good at silence.

And see, Life continues to happen around us, life itself can be distracting.

/ / A couple solutions:

First, if your mind is flooded with all the / / things you have to do, or are forgetting to do. Just write it down. Seriously. Your brain is just trying to help you out. So let yourself go there for a second. You don’t have to expand on every thought, but you can write down those things to address them later. This is a practical way to help quiet the flood of thoughts.

Second, employ some / / intentional focus - sometimes I will use what is called the Jesus prayer to help quiet my mind before the Lord. “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner”. And I will simply pray this over and over as I do my best to focus my attention on Jesus.

Distraction won’t ever fully go away, but like any practice, the more you do this, the more natural it will become to quiet yourself down before the Lord. Writing thoughts down allows you to get rid of them. But if the thought is not worth writing down, maybe it’s a reminder of some sin the enemy is trying to distract you with, or some other useless bit of information, just push it away as soon as it comes. It takes work, but / / the moment you realize you’ve been distracted, don’t fret, just turn your attention back to God.

Thomas Keating in one of his books wrote that / / if you are distracted 1000 times in 10 minutes of prayer, this is simply 1000 opportunities to redirect your focus back to God.

This is in some sense a sacrifice of praise, continually denying myself, to focus on Jesus.

/ / 2. Hurry

We live in a busy, fast-paced, and often overworked, over-scheduled, overcommitted world that demands more of us everyday. And it seems like there is no end to it. And all the things that pull on you for your time are in opposition to you connecting with God in prayer.

/ / To engage with God in prayer, Dallas Willard put it this way, we must “ruthlessly eliminate hurry from our lives”.

There is no real way to explain it other than that. This will be a challenge - we are reorienting, rearranging our lives around what matters most.

We aren’t meant to just rush through, to check the box, “I prayed today, I’m a good Christian. I did my good deed…”

That is not what this is.

We are also often impatient and prone to boredom, and so we give up easy and want to move on to more “productive” things.

/ / Don’t give into the lie that prayer, and most importantly, just spending time with God, is “not productive”.

Sometimes we can feel like we are wasting time. There are certainly more important things to be doing, right?

We have a pillow on our couch that says something like, / / “Time you waste on things you love is no time wasted at all.”

I would imagine every generation has dealt with this, but I feel like the world around us is busier and more rushed and distracted than ever before, and here in Miami we live at such a fast pace it’s all that much more difficult to truly quiet ourselves, even if just for a moment.

But what did we really think Jesus meant when he said, / / “Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.”

Even in the simplicity of quietness, we struggle to deny the overwhelming thoughts of life.

We fight to deny distractions.

We fight to deny what the world around us makes priority so that we can focus on God.

I wonder if the Bible was written today would it say something to the effect of, “Deny your phone for the quiet of relationship with God. Let go of technology for a minute. Turn the lights off for a second. Get away from the hum of everything electrical.”

Why are we so rushed and hurried?

How many have gone on vacation, and you get to a place of feeling relaxed, only to come home and have the burden of having been gone on vacation, so you have more work to catch up on. You feel like you’re in over your head immediately?

It seems like there is always something waiting for us to get to, doesn’t it? Something that is vying for our attention. Something that just can’t wait. How often do we say, “Oh, I really need to take this….” but in fact, we didn’t really need to take it.

Why is it that we think things can’t wait? Most of the time - things can wait. Obviously there are legitimate emergencies and time sensitive matters that do come up. But by and large, things can wait.

And this effects our relationships as well.

I appreciate when someone puts their phone away at the table. But also, I’m not always great at it. But we all know the feeling of sitting there while someone is just on their phone instead of spending time with us. We are losing our ability to truly and deeply connect because we have given in to this idea of always being connected, always on the go.

Can I be as bold as to say:

/ / Giving priority to the person or thing in front of you is not rude to someone else trying to get ahold of you. You can prioritize your time with God, while also prioritizing the people and situations in your life when that is done. But if you are in a constant state of, “What’s next?” or you feel like you have to answer every call at every moment, respond to text messages immediately, or you check your emails 100 times a day, you will live with this struggle to slow down enough to rest in silence and prayer before God.

