“The Cure for the Common Cold” part 2 (Getting warm with your prayer life)
Brian A. Moon
Story – Testimony of healing from prayer by Doug Gates
Last week we began a new series called “The Cure for the Common Cold” which is looking into a cure for those times that we lose our passion for God. Most of us have had those times when we are “on fire” for God, only to be back to normal in few short weeks just like this church in this verse from Revelation.
Revelation 2:4-5 “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember then from what you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.” NRSV
The cure we found out were what are known as spiritual disciplines, or spiritual training exercises you could say. The first one was getting aquatinted with, and reading, our Bibles. The most important things were to get a good version of the Bible like the NRSV or the NIV, find the place and time to read it, and then to make our reading meaningful we should:
Start with books like 1 John and James instead of
Genesis
Pray and ask God to speak to you
Don’t read a lot at a time, slow down and enjoy it
Find a verse that jumps off the page and write it
down
When we do these things we are opening ourselves up to the very words of God and opening ourselves up to connecting with God in fresh and powerful new ways.
But reading our Bibles is only part of the equation…
It would be like only exercising your arms and never working out the rest of your body, you would look a lot like Popeye, but your body would be missing out on its full potential. There are many other ways to work out our spiritual muscles and tonight we are going to look at prayer.
Prayer has always been a vital part of the Christian faith. And not long and lengthy prayers like you might here in a church today, but simply prayers. Early Christian monks from the 2nd and 3rd centuries would take short verses of scripture and make them into prayers that they would repeat all day long. The most famous of these early monastic prayers was the Jesus Prayer and it goes like this:
“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.”
They would take that short little prayer and repeat it all day long as a way to stay in constant contact with God. The reason I share that prayer is because it illustrates the simplicity of prayer. Prayer is one of the most misunderstood things today in the church.
People think they have to be well educated and able to come up with poetic prayers that last for 10 minutes, but in all reality prayer is a simple heart felt conversation with God. Before we go on tonight, I want to take a few minutes and talk about our first topic:
What is prayer?
Just what to I mean when I talk about prayer? We all come up with different pictures in our heads when we mention the word prayer, from sitting Indian style with our palms up to Gregorian chants filling a huge cathedral in Europe, just what are we talking about here? Take a look at this clip… (SCENE FROM “THE APOSTLE” CHALLENGING THE MAN IN THE BULLDOZER)
Now most of us have never had a face down with a bulldozer, but we all face times when we are up against something that is too big for us to handle.
This is just one of the times we should stop and have a conversation with God, or pray! Prayer is also misunderstood today because of the prevailing attitude that it is asking God for favors. The idea is that we ask God to bless us here, and bless us there, bless us everywhere…
Recently, my wife and I went on vacation to Palm Beach and stayed in a really nice hotel, we were waited on hand and foot. All you had to do was make a quick phone call and you could have your breakfast in bed, clothes brought up to you from your car, things washed and ironed for you, afternoon tea at your favorite spot and so on and so on…
And many people have been taught that prayer is like that, But prayer is not supposed to make God into a “cosmic bellhop” Prayer is to accomplish God’s plans here on earth, not to accomplish our plans. That does not mean that we should not pray when we have a hurt or need, but we are not to view prayer as a means to a new car or whatever we need God to do at that moment.
So just what is prayer? Simply put: prayer is conversing, or communicating with God in which we align ourselves with God purposes. When we pray we are talking with the creator of the universe, sharing our thoughts and feelings both out loud, and in our minds.
It is a dialogue, or a two-way conversation in which we talk and listen to God. And prayer is a tool we can use to further know the heart and mind of God.
My printer at the office recently had to have a new cartridge placed in it, after the new one was in I then had to go through an aligning process with the printer.
The same could be said of prayer, we live our lives day to day constantly bombarded by the influences of the world, We are pulled this way, and pushed that way, and we find ourselves used up and dry. This is why God gave us the gift of conversation with himself, so that we can get refilled and then be aligned properly again with where he wants us to be. He wants us to be lined up with his purposes so that we can live productive, meaningful, and fulfilled lives. That is what prayer is! This brings up another question though, how do we pray?
