Did you know that I have preached nearly 50 sermons on prayer? By now you’d think that I would have said everything there is to say about it. Some of you have heard them all. By now, you would think that we would be experts on prayer. BUT, did you also know that you can know everything there is to know about prayer, but unless you pray, you really don’t know anything about prayer at all! Prayer must be experienced in order to be known. You actually need to pray in order to learn how to pray!
Three obstacles to prayer!
- Distractions
- Busyness
- Not knowing what to say
Your Personal Prayers 2
Praying for yourself is not selfish.
Prayer is most effective when we pray persistently.
Continue means be devoted, constant in prayer or regular in prayer.
Don’t stop praying. Keep it up as your daily exercise. Luke 18
Be vigilant in prayer. Guard your prayer life!
Pray as though your life depends on it, because it does!
When you pray with thanksgiving, prayer changes you!
Prayer fights stress and brings health.
Prayer brings inner peace and joy.
Your Missional Prayers 3-4
Prayer is most effective when we pray for the mission of the kingdom.
Pray for the troubled world that they would find Jesus.
This is a prayer for anyone who shares the good news of the Gospel.
Pray for an open door for the Word.
We should always look for opportunities to share our faith.
When God opens doors he provides a divine appointment.
Pray that you will have the words to speak!
We need to know what to say.
We also need boldness to speak up. Ephesians 6:19
Sharing the good news got Paul in trouble.
If you are going to get in trouble do it for the Gospel.
We want to shove it down their throat!
We don’t want to cast our pearls before swine.
Paul wanted people to understand the message.
Speak in terms people can understand.
If they don’t understand they can’t respond to the message.
Pray for open doors. Pray for the message to get out, and pray for clarity. Above all things, pray persistently and consistently. And pray for the Mission. Don’t just pray for it, do it! Share your faith. And notice making it clear is the way we ought to speak. If they don’t understand, it’s up to us to simplify and clarify the message, because getting it right may mean the difference between eternal life and being lost!
2 Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving;
3 meanwhile praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains, 4 that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.
Did you know that I have preached nearly 50 sermons on prayer? By now you’d think that I would have said everything there is to say about it. Some of you have heard them all. By now, you would think that we would be experts on prayer. BUT, did you also know that you can know everything there is to know about prayer, but unless you pray, you really don’t know anything about prayer at all!
Prayer is not something you just learn about from a lecture, you must regularly practice it in order to know prayer. Prayer must be experienced in order to be known. You actually need to pray in order to learn how to pray!
How is your prayer life?
Now, most Americans pray. It is the most common faith practice among American adults. According to Barna, 94% of American adults have prayed at least once in the last three months. [i] (That’s not really a good track record. Praying once every three months just doesn’t cut it). And about 68% of those who claim to be Christians say they pray daily. [ii][iii][iv] Another 17% pray weekly. The other 15% don’t pray much at all.[v]
But here’s the kicker. Only 2% of people surveyed would say they’re satisfied with their overall prayer lives.[vi] Maybe that’s why most (60%) Christians say that they have not spent 10 minutes in prayer in the last 24 hours. [vii] [viii] That’s no good. We are out to change that today.
If you feel discouraged in this area, you’re not alone! According to Crossway pubishers the three greatest barriers to prayer are distractions (57%), busyness (15%) and not knowing what to say (13%). (The fourth problem was motivation. 15% just weren’t interested in prayer at all.) [ix]
Take a minute to assess your own prayer life, considering particular areas where there is room for growth. Do you get distracted easily? Maybe plan to pray at a time when there are less distractions. Put your phone down. Find a quiet and peaceful place. Pray about your distractions.
Are you too busy? If you don’t have time to pray, maybe you are doing too much. Maybe you need to simplify your life, or maybe you just need to prioritize your life. Sometimes the things we think are important are not as important as they seem.
Do you struggle knowing what to pray? Depend a little more on the Holy Spirit. He promises to help you there. (Romans 8:26) Start praying Scripture. Pray the psalms, or use Paul’s prayers like this one in Colossians as a way to guide you in prayer.
Prayer is life changing. And this is not only a life changing guide to prayer, it is a world changing prayer. Let’s start with your personal life.
Your Personal Prayers 22
A good place to start in prayer is to pray for your own self and your personal needs. Now praying for yourself, may seem selfish, and it could be; but for the most part, it is not. You need to pray for yourself! Your own heart needs self examination. You have a lot of needs, and there is no one better than God to talk to them about. You can ask God to forgive your sins, to fill you with the Holy Spirit, to restore your soul, to give you wisdom, to protect your mind, to keep Satan away, and the list goes on.
