Pray: Trusting God in a Hurting World

Pray: Trusting God in a Hurting World
Luke 6:12

INTRODUCTION:
Do you, personally, sincerely pray at least once each day?

Do you have a list of souls for whom you pray daily?

Do you sincerely believe God hears and answers your prayers?

Several decades ago, a preacher in the church of Christ asked these questions to almost 4,000 members of the church…

Less than 10% of God’s people prayed daily.
Less than 2% actually had a prayer list.
Less than 5% felt their congregation was a “praying congregation.”
Less than 50% actually believed God heard and answered prayers!

Where do you fit into that survey? Where do you feel that Swartz Creek fits into that survey?

As we meditate on prayer this morning, one of the most cherished blessings that we as Christians have, I hope I can encourage you to love God even more and I hope you will express that love in a more meaningful prayer life than you perhaps have done in the past.

What hinders our prayer life?

Pride
Weak faith
Unresolved conflict in our relationship with God

Haven’t you felt spiritually lonely at times? Haven’t you felt a deep hunger for a closer relationship with God sometimes? Don’t you feel a spiritual vacuum sometimes in your heart that is God calling to you?

We often feel a tragic sense of loneliness and spiritual famine because our lives are not characterized by worship and, as far as this lesson is concerned, not characterized by prayer, meaningful prayers.

In Luke 11:1, the disciples asked Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

A few years ago, the church was having a wedding shower or a baby shower and Cody and Mark and I were going to go out to lunch. I suggested a seafood place and Cody said that he was allergic to seafood. Mark then asked, “How allergic are you?” And Cody said, “Well, breathing is at the top of my list of things to do every day.”

Should praying also be at the top of our list of things to do every day? Because it is as necessary to our spiritual lives as oxygen is to our lungs.

A couple of years ago, I had a whole series of sermons on prayer and I began each lesson looking at the prayer life of Jesus. There are 8 prayers of Jesus which are recorded and 8 references to Jesus praying and that’s not counting the number of references to Jesus giving thanks for food.

Jesus said in John 5:30, “I can do nothing on my own initiative.” If Jesus had to live by praying, how much more should we, weak mortals, depend on God and talk to Him often in prayer.

But if that earlier survey is still true of Christians today, then there is awesome, divine power that is being neglected and unused because of our failure to depend on our Maker.

Luke writes in Luke 6:12: “It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God.”

We ought to spend much more time than we are asking God to help, to intervene, to bless, and to change our situations if we need.

A carnally minded person who does not live close to God, a person who does not depend on God, a person who does not have faith in God and His promises, a person who does not live for God, His work and His will, a person who does not love God and look forward to going home someday, cannot pray.

PHILIPPIANS 4:6:
Do you believe this?
Do you believe this enough to practice it?
Do you believe this enough to live by it?
Do you believe this enough to live it?

Prayer is faith in action. We need more faith in God. Tell me how much you pray and I will know how much faith you have in God. We either pray believing or we are not praying at all; we’re just mouthing words.

Some might feel, “I don’t deserve to be heard.” Who does? We don’t pray because of our goodness; we pray because of God’s goodness? We need His grace, His mercy, His love, as we studied earlier this month from Hebrews 2:18.

Sometimes God answers our prayers with a “yes.” Sometimes His answer is a “no,” but even then, it is a “no” that is in our best interest. That’s when you have to trust God. Sometimes God’s answer is a “wait a while.” And again, we have to trust.

We need more faith in each other. If we allow our minds to run wild, we will see all the sin and corruption in the world and fail to understand that God has given us every blessing we need to overcome all temptations, and even the world! The victory that has overcome the world is our faith (1 John 5:4) and prayer is what strengthens our faith!

We need to have more faith in ourselves. If God wants me to do something - like serve as an elder - then He will give me the strength and the spiritual resources I need to accomplish that. I am not perfect; I sin sometimes and I am weak. But God loves me and God wants me to be successful in using the resources He has given me to bring glory to Him. Philippians 4:13.

Prayer itself is the ultimate expression of love. It is, of course, an expression of love for others. Tell me how many people you love and I will know how many people you pray for. If you don’t love people enough to pray for them, then you don’t love them very much. Do you know how I would feel if my daughters did not want to talk to me? It would break my heart and I would know that they did not love me.

