Breaking Out of Our Prayer Rut
Psalm 13:1-6
Two men were walking through a field one day when they spotted an enraged bull. Immediately they ran toward the nearest fence. The storming bull ran after them in hot pursuit, and they realized that they were not going to make it. Terrified, one man shouted to his friend, “Say a prayer, John. We’re in trouble ” John said, “I’ve never prayed out loud before. I don’t know what to say. “But you have to ” yelled his companion; “The bull is catching up to us.” “All right,” said John, as he ran with all his might; “I’ll say the only prayer I know. My father used to say it at the table: Oh Lord, for what we are about to receive, make us truly thankful.”
Sometimes in our Christian walk, we get like these men in our prayer lives in a number of ways. First of all, we only think about prayer when we are in so much trouble it is too late. Prayer has become our last defense so to speak. If I can’t fix it, and my friends can’t fix it, then I will take it to the Lord in prayer. Then, when we take it to the Lord, we come across our second problem. We realize that we don’t know how to pray or what to say. So, we just say that old familiar prayer like we talked about last week, and then we are left with the same questions each time. “Why does it seem like my prayers are not making it past the ceiling? Is God even hearing what I am saying? Is prayer even worth the effort?” This morning, we want to take a look at how we can break out of the prayer rut in our lives.
You know, being in a prayer rut is nothing new. Even David, a man after God’s own heart experienced a prayer rut from time to time. How do I know this? He wrote it down for us in his prayer journal that we like to call the Psalms. Let’s take a look at one of David’s dry times in Psalm 13:1-6.
How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? Look on me and answer, O Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death; my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall. But I will trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord for He has been good to me.
As you can see, David was in a rut. He was not sure if God was even hearing Him. So, what did he do? He kept praying, but not in the way you and I would expect. You see, our prayers are similar to Ivory Soap. The old commercial used to say that Ivory was 99 1/10% pure. Our prayers today are 99 1/10% about us and not about God. We pray for our health, our wealth, and our prosperity. We pray for sick loved ones. We pray for situations to occur that will make our lives easier. However, when we make our prayers all about us, and not about God, we are taking the power out of our prayers and will soon fall into the rut. We need to take a look at David’s prayer life and see the way that he prayed in the rest of the Psalms to help us to get out of the rut. This morning, we are going to take a look at five different types of prayer that will help you develop a more explosive and intimate prayer life. Let’s go to the Lord now to ask for His guidance.
Prayer Type #1: Confession (Psalm 51)
How many of you have ever done something wrong? How many of you have ever done something wrong and you didn’t get caught right away? As a teen, a once broke one of the windows in a garage in the neighborhood with my soccer ball. No one was around when it happened, so I was in the free and clear. If I just walked away, things would be all right, and I would probably never get caught. That seemed appealing at the time, so I took that route. I would not tell anyone. As I began to walk home confident in the fact that I was going to get away with this deed, something began to eat at me. I knew that sooner or later I was going to have to come face to face with my dad and I could either try to avoid him or tell him the truth. Finally, I decided to confide in my dad that I had done the deed. It was not easy, but I told him. He did not condemn me, but he did tell me to go and make it right with the neighbor. Even though I was scared to death to face the neighbor, I did and everything turned out to be all right. It turned out that the neighbor had already purchased new windows and was going to install them that week. Confessing the deed took the pressure of the whole world off of me.
In our prayer lives, we are up against the same kind of pressure when we do something wrong. Do we tell our Father or do we try and just forget about it and go on with life? Last week we talked about the fact that God is all knowing. He knows what we need before we ask Him. That is a great aspect of God, but it also means that God knows everything – good or bad. He knows the wrongs we commit on a daily basis. It does not cause God to love us any less, but it does cause a separation between a perfect, holy God and flawed, unholy man. Since God cannot even look upon sin, we must do something about it.
