Luke 11:1 KJV And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.
Jeremiah 29:13 KJV And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
l. INTRODUCTION – LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY
-The third element of grasping, or perhaps discovering, the elements of prayer involves the costliness of prayer.
• How much does it cost to learn the pray?
• How much effort will be exerted in our lives for this incredible blessing of simply being able to pray?
• How much am I personally willing to trade for a prayer life that touches heaven?
• How long will it take to become a man of prayer who is able to move within the realms of the Spirit?
• How much am I willing to truly give to the “spirit” of prayer?
-Prayer cannot be measured by miles. Prayer cannot be measured by knots. Prayer cannot be measured with the sounding of the fathoms. The array of prayer cannot be understood by the instrumentation of space travel. Prayer is not measured by the boundaries of maps.
-However, prayer can be measured in the willingness of a man’s spirit to truly pay the price in prayer. Prayer can be measured by one’s self-sacrifice of an easy comfortable life.
-Prayer can be measured by a response to God’s demand of obedience. Prayer can be measured by “groanings” that cannot be uttered. Prayer can be measured when one will be willing to pour out the bitterness of the soul.
-Pray can be measured when men who have been wronged are willing to take their complaint to God instead of men. Prayer can be measured when a man is willing to pray through his own discouragement and seek God’s anointing.
-Prayer can be measured when a man is willing to allow himself to be transformed by the Spirit. Prayer can be measured when we seek for God to remove the spiritual barrenness from our lives.
-Prayer can be measured when it is pursued in dealing with tragedy. Prayer can be measured when it is sought as a refuge.
-Ultimately from all of these examples we find that prayer is drawn out of a man’s spirit when he is forced to pray the price. Prayer involves a costliness.
-While most are willing to pay a certain price for tangible goods, prayer is different in that often the things that we are praying for are not tangible goods. Our praying if often for the unseen.
-Prayer that is motivated by the materialistic is often self-centered and not what God really has in mind for the Church. For we find that the kingdom of God is not meat and drink but rather righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost (Romans 14:17).
ll. THE REAL COST OF PRAYER
Seneca -- There is nothing so costly as to those things that we purchase by prayer.
-When we initially run across this saying, there is somewhat of an immediate dismissal of such a statement. We dismiss it because we revert back to the words of the Lord, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”
-In consideration of these words, we wonder what could be more difficult than simply asking and what could cost less than simply knocking on the door of heaven?
-Yet in the whole theology of prayer there is a much wider scope of this one single instruction given by the Lord. When we began to consider the costliness of prayer several things find a need to be addressed.
A. The Cost of Time
-A man who develops a life of prayer will be forced to embrace the cost of time. Frequently we use Daytimers, Palm Pilots, and other methods to facilitate time management. In fact there are many in this generation who find that time is of much more value to them than money or possessions would ever be.
-A very wise man is the man who truly understands this principle. Those who are the most concerned about their time are the men who effect eternity the most.
-Whether we wish to make this analogy or not, every man, if he is breathing is currently spending his life on a sort of death row. We all are awaiting the grave. Therefore, this concept of time has to be carefully spent in means that are effective.
-When one generally divides his day, he thinks, I have a certain amount of time allotted for work, for rest, for recreation, for meals, and so on. In the process of defining the schedule, men often leave out the necessity of prayer, meditation, devotion, and reading.
-But, if a man can every truly commit to a life of prayer, reading, and devotion an amazing thing happens. He suddenly finds that the inroads of the soul and the pattern of a schedule will be interrupted by a much higher calling of life. Hours of recreation, of work, of leisure, of pleasure, and even of sleep.
-How wonderful are the callings of prayer when we are summoned into the late hours of the night or to be stirred from an early morning slumber because something is occurring in the soul.
-When we analyze time, God really has no need of our hours. He takes no pleasure in taxing our time either during the day or in the night. The real truth of the matter is that He does find the confines of time to challenge Him. He is not constricted by time as men are.
-God operates on the concepts of eternity, for He inhabits eternity. Time does not shackle Him, it is man whom time constrains.
-To pursue the elements of eternity are far greater than to pursue the limits of time. What are you living for, time or eternity?
-Man is a whole different creature from God and therefore, it is men who must take time to pray. Sometimes it will take a long, relentless time to prepare our hearts for God. The real necessary pursuit if for the presence of God.
-Some men find the night times to be the greatest times for the soul. Others find the early mornings to be the time for the soul. Our time now is our own.
-Real prayer, world-changing prayer, life-changing prayer, in fact any prayer is going to cost you time.
B. The Cost of Thought
-One must understand that it does not take a brilliant man to pray. One does not need to have a large summary of educational experiences to pray but I do believe that one must have some commanding of his thoughts when he kneels to pray.
-It is amazing that we can spend so much learning about other people to have a meaningful and important conversation with them. That is perhaps why the conversation lasts longer because we know something about the interests, the preferences, and the important things of that person’s life.
-When it comes to prayer there is little if any thought given to a knowledge of God.
-Take any man of prayer and you will hear and see a nobility that comes to their prayers. They know how to pray because they know their God. That is why that for prayer to be effective a man has to know his God.
• Look at the Psalms -- There are vast amounts of devotional thoughts to take to prayer.
• Look at John 17 -- There are heights and depths of self-surrender to take to prayer.
• Look at Ephesians -- Look at the intercessory prayers of Paul for that church.
