Prayer Retreat: Why and What of Prayer

Intro:

When it comes to prayer, there is no way to undersell the importance of it. We see all the way through the Bible examples of prayers from Old Testament and New Testament saints. The entire book of Psalms are largely comprised of various types of prayers to God. There are countless prayers from Christians from the last 2000 years of church history that have helped forge the way for the church in culture.

Many of the revivals and renewals in the church have been birthed out of prayer. There are stories of people all around the world in every age devoted themselves to prayer, asking and pleading for God to move powerfully in their lives, communities, and countries. And God did, we see it time and time again in Church History of God sending renewal and revival to His people.

The problem is, we often struggle to pray and keep a prayer life consistently. We know that we are “supposed” to pray, but if you are anything like me, that is not sufficient motivation to pray. I’m not “supposed” to eat too much dessert, but knowing that does not keep me from slamming a bag of peanut m&m’s in one sitting.

We need a greater vision of prayer than something “we just are supposed to do”. We need a vision of what prayer really is.

Why Prayer?:

So why do we pray?

Because we are aware that we are not alone in this world. All throughout history we see temples, cathedrals and monuments built for prayer and worship. Even nonreligious people admit that they pray. Christians are not the only ones who pray. There are countless religions and types of people who incorporate prayer into their daily lives.

“I pray because I can’t help myself. ... I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It doesn’t change God. It changes me.” - C.S. Lewis

We are hardwired to worship. As Christians we believe that prayer is the main way of communication we have to commune with God. Prayer is mysterious because somehow it has the power to affect our lives, the lives of those we pray for, and in some way our prayers even tough and interact with God. The Bible doesn’t really explain exactly how this works, but we see the affects of prayer all throughout the Scriptures.

Abraham prays and intercedes for Sodom and Gomorrah, and God listens.

The Israelites prayed to God when they were enslaved in Egypt, and God responded and acted.

Moses would pray for Pharoah and the Egyptians, and God would relent and stop the plagues that were afflicting Egypt.

Elijah prayed that it would not rain, and it did not rain for years. Then he prayed that it would rain, and it did rain.

However, prayer is not just a genie in a bottle. We don’t use prayer to try to leverage our will and desires to make God give us what we want. If you have a Bible with you, turn to Psalm 37:4

“Take delight in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4, New International Version).

You can interpret this verse as saying if you focus on enjoying God, He will give whatever you want. Or you can understand it to mean that if you take delight in God, over and above anything else in your life, He will shape your heart so it wants the things He already wants to give you. His desires will become your desires.

“In prayer, we use our will to come into agreement with God’s will — ‘Let your kingdom come.’” - Pete Greig

This is the main reason we pray, it makes our will bend to God’s will. It makes us desire what God wants. It takes our disordered desires, and puts them in proper order. Prayer in short, makes us more like God. Brittony will speak more on this tomorrow morning.

The other main reason we pray is that life is uncertain. A Jewish author, Abraham Heschel, says “Prayer is our humble answer to the inconceivable surprise of living”. Love that.

Our English word for prayer is derived from the Latin word precarius. So we pray because life is precarious. It’s uncertain. It is surprisingly beautiful. We pray because there are moments that are so rich and full of life, we must praise and pray to God. We also pray because life is hard and difficult, we have nothing to do except cry out to God.

Often, if we are not praying, we are assuming that life is under control and that we don’t need help. But as all of us have probably experienced multiple times, life is not always predictable, and we need help. God is that help, and that is why we pray to Him. He has the power to hold us, do something, and carry us.

What is Prayer?:

So what is prayer exactly. There have been endless books, sermons, lectures, and speculations about prayer throughout the years. You will find no shortage of information and teaching on prayer. That is because prayer is so vast and it will take you a lifetime to explore it, and even then you still probably won’t reach all the depths of prayer.

However, every great work in prayer has circled around this main idea: prayer is communion (continually) with God. We will look at three ways that prayer causes us to dwell with God in communion:

1. Walking with God (Adam and Eve)

In the beginning, mankind had unfettered relationship and access to God. Genesis tells us that Adam and Eve enjoyed walking with God in the cool of the evening. So there was a real relationship, and they literally walked with God.

Prayer is a way that we bridge that gap now. Sin separated humanity from God, but the Good News of the Gospel reminds us that Jesus has made a way for that relationship. We are now called to “walk in step with the Spirit”

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” - Galatians 5:16

We look forward to the day we read about in Revelation when God will once again finally dwell with humans again and we will fully walk with God. But until then, prayer makes it possible to walk with God now.

2. Speaking to God (Moses, Exodus)

Prayer obviously includes speaking. I love the relationship that the book of Exodus describes between God and Moses.

“The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend.” Exodus 33:11

Prayer is how we communicate with God. We are able to pour out our hearts to God. We are able to share our hurts, our hopes, and our needs. We pray because we have a God who listens and responds. We pray to a God who actually feels something when we pray and is motivated to respond.

3. Listening to God (Jesus and the Shepherds Voice)

Then finally, prayer is listening to God. I won’t go too deep into this, because Kevin will go more fully into this here in a little bit. But as Christians we serve a speaking God. Jesus tells us that He is the good shepherd and the sheep know his voice.

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” John 10:27

We listen because we expect to hear from God.

All of this (walking, listening, speaking) are all means to an end. That end is to dwell with God. That is our hope for this weekend: to dwell with God. To understand how to pray and the purpose of prayer more than we did before this weekend. But not only to understand, but to actually practice and experience prayer differently perhaps than we have before.

Discussion:

Break up into groups of 3-5 people, and discuss what stood out to your from the sessions.

What stood out to you from session 1?

What hinders you from prayer?