When David sinned against the Lord, he did something about it. He confessed his sin, and we are told about his confession in Psalm 51. He pleads with the Lord for mercy. He asks God to wash him whiter than snow. He implores God to create a clean heart and renew a right spirit within him. The reason for all of this confession is that unconfessed sin always creates a barrier that will hinder your prayers. We are reminded in James 5 that we are to confess our sins to one another if we are to be healed and that the prayers of a righteous man are powerful and effective. So, if your prayers feel as if they are not powerful and not effective, maybe there is some soul searching to do. Have you sinned against the Lord or against another person? Can you think of a place where you might have fell short? If there is sin in your life that is not confessed before the Lord, it will hinder your prayer life. The priests, when they entered into the presence of the Lord in the temple, had to cleanse themselves in the washbasin before they could enter. We must cleanse ourselves as well. Make it a priority to go before the Lord in a prayer of confession. Tell Him what you have done wrong – he already knows anyhow and still loves you. Ask for his forgiveness – it is unlimited. Bear your heart and soul to the Lord in confession and be restored.
Prayer Type #2: Thanksgiving (Psalm 75 & 100)
During the thanksgiving season, it is a tradition in my family that everyone write down on a piece of paper something they are thankful for. Then, we take turns guessing who wrote what on the papers. I recently came across a humorous tidbit about a group of housewives who did the same thing. They wrote down on a piece of paper what they were thankful for. Here are some of their answers.
1. I am thankful for automatic dishwashers because they make it possible for us to get out of the kitchen before the family comes back in for their after-dinner snacks.
2. I am thankful for husbands who attack small repair jobs around the house because they usually make them big enough to call in the professionals.
3. I am thankful for children who put away their things and clean up after themselves. They’re such a joy you hate to see them go home to their own parents
4. I am thankful for teenagers because they give parents an opportunity to learn a second language.
5. I am thankful for smoke alarms because they let you know when the turkey’s done.
These may seem like insignificant and humorous things, but it is always good to be a thankful person. It is getting close to Christmas, so it won’t be long until we are shopping for our loved ones. Now, I have found that it is very easy to shop for some people while others are almost impossible to buy for. Maybe they have everything already. Maybe they just have peculiar tastes. But, the most difficult people to buy gifts for are the ones that you know will not appreciate anything you get them. We all have one of these people in our family. No matter what you give them, it will be the wrong color, size, style or taste. As the years go by, it gets harder and harder to give to this person because they are not thankful.
I think sometimes, we are like that with God. He gives us so much everyday that we never thank Him for. We take for granted that we have a roof over our head and food in our cabinets and a healthy family. We let the day slip by and just assume that God knows we are thankful for the little stuff too. It’s easy to be thankful for the big things God gives us, but we will receive far more from the Lord if we have a thankful spirit even in the small stuff. As an experiment, make a list of everything possible that you can thank the Lord for. Then, go to Him in a prayer of thanksgiving for all that you have. I think that you will find that you will soon feel closer to God. Why is this? It is because we are reminded in Psalm 100 that we enter His gates with thanksgiving. After we remove the barrier of unconfessed sin, we are only free to enter into his gates by being thankful. When we do this in our prayers, we will enter into a deeper relationship with the Father.
Prayer Type #3: Adoration & Praise (Psalm 8 & 135)
Gentlemen, I want to let you in on a little secret this morning. Do you know what the number one thing women want out of their marital relationship? In a recent survey, the number one answer was that they want to know they are loved. How do we do that? One of the simplest ways is by telling them how much we love and appreciate them.
Now, as great as our wives can be, they still are not as good and as lovely as God is. So, we should try just as hard to let the Lord know how much we love Him as we do our wives. This week in Bible study, we sang a great chorus that I have not sung in awhile. The words go like this:
Let’s just praise the Lord, praise the Lord
Let’s just lift our hearts toward heaven and praise the Lord
Let’s just praise the Lord, praise the Lord
Let’s just lift our hearts toward heaven and praise the Lord
This song has a powerful message. Sometimes, in our prayer lives, we need to remove all of our complaints, requests, and what not and just simply praise the Lord. He is worthy of our praise. Look at the miracles He has performed. Look at his goodness and kindness and mercy that he has shown us by offering free salvation. Look at his compassion by taking our place on the cross. If God is not worthy of praise, I don’t know what is!
David used many of the Psalms just to praise God. In Psalm 8 he say, “Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your Name in all the earth.” In Psalm 135, He praises the goodness of God. There are many attributes and qualities to praise the Lord about, and we should never cease to have a praise about our Lord and King on our lips. As you lift a prayer of praise to God, you may want to sing to Him a song or hymn that you love. You may want to read a piece of Scripture that offers praise to our God. You may want to just call Him by His many Names in the Scripture. Whatever you do, you need to tell the Lord how much you love Him. A prayer of nothing but praise is a great way to do this, and you will find that it will greatly increase the intimacy of your relationship.
