Overcoming the Prayer Block
Ref.: Mark 1:35
Luke 5:15
Romans 7:14–25
1 John 1:8–10
Psalms 100:4
Read No Time for Him
I. Obstacles
There are many, though some are mere excuses that would yield to a strong will.
A. Time
1. Life is too busy, but not too busy for less important things—TV, newspaper, and other amusements.
2. Not too busy to spend time with loved ones if they are there.
3. First thing in the morning is the best time.
Mark 1:35—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.
4. "Where there’s a will, there’s a way—especially true where prayer is concerned.
B. Place
1. A little chapel in the home would be nice, or some private place kept for devotions and marked by something that draws you to God. Such a place calls us to prayer even when not inclined.
2. In overcrowded homes, privacy is not always easy. Create a private spot in your heart where you can retreat wherever you are—plane, train, car, etc.
Luke 5:16—But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
Picture some place where you can meet Christ—a secluded garden, a sunrise or sunset on the beach. Relate to In the Garden!
3. It is always possible to go for a walk with God!
C. Tiredness
1. Most people claim they are too tired to pray—usually those who leave it to the end of an exhausting day.
2. "Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit" was a bedtime prayer used in Jesus’ day, much like our “Now I lay me down to sleep…” If serious prayer is left till then, it is no wonder we find it a burden and fall asleep as we pray. Some have said falling asleep in this manner is like falling asleep in the arms of Jesus, but he deserves better than from us.
3. Reverence demands that we pray before we are too weary to pray well! Just as we would not drive a long distance or operate complex equipment if we were too tired, neither should we pray in this condition.
D. Mental
1. Lack of imagination and an undisciplined mind are mental obstacles. Building a chapel in the soul seems impossible to people deficient in imagination. And if imagination built it, their inability to concentrate would make it difficult for them to worship there.
2. You need imagination in prayer! The person who feels that he is merely speaking to space soon ceases to speak at all.
3. Immerse yourself in the characters—become the leper healed by Jesus, the blind man who sight was restored, the thief pardoned from sin on the cross, the disciples hearing of his resurrection.
4. Do not abandon the privilege of prayer because of mind wandering. It can be conquered. The day will come when the sweetest meditation and the most earnest prayer will be possible even amid distraction.
E. Emotions
1. Enslavement to feeling is another cause of neglected prayer. People don’t pray because they don’t feel like it, and they offer the excuse with a certain cheerful assurance that it will be accepted. They assume that prayers are only effective when they rise from an eager and emotional heart.
Romans 7:14–25—14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
2. We must keep our appointments with God whether we feel like it or not.
3. Do not forget that God can do more for us when we pray when we don’t feel like it than He can when we pray when we do feel like it. The submission of our will deepens our surrender; our resolution to pray strengthens our thought control.
4. Faith, not feeling, measures the effectiveness of prayer. Jesus never said, "Your feeling has made you whole." He always put the emphasis on faith, and faith receives a greater witness when we pray against inclination than when we pray with it.
II. Prayer’s Variety
Think of the many aspects of prayer. People who find their times of communion tedious often regard prayer as nothing more than asking for things. There is so much more to it.
A. Adoration—the awesome, humbling obeisance of yourself before God, and the rapt gazing on glory when your soul soars.
B. Confession—Not some trite phrase that bundles all our failures and sins together and then lightly skips away saying, "Forgive me for anything I have done wrong." Rather, it involves a mind that pursues holiness with method, digs out the evil things inside us, and in the presence of God looks and loathes.
1 John 1:8–10—If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
C. Intercessions—How can any person with faith in prayer and a heart to pity fail to fill an odd half-hour at any time in earnest intercessions? The burdens of mankind are so numerous and so large that those who do not intercede lack either faith in prayer or feeling for their fellow man.
1 Timothy 2:1–4—I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
D. Thanksgiving—We don’t fail to thank people for things they have done that please us or for gifts they have given we appreciate. How can we not, as a minimum, find time to thank God for all he has done for us.
Psalm 100:4— Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
III. Prayer’s Power
A. It changes the most obstinate stuff in the universe—human nature—and makes sinners into saints. It brings heaven to earth. It fights vice and cultivates virtue.
B. It puts the sick and the frail in the forefront of those who fight the battle of God.
C. William E. Sangster, an evangelist who pastored in England and Wales, writes "A wounded soldier told me during the war that his convalescence at home had had one great pain for him. He witnessed his mother’s anxiety for his brothers who were still at the front. He heard her prayers and saw her feverish anxiety concerning the letter carrier. He saw the furrows deepen in her face when neither letter nor field card was put in her hand. ’It made me think,’ he said, ’how often I might have written myself when I was out there, but thoughtlessly put it off.’ The memory of his selfishness was a shadow on the joys of home.
The memory of our prayerlessness may be a shadow on the joys of heaven. It may be that the greatest thing we can do for anybody is to pray for them.
No Time for Him
I knelt to pray but not for long,
I had too much to do.
I had to hurry and get to work
For bills would soon be due.
So I knelt and said a hurried prayer,
And jumped up off my knees.
My Christian duty was now done
My soul could rest at ease.
All day long I had no time
To spread a word of cheer.
No time to speak of Christ to friends,
They’d laugh at me I’d fear.
No time, no time, too much to do,
That was my constant cry,
No time to give to souls in need
But at last the time, the time to die.
I went before the Lord,
I came, I stood with downcast eyes.
For in his hands God held a book;
It was the book of life.
God looked into his book and said
"Your name I cannot find.
I once was going to write it down...
But never found the time"
