Prayer (3)
Scott Bayles, pastor
Adapted from a sermon by Max Lucado titled “Have you Prayed About It?”
Blooming Grove Christian Church: 3/15/2015
Two weeks ago we began this short series on prayer. Like I said before, we all pray. According to a poll reported in USA Today, nine out of ten Americans say they pray. 98% pray for their own families. 81% pray for the children of the world. 77% pray for world peace. 69% pray for their co-workers. Like I said, we all pray.
But wouldn’t we like to pray more? Better? Deeper? With more faith and fervency? Some of us could benefit from a gentle electrical jolt, reminding us to pray or a time-saving pre-recorded prayer for all occasions. Many of us have good intentions when it comes to prayer. But we get so busy and distracted that our prayer-life falls by the wayside. For some of us prayer is a last resort, when all else fails.
I heard about a church board meeting recently. Apparently there was more agitation than agreement, and after a lengthy discussion, a deacon suggested, “Why don’t we pray about it?” to which one of the elders replied, “Has it come to that?”
Maybe you can relate. Maybe your prayer life is about as consistent as the weather here in Illinois. So what do we do when we stumble upon a passage like this one:
“Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17 NKJV).
It’s hard for us to wrap our minds around this one. Pray without ceasing? As in all the time? Surely, God can’t be serious. Maybe another translation will let us off the hook:
“Pray continually” (1 Thessalonians 5:17 NIV).
“Pray constantly” (1 Thessalonians 5:17 HCSB).
“Never stop praying” (1 Thessalonians 5:17 NLT).
What do we do with passages like this? Is it even possible to pray unceasingly?
Many years ago Frank Laubach set out to discover the answer to that very question. Like us, Frank was busy. He authored several books, advised presidents, and traveled all over the globe speaking on the topics of literacy and world peace. He was also a committed Christian who loved God as much as any of us could. In a letter he sent to a friend he wrote: “Can we have contact with God all the time? All the time awake? Fall asleep in his arms and awake in his presence? I choose to make the rest of my life an experiment in answering this question.” He documented his experience in his journal.
Five months into his experiment, on May 14, 1930 Frank writes: “Oh this thing of keeping in constant touch with God, of making him the object of my thought and the companion of my conversation—this is the most amazing thing I have ever run across. It is working! I cannot do it even half a day; not yet. But I believe I shall be doing it some day for the entire day. It is a matter of acquiring a new habit of thought.” Ten days later he wrote this: “This concentration upon God is strenuous, but everything else has ceased to be so. I think more clearly. I forget less frequently. Things which I did with a strain before I now do easily and with no effort whatsoever. I worry about nothing. I lose no sleep. I walk on air a good part of the time… nothing can go wrong except one thing, and that is that God might slip from my mind.”
What do you make this experiment? What if you learned to pray without ceasing? What would you be like? Would people notice a difference? Your family—would they see something new? Your co-workers—would they sense a change? And how about you? What alterations would this unceasing prayer have on your stress levels? Your mood swings? Your temper? Would you sleep better? Would you see sunsets differently? Is it even possible?
I’m no expert on prayer. I’m certainly no Frank Laubach. But I’d like to share a few suggestions with you this morning that have helped me in my own prayer life. Four simple suggestions for getting started in your own unceasing-prayer experiment. First, give God your waking thoughts.
• WAKING THOUGHTS
I’m reminded of a mother who prayed: “Dear God, So far today I’ve done all right. I haven’t gossiped, I haven’t lost my temper, I haven’t been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish or over-indulgent. I’m very thankful for that. But in a few minutes, God, I’m going to get out of bed, and from then on, I’m probably going to need a lot of help. Amen.”
I don’t know about you, but I’ve said some similar prayers.
I think there’s something particularly important about praying first thing in the morning. It sets the whole tone for the day. Apparently, Jesus agreed. The Bible says, “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed” (Mark 1:35 NIV).
Prayer was a priority for Jesus. I’m convinced that he started every day in prayer. Shouldn’t we follow his example?
