Every year, as Lent rolls around, I choose a topic or theme for both my Sunday messages and my Wednesday messages. This year, for the midweek theme, I am taking God's people through a look at prayer, specifically looking at some of the times we are told about Jesus praying in the Gospels. We then look for parallels in our prayer lives, or see if there is something that we can learn and implement that would be useful in our prayer life.
Today I don't want to spend a lot of time giving thoughts or ideas about prayer. Instead, I simply want to focus on the sacrifice that it takes to dedicate ourselves to prayer. I have frequently heard people say that they wish they had a stronger, more fervent prayer life, and I often find myself wishing the same thing. And then, when you read through many of the prayer books out there, you end up feeling even more guilty because the author drives home the importance of prayer and basically lambasts everyone who isn't doing it in that way.
What kind of sacrifices are called for when it comes to an active prayer life? That depends on what you hope for your prayer life to look like. For someone who is just getting started, it may mean sacrificing a few minutes of time in the evening to actually start doing it. For a seasoned veteran of faith, that sacrifice may mean taking extra time to pray for individuals who are in need of prayers, or who expand their prayer circle beyond their own selves and families, but to different parts of the world. In other words, part of the sacrifice involves the growth of our prayer life, looking not only to deeper needs that we see or experience, but also growing the group of individuals or missions that we pray for.
Again, my goal here is not to make you feel guilty about your prayer life, nor to give you some sort of "guide" on what your prayer life should look like. The main question for today is, what sacrifices are you prepared to make if you desire to expand your prayer life? As you think about them, make any adjustments that you see, and then keep lifting those prayers up to our God, who is our mighty warrior and who rescues us from our sin.
Today I don't want to spend a lot of time giving thoughts or ideas about prayer. Instead, I simply want to focus on the sacrifice that it takes to dedicate ourselves to prayer. I have frequently heard people say that they wish they had a stronger, more fervent prayer life, and I often find myself wishing the same thing. And then, when you read through many of the prayer books out there, you end up feeling even more guilty because the author drives home the importance of prayer and basically lambasts everyone who isn't doing it in that way.
What kind of sacrifices are called for when it comes to an active prayer life? That depends on what you hope for your prayer life to look like. For someone who is just getting started, it may mean sacrificing a few minutes of time in the evening to actually start doing it. For a seasoned veteran of faith, that sacrifice may mean taking extra time to pray for individuals who are in need of prayers, or who expand their prayer circle beyond their own selves and families, but to different parts of the world. In other words, part of the sacrifice involves the growth of our prayer life, looking not only to deeper needs that we see or experience, but also growing the group of individuals or missions that we pray for.
Again, my goal here is not to make you feel guilty about your prayer life, nor to give you some sort of "guide" on what your prayer life should look like. The main question for today is, what sacrifices are you prepared to make if you desire to expand your prayer life? As you think about them, make any adjustments that you see, and then keep lifting those prayers up to our God, who is our mighty warrior and who rescues us from our sin.
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