Accelerated Prayer
40 Days of Prayer • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 3 viewsNotes
Transcript
Handout
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.
Have you ever asked yourself, “What is the will of God for my life?”
I think this is the question every Christian has asked in their life time. We want to know what is God’s plan for our lives? What is God’s purpose for our lives? What is God’s master plan?
All though I can not tell you the fine details of God’s plan for you life, I can share with you a broad view of God’s plan for your life.
This morning we will discover Two directives for our life.
The First Directive is Devote Yourself to Prayer
The First Directive is Devote Yourself to Prayer
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.
But this is not the only time we are told to pray.
Jesus tells us
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.
But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.
Paul, the apostle, tells us:
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith.
pray continually,
One thing is crystal clear from these passages: it is God’s will that we pray to him.
God longs for us to turn back to him.
As we struggle to know the will of God for our lives, we know that God wants us to pray.
Maybe we do not know God’s will for our lives because we have for asked him. Not really. Too often we, I say we because I am guilty too, of going through life with prayer as an after thought.
Jesus pattern was always, pray first, act second.
He prayed before he selected his disciples.
He prayed before he moved into ministry.
He even prayed before he faced the cross.
Jesus always prayed before he made any decision.
I confess that is not my pattern. It is often to Act first, then pray to get myself out of trouble.
I know I would get in less trouble if I prayed first.
But what is prayer?
Francis Chan, a pastor, and church leader.
I think a lot of us need to forget about God's will for my life. God cares more about our response to His Spirit's leading today, in this moment, than about what we intend to do next year.
What is Prayer?
Mainly it means asking God for things.
By “things” I don’t mean objects—stuff.
And, of course, what your heart needs most is God—to know him and trust him and love him and obey him.
I know that we should come to God with more than asking. We should come confessing sins and giving thanks and praise.
YOU no doubt have heard of
ACTS, the four parts of prayer.
ACTS, the four parts of prayer.
A- is for adoration.
C- is for confession
T- is for thanksgiving, which we will come back to soon.
S- Supplication or our needs.
James Wall tells about how difficult a certain Carmelite nun found contemplative prayer to be because her thoughts would wander a thousand times during a 20 minute prayer session. She was sure her teacher Thomas Merton would rebuke her for such a failure, so she was surprised when instead Merton said that her wandering thoughts were just 1,000 opportunities to return to God.
The Second directive is Thanking God should always be part of what we do in prayer.
The Second directive is Thanking God should always be part of what we do in prayer.
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.
And it is not surprising that this word “be devoted to” or “persevere in” or “continue in” occurs six times in the New Testament in relation to prayer.
Not just pray, but pray with thanksgiving.
and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.
Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.
give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
We also see that thanksgiving was element of Paul’s prayer life.
And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe.
I thank my God every time I remember you.
You are to pray often and you pray regularly. Prayer with thanksgiving is not infrequent and prayer is not hit and miss. Being “devoted to” prayer means that you are not haphazard and you are not forgetful.
I confess I am not there yet. Pray was so central to Jesus’ life, he was always turning away to pray. And Jesus made thanksgiving an essential element of his prayer life.
At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.
I am God.
Today I will be handling all of your problems.
Please remember that I do not need your help.
If life happens to deliver a situation to you that you cannot handle, do not attempt to resolve it. Kindly put it in the SFGTD (something for God to do) box. It will be addressed in My time, not yours. Once the matter is placed into the box, do not hold on to it. I am God. – Contributed. Source unknown.