Sweet Hour of Prayer

Mark Dunagan
06/27/10 - Sunday Morning

Simply paying attention to what is happening around you and taking to our loving God your burdens and the burdens of those you love can enrich and deepen your prayer life. Read the book of Psalms and experience how David and others intensely cry out to God with their heartfelt desires as they, like us, go through the violent storms of life. Can you relate to David?

• “How my adversaries have increased! Many are rising up against me. Many are saying of my soul, there is no deliverance for him in God…I was crying to the Lord with my voice” (Psalm 3:12,4).
• “Thou hast relieved me in my distress” (4:1).
• “Consider my groaning. Heed the sound of my cry for help”(5:1).
• “I am weary with my sighing: Every night I make my bed swim, I dissolve my couch with my tears” (6:6). 
• “Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases to be. For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men” (12:1).
• “Having sorrow in my heart all the day” (13:2).

Prayer and a Loving Father

We would be far less discouraged over what we perceive to be “unanswered prayer” if we remembered that God describes Himself as our Father and we are His children. The purpose of a Father, among other things is to train and discipline the children. Training children sometimes involves saying “no” a lot of the time. If we had loving parents, they also did this for our good and we respected them for the fact that they loved us enough to not give us everything we wanted at the moment (Hebrews 12:9). So why would we expect to receive everything that we ask for in prayer – when this never even happened from our loving and godly parents. In fact, if God instantly gave me everything I asked for—I think I would be afraid to pray, lest I am granted something that might just destroy my life. Let’s be as thankful for the “no’s” and we are for the “yes’s” from our wise and compassionate Father.

Prayer and Godly Men in the Past

The apostle Paul spoke by inspiration and worked miracles and yet we often forget that God did not rubber stamp with a “yes” all of his prayer requests:

• “And I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you (and have been prevented thus far) in order that I might obtain some fruit among you also” (Romans 1:13).
• “Concerning this I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me” (2 Corinthians 12:8).

Paul made plans that were changed, plans that did not materialize, endeavors and efforts that did not plan out as he had prayed. Yet he continued to plan, pray and move ahead even though not everything always went as he expected. Even when the plan did not happen, he continued to trust in God. If we are go grow in our faith, we must do the same.

Get In the Groove

A sinful lifestyle is not created in a moment, rather destructive lines of thinking and action are forged by practice, “and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them” (Colossians 3:7). It takes a while to solidify sinful habits. These destructive behaviors also probably felt a little unnatural and awkward when we first started living in them. Yet the same is true of good thoughts and practices, including the habit of prayer (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Good habits can become entrenched as well! The habit of prayer, talking to God, will feel awkward at first, but it is something that is learned and one becomes better and better at it after practice. Choose a time and place to listen (read the Bible) and talk with God in prayer every day and watch how prayer can change things.

Remember the Gratitude

• “I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart; I will tell of all Thy wonders, I will be glad and exult in Thee; I will sing praise to Thy name” (Psalm 9:1-2).
• “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be make known to God” (Philippians 4:6).
• “In everything give thanks” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

One step in resisting temptation and maintaining the right attitude is saying “no” to sin, to resist and flee. Yet equally as important is a positive response, and this positive response must go hand-in-hand with a strong “no”! When temptation hits, I must immediately start thanking God for everything that comes to mind. It may also be necessary to find a secluded spot and issue such a prayer out loud. One of the benefits of praying out loud is that it prevents our minds from wandering and it cleanly untangles the prayer from useless and wandering thoughts.

Redeem the Time

One temptation that is common among men and women is to waste valuable prayer time by flipping through the Cable Channels, picking up and scanning one magazine after another, jumping from one song to another on the iPod, or running through radio stations. We often do this when we are stressed, bored, or don’t know what to do. When we instead remember the power of prayer during these little spare moments we buy back and make useful our precious and finite time on this earth.

What the World is Expecting

The world often has confident plans that are quite contrary to the will of God. In the Old Testament on one occasion, the advisors of the King of Syria said, “Their gods are gods of the mountains, therefore they were stronger than we; but rather let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they” (1 Kings 20:23). Such bold assertions catch God’s attention, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Because the Arameans have said, ‘The Lord is a god of the mountains, but He is not a god of the valleys’; therefore I will give into your hand, and you shall know that I am the Lord” (20:28). In the New Testament we have a similar situation when Peter was arrested, “Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent forth His angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting” (Acts 12:11). Often the world is expecting Christianity, the genuine kind, to die out. They are expecting Christians to tire of a lifestyle that the world views as so demanding, and they are expecting the children of Christians to walk away from the faith of their parents. Enough churches dwindle, and enough children do fall away that the world thinks it is seeing a trend, and as a result makes a bold proclamation of how everything is going to play out in the next decade or generation. Yet in such situations, God loves to work, and throw a monkey wrench into such predictions. God delights in doing what unbelievers are not expecting. “Do you have a situation that people don’t expect anything out of? A marriage that people don’t think can work? A child that people say is impossible? A problem that makes people write you off? That’s when it gets interesting for God. He is in the business of defying popular expectation, to better glorify Himself and you” (Andree Seu).

Make sure you expect enough

• “Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20).
• “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:14).

One of the challenges we have is that we see and experience one moment in time and we forget that such a moment, a hour, day or week, is the entire picture. Yet it isn’t. It is only a snapshot of time, it is only one frame of the entire movie. Paul could have became very discouraged when he was in prison and yet when he let it play out, he found a completely different picture:

• “I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel”(Philippians 1:12).
• Such an imprisonment had led to a number of converts (1:13).
• Many Christians were motivated to be bolder in their presentation of the truth (1:14).
• “For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ” (1:19).

Admittedly, the way things turn out is the important thing, and for the Christian, we are told that things turn out well in the end, yet not only in the end, when we trust God, we are continually being lead in victory. If I think God only gives us a victory occasionally, then I am really missing something. C.S. Lewis observed that if a person’s life ends in salvation, that glorious outcome will work backward and bathe in a joyous light all the misery and hardship that may have preceded it. At the same time, if a person’s life ends in condemnation, even the times in his or her past that they imagined to have been happy will now appear dark and cursed by the shadow that the final outcome casts over them.

Can You Live Without These Prayer Benefits?

• A closer relationship with God.
• Spiritual growth, purity, better focus, patience.
• Exposure of those things in you that are harmful.
• Working alongside God in accomplishing eternally relevant purposes.
• Looking back in amazement concerning how He used His providence.
• Enjoying the peace of surrendering to Him completely.
• The chance to tell others about what He did for you as a result of your prayers.
• Making it through the middle of the story and seeing the glorious ending.
• Rejoicing when He surprises the skeptics and proves them wrong.
• Being involved in the big wins for His glory.