Prayer (Part 3)

Prayer (3)

Scott Bayles, pastor

Adapted from a sermon by Max Lucado titled “Have you Prayed About It?”

Blooming Grove Christian Church: 3/15/2015

Two weeks ago we began this short series on prayer. Like I said before, we all pray. According to a poll reported in USA Today, nine out of ten Americans say they pray. 98% pray for their own families. 81% pray for the children of the world. 77% pray for world peace. 69% pray for their co-workers. Like I said, we all pray.

But wouldn’t we like to pray more? Better? Deeper? With more faith and fervency? Some of us could benefit from a gentle electrical jolt, reminding us to pray or a time-saving pre-recorded prayer for all occasions. Many of us have good intentions when it comes to prayer. But we get so busy and distracted that our prayer-life falls by the wayside. For some of us prayer is a last resort, when all else fails.

I heard about a church board meeting recently. Apparently there was more agitation than agreement, and after a lengthy discussion, a deacon suggested, “Why don’t we pray about it?” to which one of the elders replied, “Has it come to that?”

Maybe you can relate. Maybe your prayer life is about as consistent as the weather here in Illinois. So what do we do when we stumble upon a passage like this one:

“Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17 NKJV).

It’s hard for us to wrap our minds around this one. Pray without ceasing? As in all the time? Surely, God can’t be serious. Maybe another translation will let us off the hook:

“Pray continually” (1 Thessalonians 5:17 NIV).

“Pray constantly” (1 Thessalonians 5:17 HCSB).

“Never stop praying” (1 Thessalonians 5:17 NLT).

What do we do with passages like this? Is it even possible to pray unceasingly?

Many years ago Frank Laubach set out to discover the answer to that very question. Like us, Frank was busy. He authored several books, advised presidents, and traveled all over the globe speaking on the topics of literacy and world peace. He was also a committed Christian who loved God as much as any of us could. In a letter he sent to a friend he wrote: “Can we have contact with God all the time? All the time awake? Fall asleep in his arms and awake in his presence? I choose to make the rest of my life an experiment in answering this question.” He documented his experience in his journal.

Five months into his experiment, on May 14, 1930 Frank writes: “Oh this thing of keeping in constant touch with God, of making him the object of my thought and the companion of my conversation—this is the most amazing thing I have ever run across. It is working! I cannot do it even half a day; not yet. But I believe I shall be doing it some day for the entire day. It is a matter of acquiring a new habit of thought.” Ten days later he wrote this: “This concentration upon God is strenuous, but everything else has ceased to be so. I think more clearly. I forget less frequently. Things which I did with a strain before I now do easily and with no effort whatsoever. I worry about nothing. I lose no sleep. I walk on air a good part of the time… nothing can go wrong except one thing, and that is that God might slip from my mind.”

What do you make this experiment? What if you learned to pray without ceasing? What would you be like? Would people notice a difference? Your family—would they see something new? Your co-workers—would they sense a change? And how about you? What alterations would this unceasing prayer have on your stress levels? Your mood swings? Your temper? Would you sleep better? Would you see sunsets differently? Is it even possible?

I’m no expert on prayer. I’m certainly no Frank Laubach. But I’d like to share a few suggestions with you this morning that have helped me in my own prayer life. Four simple suggestions for getting started in your own unceasing-prayer experiment. First, give God your waking thoughts.

• WAKING THOUGHTS

I’m reminded of a mother who prayed: “Dear God, So far today I’ve done all right. I haven’t gossiped, I haven’t lost my temper, I haven’t been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish or over-indulgent. I’m very thankful for that. But in a few minutes, God, I’m going to get out of bed, and from then on, I’m probably going to need a lot of help. Amen.”

I don’t know about you, but I’ve said some similar prayers.

I think there’s something particularly important about praying first thing in the morning. It sets the whole tone for the day. Apparently, Jesus agreed. The Bible says, “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed” (Mark 1:35 NIV).