Creatures of Habit | Week 1 - Prayerlessness

so guys we really are all creatures of habit you know we drive the same way to work every day we sit in the same chair when we walk into a room we type a letter without ever giving it any kind of a thought these are all habits that we've developed over time and yet i think we greatly hear me please i think we greatly underestimate the power of habits in our life and as i said to you just a moment ago when i started studying for this it really was an eye opener for me and i really do believe that i had underestimated the power of habits in our life i saw i found that studies have shown that over 40 of the actions that we perform each and every day are actually habits in our life so let's start by saying then what is a habit well a habit starts with a simple choice or decision that you and i make so the first time around you had to make a decision on whether you were going to do something or not but when it's repeated enough times it literally becomes an unconscious pattern again it would be like playing an instrument you know you were clumsy you didn't know what to do but the more you practice the more you practice it all of a sudden became like uh second nature it it became an unconscious pattern it's it's the way it is when you type you don't even think about it well that's the way it is with so many areas of our life and so it's important that you pay attention to the habits in your life because we are actually listening to them we are actually the sum total of the decisions we make and the habits in our life we are the sum total of the decisions we make every day and the habits in our life and those habits will eventually become our identity i know that's confusing so stay with me for just a minute those habits will eventually become our identity in other words people will identify you by your habits did you know that people will identify you by your habits good or bad for instance let's say that you have the habit of lying well if somebody's trying to describe you to somebody else they're going to say you know the guy's a liar why because that's become a habit in your life so it's become evident if you have the habit of complaining they might describe you but they're going to say you know he or she is a bit of a complainer they're going to describe you in that way because it's become your identity on the other hand if your habit is telling the truth then people are going to describe you as a person of integrity they're going to say one thing i can tell you about joe he is a man of integrity one thing i can tell you about sally she is a person of integrity so it's important that we develop healthy habits well pastor how do i know if it's a healthy habit or not well that's a great question because your brain is your brain actually cannot tell the difference between a good habit or a bad habit so what does that mean that means that you have to make the call you have to make the decision and so the habits that conflict with your desired identity think with me the habits that conflict with your desired identity or in other words who you want to be known for those are your bad habits the scripture calls those spiritual strongholds those are the things that get a grip on your life they can also be known as addictions in your life while on the other hand habits that reinforce your desired eye your desired identity in other words who you want to become those are your good habits or the bible calls them spiritual disciplines so those are your good habits or your spiritual disciplines and your good habits or your spiritual disciplines are going to be like stepping stones they're going to help you become more like christ but on the other hand your bad habits or those spiritual strongholds are going to be like tombstones they're going to do you in they're going to keep you from god's best so every step i take towards forming godly habits is a personal vote for my identity in christ and yet guys listen if people don't identify you as a child of god then it might be that you need to change some of the habits in your life now paul writes in romans chapter 12 2 and can i just say this i was also amazed you know if somebody were to have said to me are habits biblical i would have said well i think it might mention it a couple times but i was amazed when i got into it they may use other words but the scripture all throughout the new testament deals with this and so paul talks about in romans chapter 12 verse 2 he says do not conform to the pattern of this world so i could say do not conform to the habits of this world but instead be transformed by the renewing of your mind that's what we have to do you have to renew your mind if you have a bad habit in your life it's second nature you don't even give it a thought anymore so what do you have to do you have to renew your mind you have to rethink it you have to create a new habit you've got to replace a bad habit with a good habit so by the renewing of your mind then you will be able to test and approve what god's will is his good pleasing and perfect will when you invited guys hear me please when you invited christ into your life we've talked about this many times before the power of god broke sins hold on you you invited jesus christ to come into your life he stepped across that line of faith the power of god broke sins hold on you that grip the chains of sin he gave you what this bib the bible tells us he gave you the power to say no to sin but you still have these habits that you have developed over many years and if you don't deal with them they're going to hold you back from god's best and this is what i find crippling the church world because people say well you know i don't understand it steve i've invited jesus christ to come into my life but i still struggle i still you know you say we need to emulate christ we need to be more like christ but it just i just feel like i can never get there and