Skip to main content

Struggling in prayer












Last Sunday the sermon was about struggling in prayer:

"I appeal to you, brothers...
to strive (struggle) together with me
in your prayers...."
- Rom. 15:30

The following were the key points of the message:

1) I should not be surprised that prayer is a struggle: I will struggle against the enemy (Eph. 6:12); against sin (Ps. 66:18); and against distractions. I will even struggle with God himself (see Dan.9:27).

2) By joining God on His mission I'll experience a deeper striving in prayer. Just in the last few weeks, as we've been working toward the start of a risky new ministry venture, I've found myself waking up in the mornings with a prayer on my lips. When I step out on faith, when I take risks in Jesus name and boldly attempt new initiatives, it forces me to my knees in prayer.

3) Pray the Bible. I don't pray well and I don't pray for very long without the Bible. Try praying through the memory verses for 2007. We did that at our men's prayer breakfast this week and one of the guys commented, "That was really cool." Yeah, cool and powerful.

May God give us strength to strive together in prayer this week.

Comments

Tiffany said…
Hmmm...I've been "struggling" with prayer lately too! I like the thought of praying the Bible. I'll try to apply that more this week. Thanks for the thoughts. Blessings,
www.namastechild.blogspot.com
bluggier said…
I just saw this post...sorry. Probably one of the best things I took out of Topeka was the idea of praying the Bible...Psalms, Paul, etc.
Now, if I had the discipline to do it as I want..."Those things I want to do, I do not do; and those things that I don't want to do, I do. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free?"

Popular posts from this blog

What makes you happy in God?

"...above all things see to it that your souls are happy in the Lord." - George Mueller The first order of business every day, says Mueller, is to get my soul happy in God. Great advice. But I've not yet mastered the technique. One of the ways I like to do that is by thinking about glory. I don't know exactly what glory looks like. I've been asking God to show it to me lately, but he's not yet given me a big glorious experience. The Apostle Paul, however, must have had a strong vision of it: "...the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us." - Romans 8:18-19 And talk about suffering! Paul knew suffering: "Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three timesI was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea...." -2 Cor. 11:24-25 So, Paul suffered much, but said it couldn't be compared wi...

Teaching my kids about the bloody atonement

Our memory verse this week is 1 Peter 2:24: "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed." As I was working on memorizing it during my prayer time today it occurred to me that I should use this verse to teach my kids about the atoning sacrifice of Christ. Why? Why do I think it's important to teach them about the atonement? The atonement is one of the central doctrines of Christianity. Paul said, "I resolved to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." The tendency in American churches is to get soft on sin and not talk too much about the bloody atonement of Christ. A full understanding of the atonement will grab their hearts. It will inspire worship. If they understand who God is and why he does what he does then the roots of their faith will sink deep into the soil of God's love and they will bear the fruit of righteousness. So, here...

The PAPA Prayer

What is prayer? Will I ever master it? Last night our "Book of Every Other Month Club" met at Barnes & Noble to discuss The PAPA Prayer , by Larry Crabb. Not everyone in the group appreciated the book. I did. One of the things I liked about Crabb's teaching is that the PAPA prayer moves me. It starts with an honest look at where I am and takes me deeper into me than I want to go. PAPA then teaches me to look up to God and moves me out of the muddy pit of my flesh and sets my feet on the Rock. I agree with Matthew Hoffman who said, "I spend far too much time contemplating myself (my desires, my opinions, my thoughts, etc.) and never enough time contemplating my Savior's work and grace. I am so very thankful for men like Mr. Jerry Bridges, C.J. Mahaney and of course Mr. Spurgeon himself who call us to 'preach the gospel to ourselves every day!'" If prayer leaves me stuck on me and my desires then I am lost in a deep, empty pit. If, however, I can ...