Honest To God: Developing Your Prayer Life

Peace, Love, and Happiness Honest To God: How To Develop Your Prayer Life January 17, 2021 Hey, I am so glad you are connecting with us today. If you are new, my name is Ricky Powell. I am the lead pastor here at Fort Caroline Baptist Church. We love helping people reach higher for the best life God has for them. Today we're talking about prayer and I want to pray for you. I'm going to encourage you to go to our website https://fcbc.life/prayer and let me know how I can pray for you. In fact, we have a group of church members who love praying for others. Give me your prayer request. It would be an honor to pray for you. I love praying for people, but it seems that when you become a pastor you become the designated pray-er. Sometimes I get invited to events just to offer the prayer. At almost every family gathering or holiday I am asked to pray. People who don't like to pray out loud love it when I show up at a gathering! Now don't get me wrong, I am all for prayer. But I believe prayer is a privilege for all people, not just for a select few people like preachers. But many people don't have a vital prayer life. A lot of the confusion comes because people don't really understand what prayer is or how to go about developing a prayer life. So today I want to just share some basic truths about prayer, and give you some guidance from Scripture about how to develop your prayer life. We won't be able to cover everything on this topic today, but I hope after the time we have together you will be inspired to develop your prayer life this year beginning today. So let me give you 4 steps to developing a prayer life. The first step is to pray. 1. Pray. What is prayer? Simply defined, prayer is talking with God. It is personal communication with God. What a wonderful privilege. Prayer is talking with God, and has very little to do with saying the right words. A healthy prayer life is not concerned with using big theological words. Prayer is not trying to sound like the King James Bible with old English "Thee's and Thou's". Prayer is just talking with God. Yes, we should be reverent, but we should still be ourselves. Prayer can take many forms. Prayer includes talking with God about the requests of our lives, the confession of our sins, the gratitude of our hearts, the adoration of God, and praise that we offer him. We can pray for ourselves and we can pray or intercede for others. A helpful tool I have used to guide my personal prayer time is the acrostic ACTS. * Adoration * Confession * Thanksgiving * Supplication Why does God want us to pray? We do not pray to inform God of anything. We pray as an expression of our dependence upon him, our trust in him, and as a reflection of our relationship with Him. Jesus assumed we would pray. He assumed prayer would be a part of our lives. Listen to Jesus' instructions about prayer in Matthew 6:9-13. Matthew 6:9-13 9 In this manner, therefore, pray: (Some translations read, "When you pray, pray in this manner." Jesus assumes you want a healthy prayer life. Now let's read The Lord's Prayer together out loud...) Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive those who trespass against us. 13 And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. We often call this the Lord's prayer because Jesus is the one who gave it to us. However, it is really given to us as an encouragement to pray. There is nothing wrong with praying this prayer. I often pray the Lord's prayer privately, at hospital bedsides, and at funerals. However, Jesus did not give it to us to mindlessly recite it without any thought. It was his way of encouraging us to simply pray. And when we pray we can talk to the father about anything and everything knowing that he hears us. There is a lot more we could say about the Lord's prayer, but the first step in developing a prayer life is to pray. I want to give you the 2nd step in developing a prayer life. Not only should you pray, Secondly, you should pray honestly. 2. Pray Honestly. Prayer is useless if it's not honest. Jeremiah 20:7 (CSB) 7 You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived. You seized me and prevailed. I am a laughingstock all the time; everyone ridicules me. Jeremiah prayed honestly and told God about his Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day! Jeremiah was an Old Testament Prophet. God sent him to Israel to foretell impending judgement upon the nation. So Jeremiah obeyed God and preached his message. Rather than Israel repenting the people got angry and Jeremiah was thrown in prison and beaten. Jeremiah felt like God had deceived him by letting the people ridicule him and persecute him for faithfully preaching God's Word. Even his friends were watching to see Jeremiah slip up and fall. So he was honest with God about what he was experiencing and how he felt. Thankfully Jeremiah went on in his prayer and expressed his trust in God. Even though he