PRAYER IS A VERB.
"I am responsible. Although I may not be able to prevent the worst from happening, I am responsible for my attitude toward the inevitable misfortunes that darken life. Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in unending sadness, powerless by the severity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the hurt and preserve the most precious gift I have which is life itself." Walter Anderson
CHANGE ME: Gail Rodgers "The Spirit of Lord works within us to become more and more like Him." (2 Cor. 3:18) As I sat down in the church service my foot began to tap to the lively praise music. It was refreshing! The pastor stood and prayed, "Oh Lord, we have come here today to be changed by you, so please change us." The words caught me off guard. I wasn’t sure I had come to be changed. I came to be encouraged and refreshed yes, but changed? I thought about it over the next week. As Christians we so often want God’s blessing and His strength and His wisdom, but do we willingly say "Lord, change me?" I knew I didn’t always. Yet it is the thing God calls us to. That is to be changed. My thoughts went to the worm and the butterfly. If the worm were asked, I am quite sure he would not feel the need to change, having no concept of the beautiful, flying creature he would become. Only the Lord sees us as the finished product of what His grace can do in our lives. Only He knows the butterfly in each of us. Is the Lord asking you to let Him change you? Change is not always easy. But the joy and the reward of being transformed into the Godly person God knows you can be will surprise you and delight you. It will bring a fulfillment that is worth every effort. And God will enable you, by His Spirit, to make the changes you have put off too long. Don’t wait any longer for God to change your circumstances or whoever or whatever is holding you back. Ask Him today to change you. He promises to transform you and you won’t be disappointed with the result!
James 4:2 “you have not, because you ask not.” “You don’t have the things you want, because you don’t pray for them.”
All The words in this verse in The KJV have one syllable except for one. All the words are simple words yet they are ones that if we use will transform us from ordinary praying to powerful praying. What would happen if everyone who was to hear this message took these words to heart as message that God really has spoken to us? Do you think they would change the way you live, the way you think, the methods you use to work with and the ministry God has given to you to be different? Our hope today is that these words would become a part of your life and that the poverty and powerless of the prayer lives of many would be turned loose for the glory of God. These words are given to us today that we might take a new hold on our prayer life. Some may have questions like these: “Why am I making so little progress in my Christian life? Why do I seem hindered by the sin of unbelief? Why am I so little like Christ in my words and actions? Why am I seeing so few come to Christ through my life? The plan of salvation is simple as A, B, C. You must Admit you are sinner. You must Believe that Christ died for your sins. You must Confess with your heart that you want to be forgiven.
The answer from God in these seven words is neglect of prayer. “You have not, because you ask not.” Why is my church growing so slowly? Why do people who attend this church lack in spiritual power? Why is the body of Christ so deplete in knowledge and wisdom in the ways of Christ? Why in the church today is there so little preaching against man is a sinner, unbelief and worldliness? Why is that so many settle for a low plane of Christianity? Why Christ is not being portrayed as the Head of the church and given little recognition as the example we are to follow? Neglect of prayer. “You have not, because you ask not.” We read in the early days of the church that “the Lord added to the church daily such as were being saved. Many of them which heard believed. And believers were added to the lord, multitudes. The Word of the lord increased and the number of disciples multiplied.” How could this happen? They did not have big screen TV, Multi-media, motivational speakers, self-help seminars, retreats for refreshment and renewal, big church buildings, feel good preaching, camp meetings or seminars on how to win souls.
Some would say back then they did not have the opposition we have today. Stephen a layman was stoned to death. James a spiritual leader was beheaded. Peter and John were put in prison and when released were told not to preach the in the Name of Jesus again. Peter was put in prison the 2nd time and was to be executed. Paul suffered much for preaching the Gospel which included being beat with rods, whipped, stoned and left for dead, put in prison, shipwrecked and floating in the water for days. Book of Martyrs by Fox. Prayer was what held the church together there were no lawyers or courts or appeal boards to come to their aid. They relied on prayer as the force to help them.
What is the church doing today? Do we live in a church praying age? Prayer meeting is the lowest attended part of the church today. We are well attended when there is food offered, a great concert, a program that help one be better, good preaching and a party. There are churches today that pray but have to have the prayer read out of the bulletin, they quote the Lord’s Prayer and think they have prayed if they listen while one stands up to pray. To some prayer is only a self-help exercise for the weak who can not handle their problems. Many doubt that Prayer is really valuable at all in changing things. They will not give themselves to prayer as if it were the ONE thing that really makes a difference in this world.
