Prayer, Prayer and Prayer
Pastor Dan Little
The Landmark Church
Binghamton, NY 13901
adfontes.djl@gmail.com
01-01-2012
SCIPTURE READING
Matthew 6:9-13
9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. KJV
This is a new year, and I wonder if it will be as busy as last year.
It’s no secret that our lives are too busy. The pressure to become more efficient, produce more, buy more, get ahead and stay ahead is relentless. The trouble is as our this relentless pressure inflates are outer lives to such an extend that we almost no inner life left—no place for God.”
The results of this kind of life is very dark. Why? Because without a place for God we cannot live godly lives. William Carey put it this way; "Prayer - fervent, believing prayer - lies at the root of all personal godliness."
If Carey was right about the link between prayer and godliness (and I think he was and is), then is it any wonder that with increasing frequency we are hearing of tragic breakdowns between what Christians say and what they do?
What do you think of what Carey said? Is there any truth to it?
Would Carey still feel the same if he were alive today and had access to TV, personal computers, the web and unlimited information, eBooks, email, face book, etc.? Probably he would feel the same to power of 10.
Let me ask you something..
Just a few minutes ago when you heard the announcement that Sunday Evening, January 8, will be used for a time of special prayer did your flesh react the way mine did?
Mine told me that I have too much or maybe better things to do; things that will bring better and quicker results than an evening of corporate prayer. My flesh always says things like that when it hears that I am dragging it off to be at prayer either at my desk or with others.
On the subject of corporate prayer Leonard Ravenhill writes saying; “Let 20% of the chior members fail to turn up for rehearsal and the chior master is offended. Let 20% of the church members turn up for a prayer meeting, and the pastor is elated."
If you haven’t guessed, prayer is what I want to talk about today and next week as well—the first two Sundays of this new year.
We took for our Scripture reading "The Lord’s Prayer".
Contextually here in Matthew’ 6 this prayer falls in with a whole string of Jesus’ teachings that begin in chapter 5 with the beatitudes. But Luke records that Jesus used this same model prayer in another setting.
In Luke 11:1 we read that Jesus was "praying in a certain place", and after listening to Jesus pray His disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray. Jesus responded by giving them this same model prayer. How many of you think that being close enough to hear Jesus pray might make you want a lesson or two?
Pastor Robert Leroe, in a sermon on the Lord’s Prayer noted that the disciples didn’t ask Jesus how to preach or teach. Hearing Jesus pray made them aware that they needed help in the practice of prayer, and so they ask, “Lord teach us to prayer.”
The wonderful thing is that Jesus didn’t respond to the disciple’s request as if were a ridiculous thing to ask. And we know why!
Hebrews 4:15-16 tells us why Jesus was so tender and understanding of their request.
Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin . 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. ESV
Jesus knew from personal experience as a human that the world, the flesh, and the devil were all aligned to keep humans from entering into a life of prayer. In this way (and in everyway), Jesus is a sympathetic high priest. We may ask Him such things in absolute confidence. And so He treated their request with the utmost love and respect. Being fully man He thoroughly understood everything there is to know about opposition to prayer, but in being fully God He fully grasped its importance in each believer’s life, in the church and in the world.
For Jesus prayer was not something He did if He had time. He knew it was much more important for that. The Gospels make me think that He started each day with prayer and that He often stopped everything to take His disciples aside and pray—even when the disciples thought the ministry was on a roll that should not be interrupted.
Leroe in his sermon that I just quoted from, preached saying; “We tend to think of prayer like a spare tire. We are glad it’s there, but we hope we never have to use it.”
It is right to think of pray in times of emergency, but we need prayer for common daily bread. We need the fellowship of prayer moment by moment to be delivered from evil.
“We shouldn’t think of prayer as a spare tire. If anything we should think of prayer more like the steering wheel—something that must be attended to moment by moment.”
On the road your life (and the lives of others), depends on you and everyone giving careful attention to driving. That is true in your spiritual journey as well. How we drive (live) affects those around us.
Okay, fine! I (your pastor) am sitting up here saying godly things, but here is another question: Am I living a godly life? Paul said; 1 Corinthians 11:1 Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. KJV
Is it safe to follow me? Maybe we need bumper stickers for believers that say; “How is my driving?” Call 1-800-God.
I’m just saying… spiritually speaking, is it safe to drive like I drive? Will people end up in a wreck if the follow me?
Well, for one thing, I must never set myself up as the standard for anything. That kind of pride and arrogance opens the door to almost sure failure. I become a huge, bloated target drawing attention to myself as the standard. And then... well you know what happens then.
The teacher, preacher, church member who sets him or herself up as the standard for marriage or whatever, the whole bloated mess pops and there is carnage and ruin all over the place. I MUST remember and I MUST say that Christ is the only standard and it is ONLY save to follow me as I follow Him.
If I am not a man of prayer, if you are not a woman of prayer, it simply is not safe for anyone to follow us, no matter how smart we appear to be.
We must in spirit (if not in form) stay with the Jesus prayer; "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, be merciful to me a sinner." I must have Him for my daily bread or I become toxic and dangerous in short order.
I want now to have you look at some quotes about prayer. These quotes come mostly from believers who have lived and died before our time.
