Adding to Our Prayer Life
Notes
Transcript
ADDING TO OUR PRAYER LIFE
ADDING TO OUR PRAYER LIFE
Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
Prayer is something that every Believer should continue to improve and to become better at.
Every marriage needs good communication and you have to work at doing it well. Relationships between parents and children even more so because that relationship continues to change throughout a child’s life. We hopefully mature and learn to communicate more effectively and maturely. So it is with our prayer life with God.
Now God does not change, but Lord willing you and I are changing for the better and we should continue to improve our prayer lives as well.
I. Add Practice
I. Add Practice
And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
Everything worthwhile ought to be improved through repetition and practice. Praise the Lord that prayer is one of those things we can both practice and successfully use at the same time. It is, if you will, on the job training when we pray.
Never make light of prayer. Never believe that you don’t need to continue to improve in your prayer life. Learn from the Word, learn from other people.
Practice your prayers before God regularly.
At many stages of my Christian life, I would often research Scripture, study books, listen to other men and learn more about becoming a better prayer warrior. I would hear something they said or a tool they used and I would put it into practice as much as I could.
I have a book in my library that is a reprint of an old book - it is the secret devotional life of Finney, Moody, and Spurgeon.
I don’t know how secret their lives are, but I bought the book to learn from great saints of God of the past and how they prayed. I allow others to challenge me.
I need to add practice to my prayer life.
II. Add Praise
II. Add Praise
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
In our prayer lives you and I often come to it with a couple of things in mind. We come to it out of duty, and duty is not a bad thing - but that is one reason we often come to it. Another reason we come to it is because of a need or even desperation. We have are desperate for an answer.
We come to it with a list, we have responsibilities of things to pray for.
But try this sometimes, how about you just come to God in prayer in order to praise Him for who He is and what He has done for you. He deserves it doesn’t.
Listen all of heaven will bow down to the Lord and worship and praise - oh that we would add praise to our prayer lives.
III. Add Passion
III. Add Passion
Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin--; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.
As we mentioned a moment ago, we often come to prayer out of duty with a list of things we know we need and ought to pray for. As a result we often find that are passion is not running as hot as it ought to praying to God.
Passion comes not by determination, but rather, it comes by a broken heart for something.
IV. Add Persistence
IV. Add Persistence
And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;
We are not going to study that parable today, but simply communicate the importance of persistence when we pray.
Remember, a prayer not answered is often a prayer that still could be answered. Now I am not suggesting that we pray outside of God’s will, but we should pray for real needs that have consequences for eternity and never give up.
I’m not saying that you should pray to be rich, and that if you are not rich yet, that you need to keep praying. But when we are asking God for godly things which are in His will, we should never stop praying for such things.
I like what former governor of Georgia said about persistence, Bob Riley: “Perseverance is a virtue that cannot be understated.”
Just keep praying, never stop, don’t give up or give in if you know it is according to God’s will then keep persistently praying.
V. Add Privacy
V. Add Privacy
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
There are several venues of prayer in the Bible.
There are national prayers that are offered.
There are many instances where church’s prayed together in the book of Acts and that are commanded to pray together in the Epistles.
But the great prayers of the Bible and throughout the history of churches are the prayers that are personal devoted prayers of an individual Believers who get alone with God.
Matthew 6:6 is a command to pray with a promise. That when I get along with God in a secret prayer, He will reward me openly.
The reward is not one that is monetary - but it is one where the needs are met. You and God alone can bring about great things for your family, your children, your community, your church, and the kingdom of God.
VI. Add Poise
VI. Add Poise
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
When I speak of poises, I’m speaking of confidence, I’m talking about a firm belief, a conviction, a faith in what is being prayed for.
Let us not go into prayer douting - don’t go into prayer wavering - don’t enter in your prayer closet with questions, but rather go in with the poise and confidence that not only is God able to answer your request but that He will.
But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
VII. Add Prevailing
VII. Add Prevailing
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
When speaking of prevailing prayer, we are talking about prayer that defeats the problem, that meets the need, that surpasses expectations, that overcome insurmountable problems.
It is prayer that shows God for who He is, the almighty, all knowing, all loving, all caring God of heaven who will meet the needs of His children even against the odds.
VIII. Add Power
VIII. Add Power
Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.
There is one simple truth I want you to take heed to here. While we need to call upon God and seek the Lord and know that He will answer - please know that the power is not in you, it is not even in your prayer, but the power is of Him and in Him.
Prideful man often loves to get others to see his spiritual accomplishments, but remember, all of your accomplishments belong the Savior.
IX. Add Patience
IX. Add Patience
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
We can add practice, praise, passion persistence, privacy, poise; we can add prevailing prayer, power to our prayer lives - and still not be effective because we miss the simple attribute in our lives. We are not patient.
Lack of patience or impatience puts more otherwise good Christians, out of God’s will, away from God’s plan, and hinders their prayers lives as much as anything else.
Don’t not give up.
Do not allow anything to make you impatient.
Not, pain, discomfort, irritability, fatigue; loss, setback, health problems, financial problems, problems in your home, your church or you country cause you to become impatient in your prayer life.
Keep praying to the God of heaven, keep trusting in HIm.
Add to your prayer life, “I trust these things to You and to Your timing, Lord!”
X. Add Purity
X. Add Purity
Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:
When it is all said and done in my prayer life, If my life is not pure, it is destroying all of the other work being done.
Add purity to your life so you can pray more effectively.
Is your pet sin worth giving up the power of God and see God work in your life. Is your little inconsistency worth souls going to hell, or seeing God work in your family; or seeing God help our country. Is it worth your sin if a loved ones goes to hell.
Is it worth our pride not to have our prayer be answered.
Let’s add purity, a holy life before God and allow Him to use as a choice vessel for Him. God can do it, just don’t let your personal sinful condition get in the way.