Are You Looking For A Prayer That Works Part 2

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Pastor Ed Pruitt

ARE YOU LOOKING FOR A PRAYER THAT WORKS PART 2

Sunday July 8 2007

1 Peter 5:6-11 (NLT)

6 So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor.

7 Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.

8 Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.

9 Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your Christian brothers and sisters all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are.

10 In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation.

11 All power to him forever! Amen.

Because of its importance, the first kind of prayer we want to examine is the prayer of casting your cares upon the Lord.

Through this type of prayer, you can take everything that’s worrying you, tie it all up in a bundle and give it to God.

You can take your cares to His throne, leave them with Him, trusting Him to deal with them for you, and walk away from them completely carefree.

The reason we must learn this kind of prayer first is simple.

If you don’t know how to pray this prayer, many of your

other prayers will be rendered ineffective.

That’s because every effective prayer you will ever pray must be based on your faith in the Word of God.

And Jesus warned us in Matthew 13:22 that the worries and cares of this world will choke out the Word you’ve put in your heart.

Let’s say, for example, that you’ve been praying for your child.

You’ve based your prayer on Isaiah 54:13 (NLT)

13 I will teach all your children,

and they will enjoy great peace.

The more you meditate on that Word, the stronger your faith becomes.

You are praying effective prayers because

you have an inner image of that Word coming

to pass in your child’s life.

In your heart, you see him learning from God, serving Him and living a peaceful, godly life.

But then, let’s say, your child gets into some trouble.

Maybe he starts running around with the wrong kinds

of kids.

You have some genuine concern about the problems

he’s creating for Himself, so you start to worry.

Before you know it, you’re walking around wringing

your hands and thinking,

Oh my, if that boy doesn’t straighten up,

he’s going to end up getting involved with drugs.

He’s going to end up in jail.

He’s going to end up throwing his whole life away.

The more you worry, the less power the Word

will have on your thoughts.

Like Jesus said, those cares will come up like weeds

and thorns and choke out that inner image of Isaiah 54

and replace it with an image of that child in jail.

Fear will strangle your faith, and your prayers for your child will become powerless.

When you understand that devilish progression,

you’ll see why Jesus so strongly admonished

us not to worry.

He didn’t make it a suggestion.

He made it a command, because when you worry,

you’re giving the Devil the place in your life that

the Word is supposed to have.