P.u.s.h. Prayer

Stand & Read - 1 Thes. 5:17

“…pray without ceasing…”

“P.U.S.H. Prayer!”

I am thoroughly convinced that we are to be a praying people…

We are called to be people who are serious about pray and busy about praying continually in our lives…

Smith Wigglesworth once said, “I don’t want to build anything about myself, but it is truly true that if you found me outside of conversation with man, I am in conversation in God.”

Wigglesworth found it possible in his life to be in continual communion or prayer with God…

And the same is what God desires of us…

To pray is to abide in God’s presence…continually crying out for His grace and continued blessing…

-But “continually” does not mean that we are to be constantly uttering formal prayers…

-It does imply though that we are to be involved in recurrent prayer of all kinds…in all occasions throughout the day…

-Offering up prayer to God throughout the day and going to Him with your cares and concerns…

I am also convinced of one other thing…

…That we are not to be discouraged about praying to God…

Why???

-There are times that we do pray and we do come to God with our concerns and problems…

-There are times when we have a delayed answer in prayer…

And I don’t want you to loose heart in praying to God, because He IS a God who answers prayer!

And I want to emphasis a thought to you this evening…

I want to encourage you to PUSH Prayer in your life!

What I mean when I say, PUSH Prayer…

Is that we need to Pray Until Something Happens…Pray…

-Thus, Pray without ceasing in our lives…!

Ephes. 6:18

“With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit…”

Prayer is a major weapon in our arsenal of spiritual warfare…

Prayer is not be taken lightly…

-But when we are discouraged about prayer, its strength, and its possibilities in our lives…

-It can be weakened and rendered useless in us because we will tend to NOT run to God in prayer when we need to…

You see…if we find that the prayers that we are offering up to God are useless, we will pray less frequently…eventually not praying at all…

And that is exactly where the enemy wants us to be…

-Rendered useless along with our prayers…

-Riddled with doubt, fear and hesitation…

Friends…don’t doubt prayer and God’s answers to them…

God WILL answer prayer!

However, we must remain faithful to praying to God too!!!

That is why it is said that we must “PUSH” prayer…

-Sometimes we have to have that nudge and shove along the way…so PUSH IT!

I am reminded of the man in Luke 11:5-10 who went to his friend in the middle of the night looking for a loaf of bread…let’s read it…

“And He said to them, "Suppose one of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight, and say to him, ’Friend, lend me three loaves; [6] for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; [7] and from inside he shall answer and say, ’Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ [8] "I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs. [9] "And I say to you, ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. [10] "For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it shall be opened.”

Jesus was teaching His disciples about prayer…in fact, He had just given the “Lord’s Prayer” to them, and is talking about prayer further…

He helps them to understand that Prayer is important…prayer is communication with God…and that Boldness is necessary in prayer…

This man that went in the middle of the night was definitely bold…but this man was also persistent in prayer…

-This is a picture to us about how we should be in prayer to…

Hebrews tells us that we are to come BOLDLY to the throne of grace…and Daniel in his delayed answer to his prayer ordeal taught us to be persistent…

That is what we need to learn for ourselves tonight!

I beseech you to NOT become discouraged in praying to the Lord…

I encourage you to NOT become weary in going to God with your concerns…

-Remain faithful…

-Your answer may be just a prayer away now!

Keep PUSHing Prayer in your life my friend…