The Best Things Come Hard
A.W. Tozer - Prayer • Sermon • Submitted
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Most important things are difficult to learn.
Things that are easy to learn usually don’t mean a lot to us.
The same could be said about the Christian life
The things that are easy to learn are superficial
The things which are hard to learn are some of the most important Christian truths we can hold on to.
The same happens in ministry
The more difficult things in ministry usually will produce the most fruit.
To pray effectively would be one of the first thing a Christian should learn and will make their life more fruitful.
Prayer is one of the hardest things we will do as Christians.
Prayer is one of the first things cut short when we find ourselves “too busy”
The Christian life and our service to God are usually things we can find easily to participate in.
We usually will find places to serve that are in our wheelhouse.
Prayer, however, isn’t the easiest thing to learn to do effectively.
Effective prayer are original.
They can’t be reproduced.
They can’t be imitated.
We must pray as if we alone are the only ones who can pray.
Our prayers are individual and independent.
They are independent of all but the Holy Spirit.
We ought to be more comfortable in our prayer closet then we are to be in public.
If a pastor likes to be in the pulpit more than he likes to pray, he has his priorities wrong.
Does this apply to the Christian believer as well?
Yes, pastors need to spend time in the pulpit, but they also must spend time with the One who is going to lead them.
Once again, does this apply to the Christian believer as well?
No man should stand before man without standing before God first.
Prayer needs to be continuous.
Prayer cannot be taught, it can only be done.
Praying must be the work of the individual.
I cannot pray for you.
We need to make sure we continue to practice and not make prayer something which is forgotten.
Jesus considered prayer to be very important to find the will of God for your life each and every day.
And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.
In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles:
But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.
Jesus would pray during critical times of his life.
He would pray in his ministry and even teach about prayer during this time as well.
It is interesting to see that the disciples who were with him when he prayed and taught on prayer, yet one of them asked him to teach him how to pray.
Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”
With all the teaching and modeling Jesus did for them, they still asked for him to teach them how to pray.
If there is little faith, there is little prayer.
There is no magic formula for prayer.
This is what the disciples were looking for.
When we pray with our hearts and minds in a correct set, we can see the spiritual battles that are going on around us.
There are many times when our problems whether personal or in the church seem so simple, but yet are very complex when you actually get to the root of the matter or cause.
We need to remember that there is nothing too big or too small for us to take to the Lord in prayer.
If we have a complex issue we need to pray about, and we are really unsure of all the parts, pray for the parts you know about and pray for discernment to figure the rest out.
A lot of times we will also see our problems as one -dimensional as opposed to what is really going on.
When we fail to see this, there are times we will miss that there is truly a spiritual warfare going on within the trials we are facing.
When we realize this, it may make a prayer lives a little more urgent than just looking at things from the simple issue that is really taking place.
As our prayer life grows, so must our spiritual lives.
As you dig deeper in prayer, you can no longer just survive on baby food.
You must dig deeper into God’s Word and be read;y for the spiritual battles that are going to come your way.
But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.
We must want to learn more about scripture and what it teaches us.
This is the only way we will be able to stand up to the battles we will face.
We must make sure we look to the bar line God establishes and not our own so that He is glorified.