“The Prayer App” Clarity 4-20-11

The Prayer App

I love my phone. I don’t think I use it the apps as much as I should though. The ones that get the most use would be “Bible” and “Facebook”. Go figure right? How about that video that we just watched? Do you wish you had the “Prayer” app for your phone? You could just press a button and all the sudden your phone automatically sends your prayer requests to God. Simple, discrete, and most of all, fast.

Why is it that our attitude towards prayer is to hurry up and get it over with? Do you sometimes feel like that? Our time is precious, why spend it “Being still”? The idea of spending a long amount of time in prayer kind of freaks us out. When there is a long prayer at church or the dinner table we are more concerned with not falling asleep or how hungry we are than what is actually being said.

Your generation and mine are getting really caught up in having everything fast aren’t we? We don’t call people because, honestly, it is just faster to send them a text. I think that a lot of that mindset is beginning to slip into our spiritual lives as well. Our quiet times are either extremely short, or nonexistent, our prayer times are even less important at times.

Part of this issue is that the church has missed out on teaching people how to pray, and how to study the Bible. When the culture around us says to do more things more quickly than ever before, we buy into that instead of what the Bible says, “Be still and know I am God”. (Psalm 46:10)

Multitasking or single Focus?

I just heard about a new study on the radio. They say that because of all the access to instant information that is available people are having trouble focusing on one specific task. We are so scatterbrained that we can’t accomplish one project by sitting down, blocking everything out, and getting it done to the best of our ability.

Here is the funny thing about that. I sat down to write this Bible study at 8:45am. It is now 10:19am. Since that time I have sent an email, answered 3 text messages, checked Facebook twice, updated my blog, and set up a few Facebook events for the youth. Yikes. I am part of that group!

What would happen if this Bible study was my time spent with God? Praying…text message. Time out God, gotta get this. Back to praying… man I wonder if so and so posted on my comment last night. Time out God, gotta check. Back to praying… another text message. Well, I guess I can pray without ceasing later…

That would probably be the most ineffective time in prayer that you have ever spent. Do you think that God can work mightily through you if this is the way that you come to Him? Our fast paced, have it now, multiple things at once, attitude MUST take a back seat when we pray. Turn off the music. Get on your knees. Let nothing interrupt your time with God.

Let me ask you this question. Do you get offended when you are talking to someone and they answer their phone while you are in mid sentence? Or worse than that, they actually make a phone call while you are standing there? It’s pretty ridiculous. Think about how God feels if you consider these interruptions as “multitasking opportunities” instead of just straight up rude.

Without Ceasing       

            Our scripture for this session is 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18, let’s read it together.

¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray without ceasing, ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

            Alright, let’s take this verse apart. We know what it means to rejoice always don’t we? Through thick and thin, rejoice that you are in Christ. When things are bad, rejoice that you are in Christ. When things are great, don’t put God in the back seat; rejoice that you are in Christ. Christians always have a reason to be joyful!

            Pray without ceasing. Now that is a hard one. Let’s try to understand what Paul is saying about this topic. The Greek word that Paul uses is ἀδιαλείπτως adialeiptōs; adv. from 88; incessantly:—constantly(2), unceasingly(1), without ceasing(1).^[1]

            What does this mean? Always being in a state of prayer? Being consistent in prayer? Does it mean that we are in sin if we do not forgo eating and sleeping to pray? While there are times when we should put aside important things to pray, we can’t live if we do not eat or sleep.

Matthew Henry puts it this way in his commentary on this passage:

“We should keep up stated times for prayer, and continue instant in prayer. We should pray always, and not faint: pray without weariness, and continue in prayer, till we come to that world where prayer shall be swallowed up in praise. The meaning is not that men should do nothing but pray, but that nothing else we do should hinder prayer in its proper season.”^[2]

            Paul is talking about our focus in our prayer life. We should not allow things to interrupt our time with God in prayer and we should be relentless in pursuing more time in prayer. We should pray without ceasing.

I have had several experiences where there has been a choice. Spend time with God, or do something else that is under some sort of time constraint. Unfortunately, I have more experiences with pushing God aside during those times, than I do with pushing the seemingly more important things until later.

One particular time was during college. I woke up late and had a midterm in about 40 minutes. I could either get some last minute studying in, or have my quiet time with God. If I studied, I could improve my chances for a better grade, but then I risked pushing God back until I completely forgot about spending time with Him.

I decided that I would use the 40 minutes to read my Bible and pray. When I went down for the test, I was relaxed and confident that God would honor my decision. When I got the test scores back, He had. Instead of trying to study last minute, which may have given me more peace of mind, I showed God more worth by setting aside the less important and staying consistent in my prayer life.