• Look at Colossians -- Look at the majesty and exaltation of Jesus Christ.
• Look at the phrases of Paul’s prayers -- “Now unto the King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, the Only Wise God. (1 Tim. 1:17)” or “The Blessed and Only Potentate, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords. Who hath immortality dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto: whom no man hath seen, nor can see.”
-I am convinced that one of the reasons that so few have a vibrant prayer life is because they do not know who God is.
• There is little knowledge of the holy.
• There is little knowledge of the sacred.
• There is little knowledge of the Word.
• There is little understanding of thankfulness.
-Look to the benefits of prayer and you will find that any cost involved is well worth the investment.
2 Chronicles 6:35-42 KJV [35] Then hear thou from the heavens their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause. [36] If they sin against thee, (for there is no man which sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them over before their enemies, and they carry them away captives unto a land far off or near; [37] Yet if they bethink themselves in the land whither they are carried captive, and turn and pray unto thee in the land of their captivity, saying, We have sinned, we have done amiss, and have dealt wickedly; [38] If they return to thee with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, whither they have carried them captives, and pray toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, and toward the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house which I have built for thy name: [39] Then hear thou from the heavens, even from thy dwelling place, their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause, and forgive thy people which have sinned against thee. [40] Now, my God, let, I beseech thee, thine eyes be open, and let thine ears be attent unto the prayer that is made in this place. [41] Now therefore arise, O LORD God, into thy resting place, thou, and the ark of thy strength: let thy priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation, and let thy saints rejoice in goodness. [42] O LORD God, turn not away the face of thine anointed: remember the mercies of David thy servant.
C. The Cost of the Will
-Perhaps the most costly aspect of prayer is to be able to say, “thy will be done.” When we enter our own personal Gethsemane that is the real test of our desire to pray.
-It is forced upon us when we fall the ground and our faces are pressed into the dirt. Gethsemane brought blood to the brow of the Lord.
• Why is it that we shrink back so much from “not my will, but thy will”?
• Why do our well tailored clothes hinder us from finding a place of prayer that will wrinkle our clothes and crown our souls?
• Why do we resist a place of prayer that is going to lead us to a Cross instead of an escape?
• Why is there a hesitation to pray the price?
-It is because that once we get to that point we have entirely relinquished our rights and preferences. When a man finally can come to the place and pray such a prayer, his soul is really going to be set free.
-This prayer cannot be finally prayed in:
• Bitterness.
• Gloom.
• Envy.
• Resignation.
-This prayer has to be prayed in:
• Faith.
• Love.
• Longing for God’s will.
• Hunger for God’s purpose.
-This sort of prayer prepares us to hear these words:
Matthew 25:21 KJV His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
D. The Cost of Repentance
-Another that comes with prayer is the requirement for us to repent of our sins and transgressions. Secret sins have to be ferreted out by the Spirit of God. The darkness of our hearts has to have the light brought to it.
-The longer that sin remains a lodger in our wayward heart, then the harder it will become to pray.
-One said it like this:
Now, I saw that there would be no answer to me till I had entire purity of conscience, and no longer regarded any iniquity whatsoever in my heart. I saw that there were some secret affections still left in me that were spoiling all. I passed nearly twenty years of my life on this stormy sea, constantly tossed with the tempest of my own heart, and never nearing the harbor. I had so sweetness in God, and certainly no sweetness in sin. All my tears did not hold me back from sin when the opportunity returned; till I came to look on my tears as little short of a delusion. And yet they were not a delusion. It was the goodness of the Lord to give me such compunction, even when it was not, as yet, accompanied with complete reformation. But the whole root of my evil lay in my not thoroughly avoiding all occasions and opportunities of sin. I spent eighteen years in that miserable attempt to reconcile God and my life of sin. Now, out of all that, I will say to you, never cease from prayer, be your life ever so bad. Prayer is the only way to amend your life: and without prayer, it will never be amended. I ought to have utterly and thoroughly distrusted, and suspected and detested myself. I sought for help. I sometimes took great pains to get help. But I did not understand of how little use all that is unless we utterly root out all confidence in ourselves, and place our confidence at once, and for ever, and absolutely, in God. Those were eighteen most miserable years with me. (From Lord, Teach Us To Pray, p. 200, Alexander Whyte, published Oct. 1922)
Psalms 66:18 KJV If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:
E. The Cost of Soft Habits
-Prayer is going to cost us our lazy, self-indulgent, and soft habits that keep us from the presence of God. I am almost certain that the vast majority of the American church’s lethargy comes from her own affluence, apathy, and luxury.
-Prayer cuts into “my schedule.” It takes me away from ____________ and I will allow you to fill in the blank.
Matthew 24:37-39 KJV But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. [38] For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, [39] And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
-I am fearful that there will come a day in our lives when we will wish that the whole entire scope and focus of our lives was prayer and communion with God. You need to pray now before a desperate situation in your life demands that you pray.
Andrewes -- Do I pray, do I pray—if not seven times a day as David, at least three times a day as Daniel? If not, as Solomon, at length, yet shortly as did the publican? If not like Christ, the whole night, at least for one hour? If not on the ground and in ashes, at least in my bed? If not in sackcloth, at least not in purple and fine linen? If not altogether freed from all other desires, at least freed from all immoderate, unclean, and unholy desires?
Lord. . . . Lord, please teach us to pray!
Philip Harrelson
barnabas14@yahoo.com
