Essentials for a Stronger Relationship   2 Sam. 7:18  Sunday School  12/31/06

  How can my Christian walk improve? You may have asked yourself this question. Charles Stanley gives the following answer, “I firmly believe the most important thin you can do to mature in the faith is to focus on your relationship with the Heavenly Father”. Why was God so precious to David? David spent time and poured out his heart to the Heavenly Father.

  Look at a few of the Psalms: Psa. 51:10-12 (without joy there will be little Christian living). Psa. 46:1-3, Psa. 18:2-6, 17-18.

  Charles Stanley then asks this question Do you want to grow in the Lord, Perhaps you need to stop asking “what can I do” and “how can I serve” and instead say “Lord, let’s talk”.

  What are somethings that can help?

I. Season of Prayer -

  A. Do you hurry thru your prayer time so you can get to someone else.

    1. Jesus never rushed thru this time. This time was a priority in His life.

    2. George Mueller never started the day w/o first time with the Father.

II. Stillness (Psa. 46:10)

  A. Stillness means to put everything else aside. How many times as we pray we are doing something else? How many times are we thinking about how much we have to do?

  B. Mediation requires that we focus on God and God alone

III. Seclusion

  A. Jesus had to fight for seclusion but he always insisted on it. What about you? Do you prepare yourself to have a quiet time with God.

    1. Mark 1:35; 6:46 -

      a. Believers Bible Commentary- If the Lord Jesus felt the need of this early morning quiet time, how much more should we! Notice too that He prayed when it cost Him something; He rose and went out a long while before daylight. Prayer should not be a matter of personal convenience but of self-discipline and sacrifice. Does this explain why so much of our service is ineffective.

      b. Bible Knowledge Commentary- Mark selectively portrayed Jesus at prayer on three crucial occasions, each in a setting of darkness and aloneness: near the beginning of his account (v. 35), near the middle (6:46), and near the end (14:32-42). All three were occasions when He was faced with the possibility of achieving His messianic mission in a more attractive, less costly way. But in each case He gained strength through prayer.

      c. J.C Ryle- We ought to see in all this the immense importance of private devotion. If he who was “holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners” prayed continually like this, how much more ought we who are subject to weakness? If he found it necessary to offer up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears (Hebrews 5:7), how much more necessary is it for us, who offend daily in many ways? What shall we say to those who pray, yet give only a little time to their prayers? We are obliged to say that they show at present very little of the mind of Christ. Asking little, they must expect to have little. Seeking little, they cannot be surprised if they possess little. It will always be found that when prayers are few, grace, strength, peace and hope are small. We would do well to watch our habits of prayer with a holy watchfulness. Here is the pulse of our Christianity. Here is the true test of our state before God. 

IV. Silence

  A. How many times do we pray and never give God a chance to talk to us?

    1. Isa. 30:15-

  B. Won’t we give God a chance to speak in that still small voice.

    1. Ever heard someone say “the Lord spoke to me this morning”. How did that happen? They stopped talking and let God do it.

V. Self-control

  A. Admitting that you need to deal with some things in your life. One way to never hear God is to never let him speak.

    1. God wants to shape us and refine us. As we surrender areas of our lives we are being conformed into what He wants us to be

      a. Rom. 8:29-

VI. Submission

  A. If we have a rebellious spirit nothing else will work. We have to have a spirit that is submissive to Him.

  B. You have to make a decision to submit to what He asks.

    1. Rom. 12:2- we will only be transformed as we allow our thinking to change. We need to always come to God with an open mind and heart.

----