To help with praying without ceasing, we need to understand something about our lives. Do you separate your life into two sections? Secular and religious? This mindset says that your quiet time is religious and that your time at school or work is secular. With this mindset there is a disconnect between your relationship with God and the rest of your life.

What about life outside of jobs or school? How you deal with your finances? If you are not working, how do you use your allowance? How you spend time with friends? Do you talk about what God is doing in your life? Do you pray with each other and for each other?

There shouldn’t be a disconnection between your prayer life and your “normal” life. We should be constant in prayer and the best way to start is to stop looking at your life in segments. Break that mold and start praying at all times. Pray when the opportunity arises. Make opportunities to pray. Pray even when it is unexpected. Pray out loud, pray quietly, pray in public, pray in your heart, just pray.

*Luke 18:1 And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.

            Jesus told His disciples to pray always and to not lose heart. We are supposed to be a people known by prayer.

“Today I am more convinced than ever that prayer is both the believer’s most powerful and most unused weapon.” – Tom Elliff (Senior Vice President of the International Missions Board)

            Do you know the best way to pray without ceasing? To start. Don’t let things get in the way and don’t put God into a box and only pray during your quiet time. But invite Him to be a part of your day. Look for things to pray about during your day. If there isn’t anything, just thank God for being with you.

*1 Th 5:19–22 ¹⁹ Do not quench the Spirit. ²⁰ Do not despise prophecies, ²¹ but test everything; hold fast what is good. ²² Abstain from every form of evil.

            Do you know what it means to quench the Spirit? It means to squash His power, to take away His effectiveness. I want to end with this thought because it is something we misunderstand. Normally we think that we only quench the Holy Spirit if we are in sin. What about never asking for His power to overcome us? What about never going to God in prayer to ask for strength for the day? We can squander the Holy Spirits power in our lives by simply not allowing Him to be a part of our lives.

Being faithful in prayer is more important than the method that we use to pray, or the words that we say. We need to be a praying people because it is what God has called us to do.

Take time to pray.

---

^[1] Thomas, R. L. (1998). New American Standard Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek dictionaries : Updated edition. Anaheim: Foundation Publications, Inc.

^[2] Henry, M. (1996). Matthew Henry's commentary on the whole Bible : Complete and unabridged in one volume (1 Th 5:16–22). Peabody: Hendrickson.

What Affects Our Prayers?

"Clarity" 4-13-11

When We Pray

*2 Ch 7:14 ¹⁴ if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

I want to help you understand what it means to go to God and be still in His presence. I want you to really understand what it means to be an intercessor in prayer. I hope that God not only challenges you, but that He will grow me into a deeper prayer life with Him.

Tonight we are going to look at what happens when we pray and take a look at what affects our prayer life.

God hears our prayers. This may be a statement that you have completely overlooked, but I want to bring it to your attention. God hears YOUR prayers. God doesn’t just hear the holy persons prayers, He hears you when you call out to Him. That is an incredible truth that is made all too small. We have forgotten how important this is and how much it really means for us!

When we pray we trust God. The video we just watched goes through many different scenarios. When we ask for forgiveness we believe God to be forgiving, when we praise God, we believe Him to be almighty, to be worthy of those prayers. When we simply pray we are trusting that God has the ability to affect the outcome of our circumstance or situation.

Do you truly believe God when He says that He will hear your prayers? Do you really believe that God will answer you? The Experiencing God book put it this way, are you expecting God to answer you and are you actively looking for those answers to prayer?

What affects our prayer life?

There are several factors that can get in the way of our prayer life, or even the ability of God to work in and through us. What do you think they are?

Who remembers the points from the sermon on Sunday? One of the bullet points that Steve gave was the fact that we come into the house of God, or into His presence, with hearts that are unrepentant.

What is the main thing that God hates? Sin. How do we mend the relationship that we have with God? We do it through repenting of our sins. There is a false thought out there that you just come to Christ once and ask for forgiveness of sins, then you are good to go the rest of your life. We are still sinners though! We sinned yesterday, you probably sinned today, and if you are alive tomorrow, you will sin then too.

You cannot bring a person with chicken pox into the church without making a lot of people sick! We try to say that our sin is secret enough to not harm those around us, but Scripture tells us otherwise. We affect the power of prayer when we bring in our sinful mindsets, or sin stained bodies into the place of worship, or when we interact with other believers in prayer.

God wants pure sacrifices, not dirty ones. Just like we would not use a dirty, crusty, rancid bowl to put our cereal in, He can’t use dirty Christians to create pure followers after Him.