I like what C.S. Lewis once said about prayer: “The moment you wake up each morning, all your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists in shoving it all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other, larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.” That’s what happens when we pray.
Some days I let those “wild animals” get the better of me. The kids wake up fighting, or the alarm didn’t go off. But on my better days, before I even open my eyes, I begin the day with prayer. I thank God for another day of life. I lay my days schedule at his feet. I ask for his help and his Spirit. It may only be a two or three minutes. Then I open my eyes and begin the day. But I’ll tell you what. The days that begin with prayer end up being much better days!
Martian Luther was a man of prayer. He once wrote a forty-page letter to his barber, Peter Beskendorf, who asked him how to pray. No, I won’t read all forty pages, but here’s a brief excerpt: “Guard yourself against such false and deceitful thoughts that keep whispering: Wait a while. In an hour or so I will pray. I must first finish this or that. Thinking such thoughts, we get away from prayer into other things that will hold us and involve us till the prayer of the day comes to naught. It is a good thing to let prayer be the first business in the morning and the last in the evening.”
That’s good advice, don’t you think? Certainly, David would have agreed. He writes, “In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly” (Psalm 5:3 NIV). Let’s determine to do the same.
Let’s make prayer the first business of the morning. If you want to experience unceasing prayer, then it begins by giving God your waking thoughts. Start each day with “Dear God…” then go from there. Next, I would suggest giving God your waiting thoughts.
• WAITING THOUGHTS
Have you ever considered how much time gets lost in your life? The folks at Priority Management, Inc. decided to find out. According to a study reported by US News and World Report (1/20/89), over a lifetime, the average American will spend five months tying their shoes, six months sitting at stoplights, eight months opening junk mail, two years looking for lost items (probably four in my case), and five years standing in various lines!
In line at the check-out counter. In line at the DMV. In line at the doctor’s office or the dentist office. Five years of your life will be spent just waiting in line.
A new Nielsen report also tells us that the average American over the age of 2 spends more than 34 hours a week watching live television. Which translates into 2 years of your life spent watching commercials, waiting for your show to come back on.
But do you know that the Bible says about waiting? “Be patient…and pray at all times” (Romans 12:12 NCV).
What if we used all the time we spend waiting in line, or sitting at stoplights, or looking for lost keys, or even tying our shoes as opportunities to connect with God? What if every time you noticed loose laces, you let it remind you to say short prayer. What if every red light became a cue to talk with God for just a moment? What if we used those five year spent waiting in line as an opportunity to commune with our Heavenly Father. You could pray for the person ahead of you, or the person behind you, or that the line would move a little quicker! But just pray.
Just by praying while tying your shoes, waiting at stoplights, waiting in line, and muting the TV and praying during commercials—you would spend eight years of your life in prayer! Imagine how deeper and stronger your relationship with God would be, just by giving God your waiting thoughts. Third, I want to encourage you to give God your worried thoughts.
• WORRYING THOUGHTS
A fellow pastor recently shared the story of a trip he took with his five-year-old-son to McDonald's one day. As they turned onto the main road, he saw a car accident up ahead. Usually when they see something terrible like that, they say a prayer for those who might be hurt, so he pointed and said to his son, “We should pray.” From the back seat he heard his earnest request: “Please, God, don't let those cars block the entrance to McDonald's.”
We know what he was worried about, right!?
Like that little boy, we ought to take every worry we have and lay it at the feet of Jesus. The Bible says, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything (Philippians 4:6 NLT).
We are an anxiety plagued people, aren’t we? We worry about how we’re going to pay the bills this month. We worry about relationships—maybe your marriage is struggling or you kids are staying. We worry about work. We worry about our health. We worry about fitting in, about being good enough, smart enough, thin enough, pretty enough. Heck, we just held a women’s conference all about worry!
Instead of letting our worries steer our thoughts, what if we let them drive us to our knees. Corrie Ten Boom once said, “Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden.” Let’s take a closer look at that verse. The Bible says, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. (Philippians 4:6 NLT).