/ / A solution in this:

This is reality. Don’t beat yourself up over this. / / It takes practice. It is more like a muscle that you have to work in order to grow. So, start small. Allow yourself 5, maybe 10 minutes a day, in the morning before you get going, or push yourself to be 5 minutes early to work so you can sit in your car, set a timer, and just be in silence before God.

Remember my lesson in neuroscience last week, as you do this, you will change, and you will be drawn to this more and more as you experience His love and power in your life.

One of the lines we sang this morning, “Just like Mary chose the better thing.” That’s from a short story in Luke 10:38-42. You may have heard it before, it’s a popular one. / / Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

The NLT says, / / “There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”

The NIV says, / / “Mary has chosen what is better,” and the Amplified adds, / / “this is to her advantage”.

It is important to notice that Jesus doesn’t scold Martha for serving, or even for asking him to tell Mary to help. He actually speaks to the heart of the issue for Martha, she is anxious and troubled about many things. The work. Her sister. That relationship. Feeling like no one helps. Feeling like it’s all on her. I’m sure you’ve never dealt with this, you’re doing something and someone else is just sitting there not offering to help, and in your mind you’re saying all the things, but you would never actually say the things.

Again, what’s the solution? This one takes / / work. In the words we quoted from Dallas Willard earlier, we have to, “ruthlessly eliminate hurry from our lives.” See it as an enemy.

Philippians 4:6-7, encourages us with the solution, / / Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Where does anxiety and trouble rest? Our hearts and minds. What’s the solution? The peace of God through the presence of God in prayer.

/ / 3. Fear

We have talked about this before. When we have not been active in silence and contemplation before, and when we have not employed the practices of following Jesus to our lives like we are now, things begin to come up in us that often times we were just too busy to even see. As we quiet ourselves before the Lord, the Holy Spirit begins to work in us, and by way of invitation we begin to feel a bit deeper and recognize these things quicker. The way we act or respond is maybe highlighted a little more.

/ / When we make ourselves open and available to God to work in and through us, we will inevitably be confronted with our fears.

You may come across a deepened desire for God, or recognize you actually have a lack of desire for God.

We talk about all of this like it’s going to be the most amazing thing instantly. But you might sit down to pray, might quiet yourself before God and recognize, “I don’t want to be doing this.”

Now, I’m a bit of an introvert. I can be a bit socially awkward, I can feel out of place in social settings. I would even say I deal with some social anxiety. So, for me that means consciously working to be engaged and friendly in those settings, because sometimes people think I don’t like them, but it’s literally just what I call, “Resting Rob Face”….because it’s just kind of emotionless, blank, nervous or even frowny looking maybe. I have to remember that.

Because here’s the deal. I actually love people. When I say I love you. I mean it. Even if we don’t really know each other yet. I have a God given capacity to care for and love people. I also have a social awkwardness I deal with when it comes to people. The two are not mutually exclusive, you can actually have both a love for someone, and a struggle to connect with someone at the same time.

So it is for some people with the God of the universe who we can neither see, or touch, or sense all the time. So when we sit in silence, we might realize we are just so not used to this, and we don’t know how to adapt, we don’t know how to engage, we don’t know how to conduct ourselves, and we might feel so uncomfortable that it’s just easier not to do it.

Here’s the other side of me though, and let this encourage you on this subject.

Once I DO know you. I’m comfortable as anything, man. Seriously. If I can get over that barrier to entry, so to speak, the thing that would hold me back from getting to know you, then I increasingly become more comfortable and more engaging, or let’s say, at least more naturally.

I do work to be engaging as much as possible. But it becomes more natural the more I know someone.

You might be thinking, why is he telling us how awkward he is?

Because there’s nothing worse that being in a church were you think the Pastor doesn’t like you. And that is just 1000% not the case. I’m just not as naturally bubbly as David & Kelley. And I never want someone to feel rejection simply because of the way I’m wired - which is why I am open about it. Especially when someone else’s fear of rejection meets my awkwardness.