Prayer is the ultimate expression of humility. Again, many men don’t pray more with their families because they’re too proud. They believe they can handle life on their own. They don’t want their children to see weakness. Why don’t Christians pray more for and with each other? Why is our prayer service in November the lowest attended Wednesday night service the whole year? Is it because we don’t think we ought to spend an hour as a church family praying with and for each other? Is it not worth our time? Are we too proud? We ought to love each other enough and feel close enough to each other that any time we want all the congregation to pray for us and with us, we should have that privilege.

How about the Ladies Prayer Breakfast? We have 150 women in this congregation and there are only about 10 who make the effort to be at the prayer breakfast? I hope after today that the next prayer breakfast will have 50 women.

And that’s not even challenging us men to get together… Do we not believe in the power of prayer?

Prayer is the ultimate expression of joy. We’re Christians; we’ve been born again and adopted into God’s family. We are owned by God; we are controlled and led by God. We are helped and guided by God. We ought to be the most happy people on the face of the earth.

JOHN 14:14 - If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.
Prayer is commitment. It is total commitment. It is recognizing that everything we do is for God’s glory. We live for God and we live to do His work for His glory and honor. God is not a garbage collector; He does not accept scraps.

Prayer is total dependence on God. We as Americans, especially we men, like to think that we are independent. That’s perhaps why men are not as prayerful as women. But to pray as we ought, we need to believe and act like we need God. Prayer is showing our dependence on God.

Prayer is revealing. It is the most sincere thing we ever do. Our prayer life is a reflection of our inward person. We pray what we are. When we truly pray, we are baring ourselves before God. It is like Samuel’s mom, Hannah, who said of her prayer: “I have poured out my soul before the Lord” (1 Sam. 1:15).

Prayer is changing. It changes us, because we become what we pray. As we love God and show our dependence on God, we live and we trust His promises, and we give ourselves over to God. We become more like the one we serve.

MATTHEW 21:22:
What can I suggest to make our prayer life more meaningful? Let me offer some suggestions…

Sometimes we pray about everybody and we pray about nobody. We pray about everything and we pray about nothing. Prayer will never be real to us until we get specific and practical. If this building burned down, would we all meet somewhere in order to pray together?

We need to pray about our giving. We will give more to the Lord when our prayer life gets stronger.

Every day ought to be begin with prayer.

When you get criticized, pray. In fact, we have no right to criticize someone else until we have first prayed about that person. If we pray more, we will criticize less.

Tell others you are are praying for them. When I went into the hospital to have my colon surgery, people told me after worship they were praying for me; members texted me that morning; others called me on the way to the hospital. I had a friend who called and had prayer with me over the phone.

We need to pray for the lost. And pray for our two deacons - Kurtis and Brandon - who are taking an active role in strengthening our church’s evangelism work. Jesus told us to pray that the Lord of the harvest will send out workers into His harvest (Matt. 9:38). If you don’t have non-Christians on your prayer list, put them on the prayer list! Unselfish hearts talk to God about others all the time.

Pray for your enemies. By name. Jesus specifically told us to do that: Matthew 5:44.

Pray for the president and our other national leaders as well as our state leaders and our local leaders. Do you know who your state senator and representatives are? Here is one area where my prayer life is deficient. I do not like politicians and I do not like politics. But all the more reason why I ought to pray for them and mention them by name!

We need to pray for our problems and about our problems.

We need to teach our children to pray. Hannah prayed for her child in 1 Samuel 1. Jewell is 25 years old. I don’t know how many times I have prayed for her, but if I have prayed for her three times a day, at a minimum (which I always do at meal time), then I have prayed for her well over 27,000 times. Ana is over 25,000 times. Theodore is 1,500 times and Jacob is somewhere around 7,600 times. Pray for your children’s future spouse too!

Through prayer, our spirit is stretched and molded into the image of Christ.

James 5:16 - “The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”

Take home message: Unleash the power of prayer by infusing it with faith, determination, and humility. Let Jesus be your guiding light.