Imagine never worrying about anything! It seems like an impossibility. We all have worries. But Paul’s advice is to turn our worries into prayers. Whenever you start to worry, stop and pray. Tell God what you need, and thank him for what he’s done. Not only will thankfulness cast our fearfulness, but in the process you’ll draw closer to God. You’ll experience his presence and his peace. So give God your worrying thoughts. Finally, give God your waning thoughts.
• WANING THOUGHTS
As Martian Luther said, “It is a good thing to let prayer be the first business in the morning and the last in the evening.”
I think David would have agreed. He prays, “As I lie on my bed, I remember you. Through the long hours of the night, I think about you” (Psalm 63:6 GWT). During sleepless uncomfortable nights, David prayed and focused his thoughts on God. Instead of counting sheep, he meditated on his Shepherd. As this psalm continues, David reviews all the ways God had been there for him.
We might sleep better if we did the same.
Can you relate to David’s sleepless night? A 2002 poll by the National Sleep Foundation found that 63% of women 54% of men experienced symptoms of insomnia at least a few nights per week. Sleeplessness is often a symptom of an overloaded life.
Several years ago, a Tahoma, Washington newspaper carried the story of Tattoo the basset hound. Tattoo didn’t intend to go for an evening run, but when his owner accidentally shut the dog’s leash in the car door and took off for a drive, he had no choice. Motorcycle officer, Terry Filbert, notice the passing vehicle with the dog struggling to keep up. He commented that the poor basset hound was, “picking them up and putting them down as fast as he could.” He pulled the car over and Tattoo was rescued, but not before the dog had reached a top speed of 25 miles per hour.
Too many of us are living our lives like Tattoo, picking them up and putting them down as fast as we can—as if we’re being dragged through life. So when your head hits the pillow your feet might stop running, but your mind doesn’t.
That’s why I think it’s so important to give God our waning thoughts. Did you know the Bible says, “Indeed, he who watches over Israel never slumbers or sleeps” (Psalm 121:4 NLT)? God never sleeps. Since God doesn’t need to sleep, there’s no sense in both of you staying awake, right? Rather, you can use your final thoughts to praise God for another day, tell him what you need, thank him for all he’s done, and leave tomorrow in his hands.
Conclusion:
I’m still no expert on prayer. As soon as my eyes close my mind wanders. Distractions swarm like gnats on a summer’s day. So for now I chose to keep my prayers short but frequent. And in my effort to pray unceasingly I try to give God my waking thoughts, my waiting thoughts, my worrying thoughts, and my waning thoughts. I want to encourage you to do the same.
Please understand that prayer isn’t just another thing to do; rather, prayer is what empowers us to do all the things we have to do. Before I close let me share a poem with you. I don’t know who the author is, but it could have been any one of us.
I got up early one morning and rushed right into the day;
I had so much to accomplish I didn’t have time to pray.
Troubles just tumbled about me and heavier came each task.
Why doesn’t God help me, I wondered, He answered, “You didn’t ask.”
I tried to come into God’s presence; I used all my keys at the lock.
God gently and lovingly chided, “Why child, you didn’t knock.”
I wanted to see joy and beauty, but the day toiled on gray and bleak,
I called on the Lord for the reason—He said “You didn’t seek.”
I woke up early this morning and paused before entering the day.
I had so much to accomplish that I had to take time to pray.
Invitation:
Perhaps your prayer-life needs to be a little deeper, stronger or more frequent? The best solution is to just start praying. Can we do that together?
“Lord, we praise you for this gift of prayer and at the same time we confess our tendency to neglect it. You open the doors of communication and invite us to pray without ceasing—to pray about everything constantly and continually. Help us to recognize your presence and turn our thoughts toward you. Help us to experience constant communion and companionship with you. Let us fall asleep in your arms and awake in your presence. And all the time in between let us remember that you are there, you are listening, and you love us.”