Prayer Type #4: Seeking God’s Will (Psalm 63)
The captain of the ship looked into the dark night and saw faint lights in the distance. Immediately he told his signalman to send a message" "Alter your course 10 degrees south." Promptly a return message was received: "Alter your course 10 degrees north." The captain was angered; his command had been ignored. So he sent a second message: "Alter your course 10 degrees south--I am the captain! "Soon another message was received: "Alter your course 10 degrees north--I am seaman third class Jones. "Immediately the captain sent a third message, knowing the fear it would evoke: "Alter your course 10 degrees south--I am a battleship. "Then the reply came "Alter your course 10 degrees north--I am a lighthouse."
We love to make our own plans, but sometimes things aren’t what they seem. We try to do things one way, but it doesn’t turn out the way we had hoped. Now, God has a perfect plan for our lives if we will submit to it, but we sometimes get a bit big for our britches and think we can take it from here. We become like the captain of the ship, and we try to get an unchangeable God to change just like the captain tried to get an unmovable lighthouse to move. If we are to live the life God intended for us, we must know his will. In order to know the will of God, we must become a seeker in our prayer lives. We must be willing to ask God questions and see where he is leading us. We must have a spirit like David in Psalm 63 where he says, “earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you.” It is OK to ask God where he wants you to go and what he wants you to do. Questions such as, “God, what are you up to” and “what do you want from me” are very valid and Biblical. After we have removed sin, entered with thanksgiving, and given God our praise, we will have a close enough relationship through prayer to have the answers to these types of questions revealed.
Prayer Type #5: Waiting in Silence (Psalm 46 & 27)
Phillip Brooks, a famous pastor of the last century, was in his office, pacing the floor, frustrated. Somebody walked in and saw him and asked, "What’s the matter, pastor?" He said, "I’m in a hurry and God isn’t!"
We are a culture that is constantly in a hurry and wants things now. We have fast food, instant oatmeal, minute rice, high speed internet, 1 hour photo developing and much, much more. A few weeks ago as we waited in the drive through at McDonalds, I became perturbed because we had to wait so long for our food to be ready. As I looked at the clock, I realized I had only waited for less than 6 minutes! We are an impatient people that refuse to wait for anything.
The same is true when it comes to prayer, and we try to make God the same as Burger King. They promise it “Your way, right away”, but God is not like that. This is a good thing however. If we always got things our way right away, we would be in a world of trouble because God knows everything and we only think we do. We need to learn how to wait in silence.
If I were to stop preaching right now and declare that we sit in silence before the Lord, many of us would feel uncomfortable. Many of us, including myself, are uncomfortable with silence. We always have the radio or television on. We are constantly trying to find the next thing we will be doing so we can avoid waiting. This is engrained into our heads because our culture is always on the go. God told David however in Psalm 46 to “Be still and know that I am God.” Also, in Psalm 27, we are told to wait for the Lord. Why do we do this? If we never wait for the Lord and sit in silence, how do we ever expect to hear from God? I challenge you this week to just sit at the feet of Jesus and wait expectantly at His feet.
I hope you will take these steps to break out of your prayer rut if you are in one. Prayer is powerful and intimate if we let it be. As we seek to enter confession, thanksgiving, adoration, seeking God’s will, and silence into our prayer lives, they will be forever changed. We will have prayers that may sound like one I heard from a preacher in Mississippi. He said,
“Oh Lord, give Thy servant this mornin’ the eyes of the eagle and the wisdom of the owl; connect his soul with the gospel telephone in the central skies; ‘luminate his brow with the Sun of heaven; possess his mind with love for the people; turpentine his imagination, grease his lips with ‘possum oil, loosen his tongue with the sledge hammer of Thy power; ‘lectrify his brain with the lightnin’ of the word; put ‘petual motion on his arms; fill him plum full of the dynamite of Thy glory; ‘noint him all over with the kerosene oil of Thy salvation and SET HIM ON FIRE. Amen!” I pray this morning that these steps will be followed and that each one of us will have a prayer life that is set on fire. Let’s pray.
