I wrote this sermon for the Christmas season when everyone is so busy buying gifts that other priorities fall by the wayside.
The Word of God instructs us to pray without ceasing in 1 thes. 5:17, so we are to pray at all times.
Prayer is when we bring our petitions to God. He is our loving father and promises to supply all our needs. If we delight in Him, He promises to even give us the desires of our hearts.
Faith is the currency with which we receive those things we ask for from Him. Prayer is how we release that faith into His realm, that He might release His answers into ours.
Why then, would we ever stop praying to the God we love?
#1. We don't understand how. JESUS TOLD US HOW IN HIS WORD.
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.
#2. No faith. We don't pray because we really don't believe He will answer us, when His word clearly says He will.
"'Have faith in God,' Jesus answered. 'I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, "Go, throw yourself into the sea," and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins'" (Mark 11:22-25).
"And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it" (John 14:13-14).
3. We get busy and our priorities get skewed. This, I believe, is one of the biggest reasons for prayerlessness.
My experience has been that if I put off praying my prayer list until later in the day, I seldom ever do it. One thing leads to another, and it just doesn’t get done. But on days when I put God first, and pray my prayer list like I believe He has told me to do, my day runs smoother, I get more done, and I know my day is far less likely to come unraveled.
4. We don’t understand how to pray. There is no right or wrong way to pray. Prayer is talking to God, asking questions, making requests, and also telling Him you love Him, not for what He does, but for who He is.
5. We don’t hear God, so we feel stupid, like we’re talking to the air around us. This is a trick of the enemy to keep you from praying and STARTING to hear God. Don’t fall for it.
6. We’ve been sinning and we know it. Sin undermines our faith, that’s only one of many reasons why it is so dangerous to us.
7. God is more of an afterthought in your life, not the Lord of your life. If you see religion as just a set of rules to live your life by to foster good behavior and for fire insurance just in case God turns out to be real, you’re missing all the best God has for you. He IS real and just following the rules isn’t going to get you into heaven.
Matthew 7:22-24
22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
If you want REAL assurance, not just fire insurance to just get you into heaven, take heed to this verse, because it’s the truth. Build your house and your LIFE on the Rock. If you don’t spend time getting to know the Lord PERSONALLY and for yourself, this is what you will hear Him say. That’s why He’s called a PERSONAL Lord and Savior.
8. We’re angry at God. Whatever reasons we might feel we have that give us a right to be angry at God, we need to drop them. If you think you have problems now, let God take His hand from your life and you’ll see what REAL problems look like.
Isaiah 64:8
But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.
Jeremiah 18:6
O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as theclay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.
Romans 9:21
Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
9. We don’t want to “bother” God. If your child wants or needs something, or they are sad or happy about something, are you “bothered” by them coming to you with that? God rejoices over us, He created us TO LOVE, TO SPEND TIME WITH, TO BLESS.
Zephaniah 3:17
The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice overthee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.
Only the enemy would tell you that you are a ‘bother’ to God. He rejoices at every moment you spend with Him. He waits silently by as you go about your busy day, hoping you will make time for Him. When I learned this truth, it completely changed my walk with God – it transformed my relationship with Him and I began to see Him as the loving Father He really is.
10. We’re lazy. The Bible has much to say about those who are slothful, and it’s all bad. Many scriptures about this can be found in Proverbs. The time to heed these words of wisdom is now, not later, because we are already in the end times and you may or may not have a later. Lazy people never do anything great for God, they just shuffle through life hoping someone else will do it all for them. Your life doesn’t have a remote control. If you want it changed, get up and change it yourself, but don’t sit there and expect God to bring you stuff and rain down blessings on you or you’ll be waiting a very long time.
11. We’re discouraged. Back in 2009 and early 2010, I remember so clearly how weary we all were – trying desperately to hold on to our faith as God stretched it more and more, as we walked through day after day of a wilderness so dark many of us thought we couldn’t go one more hour, much less one more day or week or month. He did bring us through that, and we are all the stronger for it, but I can remember so clearly getting to a point where I just didn’t want to pray any more.
I was so beat down from trying to believe, trying to keep my faith up, and not seeing any answers come like I thought the Lord had said they would come. I think everyone was feeling a little beat down back then. 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 even appears 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 does not always answer our prayers the way we want, but for sure 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.
Some of the most important prayers we can pray are not prayers for what we need, but prayers for the lost to come into the Kingdom of God. Jesus came to save the lost. Many have not a single Christian in their families to pray for their salvation. Many have no families. This is the very reason our Lord came and died on the Cross. How can we not join in His efforts by lifting up our faith to Him to save them as 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.
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.
