(This is a good sermon for the Christmas season when everyone is so busy buying gifts that other priorities fall by the wayside – see also 11 Reasons Why Christians Stop Praying.)
With the big holiday season upon us, for sure we will all be busier, even if we celebrate less than others. Heavier traffic, busier stores, everything slows down as most of the population fills stores and malls shopping for gifts and the makings of holiday parties and clothing.
With so much more to do, it is easy to lay aside the most important things. I myself have been guilty of this before - getting too busy, or something unexpected happens a few days in a row and I put my prayer list aside to do later in the morning and forget to get back to it as one thing after another comes up that simply cannot wait until later.
With the end times upon us, our connection to God on a daily basis is more important than ever. Any day could be the day a judgment falls where you live.
So....with this in mind, let's look at:
-- What Happens When God's People Stop Praying ???
As Christians, we have all heard or read sermons on the importance of prayer. We have read the scriptures relating to praying.
At various times in my walk, I have devoted various amounts of time to prayer each day, sometimes a half hour, up to as much as four hours per day for months at a time when the Lord led me to. On days when I was exceedingly busy, my prayer time was sometimes put off until later, and sometimes I even forgot, though I always prayed throughout every day and evening.
Several years ago, when I first entered the wilderness I went through in Princeton, the Lord spoke to me and told me an hour of prayer each morning was imperative in my walk with Him. I made it a point to be very diligent in always giving Him that hour, but there were times, like when I drove the 55 mile extreme commute, when my drive time became my prayer time, because I spent so many hours on the highway, and so few sleeping at night.
I have noticed over the years that extreme busy-ness tends to have this effect, not only on me, but on other Christians I know as well.
With the busy holiday season upon us, I thought this would be a good time to address the problems we can encounter when we don't take time to pray.
From time to time, the Lord will speak to me and tell me something He wants me to add to my prayer list. Occasionally, He will even tell me it's time to completely redo my list. He did that about two months ago, telling me to begin praying for a home of my own every day because He desires to bring it to me.
The first item on my prayer list is to cancel all demonic assignments sent against me. If you do this each day, then any demonic assignment in operation can't last more than a day. So
#1. When I don't pray, demonic assignments aren't canceled.
#2. When I don't pray, the Blood of Jesus isn't appropriated for protection over me or those I love and pray for.
So #2 - When I don't pray, the Blood of Jesus isn't appropriated.
#3. When I don't pray, I will be more anxious because I won't have God's peace.
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7).
#4. When I don't pray, I am not strengthening my connection to God. Our relationship with God can be compared with a marriage. How long would your marriage last if you didn't talk to your spouse every day?
#5. When I don't pray, I am not opening the door for the Lord to speak to me about important matters. Many people have written to me over the last three years saying they do not hear God speak. The Lord showed me in a vision that busy-ness was the reason most people did not hear Him. Because they have so many other things place in front of Him.
By not making time for Him, I am showing Him I don't care what He has to say to me.
#6. When I pray, coincidences happen. When I don't pray for long periods of time, I may not see nearly as much of God's favor at work in my life.
#7. When I don't pray, I open myself up wider for deception. Because I am not staying familiar on a day-by-day basis with the true King of Kings, I will be far more likely to fall for a clever counterfeit when the enemy sends one.
You know, we tend to pray when we want something, right? I've prayed for many other things and received some of them much more quickly than others. Some things I'm still praying and believing for. Maybe there are things you're praying for - are you praying for your children to be saved? For healing in your body? For a promotion at work?
I do believe God wants us to pray and ask for the things we desire. He has told me more than once that His people believe Him for far too little, when He desires to give them much to show how mighty He is. Us doing without doesn't glorify God.
In the book of Daniel, 10:12-13
12 Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words.
13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.
I was thinking about the problem of prayerlessness when we become too busy, and I thought of this and wondered....would the angel have kept coming if Daniel had lost faith after a few days and stopped praying?
And I had to wonder how many blessings we cheat ourselves out of by losing faith and being prayerless.
A lack of prayer shows a lack of faith. If we truly believe God will answer our prayers, we pray.
Some people say you should only pray a prayer once, and then you should stop, but in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed the same prayer twice.
Matthew 26:42
He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.
Jesus wasn't afraid to keep praying for an answer, and we shouldn't be either. He told me to pray daily for my home to show up. When God says He's going to bring something, He will do it. He's faithful. God wants you to have life and have it more abundantly, and for your joy to be full.
John 10:10
The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
John 16:24
Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.
#8. So when I don't pray, I may not receive from God, because I'm not asking for anything, or I don't keep asking. The Word says we have not because we ask not.
When we pray, our faith is released for God to work on our behalf. Yes, He is sovereign and He can do whatever He wants to do, but the rules are the same for everybody, and without faith it is impossible to please God. When we pray, our faith is released so God can answer our prayer.
#9. When I don't pray, I may be tempted more often.
Matthew 6:13
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.
#10. When I don't pray, God's work may not go forth as fully as it could.
Luke 10:2
Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.
So clearly, we need to pray each day and believe God to answer, because He will.
Back during the Great Recession in 2009-2010, I was out of work and unemployment was only half enough to pay my bills each month. I struggled to keep praying and believing God would supply all my needs.
I was so beat down from trying to keep my faith up, and not seeing the promises come like I thought the Lord had said they would come in my life. It is hard on the human spirit when we go for very long periods of time without being brought out of our difficulty or wilderness place. It is hard to keep believing when we can see nothing is changing for the better, and sometimes circumstances even appear to be changing for the worse, but without prayer there truly is no hope for change at all. We have not sometimes because we ask not.
God can’t answer a prayer we don’t pray.
It is so important and more so as we go deeper and deeper into the end times, that we don’t lose hope and we do make time to pray – every day, the first thing in the day, even if it’s just 10 minutes and we have to shut ourselves up alone some place to have the privacy to do it. We need that time with Him and He needs to see that we are putting Him first.
Every day we don’t pray, we miss blessings. I want to live a life of blessing, I know you do, too.
God does answer the prayers we pray.
My Mother and sister prayed for over 10 years for my salvation. Most of that 10 years, everything in the natural told them I was only getting worse. I praise God often they had real faith – faith that was not swayed by what their eyes saw. They stood on what their hearts believed. They stood on it until I, at last, saw the glorious light of the gospel and accepted Jesus.
Let us continue to pray for the lost loved ones, that He will send laborers into the harvest, and that they will be BOLD laborers, who will risk losing relationship to save a soul, and that the lost we lift up in prayer will have their hearts pierced by these bold laborers, and will give their lives to Christ.
That everyone who witnesses in this time will carry an extra anointing and more and more souls will come into the Kingdom.
Lord God, make US into bold laborers sent to those around us who need to hear the gospel, and every day remind us how short the time is, that every morning when we wake up, we will remember there are people who will die today that no one ever told about Jesus.
Lord, help us to remember today to PRAY and to PRAY WITHOUT CEASING, as Your precious Word instructs us to.
