Making A Steadfast Commitment

Introduction

We must make a steadfast commitment to God that we will communicate to him in prayer on regular basics.

There are pitfalls when trying to make a commitment to God.

PITFALLS

1) Seeking the flesh

2) Seeking wrong council

3) Impatience

4) Doubt

5) Pressures

a) Internal

b) External

Scripture

7 Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Matthew 7:7-8

Prayer

SEVEN THINGS TO DO

1) Cleansing John 15:3/Psalms 66:18

I have heard people say: I have asked God to forgive me, but I still feel dirty.

John 15:3

You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

If you are not daily in the Word of God then how can you hear from the Lord?

Do you still harbor sin in your life? That sin the you don’t want anyone to know?

Psalms 66:18

If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened;

Failure to spend time daily with the Lord leaves your soul unchanged and harboring sin in your live will keep God from speaking to you!

2) Surrendering I Peter 5:6 and read Philippians 2:5-8 together

The first step to hearing from God is to surrender that time you hold on too. Those few minutes each morning that you hold on to so dearly, 1 Peter 5:6 says; Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.

I have heard some people say; I don’t read the Bible daily, but I still believe in God and I still pray to him.

Is that not an attitude of pride?

I speak to God but I really am not interested in what he has to say!

You see without the Word of God in your heart, then there is no way God can speak to you.

Some may say those are harsh words, I don’t think I want to accept what you have just said.

However, Philippians 2:5-8 says; Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Christ Jesus never missed a day without spending time with the Word of God, meditating on it and speaking to the Father.

You may say, well that was Jesus Christ the son of God, that is different.

However, 1 Peter 5:6 says; [6] Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

[7] but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

[8] And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross!

Jesus Christ never asked us to do anything that he had not already experienced.

3) Asking I John 5:14-15

There is a must when asking the Father for something.

1 John 5:14-15 says; This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

[15] And if we know that he hears us--whatever we ask--we know that we have what we asked of him.

First it must be the will of the Father and secondly we must believe that if we ask according to his will we will receive it.

4) Meditating Psalms 119:105

Many are confused about meditating. They think that meditating is thinking about God.

However, meditating is meditating on the Word of God and one cannot meditate on the Word of God unless they have put the Word of God to memorization.

That is to say we have hid it in our hearts and why would we want to do that?

Well Psalms 119:105 says; Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.

Without the Word of God in our hearts the path of life is filled with darkness and we continue to stumble, wonder off, and even stop walking.

5) Believing Mark 11:22-24

Making a steadfast commitment requires faith, faith that that God will answer your prayers.

Mark 11:22-24

Have faith in God, Jesus answered.

[23] I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, Go, throw yourself into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.

[24] Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

6) Waiting Isaiah 64:4

One must come to the realization that God’s time is not the same as our time. His ways are not our ways. We must be willing to wait upon the Lord.