Different approaches to prayer
Before we look at some different approaches to prayer there are some things we should do before we pray.
I am a man so of course I love to grill. To me there is nothing better than a juicy steak hot off the grill. But before I can enjoy that meat to its fullest I have to first take some time preparing it. I have to thaw the meat, and season the meat, and marinate the meat a few hours before I ever place it on the grill, and when I do place it on the grill I have to make sure the temperature is really hot which all takes time.
If I did not do all of this, would I still have a steak to eat? Well, I would but it would not be very good! The steak would not be at its best! The same is true with prayer, we can rush into it and it can be a very boring and tasteless experience or, we can marinate ourselves so to speak and it can be a rewarding experience full of flavor. So before we pray we should do these three things right out of God’s word, the Bible.
1. Pray Clean
Proverbs 15:29 “The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.” NRSV
Throughout the Bible it is clear that the prayers of certain people are heard loud and clear by God, and they all happen to people who are walking in God’s forgiveness. We all mess up from time to time and sin, but making sure that we confess these things to God and come before him dressed in white garments of forgiveness is a must for our prayers to be effective.
Often times when we pray and pray and pray for something and it seems like God is on break, we should look in the mirror of our lives and see if there is some unconfessed sin that needs to be dealt with. Jesus has already forgiven every sin, past, present and future, all we must do is recognize that we blew it.
Proverbs 15:8 “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.” NRSV
2. Pray in Faith
Have you ever had a time in your life when you asked someone for something but you were almost sure that they would never do it, or could not do it? When we pray we should not be like this, we should not have the attitude that God will never do this, or he is not able to do this. When we pray we should pray in faith, or we should believe that with God all things are possible!
James 1: 6 – 8 But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord. NRSV (italics mine)
3. Pray Constantly
One of the reasons that the early Christian monks prayed short prayers like the one I shared in the opening was so that they could remember them and recite them all day long! God honors the prayer that is important enough to us to ask him repeatedly. He may not always answer that prayer the way we want just because we pray it many times, but he will always use that process to bring us closer to him and closer to his heart and desires for this situation.
1 Thessalonians 5:17 “Pray without ceasing” NRSV
Everyone relax, this verse does not mean that we are to always have a prayer on our lips, But the original wording of this verse means that we are to have constantly recurring prayers.
Picture a phone conversation that even when you are done, you do not hang up the phone, but instead you leave it off the hook so that the conversation could begin again at any time.
That is the idea here, we are to repeat our prayers, we are to listen to God, and repeat that prayer again, and listen to God on and on. Now that we have some of the basics out of the way lets look at 5 common approaches to prayer:
INTERCESSION
That is a big word that simply means to pray on behalf of. When someone is sick and you go to God and ask him to heal that person, you are interceding for them, or you are praying on their behalf. Intercessory prayers are concerns we have for other people, or things that are going on in the world. We are asking God to come and help, heal, or hurry a situation. How is this prayer done? When you feel compelled to pray for someone or something the best way of doing this is to remember that you are not changing God’s mind about anything, What you are doing is again aligning yourself with the plans and purposes of God.
You should:
Ask God to show you how to pray
Yield your will to God’s
Listen to that still small voice inside of you
Trust in God’s Holy Spirit to guide you in your
prayer
Pray in bold faith
Thank God for listening
The next approach to prayer is:
REPENTANCE
God knew that we were going to sin and one of the reasons he gave us the gift of prayer was to say, “God I am sorry.” Repentance is simply a “180” or an “about face” it is turning from that particular sin and running back to God. You could also call this form of prayer confession, it is admitting to God the things you have done that are not in his plan for your life.
