There is a quote on prayer from Quaker writer Richard J. Foster in his book "Celebration of Discipline," which says, simply:"Real prayer is something that we learn."
He points out that the disciples - who ostensibly had been praying all their lives, came to Christ and asked the Master to school them in the art of prayer. He then recounts how he learned to pray at the feet of seasoned Christians, by reading the great prayers of the Scripture, and from delving into pages on prayer written by the great devotional writers of church history.
My question to you is, what do you know about prayer that you could share with me as I seek to learn a deeper prayer life?
Learn to pray about everything (Phil.4:6)
ReplyDeletePray for the will of God (IJohn5:14)
Pray in faith (Heb.11:6)
pray with a clean heart (Psl.66:8)
Pray in Jesus name (John14:13)
Pastor Ernest
Hey Brother,
ReplyDeleteI have been in a deep search about prayer for the last year, myself. I have read three books that have helped a great deal. With Christ in the School of Prayer by Andrew Murray is very deep and awesome. R.A Torrey's very short book, How to Pray, and Dallas Willard's, "The Great Omission." Willard's book isn't exclusively on prayer, but it has alot to do with spiritual disciplines...Stay faithful and struggle with it, it will have awesome rewards. This may sound strange coming from a pastor, but prayer has been a challenge for me and it is something that I have had to stay at with faith...Talk to ya soon brother.Ask Jesus, just like his other disciples, to help you and teach you how to pray.
I would be the last one to be able to teach you something about prayer, Brent, as you have impressed me so much with your spiritual maturity.
ReplyDeleteI will say that I realized early on that my prayers were too much about me, and I was more interested in telling and in asking than I was in listening. That was a big mistake. Prayer is just as much about listening ("Be still and I know that I am God.")and about seeking His will, rather than giving God a list of "to-do's" based on what I would like to see in my life.
I'm sure that I read about the following acronym in some of our Wesleyan material, but I remember it as a form for our prayers---ACTS.
A--Adoration.
C--Confession
T--Thanksgiving
S--Supplication and Surrender
Of course, many of our prayers can be spontaneous, and I think when Paul told us to "Pray without ceasing", I think he meant for us to be a state during our daily walk where we are close enough to God that it is a type of moment by moment consciousness of Him.
Man, I wish I didn't forget that!!!
I think that when we do pray, we need to check ourselves to see that we do have the right focus....that we are entering into prayer with the right mind-set and be glorifying and honoring God while recognizing and asking forgiveness for our sin. While we have needs, we need to be thankful for what we already have. We should pray for our needs, but leave it to God to give us what we REALLY need (i.e. the scripture about if we need bread, would he give us a stone?). ACTS.
Thanks, gentlemen, your comments mean a lot to me.
ReplyDeleteScott, I have "With Christ" by Murray sitting on my desk here at the church, ready for me to start once I finish "Celebration of Discipline." I understand about it being hard to pray even though we are pastors. I'm just glad I can learn from others.
Pastor Ernest, thank you for the comment. Very, very good suggestions (and a good sermon outline as well).
Jimmy, you sell yourself short. You can teach me a lot about prayer and other spiritual matters. I admire your humility.
The ONLY thing I know about prayer for certain is this WE DON'T EVER REALLY KNOW HOW MUCH WE NEED IT!!! BUT WE DO!!!! CAUSE WHERE WOULD WE BE WITHOUT IT,REALLY!!! WHO KNOWS!!! So pray for me as much and as often as you can, and I'll return the favor!
ReplyDelete- Todd
Prayer is very important, not only to get saved, but to keep saved. Who prays as much as they should? God needs our undivided attention. Pastors should give a pastoral prayer I think instead of having laymen to pray in the Sunday Morning Worship service.
ReplyDeleteWe need to name our lost relatives to the Lord, our naighbors, missionaries, works of God we support and works of God we do not support. Perhaps we should fast and pray, too!
Gene Schenck
Brent,
ReplyDeleteI recently preached a sermon on prayer, and all things considered my prayer life is nothing to brag about, and for that reason I beleive the Holy Spirit directed me to study more deeply on portion of one verse, James 5:16b, " the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much".
The context of the passage speaks of praying for healing as well as confessing your faults to the body of believers, but this portion of verse 16 stands alone. I took this small portion and applied to the prayer life of believers. My points were simple:
Efectual- Action! Count it as done....remember to Whom you are praying. Often times we forget that God is capable to handle any one of our problems, no matter how big or how small He is able. When we pray we need to count it as done.
Fervent- Heated....A pot of water placed on a burner will eventually boil, but if you turn down the heat or remove it frome the heat it will stop. A boiling pot of water has but one purpose and that is to boil itself out. When we pray we need to treat our prayer as a boiling pot of water left to itself. If it is important to us it is important to God, and we need to keep it before Him until He answers, and we must be willint to wait on His answer as well as to accept His answer.
The condition- a righteous man..."if I regard iniquity in my heart the LORD will not hear me... ' Psalm 66:18. There are always conditions with God, obey and be blessed, turn from Him and face judgment (just read the historic books of the Bible, or for that matter watch the evening news about America. Fellowhsip with God key to an effective prayer life.
I know this is a little wordy, and for the most part common sense stuff, but some times its the little things that we tend to overlook, such as the way we approach prayer (effectually) or our attention to our prayer life (fervency), and most importantly our avenue to God in prayer (our fellowship with God).
Brent I hope this was helpful, the studying of these words was a tremendous help to me and just rehearsing them here reminds of the shortcomings in my prayer life right now. Anyway brother if there is anyhthing you need just let me know. Todd II Tim. 4:2.