But let me just say prayer is most effective when we pray persistently. That is what Paul is telling us in Colossians 4:22:
Continue persistently in prayer. Col 4:22
Continue in prayer; The word continue is προσκαρτερέω pros kartereo – And it is a word which means be devoted or constant in prayer or regular in prayer. Persevere in it and don’t give up. In other words, don’t stop praying. Keep it up as your daily exercise.
Jesus told a parable of a widow and the unjust judge in Luke 18. The widow filed a complaint with the court system. She had likely been swindled by a wealthy businessman who took advantage of her, But the Judge refused to hear her. He dismissed the case. But the woman decided that her only course of action was to show up in court every day! She was so persistent, that the unjust judge finally heard her case and ruled in her favor.
If persistence works with an unjust judge, how much more effective do you think it work with a God who loves us. “Hey this is Dennis, checking in again, on the status of that prayer!” “Hey Dennis, this is God. I’ve got this. At the right time, in the right way, the answer will come!” Keep praying. Continue in prayer.
“Continue persistently in prayer, being vigilant in it.” Col 4:22
Be vigilant in prayer. γρηγορεύω gregoreuo – to watch carefully. to take heed lest some calamity suddenly overtake your life. We are told to be vigilant
- Because we don’t know when the day nor the hour when Lord will come. Mt 25:15
- Because that’s what it takes to overcome temptation: Mt 26:41
- Because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, stalks about, seeking whom he may devour: 1Pe 5:8
Prayer prepares us for Christ’s coming. It is the antidote to temptation. It is the hedge of protection from our enemy the Devil. You should pray as though your life depends on it, because it does!
“Continue persistently in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving.” Col 4:22
Did you know that studies have shown that when you pray, especially when you practice thankfulness, the first thing that prayer changes is you!
Herb Benson, the renowned author of the prayer study at Harvard, said “prayer affects metabolism, heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate and brain activity” increases your oxygen level.[x] he concluded “that prayer affects body functions and fights stress.”
But prayer does much more than that! When coupled with thankfulness, Prayer brings peace, it resolves our inner conflicts, and changes our outlook, when we submit to the will of God. The primary impact of prayer involves the person doing the praying. Give prayer a chance! And be thankful.
So let’s review. Pray persistently. Pray like your life depends on it, and pray with thanksgiving. That’s how to pray for yourself.
But we are not finished with prayer yet, because not only should we pray for ourselves, but we should pray for our world. I have called this:
Your Missional Prayers
You may start with yourself, but you should end with the world around you. And the best way to pray for our troubled world is to pray that they would find Jesus. Prayer is most effective when we pray for the mission.
Pray also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ. Colossians 4:3
Paul asked the Colossians to pray for him, as I wish that you would pray for me. This is a prayer for pastors, missionaries and anyone who shares the good news of the Gospel. This is a prayer for the mission of the Kingdom of God.
And the first request is for an open door for the Word. Paul was always looking for opportunities to share his faith. He prayed for open doors. Relationships are a lot like doors, and we are the gate keepers of our own doors. If you want to share the gospel, you have to knock. Jesus said, “Ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and it will be opened to you.”
Some people will stare out of the little peephole and say, “go away!” But some will open the door and invite your conversation! Open doors are divine appointments. When God opens doors he enables you to have a conversation about spiritual things. Pray for divine appointments.
Pray also for us, that we would speak the mystery of Christ. Colossians 4:3
Paul’s second request is that God would give him the words to speak! It’s one thing to get an audience with someone, it’s another thing to know what to say. Even Paul needed prayer for boldness.
In Ephesians 6:19 Paul asked, “Pray for me that I might open my mouth without fear. Pray that I will use the right words to preach the Good News.”
This is a prayer you can pray for our missionaries. And it’s a prayer you can pray for yourself. I don’t know how many times I wished I had the right words to say! I don’t know how many times I wished I had spoken up! It’s much easier to talk about politics, sports, the weather and the accident that happened down the road, than it is to talk about Jesus! Pray for me that God would give me the right words to unveil the mystery of the gospel to people who don’t understand it.
And no wonder Paul needed boldness. Because in the next breath he shares with us his predicament. He says, “for which I am also in chains!” Paul was in prison because of the Gospel! Sharing the good news got him in trouble.
There are a lot of things you can get in trouble for, but if you are going to get in trouble for anything, may it be because you love Jesus and want people to hear the message of the Gospel. Not that we want to shove it down their throat! That’s not it. If the door closes, we go knocking on other doors. Not that we are looking to pick a fight over abortion or some other moral issue. That’s not our way of doing things. Certainly we take a strong moral stand, but we don’t want to cast our pearls before swine. Our job is not to judge or condemn unbelievers, that’s God’s job. Our goal is to seek and to save those who are lost.
