Be Intentional
#6 - How to Have an Effective Prayer Life
(Part 1)
Philippians 4:6-7
February 23, 2002
Introduction
Today we are beginning a 2-part series on prayer.
I assume that all of you understand that prayer is extremely important. But too often we don’t really think on why it’s so important.
We’re just told that the Bible says to pray, and that it’s important.
I hope that by the end of these messages, God will grip your heart with the importance of prayer, and with the desire to enhance your relationship with God through honest, authentic prayer that pleases God and brings results in your life.
Next week we will look at some very practical "how-to" stuff on enhancing your prayer life. Be sure to be here, okay? I promise that you will get something you can use.
Today, however, I want to lay the groundwork for next week’s message.
The reason is that I’m convinced that so many people, including myself, have operated on a shallow understanding of prayer, and then are confused when we don’t see God moving.
I am not an authority on prayer - I haven’t written books or articles on prayer, and no one has written books or articles about my prayer life.
In fact, I am rather embarrassed about my prayer life sometimes. I don’t pray nearly as much as I should, because I succumb to the same excuses most people put up - limited time.
I’ve got things I’ve got to do, and I don’t have the time to pray, when I could be using that time for other things.
Martin Luther had even more pressures and responsibilities than I have. Listen to what he had to say regarding prayer:
"I am so busy now that if I did not spend three hours each day in prayer, I could not get through the day."
Now doesn’t that just fly in the face of our task-oriented, "to-do" list society? Here’s something else Martin Luther said:
"If I should neglect prayer but a single day, I should lose a great deal of the fire of faith."
So how do I become more intentional and active in this incredibly important aspect of life?
I think it’s by gaining a better understanding and appreciation for what prayer is all about.
The basis of the message today is Philippians 4:6-7, which I have printed in your bulletin. Please join me in reading it aloud, okay?
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
I want to offer you four challenges that if you take them will immediately strengthen your grip on this whole issue of prayer. And the first one is to...
1. Understand God’s mindset on prayer:
Here are some keys to understanding God’s mindset on prayer:
* He made it possible and invites us to come.
Let me set some background here:
At the temple of Jerusalem, the Most Holy Place was where the presence of God resided in Israel. And no one could just walk in there. Only the High Priest could go in there, and only once a year, and only with a blood offering. Anyone else at any other time risked being struck down by God.
The Bible tells us that when Jesus died, the curtain that separated people from the Most Holy Place in the temple was torn from top to bottom.
Jesus shed His blood, and when He did, he brought access to God. The curtain was torn - anyone could go into the presence of God.
Listen to Hebrews 4:16 -
16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
And so God now invites us all to come to Him directly in prayer.
Growing up Catholic, I did not understand this concept really well. I knew I could pray to God, at least in my heart, but was also under the impression that prayer was generally directed to and through Jesus’ mother Mary, and any other saints that were approved by God and the church to receive our prayers.
It wasn’t until I had given my life to Christ that I understood that God was waiting to hear from me personally. And what a revelation that was.
God wants to hear from you. And He wants to act on your behalf. And He doesn’t put you on hold.
Imagine if God had one of those computer-answering devices. It might go something like this:
As we begin to pray we hear...
Thank you for calling your Heavenly Father’s house. Your call may be monitored for quality assurance. Please select one of the following options:
Press 1 for prayer requests
Press 2 for prayers of thanksgiving
Press 3 for prayers containing complaints
Press 4 for all other prayers
I’m sorry; all of our angels are busy helping other sinners right now.
However, your prayers are important to us and will be answered in the order received, so please stay on the line.
If you would like to leave a voice mail message for:
God (The Father) Press 1 now
Jesus Christ Press 2 now
The Holy Spirit Press 3 now
If you would like to hear the King David Singers sing a Psalm while you are holding, please press 4 now.
To find out if a loved one has been assigned to Heaven, please enter his or her Social Security number (without dashes), then press the pound key. If you get a negative response try again using area code 666. For reservations please dial 5646-316 (John 3-16).
For nagging questions about dinosaurs, the real age of the earth, where Noah’s Ark is, and any other questions, please wait until you arrive here.
Our computers indicate that you have already prayed once today. Please hang up and try again tomorrow. This office is closed on weekends, and any State or Federal holiday.
Please pray again between 9:30 AM and 4:30 PM Monday through Friday (except holidays). If you need emergency assistance when this office is closed contact your local pastor. (Dennis White) Contributed by: Dru Ashwell (SermonCentral.com)
I have to honestly admit that too often I tell my kiddos that I don’t have time for them at a given moment. I’m busy, or tired, or whatever. I say that to my shame.
But God’s never too busy, tired, or whatever. And I say that to His glory. We have access 24/7, folks!
Another key to understanding God’s mindset on prayer is to...
* Know that God already knows what is on your heart.
Matthew 6:8 says that the Father knows what we need even before we ask.
Dr. Tony Campolo, in his book, Following Jesus Without Embarrassing God, says the following regarding this:
It never made sense to me to believe that I had to tell God in prayer what I was sure God already knew. For instance, I cannot imagine when I prayer, "Dear God, Sister Mary is in the hospital," that God is up there in heaven saying, "Whoa! I did not know that! Which hospital?" The God of the Bible "knows what we need even before we ask " (Matthew 6:8).
So why pray? Because prayer is so much more than just asking God to do something. It’s a conversation between two people who have a living, dynamic relationship.
I will talk about that more in just a little bit. But for now I want to encourage you to do all you can to better understand God’s mindset toward prayer.
Next, I want to challenge you to...