felt deceived he knew God was still with him like a mighty warrior ready to defend the man of God. Whenever you read the prayers of God's people in scripture, you hear honesty. So many of the Psalms of the Old Testament are just the prayers of people like David crying out to God about what they are experiencing. * God, how long will you keep from hearing me? * God, how long will you be angry with me? * God, my enemies are all around me. * God, I am broken and lonely. And you hear prayers of praise as well. * God, things are going wonderfully and I thank you. * God, you've been good to me and I give you praise. * Even thou I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil because you are with me. Either way, in prayer be honest with God. He already knows, but he wants you to know that he knows and he wants you to bring everything to him. It's OK to bring your fears and frustrations to God. Prayer is useless if it's not honest. So if you want to develop a prayer life you first need to pray. Second, you need to pray honestly. The third principle for developing a prayer life is to pray sincerely. 3. Pray Sincerely. When you are in prayer you are not an actor on a stage seeking to win an "excellence in oration award." Prayer is not giving a speech for others. Prayer is talking with God. In Matthew 6:5 Jesus condemned hypocrites for their empty prayers. Jesus showed the error of their ways and Jesus showed a better way. Matthew 6:5 (ESV) 5 "And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. The word hypocrite comes from the Greek word hypocrisis. It was used in the Greek language to describe someone play acting. Jesus was not condemning praying IN public, but he was condemning praying FOR the public. You shouldn't pray first to be heard by people, but to be heard by God. Your audience is an audience of One! Jesus condemned the religious hypocrites who presented their prayers for show. They stood in prominent places to be seen by as many people as possible. They wanted other people to see them and say, "Look at how spiritual and prayerful that man is! He must really be holy and righteous." Jesus said the hypocrites were more interested in being seen and applauded by people than being heard and approved by God. Jesus said they got what they were looking for. They received the reward, the prize that they sought, but they did not truly connect with God in prayer. Jesus would say their prayers didn't make it past the street corner. Their prayers reached the ears of their audience, but not the ears of God. Friend, to develop a prayer life pray sincerely. Let God be your focus. If you are praying in public just make sure you are not praying FOR the public's approval. Talk with God in confidence. Hebrews 4:16 (ESV) 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. I don't believe that every Christian must be willing to pray out loud in public, but I am concerned that some Christians refuse to pray in public because they are more afraid of what people will think of them. Parents, your kids need to hear you pray sometimes. Show them your relationship with God and your reliance on God. Your spouse needs to hear you pray. Your friends need to know you believe in God and that you are a person of prayer. So whether you are praying in public or in private, with others or alone, make sure you pray sincerely. Pray to an audience of One! Pray to be heard by God. God wants to hear from you and God wants to help you. To develop a prayer life first pray. Second, pray honestly. Third, pray sincerely. Fourth, pray continually. 4. Pray Continually. Prayer should be a habit in your life. It should be a part of your everyday life. Just like eating, and dressing, and breathing, your life should be marked by praying. Listen to this command of Scripture from the Apostle Paul to the Christian church in Thessalonica in the first century AD. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 (ESV) 17 pray without ceasing, This does not mean you are to walk around everyday mumbling prayers like a mad man. That would be weird. Paul is saying we are to be in an attitude of prayer every day. We should allow prayer to infiltrate every aspect of our lives. There is nothing off limits to our prayer life. We should talk to God about all kinds of things all the time. * You can pray while cutting your grass. * You can pray while driving your car, just don't close your eyes! * You can pray with people and you can pray when you are alone. * You can pray verbally or silently. * You can pray in a hospital room. * You can pray by speaking your prayers or by writing them out. One of the things I love about our worship times as a congregation is when we sing. Our songs are directed to God. Maybe you are not a Christian or church is new to you. I know it can seem strange that we gather and stand and sing. But we are actually singing to God. We are putting our prayers to music and lifting them to God. Today we sang the song, "Great Are You Lord." Listen to how the song is a prayer. You give life, You are love You bring light to the darkness You give hope, You restore Every heart that is broken And great are You, Lord It's Your breath in our lungs So we pour out our praise We pour out our praise It's Your breath in our lungs So we pour out our praise to You only So pray continually. If it's on your heart and mind, pray about it. If it is troubling you or making you anxious, pray about it. If it is a decision you need to make, pray about it. I love the instruction of Philippians 4:6-7. Philippians 4:6-7 (ESV) 6 ...do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 1. Pray. 2. Pray honestly. 