Just suppose I had inherited $100,000 and I e-mailed each member of class, telling them I would give them $1000 check, if they would come today. How many do you think would be here? Now suppose I e-mailed every member of class telling them to come today for I would tell them how to pray every day. How many would come? Well I sent this e-mail and looked around to see who came.
Question: Which would be more valuable to you a check for $1000 or learning how to pray? You can spend $1000 and buy a good many things but soon all the money is gone. With prayer you can claim all the blessings God promises and enjoy sweet fellowship with Jesus all your life and go to live with Him forever beyond death. So Prayer is far more important than any earthly possession.
We know Prayer is all important because of 3 things:
- The Apostle asked Jesus for only one thing: “Lord, teach us how to pray?” (Luke 11:1) – Not how to heal, raise the dead, etc.
- God Himself assures us that the Holy Spirit will give us both the will and power to do God’s will. Note Phil. 2:12-13 – First part of sentence applies to man. Work out means to learn to pray until you find intimacy and blessings from God galore. But note the promise to follow, “For it is God who is working in you both to WILL and TO DO.” In the case of prayer, the Holy Spirit motivates you to want to pray and gives you power to do the praying.
- Finally, God commands every Christian to PROVOKE other Christians to pray. Hebrews 10:24 “Let us consider one another to PROVOKE to…good works.” No greater work than prayer. So we are to do all within our power to encourage and arouse others to pray.
All this generic. Just what must we do in order to have meaningful time in prayer: FIRST, make an ADVANCE DECISION THAT YOU ARE GOING TO PRAY EVERY DAY? Secondly, devise some definite guidelines which you will follow to carry out your decision:
- Set a Definite Time for Every Day. You’ll do little praying if you leave it to your feeling, circumstances, family situation etc. You must nail down at least ONE SPECIAL TIME. You may pray several times but some days you won’t find time to pray later. Illus: I set a special time before day and I generally pray throughout the day. But there are times that my schedule will not permit it. (a) When to pray – work it out in your situation. The Bible recommends and Jesus prayed before day. Then you can manage your time.
- Not only Special Time, but a Special Place. Don’t waste time trying to find a place to pray. If so, you will probably end up not praying at all because you could not decide where to pray.
- Not only Specific Time, and Specific Place
- But also Sufficient Time. What do you think God feels when you pray only 5 minutes? You may run out of words after 5 minutes. Well, you will learn to extend your time. Pray back the 8 beatitudes, the 10 commandments, pray for every member of your family, lost friends by name, learn dialogue.
- Not only Time, Place, Sufficient time but
- A Special Plan. Jesus told apostle to use the Lord’s Prayer. Or use Acts. If you don’t plan to pray, you won’t pray much.
- But also a Special Book – the Bible. I recommend the New King James.
- But you could provide all 5 things but you will not learn to pray unless you
- Have a Right Spirit – Humility. What is Humility? If anyone thinks he is humble, he is not only humble but he is prideful, proud of his humility. Example: Man who wore Humility Metal.
- Finally, you must have HUNGER FROM GOD. This comes from reading the Bible, internalizing the Bible, reading about great prayer warriors, of hearing your peers share their prayer life. Closing: Bow your heads. How many have a Meaningful Time already? About half of the class or more raised their hands. About half did not. I asked those to commit to do these things during April and most raised their hands.