The church has been organized, taught to be a giving church, be a friendly church, a nice place to meet to see others of a like belief and that singing is a way to praise God. Many consider that the singing part of the church is the time that real worship takes place. When I was growing up singing was thought to be what prepared one to worship as they listened to the Word of God preached. Do you consider us a praying church? Do you believe that this church will succeed or fail in the same measure that we are praying? Our church is a nice building; we have good music, good leaders and a Sunday School to teach God’s Word. These are good but I ask do we have the power from God that changes lives?
God has not changed but His people have changed.
Isaiah 59:1, 2 “Listen! The Lord is not too weak to save you, and he is not becoming deaf. He can hear you when you call. But there is a problem—your sins have cut you off from God. Because of your sin, he has turned away and will not listen anymore.” Prayer is what opens the doorway to God’s blessings and His power. Just think of this that all that God is, all He has, all He can do, all his power is available to the one who knows how to pray. You see prayer makes it possible for God to do what He can do. I wonder have we put limits on God because of poor praying. Do we really believe that nothing can stand in the way of the one who really sets out to pray?
1. It is prayer that encourages us to holy living as nothing else can do except for the studying and believing Gods’ Word.
A. It is prayer and the study of God’s Word that work hand in hand to enable us to live holy lives. It is our growing into the likeness of Jesus that will be advanced as we put the time and effort into praying and learning God’s Word. Jeremiah 29:13 “If you look for me in earnest, you will find me when you seek me.” Eph. 1:3 “How we praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we belong to Christ.” What Jesus has done puts us in line for every achievable spiritual blessing. What do you lack spiritually? It can be yours through prayer. What holds you back? Is there anyone here who cannot pray?
B. It is through our praying and study of God’s Word that we have t he knowledge for holy living. Psalm 139:23-24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. 24 Point out if there is anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” Psalm 19:13-14 Keep me from deliberate sins! Don’t let them control me. Then I will be free of guilt and innocent of great sin. 14 May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Luke 11:13 “If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him."
C. We become like those that we spend time with. Moses spent forty days and had to cover his face because of the brightness of his face. John Welsh spent 7-8 hours a day in prayer and remarked it was not a good day without that much time. May be God has not called us all to spend that much time in prayer but would you come with me to believe He would that we spend more time than we do in prayer. Let me put it in question form: How holy do you feel yourself to be? How holy do you want to be? We have to take time to be holy. It is through prayer and the Bible that we have the tools to be holy. Could it be lack of using these tools is why so few who call themselves Christians look like, act like, walk like, talk like, and think like their Lord?
2. It is in praying that we are able to bring the power of God into all that we do. Isaiah 40:31 “But those who wait on the Lord will find new strength. They will fly high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.”
A. A child of God has the right and privilege to access all of God’s power in whatever they attempt to do. Yet some say, “I am trying to serve God in my poor weak way.” It should be corrected by saying and believing: “I am serving God in His strong Spirit filled way.” It is not more natural ability that we need but is more supernatural ability that we need. We are to live our lives through Jesus Christ with His super natural power flowing through us. God always has an adequate supply to give us what we need to do what he has called us to do.
B. How do we want the power of God to work in us? “You have not because you ask not.”
The man’s his wife had left him and he was completely depressed. He had lost faith in himself, in other people, in God -- he found no joy in living. One rainy morning this man went to a small neighborhood restaurant for breakfast. Although several people were at the diner, no one was speaking to anyone else. Our miserable friend hunched over the counter, stirring his coffee with a spoon. In one of the small booths along the window was a young mother with a little girl. They had just been served their food when the little girl broke the sad silence by almost shouting, "Momma, why don’t we say our prayers here?" The waitress who had just served their breakfast turned around and said, "Sure, honey, we pray here. Will you say the prayer for us?" And she turned and looked at the rest of the people in the restaurant and said, "Bow your heads." Surprisingly, one by one, the heads went down. The little girl then bowed her head, folded her hands, and said, "God is great, God is good, and we thank him for our food. Amen." That prayer changed the entire atmosphere. People began to talk with one another. The waitress said, "We should do that every morning." "All of a sudden," said our friend, "my whole frame of mind started to improve. From that little girl’s example, I started to thank God for all that I did have and stop majoring in all that I didn’t have. I started to choose happiness."