And that leads us to our third prayer for the mission.
Pray that I may make it clear, as I ought to speak. Colossians 4:4
φανερόω phaneroo to make visible or known, to be thoroughly understood
Paul didn’t just want to string together a bunch of words that people don’t understand like, have you received the gospel? are you saved, sanctified, delivered, justified, washed in the blood and filled with the Holy Spirit.
These are precious terms! They mean something very important to us inside the church, but outside the church, they don’t understand our terminology. So you have to keep is simple and explain it in terms they can understand.
If all your friends don’t understand when you share about redemption, that you’ve been washed white as snow and you desire to follow the Lamb. If they tune you right out, you may be on fire for the Lord, but you’ve left them clueless.
This is so important that Paul prayed a prayer for clarity! Make it clear Paul! So that they can understand and respond to the message. And notice making it clear is the way we ought to speak. If they don’t understand, it’s up to us to simplify and clarify the message, because getting it right may mean the difference between eternal life and being lost!
Pray for open doors. Pray for the message to get out, and Pray for clarity. Above all things, pray persistently and consistently.
In 1940, a professor of Theology in England by the name J. Edwin Orr called some of his theology students together, and decided to take them on an excursion, a field trip so to speak.
They were to visit some of the historical places in England, which has some sorts of theological significant; some religious sites, and places which had been very strategic in building of the church, and the Christian Faith.
One of the places they visited was the Epworth rectory. The rectory which now serves as a museum, was the home of one of the great reformers of the church, his name was John Wesley.
John Wesley was a great preacher. He studied, preached, taught, and prayed that revival would spread out, not only in England, but also in our country. In prayer, He and others like him ushered in some of the great revivals that swept through America in the early 1900s, where people in mass were coming to know Jesus Christ as their Lord. This happened because men like John Wesley were on their knees praying that God would move.
So the theology students went to visit the house where he lived. They entered the kitchen, and professor Orr showed them all that John Wesley would have eaten as dinner, lunch, and what he would have cooked – how he would have lived his life. He took them into the study room, where John Wesley spent hours studying.
Then Professor Orr walked the students up to the second floor. They entered into a place where would have been the most intimate quarters of John Wesley – his bedroom. As the students began to file around the bed in the tiny space in that bedroom, one of them noticed around the far side of the bed, there were two small worn patches in the carpet fibers of the floor right next to each other.
Professor Orr explained that those two patches were the very place where every single morning – for several hours, John Wesley will plant his knees right beside his bed, and he prayed so long and so hard for revival, that his knees had actually imprinted themselves onto the floor.
After some minutes, the students left the room for the bus outside. Professor Orr stood in front of the bus, counting the students as they enter the bus, to make sure everybody was there, and he realized one was missing.
He went back into the house, walked into the kitchen to look for the student – nobody was there. He checked the study room for the student – nobody was there. He walked up the stairs into the bedroom, and he could just see across the other side of the bed – the head and shoulders of a student who had planted his knees down in those well worn patches on the floor.
He could hear the student praying “Do it again LORD. LORD, would YOU do it again! And would YOU do it again with me…”
Professor Orr walked around to the side of the bed, and placed his hand on the shoulder of the student, and he said “It’s time to go…”
And rising from his knees, BILLY GRAHAM went to join the rest of the students on the bus that day.
And then, GOD did it again… All because someone prayed!
[i] https://www.barna.com/research/silent-solo-americans-pray/
[ii] https://www.deseret.com/faith/2023/5/4/23709607/national-day-of-prayer-research-americans-divine-connection
[iii] https://churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/150915-u-s-statistics-on-prayer.html
[iv] https://churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/150915-u-s-statistics-on-prayer.html Of those who do pray, 75% percent were Christian. • 64% say they pray more than once a day. • 56% say they most often pray for family members, with 3.3% saying that they pray for strangers. • A little over 38% say that the most important purpose of prayer is intimacy with God. • 41% say that their prayers are answered often. •only 1.5% say that their prayers are never answered. According to Pew Research 68% of Christians pray daily, and another 17% pray weekly.
[v] https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/christians/christian/frequency-of-prayer/
[vi] https://www.crossway.org/articles/infographic-how-is-your-prayer-life/
[vii] https://www.crossway.org/articles/infographic-how-is-your-prayer-life/
[viii] https://www.baptistboard.com/threads/how-long-do-you-spend-in-prayer.5612/ According to Barna…. the average Christian spends only 1 minute a day in prayer.
[ix] https://www.crossway.org/articles/infographic-how-is-your-prayer-life/
[x] https://www.templeton.org/news/what-can-science-say-about-the-study-of-prayer
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