Sermon (September 22) - "Are You Ready to Grow In Your Prayer Life?"

    

     Imagine this as your assignment. You are to transform the entire world, not just make it a better place, but to totally change it for good.

     You are just beginning your assignment and you know that there is no time to waste.  The world is filled with disease, sin, hate, corruption, despair, and great inequity. And it’s all up to you to change it. Are you ready to begin your mission? What will be your first move?

     Would your first move be to spend the night in prayer? That’s what Jesus decided to do. He made prayer a priority from the very beginning of his audacious divine assignment to transform the world.

     It wasn’t that Jesus didn’t have a “to do” list of a thousand things that needed to get done.  At the top of that list was that he needed to carefully select a group of individuals who would follow him every step of the way in fulfilling his mission. They would learn from him, serve in his name, and carry on the mission long after he would be gone.

     With time of the essence, Jesus chose to do something that would characterize his ministry from this point forward. He would pray.

     But why did Jesus need to pray to God? Wasn’t he divine? Wasn’t he the Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity?

     That’s all true. But Jesus was also fully human, fully divine and fully human both at the same time. I know it’s confusing, but it’s why we light the two candles on top of our altar every Sunday morning. The one candle represents Jesus and his full divinity and the other candle represents Jesus and his full humanity.

     And because Jesus was fully human, like us, he needed to rely on prayer. He needed to set aside time in a noisy world so that he would be able to hear God’s voice. He needed to take time to think and pray before taking his next big step. He needed to consult the One who had sent him, especially with so much on the line.

     And Luke, the gospel writer tells us that after that night of prayer, Jesus was ready to chose twelve people who would become his inner circle of disciples; Simon whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, and James, and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, and Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot.

     Today, our focus is on growing in our prayer life. Are you ready to grow in your prayer life?

     One of the reasons that prayer is so important is because we were all meant to have a relationship with God. Prayer is what enables us to have a conversation with God where we listen to what God wants to say to us and where we share our thoughts with God.

    I like that definition of prayer. Prayer is having a conversation with God. If prayer is having a conversation with God, then it’s something we can do on a regular basis. The Apostle Paul tells us to “Rejoice always and pray without ceasing.”

     I used to have trouble with that phrase, “pray without ceasing.” How is that even possible? Maybe you have heard someone say something like, “It’s been a year since she died, and there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think of her.” It’s when I hear people say things like that that I realize that it is possible to pray without ceasing. We tend to think about the people and the things in our lives that we hold dear to our hearts. Someone once said that prayer is simply practicing the presence of God.

     So how are you doing at practicing the presence of God in your life? If prayer is meant to be that natural and easy, then why do we sometimes struggle with prayer?

     A while back, Penny and I went to one of those huge home improvement stores. We were buying window blinds.

     We had a particular color, style, and price range in mind and we were getting frustrated because we couldn’t seem to find exactly what we were hoping to find. Just when I thought we found the right type of blinds, Penny would say something like, “I like this a lot, but it’s way too expensive.”

     Annoyed that she wasn’t going to just buy it, I said in a not so loving voice, “Well, I told you that this type of blind over here is probably our best choice.” And she would say, “No, we need to keep on looking.”  “But we’ve already looked up and down this aisle,” I said very impatiently.

     Just then, we heard what seemed like a voice from heaven saying, “Can I help you?” We both looked up. There, standing on some scaffolding directly above us was an employee who had been stocking the upper shelves. She had been there the whole time and we didn’t know it. She had to have heard every word of our conversation and she probably enjoyed listening to our little husband and wife argument over which blinds to buy. At least we didn’t say any bad words during our disagreement!

     Before we knew it, this employee had climbed down from the scaffolding and said, “I think I know what you’re looking for.” Just like that, she helped us pick out the right kind of blinds and at a really good price. She smiled and sent us on our way as happy and satisfied customers.

     I wonder if this is how our prayer lives are sometimes. We go about our day to day activities and when we hit a snag, we don’t even think about looking up for God to help us. And all the time, God was listening in and waiting for us to finally ask for help.

     What are some ways that can help us look up more often and grow in our prayer lives?

     I think the first way is to actually schedule prayer time into our daily calendar. I can’t imagine beginning my day without some sort of prayer time. Spend a few moments before you get started with your day and invite God to guide and lead you in all that you do. We don’t exactly know what the day may hold for us, but we do know that God wants to guide us through each moment. We also know that God has the best in mind for us.

     The second way to look up more often and grow in our prayer lives is to pray existing prayers. Spontaneous prayers are wonderful but so are prayers that have been prayed by other people. You may even want to pray the opening prayer that is found in the Sunday 9:00 am bulletin each week. Try praying that prayer each morning before beginning your day. That prayer will remind you of our Sunday worship theme and it will also be a source of strength for you during the week.

     A third way to look up more often and grow in our prayer lives is to remember the ACTS acronym for prayer. You can include these four letters all into one prayer or you can have prayers for each individual letter. It’s really simple.

     The letter “A” stands for adoration. Prayer is a great opportunity to offer our adoration and praise of God’s love and faithfulness in our lives. During the day, you may just want to pause and say, “Dear God, I adore and praise you for who you are.”

     The letter “C” stands for confession. It’s good for us to confess to God where we have sinned and where we have not been the person that God has called us to be. Just remember, when we confess our sins, God stands ready to forgive us and help us to begin anew. God is gracious and forgiving.

     The letter “T” stands for thanksgiving. This is probably one of my favorite aspects of prayer because there are so many things for which to be thankful. As these moments of thanksgiving come to your mind during the day, just say a prayer of thanks to God for these blessings.

     The letter “S” stands for supplication. Supplication is when we pray for others and ourselves. When we say that we will pray for someone, I like to pray as soon as possible so that I won’t forget. And don’t forget to let God know of your own needs. God loves us and cares about us.

     The acronym, “ACTS” can help us to look up more often and grow in our prayer lives.

     Bob and Marty Lambert, members of our church, have a powerful testimony about how prayer made a difference in their family relationships. Let’s watch.

  

     I invite us to turn to our commitment card today. It’s on prayer and you can see the various commitments that are listed there. I’m going to read these possible responses. You can choose more than one of these responses.

·       Today, I’m not ready to make a commitment to pray.

·       Beginning today, I will pray when I am in a worship service.

·       Beginning today, I will pray every time I am facing a difficult decision.

·       Beginning today, I will try to pray daily.

·       Beginning today, I will pray daily, using a devotional guide.

·       Beginning today, I will pray daily, remembering the ACTS approach to prayer shared in the sermon.

·       Beginning today, I will pray daily, setting aside fifteen minutes for daily devotional time.

·       Prayer will be a priority in my life, growing to include the following:

     I will surround my family and friends with prayer. I will surround my church with prayer. Through prayer, I will find strength, power, and direction to face the week. Through prayer I will trust God with my life, my family, my job, my finances, and my immediate and eternal future. Through prayer, I will learn to love God with all my heart and to love my neighbor.

     I want to give us a couple of minutes to be in quiet and choose one or more of these options that best describe where you are in your prayer life. I’m going to fill out my card and sign it and I invite you to do so as well. Just take a minute or two. I’ll give you enough time.

     When you’ve completed your card, you can tear off your copy to take home with you and we are invited to place the other half in one of the covenant baskets nearest you. There are baskets down front here and there are baskets up in the balcony.

     I want you to know that we will give these cards utmost care. We’ll have somebody who is very trustworthy collect the cards just so that we can be aware of the commitments that are being made today.

     I think we’re ready. May God bless you during this sacred time of commitment.