PRAYER

 “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.”

Colossians 4:2 

 In 1992, as a truck driver, I took a load of electronics from Southern California to Norther California. I kept On my way back, I kept thinking that it should be time to get fuel. But, when I looked, the gauge showed I had enough fuel for 200 more miles. So, I passed a truck stop because there was one 50 miles further that had a restaurant I wanted to eat at. Of course, I ran out of fuel, not realizing my fuel gauge was reading and spent the next nine hours walking to get fuel, failing to prime my diesel engine properly and eventually needing to be towed to get everything resolved. Instead of one can of diesel, I ended up losing more than half a day, spending nearly a thousand dollars and made no money on what was supposed to be an easy trip. Now as a minister, I think back and see a spiritual parallel to what happened 28 years ago. 

What happened was simple; I failed to maintain my truck. I could easily have stopped sooner. But, I didn’t listen to that little voice that told me it should be time to stop and I push the limits because of what I wanted to eat to satisfy my pleasure. All of these decisions of neglect and pursuit of pleasure ended up making me waste my time and money. The deeper I got into bad decisions, the worse my decisions became. 

So often, however, our Christian lives parallel this story. We fail to maintain our lives through prayer, we neglect the time necessary to have the framework of the Lord’s Prayer be how we pray on a daily basis. This makes us dull spiritually, leading to us not listening to the whispers of The Spirit prompting us to be fully committed and obedient. Then we allow our desires and pleasures to dictate our choices. As things get worse, our decisions get worse, until we restore the Lord’s Prayer, praying it as He instructed his disciples (us) to pray. 

The first century Christians were devoted to prayer (Acts 2:42). Paul told the Ephesian church that ”I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers” (Ephesians 1:16). Jesus taught his disciples to be persistent in prayer, always praying yet never giving up (Luke 18:1). We must examine our prayer lives to see if we are imitating these men in prayer. In the same way that cars stop moving when they have no fuel, our spiritual stop moving when there is no prayer. My wife and I drove our car until it could go no further . It simply died. And the sad fact was that we could have bought gas at any point during the day, yet we were “too busy.” We paid the price. just as surely as you get too busy to buy gas, you stall out. And as surely as you get too busy to pray, you stall out spiritually. It’s that simple.” Morning by morning O lord, you hear my voice; morning by morning I lay requests before you and wait in expectation” (Psalms 5:3).

It would be unthinkable for the Christian to neglect prayer. let us look at five specific areas that might hurt our prayer lives:

1 Peter 4:7 “Be clear-minded and self-controlled so that you can pray.” Prayer is the one conversation in which we ought not to fall asleep or let our minds wander. We are actually given the privilege of talking to the creator of the universe! Prayer requires a clear mind and self control.

1 Peter 3:7 “Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives .. . so that nothing will hinder your prayers.” When a husband treats his wife without respect or consideration, his prayers become hindered . But not only married couples are subject to this. Whenever one Christian is inconsiderate of another, his prayers lose their power. Roommates, Bible Talk members, and family members as well can become disrespectful of each other. Jesus said, ”And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone. forgive him, so that your Father in Heaven may forgive your sins.” (Mark 11 :25)

James 1:6. 7 “But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the sea. That man should not think he will receive anything from the lord.” Doubt definitely kills our prayers. Why? Because a doubtful prayer is such an insult to God. Is there any task God cannot do? Then why do we doubt? Imagine if I ask you to dinner, and your reply is. ”But can your wife cook?” Yes. she can cook! What an insult to doubt her! Yes, God has all power and authority. What an insult to doubt him.

Psalm 66:18 “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the lord would not have listened,” When we cherish sin and are slow to drive it out of our lives, our prayers are hurt . Imagine how it sounds to God when at 8:00 a.m. you pray to him for boldness and courage to evangelize, and then al 9:00 you cherish timidity and fear in your hear!. We cannot be in love with OUT own ”private” sins. Cherishing selfishness. love of money, pride. and gossip in our hearts causes prayer to go no higher than the ceiling. 

Mathew 6:5 “Do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men.” Our motivation for prayer is crucial. If we pray to please someone else or because someone might ask, then we arc praying to be seen by men . There will be no reward for them (Matthew 6:5). Our prayers must be motivated by our love for God and o ur confidence that He can and will work in our lives. He wants us to call upon him with the same faith that a child calls upon its parent. What a pity for God to say to us as he did to the Israelites, ”You have eaten the fruit of deception. Because you have depended on your own strength the roar of battle will rise against your people.” (Hosea 10:13) 

What happened was simple; I failed to maintain my truck. I could easily have stopped sooner. But, I didn’t listen to that little voice that told me it should be time to stop and I push the limits because of what I wanted to eat to satisfy my pleasure. All of these decisions of neglect and pursuit of pleasure ended up making me waste my time and money. The deeper I got into bad decisions, the worse my decisions became. 

Ron Harding