Illustration results for constant prayer
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Sermon & Worship Packages: Time to Remember
Remember the opening scene: the village and you see a fiddler on the roof and Tevye says:"A fiddler on the roof. Sounds crazy, no? but in our little village of Anatevka, you might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof, trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck. It isn't easy. You may ask, why do we stay here if it's so dangerous? We stay because Anatevaka is our home. And how do we keep our balance? That I can tell you in a word--TRADITION--Because of our traditions, we've kept our balance for many, many years. Here in Anatevka we have traditions for everything---how to eat, how to wear clothes. For instance, we always keep our head covered and always wear a little prayer shawl. This shows our constant devotion to God. You may ask, how did this tradition start? I'll tell you---I don't know.
"Some people think God does not like to be troubled with our constant coming and asking. The way to trouble God is not to come at all."
Moody, D.L
"He who has a pure heart will never cease to pray, and he who will be constant in prayer shall know what it is to have a pure heart."
la, Combe, Pere
During the 1st part of the 20th century, J. C. Penney presided over a very powerful empire of over 1,700 stores. At the time he had the country’s largest chain of department stores, each one bearing his name.
Although his enterprise made him incredibly wealthy, J.C. Penney’s life was not devoid of setbacks and troubles. In fact, beginning in 1929, events took place that nearly cost Penney his life.
When the Great Depression struck the country, it came at a time of great financial vulnerability for Penney. In the good times, before the Depression, Penney had overextended himself and had borrowed heavily to finance many of his ventures. But when the Depression hit banks began to request repayment of his loans sooner than anticipated. Suddenly cash flow was tight, and Penney was finding it difficult to meet payment schedules. Constant and unrelenting worry began to take a toll. "I was so harassed with worries that I couldn’t sleep, and developed an extremely painful ailment," he said.
Concerned about his deteriorating health, Penney checked himself into the Kellogg sanitarium at Battle Creek, Michigan, (kind of the Mayo Clinic of its era). There, Dr. Elmer Eggleston, a staff physician, examined Penney, declaring that he was extremely ill.
Penney later recalled "A rigid treatment was prescribed, but nothing helped," He was constantly tormented by periods of hopelessness and despair. His very will to live was rapidly eroding.
"I got weaker day by day. I was broken, nervously and physically, filled with despair, unable to see even a ray of hope. I had nothing to live for, I felt that I hadn’t a friend left in the world, that even my family had turned against me."
Alarmed by his rapidly deteriorating condition, Dr. Eggleston gave Penney a sedative. However, the effect quickly wore off, and Penney awakened with the conviction that he was living the last night of his life. "Getting out of bed, I wrote farewell letters to my wife and to my son, saying that I did not expect to live to see the dawn."
Penney awakened the next morning, surprised to find himself alive. Making his way down the hallway of the hospital, he could hear singing coming from the little chapel where devotional exercises were held each morning. The words of the hymn he heard being sung spoke deeply to him.
Going into the chapel, he listened to the singing, the reading of the Scripture lesson, and the prayer.
"Suddenly something happened," he said. "I can’t explain it. I can only call it a miracle. I felt as if I had b...
The Rock
A man was sleeping at night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light and the Savior appeared. The Lord told the man He had work for him to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man was to push against the rock with all his might.
This the man did, day after day. For many years he toiled from sun up to sundown, his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock, pushing with all his might. Each night the man returned to his cabin sore, and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain.
Seeing that the man was showing signs of discouragement, the Adversary decided to enter the picture by placing thoughts into the man’s weary mind. "You have been pushing against that rock for a long time, and it hasn’t budged. Why kill yourself over this? You are never going to move it."
This gave the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a failure. These thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man. "Why kill myself over this?" he thought. "I’ll just put in my time, giving just the minimum effort and that will be good enough."
And that is what he planned to do until one day he decided to make it a matter of prayer and take his troubled thoughts to the Lord. "Lord" he said, "I have labored long and hard in your service, putting all my strength to do that which you have asked. Yet, after all this time, I have
not even budged that rock by half a millimeter. What is wrong? Why am I failing?"
The Lord responded compassionately, "My friend, when I asked you to serve me and you accepted, I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all your strength, which you have done. Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you come to me, with your strength spent, thinking that you have failed. But, is that really so? Look at yourself."
"Your arms are strong and muscled, your back sinewy and brown, your hands are callused from constant pressure, and your legs have become massive and hard. Through opposition you have grown much and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have. Yet you haven’t moved the rock. But your calling was to be obedient and to push and to exercise your faith and trust in my wisdom. This you have done. I, my friend will now move the rock."
TURN TO ME
Dallas Willard in his book, Hearing God, tells the story of a businessman:
Robert C. McFarlane was a well-known businessman in the Los Angeles area. He moved to California from Oklahoma in 1970, and within just a few days of his arrival--due to a disastrous misunderstanding with a close friend--he had to take control of an insurance agency. He did not want it, but he had to make it succeed in order to save the large amount of money he had invested in it.
By the spring of 1973, he was in the third straight year of constant strain and stress in the operation of the business. He had recently been converted through the ministry of the Rolling Hills Covenant Church in Southern California in answer to the prayers of his wife, Betty, and her many Christian friends.
One day that spring, the continual danger of defeat, the dark hours of effort, the frustration at every turn, and the hardened memories of the cause of his financial difficulties came upon him with special force. As he drove toward his office, he suddenly was filled with a frantic urge to turn left onto the road out of town and just disappear. But into the midst of his inner turmoil there came a command: "Pull over to the curb."
