Be In Prayer

We are currently in a series called “Love Your Neighbor.” Where we are focusing on how we can reach those in our communities by being a blessing to them. Last week we saw how the scriptures have people that have been blessed by God becoming a blessing to others.

We are beginning today looking at a way for us to live that out. We are using the acronym “BLESS” which comes to us from the book by the same name written by Dave and Jon Ferguson, to help us do this. Today we begin with the “B.” We are to “Begin or I prefer to say “be” in Prayer.” Our scripture comes from Luke 6:12-16. The words will be on the screen.

12 One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray and spent the night praying to God. 13 When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: 14 Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, 15 Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, 16 Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

Let us pray…

Richard Foster is considered one of the top authorities when it comes to spiritual disciplines or as I prefer to call them spiritual exercises. Spiritual exercises are ways in which we connect regularly with God. One of if not the most important way that we should choose to connect regularly with God is through prayer.

Foster believes that “Prayer is the key to let us into the heart of God.” It is through prayer that we are able to connect with God and have the most intimate relationship with God. As we state during each worship service, prayer is a time for us to ask for God’s assistance while also listening for what he might desire to say to us.

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Jesus showed us within scripture that prayer matters. His whole life was a blessing to the world.  Every place that he went, every person he encountered experienced a “God moment” in his presence. Jesus showed us what it means to be blessed in order to be a blessing. He did that by beginning in prayer.

If you readthrough the first four books of the New Testament that tell Jesus’ story, you see a consistent pattern of prayer.

Even if wefocus on the Gospel of Luke alone we find in

· (Luke 3:21) Jesus prays at his baptism, and the heavens are opened as he is filled with the Holy Spirit and blessed by the Father.

· (Luke 5:16) Jesus had a regular practice of withdrawing from the crowds by himself to pray.

· (Luke 9:16a) Jesus prayed before performing miracles asking the Father to bless the work he was doing.

· (Luke 22:32) Jesus prayed for his friends, that they would remain strong in their faith.

· (Luke 22:41) Jesus spent the night before his crucifixion alone in a garden praying.

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Over and over again, we see Jesus’ prioritizing prayer. Our reading today has Jesus going to his Father in prayer at a very important juncture in his ministry.

It is time forhim to choose who are going to be his disciples. These were the individuals that were to carry on the legacy of the Rabbi. It was important for a Rabbi to make the right choices. These would be the ones that Jesus was going to pour his heart, mind, and soul into.

I am sure that in the pool of candidates there were some that had recognizable potential and some who had specific leadership skills. However, because Jesus knew that the stakes were high, that through these guys he would be able to BLESS even more people, he spent the night in prayer.

Now, Luke does not tell us what Jesus prayed. He does not tell us how the Father confirmed the right people for Jesus to invite. But what he does tell us is that in the morning, when it was time to choose, Jesus had received clear direction. And the choices he made were not the obvious choices.

For some reason, he chooses fishermen, a tax collector, a religious zealot, and even the man who would later betray him. Why is this important? Because when we begin with prayer, asking God to lead us to how he wants us to be a blessing, the choices may not be as obvious as we first expected.

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God desires to be in communication with us. Therefore, prayer is one of the ways that we are able to show God that we love him. Prayer can be our way of showing God that we want to know what he knows. It is how the Holy Spirit can help us discover what he desires for us to do.

Prayer is also the way that we show God that we love those around us. We should have prayer be an important part of having us “love our neighbor.” It is through prayer that we can discover who God desires for us to speak with. We also are able to know what to say and how to serve those around us by listening to what God says to us.

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But prayer is also one of those things – like flossing or exercise or going to bed at a decent hour – that we know we should do but often don’t do. It’s something we even want to do, but it can be hard to be consistent at it. Why is that? Let’s take a look at a few of the reasons why.

“I don’t know how.” Those of us with a faith background learned to pray as children—mostly at meals and at bedtime. But how many people reach adulthood without any additional instruction? We know we should pray, but many of us aren’t sure how to pray.

The most important thing I may say to you today is that there is no wrong way to pray. Consider prayer to be a conversation with God. We don’t have to be formal. We don’t have to introduce ourselves. We can choose to just begin a conversation just as we would with a friend. God desires to hear from us more than he cares about how we converse with him.

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“I’m too busy.” Let’s face it… prayer takes time, it takes focus, it takes energy; and many of us feel like we’re running short on all of those things. Our busy lives crowd out a lot of things we know are important, and oftentimes that includes prayer.

But let’s admit it, this becomes a question of priorities. I would expect that there are many things that we make time for in our lives. Prayer should be one of them. We should choose to make time to talk to God so that we can get to know him better and receive his insights into our lives.

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“I doubt it works.” Our thoughts can be like this, “I prayed, I really did, and it didn't seem to make any difference.” I’ve felt that way before. Maybe it’s led you to question whether you even believe in prayer. When we pray and nothing seems to happen, it makes praying again really difficult.

Scripture shows us that prayer works. You also hopefully have some friends who believe that prayer helped them in their time of need. I hope for two things for you when it comes to prayer. The first is that you will find through scripture or someone here that will be able to help you believe in prayer.

The second is that you don’t allow your doubts to prevent you from reaching out to God. Continue to give God the chance to speak to you. Allow time for you to let God know what is on your heart and allow him time to respond.

I am sure that this is not an exhaustive list. There are lots of reasons why we don’t pray, but today I’m going to challenge every one of us, myself included, to move beyond just hoping people find their way back to God and start helping. We do this through prayer.

