. Prayer is not a tug of war with God!
You have wear God down until he give in & gives you. Beg – please, please, pretty please give me Bargain – God, if you do this for me, I’ll do that for you Bribe – make a sales pitch to God We cannot keep on pestering and badgering God until he gives in Prayer is not a ritual to relieve guilt! You really blew it- sinned- so you have pay for it by praying a lot Jesus specifically told us to NOT repeat the same thing over & over MT. 6:7says “When you pray DO NOT use meaningless repetition thinking that you will be heard for your many words.” (NAS) Not mindless ritual…repeating clichés...over and over again.
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Our frustrations with prayer are caused by our misconceptions
So many false ideas about prayer out there. 1. Prayer is NOT a magic wand! Not an enchanted tool you wave like Harry Potter to change your situation! Not a magic bottle you rub & God comes out to fulfill every desire “Your wish is my command!” God is not your Genie Not a secret incantation – special words used to get your own way “Abracadabra! You’re now a good husband!” “Hocus Pocus! Give me the promotion! 2. Prayer is NOT a fire extinguisher! Break glass & use only in an emergency Only for desperate situation Get bad news: start praying! Hurricane coming! “God if you get me out of this mess..!” Treated as a LAST RESORT “All we can do now is pray” Has it come to that? Talking to God is not just for emergencies! Let's admit it: We’re not very good at prayer.
Everybody feels inadequate. Many are afraid to pray publicly Even Paul considered himself to be a novice at prayer! ROM 8:26 “We don't even know what we should pray for, nor how we should pray...” (NLT) - And even the disciples who lived with Jesus asked for help LK. 11:1 “One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of the disciples said "Lord, teach us to pray...” God doesn’t want talking to him to feel so difficult! I am continuing the subject of prayer probably through the Summer because there is so much to cover, it is almost inexhaustible.
We begin today with one of 3 facts about prayer 1. Our creator wired human beings for prayer! Everybody prays! A universal urge... worldwide Every culture prays to something or someone” Even atheists in a crisis cry out “Oh God! Why? It’s part of what makes us human! It is a God-given capacity within us... Makes us different from animals...We’re wired for prayer! Ecc. 3:11 says “God has planted eternity in the human heart.” So if God has planted eternity in our hearts then we will reach out to eternity(God) in some manner. I have a daily Quiet Time which entails prayer, reading from the Bible and then I read two devotional books by Oswald Chambers and A.W. Tozer. I have read Oswald Chambers for years, I have worn out at least three of the " My Utmost, For His Highest" devotional books. He wrote this," If we are obsessed by God, nothing can get into our lives- not concerns, not tribulation, nor worries. And now we understand why our Lord emphasized the sin of worrying. How can we dare to be so absolutely unbelieving when God totally surrounds us? To be obsessed by God is to have an effective barricade against all the assaults of the enemy."
What or whom am I obsessed with? |
What we Learned on Sunday? Insights, ideas and InspirationWritten by Pastor Chris Hudson Archives
May 2024
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