When We Pray – Get Personal – Sermon – Pastor Dave Page

Praying together….So why is something so foundational for Jesus, the Apostles, and the Early Church so delicate for us today? Why is it these days that praying together is so often an afterthought or add on to regular programming for a church? Well, there maybe many reasons we could put forward but I think the answer is obvious: We don’t walk the talk when it comes to praying together….it may be that this is an issue in our personal prayer lives to which is why I want to spend some time here this morning. I want to share with you, three reasons I think this is a real issue for the church and for Jesus followers in general… And my hope is that you would identify and see these issues as helpful in deciding where to address your own prayer life.

1. We don’t see prayer as relationship.

Suppose you talked with your spouse or a good friend the way you talk to God? There he or she is in the room with you, but the only thing you ever say is shallow and repetitive. There’s no real desire in it. There’s no getting connected, no caring about what you already know your spouse or your friend cares about. Sometimes when Marlee and I are out on a date, we’ll sit near a couple who will eat an entire meal and never truly look at one another, never speak a word to each other. I’m not always sure they even want to be there. It’s two strangers linked by a vow sharing the same space. Sad to see.

Let me tell something even sadder: we can treat God that way. If we’re not intentional with this, we end up living our lives with God on the surface. We’re like one of those bugs that move on top of water, never really breaking the surface. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve missed God even though He’s standing beside me in a given circumstance. Here’s something we need to Understand together:

God makes relational prayer a prerequisite of His response to us.

Jeremiah 29:13 – You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

Until we make our closeness with God a priority that calls for stillness and time and energy and focus, we will never know Him past a surface level.

2. We push aside prayer with other things

In Luke 10 we find the story about Martha and Mary and their infamous squabble. It happens when Jesus and His disciples stop in on the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus in Bethany. This ends up being an intimate opportunity with the Saviour, and Mary took advantage of it, sitting at His feet taking in His words.

But Martha makes a different choice. Though Jesus had not requested an elaborate meal, Martha sets to work putting one together. She gets angry at her sister for not helping, and then transfers her anger to Jesus because He didn’t notice her need of help and do anything about it.

What does Jesus say to Martha

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed – or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” (v. 41-42).

Jesus had come to Martha’s home, but she pushes Him aside to focus on other things and in doing so, missed Him.

Psalm 46:10 simply says,

Be still, and know that I am God. That’s good advice.

3. We think we can handle things ourselves

This is the one I struggle with. In fact, I think this is the root that underlies every other reason why we don’t walk the talk when it comes to praying together. Here’s a metric I would encourage you to consider as you are examining your own prayer life….and it’s likely one for us to consider broadly as the church.

Could the proof of pride in our lives be the level of our ‘prayerlessness’?

Listen to how James the brother of Jesus talks about this:

James 4:1-2 4

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

Don’t miss what James is saying here: You do not have because you do not ask. Let that sentence run through your life and speak the truth. You don’t have a failure in your life that’s not a prayer failure. What trouble, anxiousness, family issue….what sin in your life exists that could have been prevented by prayer. To often, we do not have because we do not ask.

The picture we need to have of God in the Bible is of Someone who is eager, ready, and willing to bless us. He is not a Heavenly Miser, who is stingy with His goodness. He is a Heavenly Father who loves to lavish His gifts upon us.

But the flip side of that truth is that we can be so presumptuous, so self-impressed sometimes that we try to make a go of it in our own strength, using our own imagination, education, technology even our own personal history to get by. And you know what happens in our lives, in our homes, and in our churches when we depend on our own best thinking? Usually, there is trouble, sometimes scheming, trying in our own way to get the things we think we need. Meanwhile, God waits to be asked.

I actually think it’s going to amaze us when we get to heaven. I believe God’s going to call us over and open a door to His storehouse and say, “Look in there. Those are things I wanted to give you. Those are things that I wanted to load you down with but I couldn’t give them to you. You went your own way and you never stopped to ask Me.”

I said last week we were going to talk about personal prayer didn’t I. And in a manner we have – your prayer needs to have a relationally personal bent to it – always!!!

But let me be more practical for those of you that would be encouraged with this as well:

The 3 P’s of Prayer

The three P’s are pause, presence and prayer. I think if we take some time out to look deeper at the power of recommitting ourselves to – slow down and then pause, to be present and be a compassionate presence to others, and to deepen our habit of prayer, then our prayer lives can’t help but become truly relational.

Pause – find a place where you feel comfortable being still, praying, listening to God. It might be in the woods, on the beach, in your backyard garden or simply go for a walk. Whatever place we choose it should be a place where we can step away from all the noise and distraction and just PAUSE. You need to make time for this as your starting point.

Presence – Acknowledge God’s presence through the Spirit. Tell him who you are today, how you are. Thank Him for who He is. Be relational – for example:

• Dear God, help me to love the life you’ve given me and never let me take that for granted;
• I pray for a joyful spirit, even when things don’t go my way;
• God tune my ear to what you have to say to me and Holy Spirit guide my steps to that end.

This is also a great place for you to be a compassionate presence for others. What does that mean – pray for others!

Prayer – The third P is prayer. Martin Luther said, ‘To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.’ I love the image of our prayer life being our very breath. That’s how natural and vital it should be to us….

Here are some points you might use to focus on to weave the three P’s into your prayer life right now:

• Make prayer a daily habit – joyfully!
• Adoration – Give God the glory!
• Turn negatives into positives – we can always learn
• Treasure moments- no matter how big or small
• Start feeling grateful now

Now, what can you expect from this:

Five things that happen when we pray:

1. Prayer personalizes the situation

It deepens our ownership of the situation and our reliance on God. As we pray we begin to become aware of how God might even use us to answer the prayer. Often answered prayer comes by God involving us in ways we had not even though of.

2. Prayer causes us to be patient

Part of prayer is always waiting for God to move. God has three answers to prayers: Yes, no and wait. Yes and no are no-brainers. But wait, being patient, that is tough. Instead of getting frustrated that God is not on our schedule, prayer forces us to be on God’s schedule.

3. Prayer focuses us on what God is saying

It enables us to get in touch with what God is doing and how He is doing it.

Prayer opens the eyes of our heart, as the song says, enabling us to see what God is doing, to see things we will never see without prayer. That’s because prayer is two-way communication. We speak to God, God answers us, speaking to us through His Spirit, showing us.

4. It orients our heart with God’s heart

Prayer in this way is crucial in setting our thoughts, emotions, actions according to God’s plan – not our own.

5. Prayer enables us to move forward

It’s always our prayer that engages God in our situation – good or bad.

It’s always our prayer that enables God’s people.

Jesus said,

“without Me, you can do nothing.” Once we have prayed we are ready to do anything, however until we have prayed we can do nothing.

2 Chronicles 16:9: 9

For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.

Church, God is scanning this room. His eyes are focused each of us, looking for those that who will passionately and persistently seek Him. His search never ceases – and this is so important!! Because He is always on the lookout for your prayer, He never misses one single opportunity, any time, anywhere, to demonstrate His power on behalf of any person or any people group who rely on Him rather than relying on themselves. What does He see in you??

Let me ask this on a larger scale: Does God find here a church that longs for Him and cries out to Him, so that He moves to powerfully support us in His working? We’ve seen in these past two weeks that His power will explode on behalf of a church like that!

Let me finish with this, because some you need to hear this:

Romans 8:15 15

The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”

“Abba” is an Aramaic word that can be translated “Daddy.” It is a term of endearment reserved for use in a loving nurturing family environment. Jesus used it in his prayer in the Garden before his crucifixion when he cried out “Abba, Father.” It is an intensely personal form of address.

Many of us here are parents, and all of us have been children. When a child is earnestly seeking to please a parent, or is seeking desperately for them to grant their wish, how is it that we are likely to address that parent? Will the child stand before him and call him father? Some might, but I think it more likely we will approach, possibly sit next to our parent, and use a more endearing term like “Daddy”. It may be we have a special term we use, but whatever it is, the Parent knows that we are speaking from our heart, and we have their full attention.

We might think it silly, or even blasphemous to do so, but what this passage is telling us is that it is ok to use a term like this in our address to God and more importantly for our relational stance towards God to be reflected just like this. To be that relational. Remember that we are adopted members of the family. That comes with all of the privileges of being members of the family. You are not “second best,” all are equal. We do not have to stand at rigid attention as if before a general in the army with formal words and forms of an address. We are able to, (spiritually speaking), hop up in his lap, put our arms around his neck and say “Daddy.” Jesus said “Suffer the little children to come unto me.” We have that access, to come as little children and be accepted.

All to often we forget that. We forget that we are citizens of heaven, which became a fact when we were saved. Our home is there, even if we are still living here in this troubled world. Because heaven is our home, not will be, but is, we have full access to all of its benefits. There are no “off-limits” areas. There are no places we cannot go. Heaven is your home. We need to learn to receive the benefits that come with that. If a stranger comes up to my door and knocks, they will likely greet me by addressing me as Mr. Page, or Sir, something like that. But if one of my daughters comes over, she will walk in and call me Daddy…actually they each have a name for me. That is the difference between an unsaved person, and a saved person. we can walk in and say “Daddy.” Do you understand what a powerful difference that makes. And the fact of the matter then is that when you can personalize prayer in this manner, you are much more likely to believe that it will be heard and answered. And believing it will be answered is one of the requirements for it to be answered.

Try that this week – in private prayer, at home, at work, out for a walk, wherever, choose and then use a personal name for God as our Father. He will appreciate it, and you will benefit from it.

Here are some resources for you:

• RightNow Media – we’ve added several studies/videos that can help you in this area;
• Our library has some wonderful books and devotionals that are very helpful to enhancing or growing your personal prayer life;
• Your Pastors – Do you know the top two questions I get asked over and over again as a Pastor ?
  • #1 Why is this happening to me/us?
  • #2 How do I pray ?

Church family, know that we are here for you on an individual basis if that’s something you want to explore.