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Our first reading gives us an example of what that kind of prayer can look like. (1 Chronicles 4:9-10) We have what many would consider a boring list of names. These were names that were descendants of Judah. In the middle of this list there is the name of a man named Jabez. 1 Chronicles 4:10 gives us his prayer to God. Let me read it again for us.

10 Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.”

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This prayer begins with Jabez asking God to bless him. We looked at this last week we have been blessed in order for us to become a blessing to those around us. The prayer tells us how Jebez wants God to bless him.

Jabez asks for God to “enlarge his territory.” We are asking God to expand our territory when we ask him to create or allow circumstances to occur that will give us the opportunities to express our love for him and his love to those around us.

We are saying to God that we want to serve him as he desires; not as we desire. We are asking God to possibly place us outside of our comfort zone if it is the best way for us to serve him and those he places before us.

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This is why this is not a prayer that should be made lightly. We should only consider asking God to enlarge our territory if we are ready to accept the results of the answer that God gives us to our prayer. This is a scary prayer for us to make because God may ask you to do something that you really don’t want to do.

But at the same time, we have to reach a place in our journey with Jesus to where we are comfortable making this a prayer that we desire to make. We need to reach a point in our faith journey that we are going to believe that if God asks for us to do it that it will be best for God, for us, and for those around us. We are asking God through this prayer to bless us so that we can be a blessing to those around us.

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We also can recognize from this prayer that we should be willing to rely on God. Jabez doesn’t just ask for God to expand his territory. He also asks for God to be with him and protect him. He knows that enlarging his territory may place him out of his comfort zone.

He knows that he is going to need God on the journey with him in order to allow for him to allow his faith factor to be greater than his fear factor. Jabez knows that if he is relying on his own abilities that he may fail.

He knows that he may need God to provide for him what he needs in order to allow for him to overcome his doubts. Doubt is a natural reaction when we find ourselves in new or uncomfortable situations. It is OK to doubt but we also need to have our faith reach a place that we believe that God will help us becomes greater than our doubts.

There is a song by Brandon Lake called “Too Good to Not Believe.” This song shows us how we should attempt to have the faith to view God. The song begins this way…

I've lived stories that have proved Your faithfulness. I've seen miracles my mind can't comprehend. And there is beauty in what I can't understand. Jesus, it's You, Jesus, it's You.

It can be through those things that we can’t comprehend within scripture. Those events that we struggle to understand. The stories we hear from those around us. And also, we hopefully have our own stories that can help us allow our faith to overcome our doubts.

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One way we may be able to do this is by believing that God will help us and protect us. That is what Jabez is asking for when he says, “let your hand be with me and keep me from harm.” He is asking God to bless what he is doing by helping him and protecting him.

This goes back to an understanding that God wants to be there with us during those times we are interacting with those that he places before us. He wants to help us to say what he wants us to say and serve as those around us need served.

Jabez is basically saying to God “I know in my humanness I can mess up what you are trying to do in me and through me. Help me to have what happens be from you and not from me. Help me to be the hands, feet, and voice of Jesus.”

This is a lofty goal that each of us should strive to achieve. We should attempt to remove our wants and desires from the equation and focus on the wants and desires of the person before us and God.

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Jabez isn’t only asking for help from God. He is also asking God to protect him. What we will discover as we begin blessing those around us is that we may end up being attacked. We are not speaking of a physical attack even though we know based off of the disciples that is possible. We will most likely face a mental or spiritual attack.

Satan does not like to have those around us discover what it may mean for them to be in a relationship with Jesus. He desires that people not rely on God but allow their humanness to be their guide.

The more we build relationships with those outside the church the more of a chance that we will be attacked both individually and as a church. What scripture seems to point out to us is that how we are attacked with vary on where we are most vulnerable.

It is another reason why we need to remain connected with God. We can use the example of Jesus during his time of temptation while he was fasting for forty days in the wilderness. It was his knowledge of scripture that protected him.

The closer we are to God the more likely we are to discover when we are being attacked and the easier it will be for us to fend off an attack. We need to be ready for the possibility that we will need God to help defend us as we trust him and bless those around us.

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If we want to be a blessing to those around us, we need to be in prayer. We need to also be a church that wants to allow God to work in us and through us to allow those around us to discover what it means to be in community with God through the Church of the Good Shepherd.

Here is a practical way to get started…

First, Plan: Things that are important to us get on our calendars. If we want to be intentional about setting aside time to pray, we need to plan for it. Perhaps you might decide to pray for 5 minutes before you get out of bed in the morning and 5 minutes at night before you close your eyes to sleep.

You might set a reminder on your phone to pray during your lunch hour or some other time of the day. If we’re going to move beyond “hoping” to “helping,” we need to plan times to begin with prayer.

Next, Prepare: As you pray, ask God to prepare your heart for the adventure. There’s no telling where he might send us and what he might lead us to do. We need to prepare our hearts for the adventure to come. Ask God to give us eyes to see how he is leading and the courage to follow him.

Finally, ask God to show you People and Places he is calling you to bless. As we begin with prayer, let us ask God, “Who are the people, and where are the places you are calling me to BLESS?”

We also should ask for God to give us the opportunities to be a blessing. We are the modern day disciples. We are the ones that God is relying on to spread his message to the world. Let us begin in prayer to discover how God desires for us to fulfill the calling he has given to each one of us both individually and as a church.

Let us pray…

Prayer Close: God, you are awesome, no one compares to you. We come confessing that many times we struggle to pray. Thank you for the opportunity you give us to come before you. So we ask, give us a desire to pray, prepare our hearts to BLESS others, and make it evident to the places and people who are calling us to BLESS. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen