Praying our Hearts

Announcements

First Wednesday Night

This room—6:30

Revelation

Ice Skating

This Friday

$15/20

Baptisms next Sunday

Sitting with Families

Introduction

Last week:

Jesus in the Garden

At a crossroads

His life would soon be falling apart

And he didn’t place his faith in his circumstances

He didn’t place his confidence in his friends

But he stayed grounded in the character and word of God

And for us:

We often find ourselves in situations like this

When life seems to be crumbling around us

Where are you placing your faith?

Expound

And before we continue on with the story—Jesus on trial before the religious leaders...

I wanted to take this week to unpack a little bit more from last week

We talked about the why

Why we should trust God over our circumstances

But this week I want to talk about the how

And just like Jesus’s time in the garden, I believe this happens primarily through prayer

How do we pray?

It’s hard to teach on prayer because it is something we all feel like we should do more

But for many people we don’t really know how

It can become just a static thing—words to say and recite

But prayer is the primary way we can relate to God

Just like any other relationship—speaking to each other is crucial

Think of your best friend or the person you are closest to

My wife

Hears my joys, the things I’m learning and nerding out about

Hears my sorrows, and things that hurt me

Hears my angers and things that frustrate me

Simply, prayer is speaking to God

And the Bible has actually given us a book of prayers—The Psalms

How many of you have read the Psalms?

Some are pretty similar, but others are very different

They are filled with different emotions and human experiences

From praise and thanksgiving, to betrayal, sorrow, anger, and hope

While most of the Bible is God speaking to man

The Psalms are a collections of songs and prayers of man speaking to God

David—Man after God’s own heart—Wrote most of the Psalms

He lived a rollercoaster of a life

Fugitive, King, Sinner, Victorious

Jesus himself, quotes scripture all the time—He knew God’s word

And He quotes the Psalms more than any other book in the OT

In fact, we’ll see in a few weeks—Jesus’s last words on the cross

My God my God, why have you forsaken me!

Are Jesus quoting Psalm 22

So what I want to do today is show you—how we pray

How we speak to God

How we relate to him

In the Good—The Bad—And the Ugly

The Good

Psalm 138

Why Praise?

Praise completes our joy

Are we aware of all of God’s blessings? Or are we like spoiled children

James 1:16–17 CSB

16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

Reasons we fail to praise God:

We are too busy

We fail to look for God

Are we only coming to God when things are going downhill?

Can we recognize that even the smallest blessings come from God

Gratitude in the little things

The Bad

Psalm 88:1-18

Psalm 13

Such a different prayer...

From “On the day I called, you answered me; you increased strength within me.”

To “I call to you for help, Lord; in the morning my prayer meets you. Lord, why do you reject me? Why do you hide your face from me?”

You see the Psalmist is praying what is on their heart—not trying to clean themselves up before God

Lewis: “We must lay before him what is in us; not what ought to be in us”

God can take it

Emotionally unloading before God is a healthy practice

Instead of bottling it all up inside—we give it to God

Did you know that the largest subcategory of Psalms is lament?

Those are sad Psalms

Lament = Naming our pain and bringing it to God

We don’t hold onto it by ourselves

No matter how small

When we read and pray these laments:

We remind ourselves that we are not alone

That this is the story of God’s people

That even God is heartbroken at the state of this world—and even Jesus weeps while he prays

There is a need to lament

Without it we often numb ourselves

Numb the pain through distraction or sin

Try to convince ourselves that things will be okay

Try to fix our own or other people’s problems

Numbing one area of your life doesn’t work

Most of the time these laments end in praise

Psalm 13:1-6

We are people who lament, but we know that praise gets the final word

The Ugly

Psalm 32/51 - 109

Not only do the Psalms teach us to pray when things are amazing and praiseworthy and when they are dark and sorrowful, but they give us words to vent out the ugly parts of our lives

Psalm 32 and 51 (among others) are songs of repentance that show us how to pray when we have fallen short and are aware of our own brokenness and sin

Psalm 109 is an imprecatory psalm that is really nasty—It shows us how to pray when we are repeatedly treated unfairly and sinned against by others

Psalm 32:1-7 The effects of sin

Psalm 51

David and Bathsheba/Uriah

Psalm 109

Mean Psalm

This is in the Bible

God’s people have prayed this way for centuries

God can take it

Even Jesus quotes imprecatory Psalms in the Bible

And these Psalms aren’t about personal vengeance

They are cries for justice (Hungering and thirsting for righteousness)

They are crying these out to God so that we trust him—not that we act out on our own

Bottle it up

Rot

Burst

Gossip

God can take it

God knows the situation

God knows your hurt

God is fully committed to you

God is fully committed to the people who have hurt you

Gossiping is not going to change God’s mind about people

When we bring these thoughts to God

He listens, he understands, he helps us calm down to better listen love and respect those people who hurt us

War in Ukraine

Conclusion

Everything we face is an opportunity for prayer

Every joy

Every sorrow

Every disappointment

Every good meal

Every laugh

Every annoyance

Every moment of stress

Every anxious thought

Every morning when we wake up and the day comes rushing at us

We can invite God into everything we do

And often prayer seems so daunting—but I hope you can see how simple it is

I don’t want you walking away today feeling guilt or shame (I just need to pray more)

But I hope you respond to this invitation from God

He is here—He is with you—He understands your circumstances—Will we acknowledge him?

And like Jesus in Mark

Prayer, might not change our circumstances

We may be in the pit—and our prayers might not change that

But true prayer will change our hearts

We will see that even our worst nightmares pare in comparison to how much God loves us and what he has in store for us

So as we enter a time of communion—Is there anything you need to say to God?

Thank you so much for what I have

Please help me in my troubles

Please forgive me for my failures

Take this time to pray—Whatever is on your heart

And after we will take time for some small group discussion

Small Group Questions

Icebreaker:

Who is your one of your closest friends and what do you admire about them?

Did anything stand out about prayer in the sermon?

What is your greatest difficulty in praying?

How can you incorporate prayer in your daily life?