As he relates it, it was as if the words were written on the windshield. After he pulled over, there came to him, as though from someone with him in the car, these words: "My Son had strains that you will never know, and when he had those strains, he turned to me, and that’s what you should do."
After hearing these words, Robert sat at the wheel for a long time, sobbing aloud. He then drove on to his Long Beach office, where he faced 22 major, outstanding problems. All the most significant problems--whether they concerned company disagreements, clients deciding to remain with his agency, payments by clients of late premiums, or whatever--were substantially resolved by that day’s end.
SINGING FOR THE GIRLS
Last Sunday night I preached in a town called San Miguel. It was known for witch doctors and demonic things going on. We had a constant string of problems happening one after another. The church was crowded with every seat taken and faces looking through the back doors and all the windows. We had constant sound problems with the sound system as well as people outside playing loud music seemingly to drown out the service.
One beautiful thing happened early in the service when a group of 7-10 year old girls were doing a beautiful dance before the congregation. My interpreter began to explain the song: "You are so pretty...in the eyes of your heavenly Father, you are beautiful...the color of your skin and the texture of your hair are beautiful to Him...He made you...just like you are...you are beautiful to Him."
Then the sound went out, and the girls stopped for a moment confused. After about ten seconds and still no success fixing the sound, something neat happened. I hear the song again, but this time the congregation was singing it for the girls, and they began to dance again. They finished and it left an amazing feeling in the room.
How beautiful to walk in victory together through our trials and tribulations, to continue to dance to the songs of encouragement and the prayers of others who stand with. God loves that and wants to see that in the Body of Christ.
When trials come, stand faithful, stand together stand in victory.
Bill Hybels tells the story of a man in his church who came to him and said, “When I was a new believer, the thought of talking with the God of the universe, the thought of him listening to me, responding to my cares and concerns, was so overwhelming I could barely take it in. I prayed all the time when I first discovered I could. I prayed when I got up. I prayed on my way to work. I prayed when I sat at my desk. I prayed at lunch. I prayed with my kids at dinner. I prayed with my kids when I put them to bed. I was a praying monster. It brought me such joy. God was answering my prayers. My life was changing, and I could see others’ lives changing. Then, I don’t know what happened. The whole deal just cooled off. I don’t pray much any more.” He lost his consistency. He was no longer persistent.
That happens sometimes. And it is not necessarily a sign of losing out spiritually. Part of it is the ebb and flow of life. Both in times of feeling very close to God and in times of danger we often pray like crazy. It feels like it is constant, and then the crisis, either good or bad, ends and we go back to life as normal. Prayer does not seem as pressing.
I remember taking a youth group on a canoe trip to Canada. We began paddling across a beautiful wilderness lake in Algonquin Provincial Park. We could see the clouds rolling in, but we had no idea what it would be like on the lake in just a few minutes. With fifteen of us in canoes, and most of the kids were inexperienced, we were in danger as the storm moved in and the waves began to crash over the front of our canoes and swamp them. We were getting separated, but I called for everyone to come together and keep heading into the waves to keep from getting rolled over. I began taking the extra paddles a...
TWO WOMEN PRAYING
There were two widow women, each with only a single son. The two young men both got involved in drugs and they both ended up in prison. The women were devout Christians and both had been in constant prayer for many years. When their two boys were sent to prison the one woman continued her dedication to prayer but the other woman turned to mourning and she eventually died.
Now both women were good Christians, but only one truly understood the role of prayer. The one woman was totally focused on seeing her son delivered from the curse of drugs and she would only believe God was hearing her prayers if she saw physical evidence. The other woman prayed for her son’s deliverance but more important she prayed for God’s will to be done in her life and thus her spirit was comforted.
The one woman had peace because she understood prayer and focused on the act of praying: not on what she wanted. She fully understood that God cannot make an individual change! After all, God cannot go against His own word; and He did give man the freedom to do as he wishes. Because of her spiritual maturity, the woman realized that her time of grief was also her time for drawing closer to God through prayer. The other woman, on the other hand, expected things to change in people and in the physical world just because she prayed for change. This woman could not see spiritual reality and thus she sank deeper into despair, until she finally died.
ERIC LIDDELL--Olympic hero in the 1924 games who refused to run in heats because they were held on Sunday. Lost the chance to win the gold in twso events but went on to win the 400.
Arms thrashing, head bobbing and tilted, legs dancing, Liddell ran to victory, five meters ahead of the silver medalist. "The Flying Scotsman" had a gold metal and a world record, 47.6 seconds. Most of all, Eric Liddell had kept his commitment to his convictions of faith.
The next year, Liddell returned to China, where he had been born to missionary parents, as a teacher and missionary. In 1932, he was ordained as a minister and married in 1933.
He ministered pleasantly and plainly, often traveling on bicycle, braving constant fighting between Chinese warlords and Japanese in their growing conquest of China.
His decision to share Christ in isolated communities, forcing him to leave his wife and children behind, was the result of insistent prayer. "Complete surrender" was his description of this attitude.
In March of 1943, Liddell, along with other Americans and Brits, entered a Japanese internment camp. He was appointed math teacher and supervised a sports program. He arose each morning to study his Bible and was the cheer of the camp.
But his health deteriorated rapidly. A brain tumor ravaged his body with severe headaches. Shortly after his forty-third birthday in January 1945, Liddell collapsed. His last words, spoken to a camp nurse, were, "It’s complete surrender."
Upon learning of Liddell’s death, all of Scotland mourned, but heaven rejoiced. He had POURED out his life as an offering.
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