Prayer by Ed Pruitt

1 Thessalonians 5:16-22

Prayer
Sunday Evening November 03, 2002
Pastor Ed Pruitt

Prayer is not a meaningless function or duty to be crowded into the busy mornings or the weary ends of the day.

We are not obeying our Lord’s command when we content ourselves with a few minutes upon our knees in the morning rush, or late at night when the bodies and mind, tired with the tasks of the day, call out for rest.

God is always within call, it is true; His ear is ever attentive to the cry of His child.

But we can never get to know Him, if we use the vehicle of prayer as we use the telephone, for a few words of hurried conversation.

Intimacy requires development.

Getting to know God, not just know about Him, but to have a personal relationship with Him.

And above all, we must make sure that He knows who we are.

We can never know God as it is our privilege to know Him, by brief and fragmentary and unconsidered repetitions of intercessions that are requests for personal favors and nothing more.

That is not the way in which we can come into communication with heaven’s King.

The goal of prayer is to catch the ear of God.

A goal, that can only be reached, by being patient, and by continued waiting upon Him.

Pouring out our heart to Him, and permitting Him to speak to us.

Only by so doing can we expect to know Him, and as we come to know Him better, we shall spend more time in His presence and find that presence a constant and ever-increasing delight.

Prayer is fitting at any time, in any posture, in any place, under any circumstance, and in any attire.

It is to be the total way of life, an open and continual communion with God.

After having embraced all the infinite resources that are yours in Christ, don’t ever think you’re no longer dependent in the moment by moment, power of God.

Prayer, is a heavenly invitation opening the windows of heaven.

When a believing person prays, great things happen. (James 5:16)

Prayer is the window that God has placed in the walls of our world.

Leave it shut and the world is a cold, dark house.

But throw back the curtains and we can see His light.

Open the window and we can hear His voice.

Open the window of prayer and we can invoke the presence of God in our world.

And when we open that window we also know that we have a God that listens to us.

When it comes to prayer there are few that wouldn’t agree to it’s absolute necessity and privilege.

And although we believe in the power of prayer some how we fail to practice it the way that we should.

Am I alone in this?

Am I the only one who forgets to pray for people who are hard to get along with?

Am I the only one who forgets to pray for people that slip up with their words sometimes?

Here is a lesson that I learned the hard way

It’s hard to be mad at someone when you are praying for them.

You see, through intercession you become the advocate.

Jesus said love your enemies, and pray for them.

If you do this, you will become true children of your Father in heaven.

I wonder if people could see your innermost thoughts would they be able to say,

Now he is a true child of God.

Look how he prays for his enemies.

We need to always be in the attitude of prayer.

There is one thing that we need to remember though.

People cannot see our innermost thoughts, but there is one who can.

There is one who not only can see our innermost thoughts, but He knows them before we can even say them.

And that all seeing and all knowing person is the Lord Jesus Christ.

We need to have a Heart Set on God.

The essence of prayer is simply talking to God as you would to a beloved friend, without pretense or flippancy.

Yet it is in that very attitude toward prayer so many believers have trouble.
Turn with me in your bibles to,

1 Thessalonians 5:16-22
16 Rejoice evermore.

17 Pray without ceasing.

18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the Will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

19 Quench not the Spirit.

20 Despise not prophesying.

21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.

22 Abstain from all appearance of evil.

As a child I used to wonder how anyone could pray without ceasing.

I pictured Christians walking around with hands folded, heads bowed, and eyes closed, bumping into everything.

While certain postures and specific times set aside for prayer have an important bearing on our communication with God, to “pray at all times” obviously does not mean we are to pray in formal or noticeable ways every waking moment.

And it does not mean we are to devote ourselves to reciting ritualistic patterns and forms of prayer.

To “pray without ceasing” basically refers to recurring prayer, not nonstop talking.

Thus it is to be our way of life, we’re to be continually in an attitude of prayer.

You will find that if you are in a total attitude of prayer, it will be hard for bad words or nasty attitudes to spring forth.

Imagine spending an entire workday with your best friend at your side.

You would no doubt acknowledge his presence throughout the day by introducing him to your friends or business associates and talking to him about the various activities of the day.

But how would your friend feel if you never talked to him or acknowledged his presence that entire day?

Yet that’s how we treat the Lord when we fail to pray.
If we communicated with our friends as infrequently as some of us communicate with the Lord, those friends might soon disappear.

Our fellowship with God is not meant to wait until we are in heaven.

God’s greatest desire, and our greatest need, is to be in constant fellowship with Him now,

And there is no greater expression or experience of fellowship, than prayer.

We must have fervency in prayer.

We must have Alertness while praying.

It is impossible to pray while sleeping.

You must be awake and alert to talk to God, just as you are when talking with anyone.

If you don’t believe me, then try talking to your boss or an important client about an important business deal, just before you go to sleep at night.

Try that, go to sleep and wake up two or three times during that conversation and see the results that come form it the next day.

Now there is no way that you or I would do that in real life.

Then let’s not do it to God either.

After all, our relationship with God is far more important than any relationship that we can have on earth.

Christians sometimes pray vague, general prayers that are difficult for God to answer because they don’t really ask for anything specific.

That’s why specific prayer is so important.

If you are not alert to the specific problems and needs of other believers, you can’t pray about them specifically and earnestly.

