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INTRODUCTION:
Let me ask you a question….
Do you believe God answers prayer?
Do you believe that God can still part a Red Sea, that God can still heal the sick, that he can cause the blind to see, cause the lame to walk, and cause the most hardened hearts to change?
Do you believe that God can still turn people like Saul into someone like the Apostle Paul?
You know what … I do, and I want my life to be reflective of the power of God… a God who not only CAN answer prayers but who DOES answer prayers.
I want to talk to you this morning why we should pray and how we should pray and beg you to pray more.
I want to take a moment today and teach you about prayer. I have four simple points:
BODY:
WHY SHOULD WE PRAY?
1. Prayer is like spiritual breathing.
If you stopped breathing you’d stop living. Prayer is basically our spiritual breath. It’s how we stay connected with God. It’s how we talk to him and how he leads us and he responds to us.
The New Testament teaches that prayer isn’t just something we do occasionally; it’s something we do continually. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says, “pray without ceasing.”
You can pray because you want to or pray because you need to, but if you don’t pray your soul will never be healthy.
The 19th century British preacher, Charles Spurgeon once noted, “you don’t expect a plant to grow without air and water, how can you expect your heart to grow without prayer?”
When Jesus walked the earth, He was God. If anyone had an excuse not to pray it was Jesus; he already had everything He needed and all the power and provision in the world.
Yet the Gospels note that Jesus “often withdrew to lonely places to pray.” (Luke 5:16)
2. Prayer is how God changes us but it is also how he changes the world.
You might remember Roma Downey from the hit CBS show Touched by an Angel or – more recently – all the amazing Christian shows she and her husband Mark Burnett have been producing, television series like THE BIBLE and the feature film SON OF GOD.
She has a television series called Answered Prayers on TLC. It’s literally all about moments of divine intervention when God supernaturally steps into our lives, when he answers our prayers, when he saves us.
Friday she wrote a power article on Fox News, which said:
“If you believe in the power of prayer, would you please pray more?
More and more, I’m convinced that the world would be a much better place if we took prayer more seriously. Prayer is not just a spiritual practice, it’s the means by which God changes our lives and changes the world.
Prayer isn’t just helpful, it’s important.
Prayer is a responsibility each of us has to bring more of Heaven into this often broken world.
See, I believe that God doesn’t just hear our prayers, but that he answers them. I believe God is not just aware of us but that he is deeply concerned for us.
I believe that he intervenes in miraculous ways more often than we think, and that coincidence is often God’s way of remaining anonymous.
God is not only real and alive, he’s also at work in our lives. He is “a friend that sticks closer than a brother;” he is an “ever present help in our time of need,” and with him “all things are possible.”
I’ve never been more convinced of God’s power and I’ve never been more convinced that he answers prayer.”
Roma’s words that “prayer brings more of Heaven into this broken world” really struck me.
It reminded me of the The Book of Nehemiah, which records the story of the Israelites going back to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall around the city even while they remained in captivity at the hands of the fierce Babylonians. A conquering kingdom would NEVER let their captives rebuild their city, but Nehemiah 1:4 says that an Israelite – who worked for the King of Babylon – began to “fast and pray before the God of Heaven.”
When he started praying the world started changing.
Maybe this world is crazier and crazier because the church prays less and less.
3. Jesus told us we should pray.
When you ask “why should we pray” I shouldn’t forget to remind you that Jesus instructed us to pray. Luke 11:2 says, “when you pray, say: ‘Father hallowed be your name ….’”
Did you notice that word: “when”
He didn’t say “if”
He said “when.”
If you’re Christian you’re a praying person.
HOW SHOULD WE PRAY?
1. Pray with faith.
We often pray because we “hope” something will happen, but Hebrews 11:1 reminds us, “faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”
Jesus told us in Matthew 21:22 “If you believe, you will receive.”
God answers all of our prayers. Sometimes he says “yes” and sometimes he says “no” and sometimes he says “not now” but rest assured he is listening and he is answering but he is expecting us to pray believing that God CAN do anything.
When we pray, faith isn’t about what we get from God, it’s about what we think of God.
And every time you pray you need to believe that with “God all things are possible.”
2. Pray in the morning and in the evening and every moment in between.
Jesus gave us lots of practical advice about prayer, and he also gave us the example of his own life. Mark 1:35 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.”
Jesus began his day with prayer.
In Matthew 6:6 Jesus told us, “when you pray, go into your room and close the door.”
He knew that distraction was the enemy of prayer, and 2000 years ago he advised us to lock out the world when we lock into our time with God. Imagine how much more true this is today – in this digital age – than it was then?
The New York Daily News published an article in May based upon a study conducted by Microsoft. The conclusion? Americans now have an attention span less than a goldfish. Our attention span has decreased by 4 seconds since the year 2000.
Jesus’ advice is as good in the 21st century as it was in the 1st century.
If you don’t shut out the world when you pray, you have a hard time opening your heart to God.
This week, pray in the morning and pray in the evening and pray when you think of it in between.
A long time ago someone gave me some great advice on prayer, they said think of the word “ACTS” when you pray:
A-doration – give God praise
C-onfession – confess your sins
T-hanksgiving – thank God for his provision
S-upplication – bring God your requests
3. Pray honestly and authentically
You can be honest with God. You don’t have to have mastered old English, you don’t have to think before you speak. Hebrews 4:16 says you can boldly walk into the throne of grace and find help in your time of need.”
Jesus can take your emotions, your questions, your concerns. When you pray speak up what’s on your mind. God’s throne room is now a safe place for you.
"A man is what he is on his knees before God, and nothing more." Robert Murray M’Cheyene
WILL YOU PRAY MORE?
1. You need you to pray more, your family needs you to pray more, the world needs you to pray more.
Pray regularly, pray diligently, pray passionately, and pray prayers as big as your God.
When I think of praying for my family, I think of the spirit of a famous quote by E.M. Bounds, “Our praying needs to be pressed and pursued with an energy that never tires, a persistency which will not be denied, and a courage that never fails.”
2. You never know what your life might have been had you prayed more.
Jesus said something amazing to us in Matthew 7:7:
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” But what I want to make sure you understand is that the opposite is also true. If you don’t ask you won’t receive. If you don’t seek, you won’t find. If you don’t knock the door won’t be open to you.
We never know what our lives might have been had we prayed more.
3. Prayer is a blessing.
Get this discipline rooted deeply in your life, and it will not only change you it will draw you in. You will look forward to your next moment with God and you will see God move in power ways in your life.
Prayer is God’s way of performing miracles, it’s God’s way of changing the world, but none of that happens if Prayer isn’t a priority.
CONCLUSION/INVITATION:
I know some of you are going through a particularly difficult time. Perhaps you’re struggling with prayer because you’re struggling with faith.
Maybe a tragedy has happened in your life. Maybe you’re going through a time of relational, financial, or spiritual crisis.
Maybe you barely made it here today because you it’s difficult to find the strength to get out of bed.
Maybe you’re asking God, “why?”
While this morning’s sermon isn’t about answering that question, that’s for another sermon on another day, I would just say a few things to you ….
First, this is not the time to run away from prayer, but to run towards it. It’s not the time to run away from God but to run towards him.
C.S. Lewis wrote, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains.”
Rather than ask God “why?” why don’t you begin by asking yourself “who?” it is you are praying to.
1 Corinthians 13:12 says “Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” If we only know in part in the short term, it’s essential that we trust God in the short term. It’s only looking back that we’ll see in full and understand our present difficulties. Now is the time to trust Him.
The best thing you can do for your broken heart today is to get on your knees & pray.
You’ll find God is already there, “26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us.” Romans 8:26