3. Pray sincerely. 4. Pray continually. And you will experience the peace of God that you cannot explain. Prayer reminds you that you are not alone. It reminds you that you are not hopeless. It reminds you that God is real and He wants you to trust Him, and depend upon Him, and talk to Him. How do I know that God is real and that prayer is worth my time? Because Jesus told me so. Jesus predicted his own death and resurrection. And Jesus kept his word, so I will take him at his word when he says we can pray to our Father who is in Heaven. If you haven't heard anything else I've said I want you to hear this. This is important. This is the bottom line for developing your prayer life. Bottom Line: Since prayer is talking with God, talk with God. It is one thing to talk about prayer, preach about prayer, read books about prayer, go to seminars about prayer, and make Facebook posts about prayer. All of that is fine in its proper place, but it is useless if we do not pray! So I am going to lead us in a prayer right now. And I want you to join me in prayer. Don't forget to send me your prayer requests at fcbc.life. But I also want you to schedule a time for later today that you will pray. Perhaps it will be the time of prayer before you go to bed tonight. I want you to make an appointment with God. Put it on your calendar. We schedule appointments for important people or tasks all the time. We schedule appointments with our doctor, or financial advisor, or coworkers. We make time to watch the new episode of our favorite Netflix show. There is no one more important in your life than God. So schedule a time each day this week that you will spend a few moments with God in prayer. Perhaps you are thinking, "Wait a minute, Ricky. You said we could talk to God anytime and anywhere. Why should I make an appointment?" You are right and you can talk with God anytime and anywhere. But most of us allow the busyness of our lives to crowd God out. We have good intentions. But we need to schedule times with God and make that a priority. I used my iPhone to set myself a reminder. "Hey Siri remind me every day this week at 8AM to talk with God." Talk with God. Tell him about your day. Thank him. Express your heart to him. Bring your fears and your request to him. But don't just pray for yourself. Pray for others. Pray for your family members. Pray for your friends. Pray for your neighbors. Pray for those who are going through hard times or who are making decisions. Pray for people who are far from God who need to know God loves them. And pray for our nation. Pray for our leaders. Pray for peace. And I am asking every Life Group in our church to recommit yourselves to praying as a group. Our church ought to be marked by prayer. We ought to be a praying people. People in your group should know that others are praying for them, and they should pray for others. Imagine the difference in our lives and church and community and nation and world if God's people got serious about prayer. Since prayer is talking with God, talk with God. Let's talk with him now. Prayer: Dear God, we thank you for the privilege of prayer. Thank you for giving us the chance to know you, to love you, and to talk with you. Thank you for inviting us to bring everything to you in prayer. We confess you are more eager to hear our prayers than we are to pray. But thank you for the reminder that prayer is simply talking with you. Help each of us to set an appointment with you this week to talk with you. It may seem awkward for us at first but we know you will help us and meet us in prayer. Father, I also thank you for the prayer requests that have been shared with me today. I look forward to reading them and bringing them to you in prayer. Bless each person. And God I give you thanks today for your Son, Jesus Christ, who makes it possible for us to come to you in prayer. He opened the way through His righteous life, his death on the cross, and his resurrection. He is in Heaven now with you, seated at your right hand praying for us who trust in Him today. And God, I pray that today someone listening or watching will turn from their sins and trust in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior for the forgiveness of sin. In Jesus' Name we pray, Amen. God bless you!