Pray Without Ceasing

2. It helps us to be open and honest.

a. I grow sick and tired of all the fake masks that people put on in the church.

b. A daily prayer time will help us to be humble. Many people are pretending to be something they are not. Fake.

c. Had an elder come up to me… Finally started having a daily prayer time with his wife. The best decision we ever made. Open and honest. I dare say that a lot of that came from his devotional life.

d. A preacher friend of mine was trying to have the elders and deacons come together just for a time of prayer. One man, a long time elder, refused to come and said that he had more important things to do than to go to some kind of touchy feely meeting. Later if was found out that he had numerous family problems and that eventually that family broke up. I dare say that a lot of his problems came from a lack of taking his relationship with God and with others seriously.

e. If we are open and honest with God, it will help us to be open and honest with our family and with our church.

f. I used to journal my prayer time and I got away from it. Went back and read some of the prayers, and I was shocked at how open and honest I was with God. I shared feelings and thoughts with Him that some might consider blasphemous. I am still here. I feel that I am better off for it.

3. It will keep us from sinning.

a. If you have some bad habit or some habitual sin, to have a time of confession with God will do you a world of good. Either we will keep on praying and stop sinning, or we will keep on sinning and stop praying.

b. When I was a teenager and a 20 something, I had a bad habit, more than a bad habit it was habitual sin. Satan had set up a stronghold in my life. I prayed about it to the Lord. The Lord seemed to say, after you give into this sin, take 10 minutes and pray about it with me, just this issue. It changed me. I was so humiliated and embarrassed and so hurt, that I quit sinning. This problem I still wrestle with from time to time, but when I take it to the Lord and feel the guilt and displeasure of my best friend, Jesus Christ, I must stop.

c. Just notice when you go through a time of temptation and sin, how often you pray?

4. It will help us in our service.

a. I often grow frustrated when new Christians come in and I want them to get involved with some service with the community or church.

b. Again, we need to get them into the Word and into prayer. If we do that, we don’t have to worry about prodding them to get involved in some service. Most of the time, they will come to us. Cannot help but get involved.

c. The desire is there and also God will put them into an area of service that is best suited for them. Many times will not be the area we need them in, but God has a much better placement service than we do.

d. Joyful and satisfied in their service, and God will put them in the place that will be most effective for the church and the Kingdom!

e. My twin boys were born. Little time to visit…

f. Peter Marshall prayed, “Forgive us for thinking that prayer is a waste of time, and help us to see that without prayer, our work is a waste of time.”