Constant in Prayer
Notes
Transcript
Session #4
Session #4
Be Consistent in prayer
Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
I got to see one of my best friends just a couple weeks ago, some of you know him. Greg! We’ve been best friends for over 15 years.
It’s safe to say that we have a close relationship.
It’s not like it was before we were married, before we had kids, or before we lived in different cities from each other.
Our wives don’t let us have sleepovers with each other, and we don’t hang out multiple times every single week.
We probably only hang out two or three times a year right now, but we talk all the time.
We stay in communication, either through texting or talking on the phone or using Marco Polo— Marco Polo is not a sponsor of Bethel Student Ministries— YET.
What I love about our friendship and our talking is that our conversations just pick up where we left off every time.
There are times when we are not able to talk as much.
It happens when you’re an adult.
But it doesn’t matter how long it’s been since we spoke, we’re always there for each other and can have the same type of conversation we’ve always had. It’s informal, familiar, and easy.
It’s a conversation that started when I was 15 years old and is still going today.
It’s just the nature of conversation with good friends, with best friends.
God is that kind of friend.
Sometimes we don’t approach Him that way, either out of fear or reverence.
Both attitudes toward God are appropriate, since He is God after all, but we shouldn’t let our revering Him keep us from approaching Him.
We shouldn’t let it force us into only approaching Him when we have time to “get it right” or go through a whole spiel.
God is a good friend, a good Father, and He doesn’t require any pretense from us when we approach Him.
Yes, we should spend time praising Him.
Yes, we should set aside specific times to pray about specific things.
But we should also have what I would call an ongoing conversation with God.
We can always pick up where we left off last time.
I believe Paul in 1 Thessalonians lays out how we ought to approach God, as a good friend, in the way we pray.
So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.
We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
When you have a close friend, this is how you communicate with them.
It is constant, there is joy in spending time together, and there are times of identifying and remembering the good times.
There’s reminiscing.
This is how my conversations are with good, longtime friends.
These verses speak to a conversational type of prayer we should always be having with God.
It’s always, continually, and in all circumstances.
I really like reading the Psalms.
It’s a book of poetry and it’s a collection of prayers to God.
The writers express different kinds of prayer: rejoicing, thanking, trusting, hoping, lamenting, and asking.
If it’s something you might think or feel, there’s a good chance that there’s a Psalm that reflects it.
I want to look at these three types of prayer, from 1 Thessalonians 5, as recorded throughout the Psalms.
Rejoice Always
Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37:4 (NIV)
Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
In 1 Thessalonians 5:16, Paul says that I should always be rejoicing to God, which means I’m always taking delight in God.
I take pleasure in speaking to Him, in reading His Word, in listening for Him, and in hearing from Him. I will tell God that I am grateful for His presence in my life.
When you delight in something, it means that you are finding your joy, even your greatest joy, in it.
Some people delight in sports.
Some people delight in music.
Some delight in their friends.
That’s all okay.
However, followers of Christ should delight primarily in God, above all other things.
When God is our primary delight and source of joy, the Bible tells us that He will give us the desires of our heart.
What does that mean?
It’s not a blanket promise to give you whatever you can think of.
If God is number one, and I want nothing more than to be close to Him, and I want for my life whatever He wants for my life, He’ll provide it.
He will be close to us, and He will give us what we need to carry out His will for our lives.
When we rejoice in God, with Him as our primary source of joy, our joy won’t be dependent on our circumstances.
You can have joy while being sad. You can have joy when you are hurting. You can have joy while things are going wrong in your life.
If you choose to delight in God, you will find joy is constant, even in sorrow.
Make sure you prioritize rejoicing in God, reminding yourself of His goodness and faithfulness constantly.
Pray Continuously
In verse 17, I find that I’m supposed to be praying continually.
That means there’s no break.
It doesn’t mean that I never talk to anyone else or think about anything else.
It just means that the conversation keeps going and can pick right up where I left off.
When I am distressed or worried, I can pick up the phone and call my best friend immediately.
Because of our constant and close relationship, I know that I can trust him, that he cares, that he will listen, and that he will pray for me.
If I want it, he will give advice.
He’s there for me.
We can go to God and ask for help, for ourselves and others, just like that, too.
Our relationship is constant and closer than any human relationship I can have. David, who wrote much of Psalms, understood and practiced this often throughout the Psalms.
Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness!
You have given me relief when I was in distress.
Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!
Psalm 4:1 (NIV)
Answer me when I call to you, my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; have mercy on me and hear my prayer.
If you are distressed, either for yourself or someone else, you can pray right away.
If someone asks me to pray for them, I can pick that conversation right up and pray for it.
If I’m scared, worried, hurt, or something otherwise comes to mind that I want to pray for, I can do that right then and there.
I don’t have to start from the beginning of some prayer outline and only ask God to intervene after I’ve gone through different points or parts of prayer.
I can just talk to Him all of the time, as though we’ve been on the phone this whole time, and there hasn’t been a break in conversation.
Give Thanks
In verse 18, I’m told I should be expressing thankfulness to God regardless of what’s going on in my life.
I’m watching for how God is working in my life, and I’m thanking Him, even if I don’t like everything that’s happening.
It doesn’t mean you are thankful for everything that’s happening, by the way.
It just means that you don’t cease to remember the good times, God’s blessings, even in the bad times.
Have you ever been to a funeral for someone who was well loved?
I have.
I notice that we spend a lot of time reminiscing about the good times we had with that person.
We’re not thankful that our loved one has passed, but we are thankful for the memories we have with them, and we express it.
I will remember the deeds of the Lord;
yes, I will remember your wonders of old.
I will ponder all your work,
and meditate on your mighty deeds.
We should take time to remember what God has done throughout our lives, and even things He did before we were even born.
Remember God’s works, spend time thinking deeply about them and repeating them to yourself and to Him in prayer.
I think of this as reminiscing. I reminisce with friends all of the time.
When I get together with my best friend, we always talk about things that happened 5, 10, or even 15 years ago.
It doesn’t matter how many times we tell the same old stories.
We still think about them, talking about them, and laugh as we recount what happened.
If my friend says, “Hey, do you remember when we …”, I don’t stop him if he’s already recounted that story to me.
I don’t say, “I’ve heard that one before.
Tell me something new.”
I take joy in hearing again and again how much joy my friends and I have experienced in our relationship.
It’s good to reminisce with God, too.
He doesn’t get tired of hearing about “the same old things.”
He wants you to recount how He’s blessed you, how you’ve seen him work, and how you have experienced joy in following Him.
It doesn’t always have to be something new.
By just choosing to communicate with Him consistently you are take a huge step.
Maybe currently you feel like you are just talking and nobody is home.
Keep being faithful.
What I have found with prayer is that once I get over that first bump of the awkwardness- it gets easier and I see that I am more mindful to pray more.
So we are going to be doing something tonight that is different.
We are going to be doing prayer stations.
There are 11 different station all through out the chruch.
All the upstair classrooms.
All of the rooms on the same level of the gym- the learning center- Library and sanctuary.
And the two classrooms back behind the youth room.
This is an individual prayer night.
You had plenty of be with all of your friends tonight.
Give it up for like an hour.
This is not a race by any means.
Take your time work through these stations.
No matter what by 8:00 or 8:15 we will have be returning up here.
To wrap up the evening and then head to our break groups.
The station in the learning center you must go thought the chruch office.
Rejoice always. Pray continuously. Give thanks.