1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” NRSV
For this prayer you should:
Ask God to search your life for any sin
When he reveals it to you, admit to God that it was
wrong
Ask God to help you in the future
Receive his forgiveness and don’t dwell on the
mistake
The third approach to prayer is:
GUIDANCE
Many times in life we are faced with tough decisions, and we need guidance to make the best choice. When we are faced with one of these times we should ask God for guidance and wisdom. In the book of James it says that God gives to all who ask, graciously and without finding fault. The key is we must ask! For this prayer you should:
Thank God for giving you help in this decision
Ask him to give you guidance in what choice is his
will for your life
Ask God to make your desires his desires, ask him to
make you desire the right choice
Trust that God will speak to you
The next approach is:
CHANGE OF HEART
I have had many times in my life when I knew the right thing to do, but I really did not want to do it! All of us have been in these situations and what we need is a change of heart. God often challenges us with things that seem to hard, or to big of a sacrifice and we are left grumbling and complaining needing God to come and change our will.
Philippians 2:13 “For it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” NRSV
This prayer should be done like this:
Release yourself to God, don’t fight him
Ask God to come and change your heart
Seek him to see if there is any action you need to
take to accomplish this
Thank him for working in your life
And finally the last prayer that we will look at is:
PETITION
Matthew 7:7-8 “Keep on asking, and you will be given what you ask for. Keep on looking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone, who seeks, finds. And the door will be opened to everyone who knocks.” NLT
When we have a need, a hurt, or even a desire of our heart this is where we would pray a prayer of petition. God loves to give us the desires of our hearts, and praying for God to bless us with something is ok. BUT, remember what prayer is, it is a tool to align us with the awesome plan of God. When we have an active prayer life our desires are those that God desires and when we pray we pray the will of God. That is why Jesus says here to ask and you shall receive!
This prayer can be done like this:
Ask God to give you the right desires
Give your request over to God
Believe that he can give this to you
Receive and thank God for the results
So there they are 5 common approaches to prayer.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of all that prayer can be, it is simply an appetizer to get you to see the wonderful blessing that the gift of prayer can be if we use it. If we apply these prayers to our lives we will find that our love and closeness to God will be ever growing. Also remember that prayer is a conversation with God, meaning that two people are talking. Take time when you pray and sit and listen to God, sit in the silence and wait upon God to come and touch your heart and mind. In closing I would like to look at one last thing:
Praying from example
I think there is a lot than can be learned from studying the prayers of others, particularly the prayers of people in the Bible. So quickly I would like to look at a few prayers that will give you a jump-start into your own prayers.
Jesus Prayer in the Garden:
Mark 14:36 “He said, ‘Abba Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet not what I want, but what you want.” NRSV
David’s Prayer for Forgiveness:
Psalm 51:1 – 10 “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment. Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me. You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.” NRSV
Abraham’s prayer for Sodom:
Genesis 18:27 – 28 “Abraham answered, "Let me take it upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?" And he said, "I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there."
Jonah’s prayer in the great fish:
Jonah 2:1 – 10 “Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish, saying, "I called to the LORD out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said, ’I am driven away from your sight; how shall I look again upon your holy temple?’ The waters closed in over me; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped around my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the Pit, O LORD my God. As my life was ebbing away, I remembered the LORD; and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who worship vain idols forsake their true loyalty. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Deliverance belongs to the LORD!" Then the LORD spoke to the fish, and it spewed Jonah out upon the dry land.” NRSV
I hope that after tonight you will have learned what a great privilege and blessing prayer can be, and that it is a lot simpler than we make it out to be many times. Remember to pray clean, pray in faith, and pray constantly. If you have never prayed before, or you are just out of the habit I leave you with this quote from Thomas Merton:
“The great thing is prayer. Prayer itself. If you want a life of prayer, the way to get it is by praying… You start where you are and you deepen what you already have.”
Prayer Time ----------------
God we thank you for the chance to talk with you. May we never take the awesome privilege for granted. Tonight we ask that you turn each of us into person of prayer. Give us the desire to pray and give us guidance for what to pray for. Help us to be able to listen and hear you clearly. We love you God. Amen.