So, if sin interrupts our walk with God and even God’s ability to use us, then what is the main thing that we have to be vigilant in doing? Repenting of our sins! We have to cultivate habits of repenting daily or hourly if necessary. If you relationship with God is a priority, you will notice when you are not having the sweet fellowship with Him.

You may think, well, I don’t know where that is found in the Bible. We are saved from the wages of sin so why would God continue to hold it against us? It’s a good point, I will give that to you, but the issue is that we are still linked to sin. We haven’t been completely freed from it and we will not be until we stand in God’s presence in heaven. Look at 2 Ch 7:14 again:

*2 Ch 7:14 ¹⁴ if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

God says that if MY people who are called by MY name humble themselves and pray… First of all, who are God’s people? Who is called by His name? Christians, to be Christ-like. We are called by His name. We have to humble ourselves and pray. We have to realize that there is sin in our lives that we need to deal with.

It gets even better. God says that we have to turn from our wicked ways. Wow. Will the self-righteous in the church please stand up and get offended? God is calling His people out. These are not people that live lives outside of God’s grace and wisdom, these are God’s people! This is you and me. We have to turn from our wicked ways.

Then what happens? What does God do after this all takes place? He will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. What does that tell you? Does God hear your prayers? From this scripture I would surmise that God hears your prayers of repentance before He will answer your prayers and petitions for other things.

This passage of scripture doesn’t say that God will answer all of our prayers in the order that they were received. It says that God will answer us if we seek His face and turn from our wicked ways.

As always we have to make sure this idea lines up with other scripture passages before we can accept it as being truthful. So, let’s do just that:

*Matt 3:8 ⁸ Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

            What do you think this means? We are called to bear fruit in our lives are we not? But if we are to look at our forgiveness in Christ as being a one time event, than this challenges that thought. We bear fruit when we keep ourselves in repentance.

*Re 2:5 ⁵ Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

This was a record of Christ speaking to the church at Ephesus. John wrote this while having visions of the things to come. Jesus is calling them (Followers of God) to the works that they did at first. So they were apparently working to please God, but they had fallen into some kind of sin. Earlier in this chapter Jesus accuses them of losing their first love, which should have been Jesus. They were called to repent and return to their original place of serving God.

*Pr 15:8 ⁸The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is acceptable to him.

This spells it out pretty simply. If we are in sin our praise, our offerings, our very selves stink in the presence of God. However, the prayer of the upright, the righteous, those who have repented of their sin, are acceptable to Him.

Entering the Throne Room

*Is 59:1–2 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; ²but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.

Ok, so you are probably thinking that we have beaten this topic to death, but it is incredibly important for us to grasp.

What is one of the main reasons we do not see God’s power in our churches more often? Because we are really not coming into His presence as pure offerings to Him. Picture it this way; prayer is literally seen as being able to enter the throne room of God with a petition. Have you seen any of those movies set in ancient times? There is typically a long hallway leading up to the king’s throne. Guards are stationed all around the king and up and down that hallway. Can you imagine the reaction of the king if He knew for a fact that you had deliberately gone against His will? What do you think would happen? Off with His head! He dared to enter my presence and ask for something of me, while his heart is set against me and my kingdom!

We serve such a gracious God don’t we? Even though we come into His presence without the reverence that He deserves, even though we come to Him with hearts that are divided, He doesn’t just strike us down. He allows us the opportunity to repent, to be cleansed and to be used by Him.

So, what does it mean to be repentant? It is more than being sorry for something. The original Greek word says it this way: Repent, to change one’s life or purpose, based on complete change of attitude and thought concerning sin and righteousness.

Are you walking in sin? Secret or otherwise? Have you asked God to reveal to you sins that you are maybe unaware of? This is serious. We need to get serious with God and with ourselves. If we want to see people changed, if we want to have power in our prayer lives, we have to live humbly and pure lives before God. If we screw up, and we will, we have to take it to God and repent, turn from our evil ways and be cleansed.

            This is one of the most important topics to understand as we start really looking into what prayer means for us. We cannot go any further with this study until we are clean before God.

Posting Bible Studies

It has been a while since I have posted actual Wednesday or Sunday night Bible Studies. I am going to start it posting them again. The study that we are doing on prayer has been a great opportunity to learn where my shortcomings are with my prayer life and have challenged me to go deeper in prayer. I hope they challenge you in the same way and that we learn to be a people that pray with power! 

“Today I am more convinced than ever that prayer is both the believer’s most powerful and most unused weapon.” – Tom Elliff (Senior Vice President of the International Missions Board)

Let's stop being Christians that live defeated lives. Let's rise up and accomplish only what God can accomplish through us. Let's stop relying on our own strength and start believing in what God says He can and will do through us!