I had a situation where someone started attending our church and they heard us say we loved them, but in their brain and heart they just couldn’t compute, and at the same time, any sign of rejection the enemy was using to scream, “SEE! They’re lying!”

But she was super brave, and she came and talked to me, and we connected and got through that lie.

But the same can happen with God. The enemy will try to poke at your fears in the silence to draw you away from pushing through to Him.

So, we have to be aware. In the quiet places with God, where you invite His Spirit to move in your life and transform you, you might end up having a flood of emotions:

Love / Hate

Anger

Anxiety

Insecurity

Envy

Jealously

Hurt

Regret

Guilt

Shame

These are Internal tension that we carry in our bodies that will come up as we pray in silence.

/ / We will come face to face with all the ways we have used in our lives to cover the pain. Distraction, hurry, noise, work, entertainment, shopping, a thousand other vices and things we use to run from or at least numb our pain. That can even be ministry for some.

And we’ve looked at that this year. That pain is in us. We all carry pain and hurt. Whether we like it or not. We have experienced much in our lives that have shaped us and formed us to the people that we are.

And a lot of the problems we have in our lives, especially relationally, are a result of those things leaking out of us and impacting others around us.

So, when we get quiet before God, one of the things we are doing is creating space for it to come up in a healthy way; and for us to offer it to God to heal.

That in of itself can be scary.

As I mentioned last week, I encountered some of my past as I was in my childhood home for a couple weeks.

I encountered something last week. I encountered something this week.

A part of me does NOT want to deal with these things, because dealing means being willing to look at it, being willing to change, being willing to yield to something, someone else to heal me, Jesus Christ. It in one sense feels like you’re losing control, but / / the only way to truly experience freedom is to relinquish control of our hurts and pain to Jesus.

I love how Paul writes the verse we focused on last week. 2 Corinthians 3:18, / / And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another…

One degree of glory to another.

I said it last week. I’m a parfait. You might be an onion. We all have layers. And the Glory of the Lord works in me to remove, and then remove a bit more, and then remove a bit more, reveal more of my heart, and replace it with more of his heart, working in and through me to make me more and more like Him. Dealing with, maybe just one fear at a time, one distraction at a time, one issue of hurry at a time.

The NLT says it that way, / / And the Lord - who is the Spirit - makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.

More and more… from glory to glory… a little bit at a time, as we yield to Him.

It will take time, but Eugene Peterson called the process of / / discipleship, “A long obedience in the same direction”.

So, there are oppositions to your life of prayer. Distraction, Hurry, Fear, to name just three. And they often present themselves, or are influenced by the world, the devil or our flesh.

But I want to leave you with this powerful thought from Romans 8:31-39

/ / If God is for us, who can be against us?

Not distraction, hurry, fear or any other issue or obstacle, right?

/ / He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

This is who we contemplate, the beauty and majesty and glory of Jesus Christ, the one who gave everything to redeem our lives from all sin, shame and hurt.

/ / Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?

We have a great advocate, or lawyer, in Jesus Christ. The enemy, in all his condemnation and accusation cannot overcome the fact that you have been bought with the precious blood of the lamb of God.

/ / It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died - more than that, who was raised - who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

So, when you struggle to pray for yourself. When you struggle to quiet down, remember, There is one who is already interceding for you! Not only that, but just before this passage in vs 26 Paul says, / / Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

/ / Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

NO, in all these things we are more than conquerors THROUGH HIM who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is a promise for you as you grow and learn what it means to develop these disciplines and practices, as you face opposition, and face your own fears and hurts from your past. As you deal with things long buried and maybe even forgotten.

You are secure in the love of Jesus Christ. He intercedes for you. The Holy Spirit intercedes for you. The Father’s heart and love are for you, not against you. God is on your side. God is moving on your behalf. We are not trying to prove something, or achieve some thing to God so that he will grace us with His presence. He literally WANTS to be with you. He is waiting for you to respond to the invitation to come be with Him.