2. Look at what God offers to those who pray:
o He offers relief from anxiety and peace in our hearts.
Look back at the passage at the top of the bulletin. He says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, pray."
The obvious implication of these two verses is that by bringing up our anxieties to an Almighty God who can do something about brings relief.
And I know that most of you in here today can tell stories about how God has done just that for you. I know I can.
* Answers to our prayers
Implied in this verse is that the relief from anxiety comes in part from the answers He gives to our requests.
In the book of 1 John, God tells us that when we pray according to His will, we get what we pray for.
By the way, guess where you find out what God’s will is - the Bible.
My third challenge to you today is to...
3. Search out how big God is!
When you understand how big God is, then praying to Him makes all the more sense, because you can be confident that He can actually do something about it!
Listen to just a portion of Isaiah chapter 40. If you sometimes wonder if God is big enough to handle what’s going on in your life and the world, just go back to this passage.
In fact, I would encourage you to memorize the whole chapter. You’ll be amazed at how God uses it to lift you up when things seem hopeless.
If you want to follow along, turn with me to Isaiah 40. If you are using the Bibles in the seats, you can find this passage on page 512.
I’m starting in verse 12:
12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?
Skip to verse 17:
17 Before him all the nations are as nothing; they are regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing.
18 To whom, then, will you compare God? What image will you compare him to?
Now to verse 21:
21 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
23 He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
24 No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.
Know what I think when I read this? "Saddam Hussein, Shmaddam Hussein." Let’s keep going.
25 "To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One.
26 Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.
27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God"?
28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.
29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 31 but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
And here’s the paradox - He’s so big He can care about li’l ol’ you. That’s outside of what I can wrap my mind around, but it’s true.
Okay - hopefully you have a better understanding of God’s mindset on prayer. And you see what God offers to those who pray, and you are finding God to be a big God capable of working on your behalf.
4. So Pray!
Let me give you three ideas to act on in your praying:
* Pray about everything (v. 6).
James says we do not have because we do not ask God. Nothing is too big or too small to bring to God in prayer. He knows when the sparrow falls, and He knows everything about what’s going on in your life.
Pray about the bills. Pray about your son or daughter’s basketball game. Pray about your child’s future spouse. Pray about that test you have coming up. Pray about the grain and pork prices. Pray about the situation in the Middle East. Pray that Jesus would come soon.
Ask Him the tough questions - He’s not scared! He may not give you the answers you want, but He’s not afraid of your honest questioning. In fact, I think He welcomes it, because it shows that you are truly trying to learn more about God and the way He works.
Pray about everything.
* Include praise and thanks (v. 7).
I like to think of praise as telling God about Himself. Here’s what I mean: telling God how awesome and majestic He is, or telling Him about how loving and compassionate He is. Or how caring He is. I like to use His titles, such as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.
When I’m giving thanks, I’m generally telling God what He’s done. Thanking Him for His mercies that are new every morning. Thanking Him for forgiving me of my sins. Thanking Him for my awesome wife of 15 years. Thanking Him for my kids. Thanking Him for the wonderful promises in His Bible.
You get the idea. Offer thanks and praise.
* Pray authentically
Pray from the heart, being totally honest about your desires, hopes dreams, fears, or whatever. He knows it all anyway, so who are you trying to kid? I read Hebrews 4:16 earlier. Let me read the two verses before that:
HEB 4:14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin.
Let me read a bit more from Tony Campolo’s book:
Nevertheless, I regularly spend time telling God what God already knows. I do it not only because the Bible tells me to do it (Philippians 4:6), but because I am driven to it, especially in times of desperation. I do it because prayer stabilizes me in times in trouble, comforts me when I hurt, encourages me when I am about to go a-wobbling, and keeps me alive when I think I’m going to die. When my cynical friends chide me and say, "You use prayer as a crutch, Campolo, because you don’t feel strong enough to face up to what your life is all about," I can only answer, "of course!"
Those who believe that they are self-sufficient are, on the one hand, people who don’t think they need prayer, and on the other hand, people who are most deluded. To these cynics, I can only say, "Your time will come. And when it does, the good news is that God will be there waiting and willing to carry you through the valley of the shadow of death." (p. 53)
Don’t want to be a hypocrite? Develop a real, authentic relationship with God through prayer.
Conclusion
I hope that you have been encouraged to explore and enjoy prayer more today because of what’s been discussed.
I honestly hope that your journey to a deep and authentic prayer life will bring you a joy in God you never thought possible before.
But I need to also tell you that there is one major condition to connecting with God in prayer: a new life in Christ.
Sometimes God answers the prayers of those who are not followers of Jesus. But nowhere in Scripture does He promise the kind of relationship of prayer that He offers to those who have trusted in Christ for salvation.
God cannot bless someone who is not a child of God the same way He blesses His children, because the Bible tells us that He reserves most of His blessings for His children.
So I want to challenge you for a moment.
If you have never trusted Christ as your Savior, and yet your heart yearns for the awesome privilege of a relationship with God, then you need to take the first step of giving your life to Christ.
And you do that with a prayer that I guarantee God hears and answers.
Call on Him to forgive your sins, to give you a new life on earth dedicated to pleasing God with His help, and to give you a home in heaven when you die.
When you do that, Jesus says that we have access to God in prayer.
Who wouldn’t want that deal? Forgiveness of sins, a new life on earth, a home in heaven, and access to God anytime we want.
If you want that today, I’m going to pray for you right, and I’m going to invite you to pray along with me. And you can leave here today knowing you are a child of God, with all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities God grants to His children.
Let’s pray. (Pray)