All them had much to say about prayer and lived lives of prayer.
But just before we look, let me say that God desires for people and congregations to pray way past the idea of prayer is for emergencies.
One thing you could very well discover is that if you only turn to God in emergencies—only when your confidence and your plans are shaken to their foundations, don’t be too surprised if you find that it is God Himself doing the shaking.
Why? Because if emergency praying is the only time God hears from you then He is quite capable of arranging emergencies just so He can hear from you. But know this, that it His desire to bring you way past emergency praying into fellowship praying. "Prayer, said W. S. Bowd, “is weakness leaning on omnipotence."
So from my collection of hundreds of quotes on prayer, here are 31 for your consideration.
1. On the subject of corporate prayer Leonard Ravenhill writes saying; “Let 20% of the chior members fail to turn up for rehearsal and the chior master is offended. Let 20% of the church members turn up for a prayer meeting, and the pastor is elated."
2. "Each time, before you intercede, be quiet first, and worship God in His glory. Think of what He can do, and how He delights to hear the prayers of His redeemed people. Think of your place and privilege in Christ, and expect great things!" Andrew Murray
3. "Beware in your prayers, above everything else, of limiting God, not only by unbelief, but by fancying that you know what He can do. Expect unexpected things ’above all that we ask or think.’" Andrew Murray
4. “Depend upon it, if you are bent on prayer, the devil will not leave you alone. He will molest you, tantalize you, block you, and will surely find some hindrances, big or little or both. And we sometimes fail because we are ignorant of his devices…I do not think he minds our praying about things if we leave it at that. What he minds, and opposes steadily, is the prayer that prays on until it is prayed through, assured of the answer.” Mary Warburton Booth
5. “The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray.” Samuel Chadwick.
6. "A prayerless soul is a Christless soul. Prayer is the lisping of the believing infant, the shout of the fighting believer, the requiem of the dying saint falling asleep in Jesus. It is the breath, the watchword, the comfort, the strength, the honour of a Christian" Charles H. Spurgeon
7. "There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful than that of a continual conversation with God." Brother Lawrence
8. “If we want to see mighty wonders of divine power and grace wrought in the place of weakness, failure and disappointment, let us answer God’s standing challenge, "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not!’" (J. Hudson Taylor)
9. "No learning can make up for the failure to pray. No earnestness, no diligence, no study, no gifts will supply its lack." E.M. Bounds
10. "Beware in your prayers, above everything else, of limiting God, not only by unbelief, but by fancying that you know what He can do. Expect unexpected things ’above all that we ask or think.’" Andrew Murray
11. "Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons, but they are helpless against our prayers." Sidlow Baxter
12. "Satan does not care how many people read about prayer if only he can keep them from praying. Paul E. Billheimer
13. "Don’t pray when you feel like it. Have an appointment with the Lord and keep it. A man is powerful on his knees." Corrie ten Boom
14. "You may as soon find a living man that does not breath, as a living Christian that does not pray." Matthew Henry
15. 29. "Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance, but laying hold of His willingness." Martin Luther.
16. “The man who mobilizes the Christian church to pray will make the greatest contribution to world evangelization in history.” Andrew Murray
17. "If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.” (Robert Murray McCheyne)
18. On persevering prayer: "I look at a stone cutter hammering away at a rock a hundred times without so much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the 101st blow it splits in two. I know it was not the one blow that did it, but all that had gone before."
19. "I never prayed sincerely and earnestly for anything but it came at some time; no matter at how distant a day, somehow, in some shape, probably the least I would have devised, it came." Adoniram Judson
20. "Our prayer must not be self-centered. It must arise not only because we feel our own need as a burden we must lay upon God, but also because we are so bound up in love for our fellow men that we feel their need as acutely as our own. To make intercession for men is the most powerful and practical way in which we can express our love for them." John Calvin
21. "We have to pray with our eyes on God, not on the difficulties." Oswald Chambers
22. "Faith in a prayer-hearing God will make a prayer-loving Christian." Andrew Murray
23. "Prayer breaks all bars, dissolves all chains, opens all prisons, and widens all straits by which God’s saints have been held." E. M. Bounds
24. "Prayer is my chief work, and it is by means of it that I carry on the rest." Thomas Hooker, Puritan
25. "...True prayer is measured by weight, not by length. A single groan before God may have more fullness of prayer in it than a fine oration of great length." C. H. Spurgeon
26. "If the Christian does not allow prayer to drive sin out of his life, sin will drive prayer out of his life. Like light and darkness, the two cannot dwell together." M.E. Andross
27. “What the church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use— men of prayer, men mighty in prayer" E.M. Bounds
28. "Our prayers lay the track down which God’s power can come. Like a mighty locomotive, his power is irresistible, but it cannot reach us without rails." Watchman Nee
29. "Ministers who do not spend two hours a day in prayer are not worth a dime a dozen - degrees or no degrees." Leonard Ravenhill
30. "Prayer is reaching out after the unseen; fasting is letting go of all that is seen and temporal. Fasting helps express, deepen, confirm the resolution that we are ready to sacrifice anything, even ourselves to attain what we seek for the kingdom of God." Andrew Murray
31. The Word of God represents all the possibilities of God as at the disposal of true prayer." A. T. Pierson
