Prayer Series

James 4:1-2 Prayer

As you’re finding your way to James chapter 4, I want to talk to you this morning about prayer. You know, prayer is one of our greatest privileges. Imagine, bring able to talk to the Creator, the Lord of everything, and having Him involved in your life, and in the things going on in your life! Imagine the great privilege we have of addressing the Creator of all things, and asking Him to help in our situations and to help us with our difficulties.

As the song writer once said, “What a privilege to carry. Every thing to God in prayer.”

What a privilege it is to be able to pray.

But, not only is prayer a privilege, but it is also a great responsibility. In his farewell address to the people, the prophet Samuel said in 1 Samuel 12;23

> 1 Samuel 12:23 “As for me, I vow that I will not sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you.”

You see prayer is a great privilege, but it is also a great responsibility. Paul tells us in

> 1 Thessalonians 5:17 Pray without ceasing”

When we think of the great needs in the world, when we think of all of the lost, when we think of the suffering of fellow Christians around d the world, we begin to realize that we have a great responsibility.

In his letter to the church in Ephesus, Paul talks about spiritual warfare, and the struggle we have against unseen forces. We see that all around us. There is no way, no natural human way we could possibly see the blindness and stupidity we see in the world today if the devil and his henchmen were not at work.

So Paul tells us to put oil our spiritual armor, and then he says

> Ephesians 6:18 Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints.

We can never overstate the importance of prayer. We can never overstate the importance of praying for one another.

Sp prayer is a privilege and it is important. But James presents us with a couple of problems in his letter. And remember now, James is a preacher, trying to help young struggling Christians like you and i. There in James 4 beginning in verse 1 he writes,

- Read James 4:1-3

In this passage, James points out 2 major problems with prayer, or 2 major prayer problems. First honestly, sometimes we simply don’t pray.

I. LACK OF PRAYER

There are a lot of reasons we don’t pray.

1. We don’t see the importance of praying

Sometimes, we don’t see the importance of praying. We simply don’t realize how important it is that we pray. We don’t realize the importance of asking God to get involved in a situation, or we don’t realize how much He wants to bless us. Do you remember what the Lord told Jeremiah in Jeremiah 33:3?

> Jeremiah 33:3 Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and incomprehensible things you do not know.

Do you think the Lord says that only of Jeremiah? Aren’t you a Christ-loved, blood-bought member of God’s family with the ability and the right to approach the heavenly Father as Abba, Daddy?

> Matthew 7:11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him.

George Mueller, that great prayer warrior of years ago, kept a prayer journal. In it he recorded 25,000 specific prayers he made that God answered. Can you imagine? 25,000 specific answered prayers!

What a different place the world would be today, if only more of us saw the importance of prayer.

Sometimes we don’t see the importance of praying.

2. Sometimes we don’t pray because we are busy and distracted

This is a great tactic of the Devil. He wants to keep us busy and distracted.

> Psalm 127:1-2 Unless the Lord builds a house, its builders labor over it in vain; unless the Lord watches over a city, the watchman stays alert in vain.In vain you get up early and stay up late, working hard to have enough food— yes, he gives sleep to the one he loves.

Oh my. The Devil loves to keep us busy, doesn’t he? Now, we can’t simply pray for a post to be planted and sit there and wait for the Lord to dig the hole We must be involved in what the Lord’s doing.

- Read James 2:15-17

We must be involved in what the Lord is doing, but sometimes if we would pray more about it, the Lord would help so that we didn’t have to do it all ourselves. God wants to bless His children.