Lessons About Prayer From Life's Battlefield Series

Prayer part 1

LESSONS LEARNED ON LIFE’S BATTLEFIELD

There are times when the walk of the Christian is difficult. It is difficult to live in community, it is difficult to pray, to read your bible and be responsible.

This is so difficult that the government has to run ads on television reminding us to ‘Act, Commit and Belong’. Because living life with others is good but difficult.

So it is with talking with God. It is hard to trust a God that is constantly requiring you to improve. It is also hard to trust a God that doesn’t help you improve. What do you do?

So I would like to start with a joke before I start on an important issue.

A journalist was assigned to the Jerusalem bureau of his newspaper. He gets an apartment overlooking the Wailing Wall. After several weeks he realizes that whenever he looks at the wall he sees an old Jewish man praying vigorously.

The journalist wondered whether there was a publishable story here. He goes down to the wall, introduces himself and says: "You come every day to the wall. What are you praying for?"

The old man replies: "What am I praying for? In the morning I pray for world peace, then I pray for the brotherhood of man. I go home, have a glass of tea, and I come back to the wall to pray for the eradication of illness and disease from the earth."

The journalist is taken by the old man's sincerity and persistence. "You mean you have been coming to the wall to pray every day for these things?"

The old man nods.

"How long have you been coming to the wall to pray for these things?"

The old man becomes reflective and then replies: "How long? Maybe twenty, twenty-five years."

The amazed journalist finally asks: "How does it feel to come and pray every day for over 20 years for these things?"

"How does it feel?" the old man replies. "It feels like I'm talking to a wall."

Exodus 17:8-16

I. They learned that a trial often comes on the heels of a victory

II. They learned that they could depend on God in battle

III. They learned the value of prayer

IV. They learned the importance of praying for one another

I. They learned that a trial often comes on the heels of a victory

Let me read some of the verses just before our main passage.

1 The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 So they quarrelled with Moses and said, "Give us water to drink."

Moses replied, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to the test?"

3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?"

4 Then Moses cried out to the LORD, "What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me."

5 The LORD answered Moses, "Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink." So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the LORD saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?" Exodus 17: 1 - 7

The children of Israel had just been blessed by the miracle of water from the rock.

If you feel like the devil always gets you right after something good has happened you are in good company.

a. Job

1 In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. ... He was the greatest man among all the people of the East. (Job 1:1)

Job later loses his children, money, health and friends

b. Waters of Marah

In Exodus 15:1 God has just released the people from captivity in Egypt.

1 Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD :

"I will sing to the LORD,

for he is highly exalted.

The horse and its rider

he has hurled into the sea.

For three days they travelled in the desert without finding water. ... 24 So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "What are we to drink?" Exodus 15: 23, 24