But when you do, you can watch for God’s answer, rejoice in it when it comes, and then offer Him your thankful praise.

We must have Perseverance in our prayers.

Unfortunately, most believers never get serious about prayer until a problem occurs in their lives or in the life of someone they love.

Then they are inclined to pray intently, specifically, and persistently.

But Paul says we are to always pray that way, and to be on the alert with all perseverance

To be devoted to prayer, is to earnestly, courageously, and persistently bring everything, especially the need for salvation of lost, before God.

And then, as the scripture tells us in,
Matthew 6:33
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Sensitivity to the problems and needs of others, including other believers who are facing trials and hardships, will lead us to pray for them “night and day” as Paul did for Timothy in,

2 Timothy 1:3
3 I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day;

Let’s look at a couple of, Our Lord’s Parables.

Among the many parables of our Lord, two stand out as different from the others.

While the other parables relate to God by comparison, those He gave in Luke 11 and 18 relate to God by contrast.

They illustrate people who are unlike God, and in so doing, these parables make a strong case for the value of persistent praying.

Let’s turn in our bibles to Luke 11:5-14
5 And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves;

6 For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him?

7 And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.

8 I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.

9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

10 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

11 If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?

12 Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?

13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

And again in Luke 18:1-8
And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;

2 Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man:

3 And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary.

4 And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man;

5 Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.

6 And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith.

7 And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?

8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart.
The contrast between God and the reluctant friend and unjust judge is obvious.

If such unwilling and sinful humans will honor persistence, how much more will our holy, loving Heavenly Father?

If you don’t get an immediate answer to your request, or if events don’t turn out exactly or as quickly as you hoped they would, our Lord’s word to us is don’t lose heart.

Just keep praying without ceasing and don’t give up.

Keep knocking.

Keep asking.

Keep seeking.

If we would prevail, we must persist; we must continue incessantly and constantly, and know no pause to our prayer till we win the mercy to the fullest possible extent.

Men ought always to pray.

Week by week, month by month, year by year; the conversion of that dear child is to be the father’s main plea.

The bringing in of that unconverted husband is to lie upon the wife’s heart night and day till she gets it;

She is not to take even ten or twenty years of unsuccessful prayer as a reason why she should cease;

She is to set God no times nor seasons, but so long as there is life in her and life in the dear object of her solicitude, she is to continue still to plead with our almighty God.

The pastor is not to seek a blessing on his people occasionally, and then in receiving a measure of it to desist from further intercession.

He is to continue vehemently without pause,
without restraining his energies, to cry aloud and spare not till the windows of heaven be opened and a blessing be given too large for him to house.

But, brethren, how many times we ask of God, and have not because we do not wait long enough at the door!

We knock a time or two at the gate of mercy, and as no friendly messenger opens the door, we go our ways.

Too many prayers are like boys’ runaway knocks, given, and then the giver is away before the door can be opened.

O for grace to stand foot to foot with the angel of God, and never, never, never relax our hold.

Feeling that the cause we plead is one in which we must be successful, for souls depend on it,

The glory of God is connected with it, the state of our fellow men is in jeopardy.

When Paul commands us to pray without ceasing, he is simply supporting the principle Jesus taught in Luke 11 and 18 that prayer is to be incessant.

We are not heard for our many words, but for the cry of our hearts.

The man who came to his friend to ask for bread did not recite some formula request, he pleaded for what he needed.

The same is true for the widow—she cried out for protection from one who had the power to answer her request.

Persistent, continual prayer that comes from the innermost part of your being is what moves the heart of our compassionate, loving God.

And in closing, our prayers need to be prayers of Power!

The most important and pervasive thought Paul gives about prayer is that it should be “in the Spirit” (Eph. 6:18;

This qualification has nothing to do with speaking in tongues nor with some other ecstatic or supernatural activity.

To pray in the Spirit is to pray in the name of Christ.

That is, to pray consistent with His nature and Will.

To pray in the Spirit is to pray in complete agreement with the Spirit, who “helps our weakness;
For we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words

[real words unuttered, not nonwords uttered];

And He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God” (Rom. 8:26–27).

Zechariah 12:10 calls the Holy Spirit the “Spirit of grace and of supplication.”

Just as we are to pray continually, know that the Holy Spirit continually prays for us.

When we pray in the Spirit, we align our minds and desires with His mind and desires, which are consistent with the will of the Father and the Son.

How do you make your prayers consistent with the Spirit?

By walking in the fullness of the Spirit.

As your life is filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18) and as you walk in obedience to Him, He will govern your thoughts so your prayers will be in harmony with His.

As you submit to the Holy Spirit, obey His Word, and rely on His leading and strength, you will be drawn into close and deep fellowship with the Father and the Son.

Our lives must reflect a continual commitment to the constant exercise of prayer.

All that you learn about God should drive you into His presence.

Make that your goal as you take every aspect of your life to Him in prayer.

A heart like Jesus should be the goal of each and everyone of us.

If our bodies malfunction, we seek help.

Shouldn’t we do the same with our hearts?

Shouldn’t we seek aid for our sour attitudes?
Can’t we request treatment for our selfish tirades?
Of course we can.

Jesus can change our hearts.

He wants us to have a heart like his.

God’s plan for you is nothing short of a new heart.

God is looking for people who are persistent prayers.

He is looking for people to be changed through prayer

He is looking for people who have time for Him.

Let us Pray
 

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