i don't understand why and oftentimes the reason why is because you're still stuck with these old habits that you haven't dealt with and it's going to hold you back from god's best if you don't deal with them if you don't break them and replace them with good habits so over the next few weeks we're gonna we're gonna look at five bad habits that we need to get rid of listen guys i believe that habits are born out of the brilliance of our creator what do i mean by that i mean the habits were intended to be a good thing they're a god thing and therefore intended to be a good thing it's so that we don't have to spend our day making the same decision over and over and over you know you know every day you know if you're going to be a um if you're going to be a person of truth a person of honesty you don't have to decide every day well i'm going to be honest now tomorrow well i need to be honest the next day i need to be honest because you create a habit of truth telling of honesty where it just becomes second nature for you so again i believe habits are born out of the brilliance of our creator to help us grow spiritually so let's make sure that our habits are consistent with what that they're consistent with god's nature with who jesus is because obviously we're to emulate christ he wants us to take on his characteristics he wants us to take on his nature so today we're going to talk about the habit of prayerlessness which at first glance can be a bit confusing because it's not something that we do but it's something that we don't do you see not only let me explain it this way not only are there sins of commission which are sins that we commit sins of commission are things that we do wrong we stand against god we do this but there's also sins of omission or in other words things that we should be doing but we omit to do them we don't do them prayerlessness would be a habit or a sin of omission because the because the scripture is very clear that we have a responsibility and an obligation to pray god wants us to communicate with him and so when we refuse to pray it's it's a sin of omission it's a bad habit in our life so fb meyer the you may have heard that name before the great author and pastor in england he once said this he said the greatest tragedy of life is not unanswered prayer but it's unoffered prayer i think that's a powerful statement it's not an answered prayer but it's unoffered prayer prayer is our connection to god it allows for his direction as well as his correction it allows for his direction as well as his correction and our life in fact the bible specifically tells us that we are to do what we are to pray continually some translations say we are to pray without ceasing so anything other than a continual attitude of prayer and connection with god is actually in disobedience to what he's called us to do prayer my friends is like the air we breathe it's our lifeline it's our connection to god it sustains us spiritually without prayer our spiritual life is gonna suffocate without prayer it'll be hard to break any of the habits that are defeating us so in other words a lot of these bad habits are connected in the sense that if i don't pray it's not likely that i'm going to break any of the other bad habits in my life because i can't do this on my own i need god's help i need the spirit's help in my life to empower me to give me the boldness to give me the want to if you will to do this and so it'll be hard to break any bad habits that are defeating us if we don't have prayer in our life which is why we need to understand how we ever got into this habit of prayerlessness in the first place i think most christians at one time or another ex have experienced the season of prayerlessness i have i imagine most of you have hopefully it didn't last very long but i in my life have gone through a period or a time where i just got out of the habit you know it's like i believed in prayer if you asked me i would tell you definitely i believe in the power of prayer but i just wasn't in the habit of doing it anymore and so i've recognized i've come out of that season and recognized this is a problem i've got to work now at recreating that habit in my life maybe for whatever reason i don't know maybe you just allowed your priorities to get out of whack you've allowed everything else in your life to become more important to you than time you spend with god or or maybe maybe it's just because you have this independent spirit that says i'm going to do what i want to do maybe god's encouraging you to do something but you don't want to do it and so therefore you stop praying because every time you pray he convicts you and you don't want to be convicted anymore and so you stop praying discouragement or resentment can be another reason for prayerlessness maybe you prayed for god to save your marriage and yet your spouse still left maybe you prayed for god to heal your loved one but they still died maybe you've been asking god for a child but nothing has happened and since god didn't answer your prayer or at least the way you wanted him to answer your prayer you have this sense of betrayal and you're too hurt to pray friends there's a lot of reasons we won't pray but essentially listen to me on this essentially it's caused by unbelief now there is a difference there is a difference between disbelief and unbelief disbelief means you do not believe in god disbelief you do not believe in god unbelief means you reject or doubt the promises of god now in mark's gospel we see a man who brings his demon-possessed boy his demon-possessed son to the disciples for their help and he says you got to help me here and they tried you know god bless them they tried but they were unable to do anything and so the man finally gets discouraged with the disciples and he goes he takes his boy and he goes and finds jesus and in mark chapter 9 it says he's telling the story about how this this demon was throwing his son into the fire it says it has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him he's talking to jesus but if you can do anything jesus if you can do anything take pity on us and help us if you can said jesus everything is possible for one who believes immediately the boy's father exclaimed i do believe help me overcome my unbelief one of my favorite passages in scripture right there because if there's ever been a a passage of scripture scripture that's encouraging to me it's this one i read that and i think i'm not the only one that has doubts i'm not the only one that's ever struggled with unbelief this father did and we see it right here he says i do believe jesus i really do but help me overcome my unbelief this father believed that jesus was a healer and yet he struggled to believe that he would heal his son have you ever felt that way oh my gosh guys i'm just going to tell you i have many many times you know you you come up to me if you come up to me and you say would you pray for my healing i pray with complete faith that god's going to step into your situation but then when i'm sick i have doubts it's like well i believe he's going to heal you but i don't think he's going to heal me why well i'm not worthy i struggle with all those just like everybody else does guys and that's why it says without faith it's impossible to please god why is that because we all have doubts and that's why it blesses god so much that faith is we're willing to trust god even when we have doubts if i didn't have any doubts it wouldn't take any faith would it but because i have doubts faith blesses the heart of god like you don't but again it's like we we struggle with doubts when it comes to so many different areas of our life like you don't deserve god to answer your prayers unbelief is basically an absence of faith and the scripture tells us again as i just said without faith it's impossible to please god so it's important to know that not only does god love us but guys he has our back we can also trust him it's also important to know that if you ignore unbelief in your life it will lead you into a backslidden condition now what does that mean to be backslidden is a condition that comes from spiritual apathy it comes from disregard of the things of god in other words a backslider is someone moving in the wrong way spiritually instead of moving toward god they're moving away from god maybe at one time in this room maybe at one time you completely trusted god i mean you were focused on him you were headed true north and your your faith was completely in god but recently your heart has grown cold because of your doubts because of your unbelief andrew murray is uh maybe again you've heard that name he was the south african-born pastor missionary and he was asked by one of the men in his church that he pastored he said they asked him they said what is the cause of so much prayerlessness is it unbelief and i love his answer he said certainly it is unbelief but the question is what is the cause of the unbelief yes the answer to your question is it is definitely unbelief but what is the cause of the unbelief guys i'm telling you prayerlessness is a major cause of unbelief probably the number one reason for unbelief in our life is prayerlessness when you're not praying when you're not praying you're not connecting with god you're not hearing him when he tries to guide you you're not hearing him when he tries to direct you and it clouds your heart to the temptations that are surrounding you on the other hand when you're spending time with god in prayer what does it do it strengthens your faith and it floods your heart with joy you know what you don't have healthy relationships with god you will not have a healthy relationship with god if you're not spending time talking to him period just like any relationship if i don't spend time if we're friends but we never talk we're not going to have a healthy friendship my marriage if we never talk we're not going to have a healthy marriage that's just the way relationships are peter tells us in first peter chapter 5 give all your worries and cares to god for he cares about you so how do you give your cares over to god if you're not praying if you never talk to god you know you can say i believe in prayer i believe in the importance of prayer but if you're not praying how in the world will you ever cast your cares upon him a prayerless life will always lead to more stress a prayerless life is always going to lead to more anxiety a prayerless life is always going to lead to a stressful life another consequence of prayerlessness is that you lose your hunger for more of god it's like god wants us to have this hunger and thirst this thirst for righteousness and this hunger for the things of god that it's just like i just want to grow in my faith the apostle paul wrote in philippians 3 that i may know him the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering what was all that paul had a hunger for more of god and that that's what should be natural for us but when we're not praying when we're not communicating with god we become apathetic or indifferent if i stop talking to a close friend as i just said i will eventually lose a desire to work on that friendship it'll no longer matter to me it'll no longer be important to me the same thing will happen if i stop talking to god listen friends hear me on this because i've heard this all of my life i told the staff this not too long ago in a staff meeting i've heard this all of my life that absence makes the heart grow fonder that is just not a true statement it is not true absence does not make the heart grow fonder absent absence makes the heart grow distant prayer is the way we communicate with god and communication is the basis of life so whenever there's a healthy communication in any relationship whenever there's a healthy whenever we have a healthy relationship it's because there is communication whenever there's healthy communication there's a healthy relationship but when there's no communication you will inevitably end up with a broken relationship i can just tell you i i can just tell you the end of your story if you if you come and you say my wife and i just don't talk anymore we haven't for years i can tell you how this thing's going to end you had a friend that you were really close we just don't talk anymore i can tell you you're going to drift apart if you never talk to your kids you're not going to have a healthy relationship with your kids communication is the basis of life again prayerlessness is a sin in james chapter 4 it says if anyone then knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it it is sin for them what did we just talk about a few minutes ago sins of commission and sins of omission he's talking about james is talking about sins of omission if anyone then knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it it is sin for them any lack of conformity to more sin is this we've talked about this many times before sin is any lack of conformity to the moral character of god and it's anything that stands between us and god i think that's probably the easiest definition the easiest one to remember is simply here's god and here am i i need to be focused on god i need to have an intimate relationship with him but when anything steps in the way and takes my attention off of god onto this the item and all of a sudden now instead of following after god i'm falling after this item whatever it is it becomes sin in our life sin is anything that steps between you and god that takes your attention away from god onto that it was john bunyan who said prayer will make a man cease from sin as sin will entice a man to cease from prayer that's good prayer will make a man cease from sin as sin will entice a man to cease from prayer billy graham billy graham warned of the dangers of prayerlessness we are to pray in times of adversity lest we become faithless and unbelieving we are to pray in times of prosperity lest we become boastful and proud we are to pray in times of danger lest we become fearful and doubting we are to pray in times of security lest we become self-sufficient as christians we often say that hear me guys as christians and as believers we often say that we want to we want jesus to be the most important thing in our life we'll say we want to we want to walk by the spirit we want to be led by the spirit jesus is the most important thing to us but i'm just telling you prayerlessness will leave you walking in the flesh you can you can talk about he's a pr how he's a priority for you you can talk about how important to have a real it is for you to have a relationship with jesus christ but prayerlessness will leave you walking in the flesh prayerlessness is to settle for less than god's best i heard a story i've actually told this before some of you will remember it but i heard a story of a church that across the street was this bar and there was just a lot of um unhealthy activity going on at the bar and the the people in the church felt like it was having an influence a negative influence on their kids and so the pastor said you know we need to do something about it so he called for a prayer meeting and so they all gathered together to pray and their prayer was god we're just praying and asking that you shut down that bar we don't know how you're going to do it but we pray you'd shut down that bar well that night after their prayer meeting there was a storm that passed through town lightning struck the bar and it burned down well the bartender found out about this prayer meeting and needless to say he was ticked so he filed suit against the church they went to court and so this bartender stands up in front of the judge and he said judge it's not right that's my livelihood that's the way i make a living and he said this church called for a prayer meeting and they prayed and god struck my bar with lightning and burned it down and that's why i'm drawing suit so the pastor stands up and he says uh listen your honor we did have a prayer meeting and we did pray that god would shut down this bar but we didn't really believe anything would happen and so the judge leans back in his chair and he said i cannot believe what i'm hearing today i have a bar owner that believes in the power of prayer and a pastor who doesn't there's a lot of christians who say they believe in the importance of prayer and yet their actions show otherwise you know talk is cheap it's easy for us to stand up and say oh i believe god will answer prayer you need to pray i believe god god will answer your prayer but we never pray so you know the the truth is in the pudding as they say i mean you you're going to talk the talk or you're going to walk the walk on the other hand there are some christians who want to pray but they just don't know how if they're being honest maybe they're new believers in their faith and they just don't know and that's where the disciples were for instance they were so discouraged by their own efforts to pray that they went to jesus and they asked him they said you know master would you teach us how to pray because i'm telling you guys when jesus prayed things happened they watched him turn water into wine at that wedding they they watched him give sight to the blind they were there when he fed five thousand they were there when he raised the dead jesus prayers were effective and that's what got their attention when jesus prayed things happened in james chapter 5 it says therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective now we talked about this last week so the prayer of a righteous person we certainly know jesus was a righteous person so the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and it's effective but you know what else i said this last week here's a righteous man side view not because of anything i've done but because of what he's done and if you want to see another righteous person go look in the mirror because we are made righteous by what jesus christ did on the cross so this verse is talking about you and me the prayer of a righteous person if you're a believer that's you the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and it is effective the disciples didn't ask him think about this the disciples didn't come to jesus and ask him how to teach man you are when when you teach people come from miles around they'll stay all day to listen to you teach they didn't ask him how to teach they saw jesus forgive anyone and everyone they didn't ask him how to forgive they saw him perform all kinds of miracles they didn't ask him how to work miracles they wanted to learn how do we get effective how do we be effective in our prayers jesus was effective in his prayers because he spent time doing it that's the only way it happens jesus was effective in his prayer because it had become a habit in his life it had become something that was just second nature for him it just went on all the time he didn't have to think about it he just did it it was a part of who he was everything within us wants to follow our own selfish ambitions and the lure of this world but prayer is what keeps us centered prayer is what keeps us focused on god prayer is an act of obedience prayer is dedication to our lord prayer is what drowns out the noise my goodness there's more noise today than i think there's ever been before we've got everybody shouting and yelling and trying to pull us away from our relationship with god all kinds of noise and confusion in the world that we're living so we need prayer in our life and so therefore if prayerlessness has become a habit for you then i want to give you some steps that you can take to break this bad habit of prayerlessness in your life but guys listen to me before you can ever break a bad habit you have to own it you have to own it you have to acknowledge it you have to come to a place today where you say okay i own it i'm not praying i i have a habit of prayerlessness no matter people my family will say would you pray for me i say yes but i never do it because it's i have created this habit of prayerlessness and so you have to own that it's a problem to acknowledge that you're not spending enough time with god in prayer and once you've confessed it listen to me once you've confessed it then ask god to give you the motivation to change and now you're ready to take the necessary steps to break that habit the first step that you need to take to break that bad habit is identify your obstacles identify your obstacles in other words what are the things think about this what are the things that are keeping you from praying do you have a hard time concentrating when you pray your mind drifts off to other things or maybe there are things listen maybe there are things that have you so upset that you find it difficult to pray about it maybe you have unresolved conflict maybe there's unforgiveness going on in your life and because of that unforgiveness you don't want to pray because every time you do the holy spirit convicts you that you need to forgive this person so you just stop praying you don't want to hear it anymore if every time i pray the holy spirit convicts me of my unforgiveness i'll either deal with the unforgiveness in obedience to the holy spirit or what i'll stop praying so guys once you identify your obstacles then refuse to let them stand in the way of your prayer once you understand okay this has been i know now what's causing me keeping me from praying so now that i know what it is i'm making a determination i'm not going to let that stop me from praying anymore and then it'll be much easier to break the cycle of prayerlessness number two schedule a time to pray schedule a time to pray life can be so hectic we're living in a crazy hectic world all of us are busy and i know that if i want to have a health if i know listen i know that if i want to have a healthy marriage i have to schedule time alone with my wife or we'll drift apart you know it's like just like probably your lives there are times in my life where i go into a season of craziness and i as a pastor of a large church i'll get into this season where i'm working there's times where i'm working 70 80 hours on that particular week and so i'm not home and even when i am at home i'm not at home you know what i mean and and so sandy will oftentimes tell me she's like you know you're not here you're here but you're not here we're drifting apart and so that's why because of that that's why i know that i have to be intentional if i want a healthy marriage i have to be intentional about spending times with my wife the same thing is true in my relationship with god if i want to have a healthy relationship with god i've got to be intentional about spending time with him if i don't schedule time alone with him my relationship will suffer it'll suffer and obviously the way to break the habit of prayerlessness is to create a good habit of prayer a spiritual discipline of prayer so therefore guys be proactive and schedule daily time of prayer you'll have to decide every day for a while i don't know how long a time you know one of the things i was researching is how long does it take to create a habit in our life and it's all over the map what people say a lot of people say it takes 21 days some people say it takes a month i don't know i just know that you if you just keep doing it it'll become like second nature and so for a while you have to decide okay today i'm going to choose mornings i'm going to get up the first thing every morning and i'm going to pray and so i schedule that time and so this morning i make up my mind i'm going to pray tomorrow morning there's a lot i need to do it doesn't matter i decided i'm going to pray and so you just keep doing that until you finally get to a place you've created a new habit of prayer you don't even have to think about it anymore it'll just happen and so there are people listen there are people that are going to try to tell you they're going to try to make prayer legalistic and they're going to people that will say well you know if you want to be effective in prayer you got to pray at least an hour a day and if you want to pray an hour a day that's great if you like to do that that's great but prayer is not measured by minutes or hours prayer is not measured its effectiveness is not measured by how much time we spend listen to me guys the secret sauce to a successful prayer life is making it a habit that's why i'm saying i've discovered that habits are so much a part of our dis of our spiritual disciplines habits are so much a part of discipleship so the secret sauce to successful prayer life is making it a habit i need a dedicated time each and every day to get alone with god that's part of my routine it's second nature now during the day i can find it easy to keep the communication lines open with god and ongoing with god i talk to him while i'm driving the car i talk to him while i'm trying to make a decision you know i can be i can be in a meeting and it's going on and on and my mind's drifting off to god i'm thinking about things i need to pray for and that's all good but i need it's very very important that i have a dedicated time with him where i'm not where i'm not doing several things at the same time where i just stop what i'm doing and spend time with him so it's hard because life is so busy it's hard to have those scheduled time alone with god which is why i have to be intentional to make it happen number three find a prayer partner if you're serious about wanting this to be a habit in your life find a prayer partner find someone of the same sex to pray with on a regular basis to help you with accountability i think this is one of the reasons jesus encourages us to pray together there's a lot of different reasons actually more than that but one of the reasons that we should pray together is because it holds you accountable matthew chapter 18 says again truly i tell you that if two of you on earth agree if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for it will be done for them by my father in heaven when you pray with someone else well guys think about it your prayers are no longer just about you when you're praying alone when you're praying by yourself everything you're praying it's a grocery list it's a wish list but when you have a prayer partner they have needs too and so now all of a sudden you're praying about your needs together and you're praying about your partner's needs together you focus on each other instead of just yourself there might be times that you're going through a difficult struggle and you just don't you don't even have the words to pray and you tell your prayer partner you know i don't i this is what's happening i don't even know how to pray having someone who cares about you that can pray on your behalf is very encouraging ecclesiastes chapter 4 says two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor if either of them falls down one can help the other up but pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up also if two lie down together they will keep warm but how can one keep warm alone though one may be overpowered two can defend themselves a court of three strands is just not quickly broken your prayer partner should be someone you trust because guys if you're going to really get serious about prayer there is nothing listen to me there is nothing any more intimate than prayer did you know that there is nothing any more intimate than prayer because what happens is you when you are praying you're tearing the walls down you're becoming vulnerable you're becoming transparent and so if you're going to get transparent with somebody in prayer you need to make sure you trust them you meet because you need to be open and honest with each other and share the good the bad and the ugly number four use an outline and you say i don't understand what that means use an outline i don't know about you but i can be a little add or adhd i mean i'm trying to pray and i'm like squirrel you know it's like i don't know if you're that way but i'm that way it's like anything and everything wants to pull me off of prayer when it comes to my time with god my mind has a tendency to drift to the things that i need to get done and so before i know it i'm not praying anymore i'm thinking about what i need to do that day so i found it helpful at times to use a prayer formula or an outline to keep me focused other times other times it might help you to write out your prayers in a journal i know a lot of people to do that i did that gosh about 20 years ago i did that for a while it was helpful i haven't done that for many many years but i know a lot of people that do it just have a journal that they write their prayers out and yet other times it might help to to simply pray the scripture sometimes you just open up to a psalm you know one of david's prayers and just read it as a prayer from your heart there's a lot of good formulas or outlines out there to use so i don't think it matters which one you pick just find one that helps you and i know some of you would say steve that's just so immature that's just so childish to have some kind of a formula to use that's just so not a heartfelt i could not disagree more because the point is you're trying to create the habit of prayer and so if a formula helps you to get into the habit of prayer then do it you know you can talk about how in mature it is but if you're not praying you need to be quiet and start some kind of formula you know what i'm saying so you know in the book i've got like about four or five i think different formulas that you can use one of them is acts maybe you've heard acts it's another acts is um a stands for adoration and so in other words you're going to praise god adoration means i'm going to start by praising god for who he is and all that he's done in my life c is for confession i'm going to confess the sins of my life god forgive me for the things that i've hurt you with the things that i've done today t is for thanksgiving this is a heart of gratitude i'm thankful for all that you've blessed me with god s is for supplication this is where i make my requests known to god and so that little formula a-c-t-s can help you spend time with god in prayer another model that i've used and this is one that i've used a lot in my life in fact several years ago i actually taught a series on it on the lord's prayer see here's my personal conviction i think when the disciples went to jesus and they said lord teach us to pray and he gave him the lord's prayer i don't think he meant for them now you may disagree and that's okay it's not important i don't think he meant for them to memorize that prayer and that's it i think it's an outline you can divide that prayer up into five different categories and so i think he was given them an outline to pray to spend time in each section so you can you can pray for one minute on each section of the lord's prayer and you've prayed for five minutes or you can pray for 10 minutes on each section and pray for almost an hour but i'm just telling you when you pray through that that outline of the lord's prayer it'll help you to stay focused and on track guys my point is just find a model again in the book i give you several other models that you can try out but just find one that works for you and give it a try for a couple of weeks and see if it works see if it resonates with you if it doesn't go try another one until you find one that helps you grow into that habit of prayer number five pray with boldness pray with boldness i once heard a pastor say i once heard a pastor say that god does not answer vague prayers i'm not sure if that's true or not but i do believe that god wants us to be bold with our prayers that much i believe is true god wants us to be bold with our prayers you don't have to look far in scripture to find numerous examples of people that prayed bold prayers i mean come on think about moses standing in front of the red sea i mean here he is leading three million plus jewish people to a promised land and now the red sea's in front of him and the egyptian army is is coming in behind him to take him back captive again and moses stands up to that red sea and prays a bold prayer and god parts the red sea or what about joshua when he prayed that god would help the israelites in their battle and he stopped the sun but i think i know this may seem silly but i think one of my favorite bold prayers is when the mother of james or john prayed this it said then the mother of zebedee's sons came to jesus with their sons and kneeling down asked the favor of him what is it you want this is jesus what is it you want jesus asked she said grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom this mother isn't asking that her sons could one day in paradise hold the door for jesus no this mother is asking that when they get to paradise that one of her boys would sit on his right and one of her boys would sit on his left is that not a mother's heart that's a bold prayer now many people think that this mother overstepped her boundaries that many people think she overstepped i don't know that i think she did what loving mother hasn't gone the extra mile and prayed a bold prayer for her kids because she wanted the best for her kids and so that's really what i'm talking about i'm not i'm not so much talking about bold prayers like moses prayed i'm praying i'm talking about bold prayers by a mother bold prayers by a father bold prayers by a a parent for their kids those are the type of bold prayers that god's looking for listen guys god may or may not answer your prayers in the way that you want but the scripture tells us that bold prayers are exactly what god is looking for from each one of us and that's why jesus said in matthew chapter 7 keep on asking and you will receive what you ask for keep on seeking and you will find keep on knocking and the door will be open to you for everyone who ask receives everyone who seeks finds and to everyone who knocks the door will be opened billy graham once said he said this should be the motto of every follower of jesus christ no matter how dark and hopeless the situation might seem never stop praying now sometimes guys we need to be still and listen for that still small voice we need to contemplate what the spirit of god is saying to us but i also feel like it's important for us to push through passivity and apathy and put ourselves in alignment with god so always remember bold prayers honor god and god honors bold prayers bold prayers honor god and god honors bold prayers friends if you're ready to break the habit of prayerlessness and create a new habit of prayer then you have to practice praying if you don't practice praying on a daily basis i promise it will never become a habit in your life but if you do on a consistent basis it will come to a place where it's second nature you don't even think about it anymore it's just a daily part of your routine so you have to practice praying not just when you find yourself in a crisis but every day of your life so why is it so important that we break this habit of prayerlessness because guys a prayerless christian is a powerless christian a prayerless christian is a powerless christian and that's why we need to say okay this has gone on too long this season of prayerlessness in my life has become a bad habit that's keeping me from experiencing god's best and so it changes today

Channel: Northview Church

Views: 1,242

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Northview Church, Northview, Steve Poe, Carmel, Fishers, Westfield, Lafayette, Indy North, Indianapolis

Id: 93J0XsFQmEE

Length: 44min 2sec (2642 seconds)

Published: Mon May 03 2021