Reconnecting With Prayer Series

Reconnecting with Prayer

Isaiah 40:27-31

9/8/13

Introduction

Video: Connecting with GOD through Prayer

 What if prayer is more about reconnecting than meetings, lists chains, requests, petitions, intercessions?

T.S. The Poet David gives us gives us a look at what we sacrifice when we do not reconnect with God in Prayer.

Ps 34:1-8

34 I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips.

2 My soul will boast in the Lord; let the afflicted hear and rejoice.

3 Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together.

1 Sam 21:1-22:1

21 David went to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech trembled when he met him, and asked, "Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?"

2 David answered Ahimelech the priest, "The king charged me with a certain matter and said to me, 'No one is to know anything about your mission and your instructions.' As for my men, I have told them to meet me at a certain place. 3 Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever you can find."

4 But the priest answered David, "I don't have any ordinary bread on hand; however, there is some consecrated bread here -- provided the men have kept themselves from women."

5 David replied, "Indeed women have been kept from us, as usual whenever I set out. The men's things are holy even on missions that are not holy. How much more so today!" 6 So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, since there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence that had been removed from before the Lord and replaced by hot bread on the day it was taken away.

7 Now one of Saul's servants was there that day, detained before the Lord; he was Doeg the Edomite, Saul's head shepherd.

8 David asked Ahimelech, "Don't you have a spear or a sword here? I haven't brought my sword or any other weapon, because the king's business was urgent."

9 The priest replied, "The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, is here; it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want it, take it; there is no sword here but that one."

David said, "There is none like it; give it to me."

10 That day David fled from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath. 11 But the servants of Achish said to him, "Isn't this David, the king of the land? Isn't he the one they sing about in their dances:

"'Saul has slain his thousands,

and David his tens of thousands'?"

12 David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath. 13 So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard.

14 Achish said to his servants, "Look at the man! He is insane! Why bring him to me? 15 Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me? Must this man come into my house?"

22 David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam.

NIV

4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me, he delivered me from all my fears.

5 Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.

6 This poor man called, and the Lord heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles.

7 The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.

8 Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

NIV

 FOUR THINGS I KNOW I SACRIFICE WHEN I'M NOT RECONNECTING WITH GOD IN PRAYER.

Overcoming the things that are standing between me and God

Vs. 4

I sought the Lord (implies separation).

Life does it's best to separate us from his presence. When we discover we're in the state seeking the presence gets us through the things that separate us.

David was feeling distant, abandoned overwhelmed.

HE ANSWERED ME.

The great secret of prayer is that God always comes through.

Experiencing the faithfulness of God even when circumstances stink

Vs.5

Prayer is more than twisting the arm of God to change circumstances. David is extoling the praise of God when Saul is huniting for his head. He has to hide behind the disguise of insanity in the place of his enemies yet declares, (with spit on his face) those who look to him are radiant, never shamed.

Discovering that peace is the sense of His presence in the midst of challenge