The Problem of Prayer.

As I sit here with a mug of tea in my hand and my final slice of bread from the loaf, apart from thinking I desperately need to do a shopping, my thoughts have turned to prayer.


Over the past year I have taken on the role of Prayer Secretary for the Christian Union. I have to say that this role has been an incredible privilege but an incredible challenge at the same time. 


Privilege: Having the opportunity to try to help people understand something about the mystery of prayer has been immense! I have made some massive discoveries about prayer myself which I probably would have never done had I not been prayer sec. I have had the privilege of praying with so many honest loving people and have seen so many answers to prayer over the past year. Finally spending time praying for Gods people has made me love them more and love Jesus more for what he has done. 


Challenge: Disciplining my own prayer life has been one of the most challenging things. Having to speak to the C.U about the wonder of prayer and what it does, and then follow through on my words by committing myself to "pray continually" has been SO HARD. I have also faced alot of discouragement this year because of the lack of numbers to prayer meetings and just generally the lack of chat about prayer and how it is affecting peoples lives. 


What I have learned through this role has been immense and I just want to share some of that with you...or else I would be here all night.

Number One

"The problem we have is not with prayer but with need and with complacency." Pete Greig

ISN'T THAT SO TRUE? We get so satisfied in our own selves and in our own sin that we forget we NEED God! We forget that he is the bread of life, that without him, we are exposing ourselves to spiritual danger. Our human nature is to get so wrapped up in this life, that we forget about the one who made life possible! We are so self focussed that we sometimes can't even hear what God has to say to us because we are thinking about our own needs. We sometimes love life, more than the one who made it. That is a cold hard fact that we need to identify to fix this problem of prayer.

Number Two

"We have taken this war-time walkie-talkie and turned it into an intercom button to call the butler to bring us another pillow." John Piper.

I challenge you to take a look at your own prayer life, as I have been forced to do, and see how many selfish things you ask God to do for you. I know I was extremely struck by the amount of selfish petitions I asked of God- like he is some kind of vending machine! 

God is our Father and yes he wants us to bring everything before him but really doesn't your Father know your needs before you even ask them. Could you spend more time praying for the salvation of others? Could you spend more time thanking God for what he has done? Absolutely. How often is it we just bask in Gods goodness and listen to what he has to say to us.

Number Three

 "..real praying includes an element of struggle, discipline, work and spiritual agonizing against the dark powers of evil." D.A Carson

Prayer is a spiritual battle-it is difficult! Why? Because it is the only thing that the devil has no power against-none what-so-ever! He will therefore do everything in his power to try to stop us from falling to our knees in prayer. Without prayer we are effectively allowing the devil to do his work. So how do we tackle this? We "Stand Firm", put on the full armour of God and "pray in the Spirit on all occasions." Not sometimes-always. When we feel like we can't be bothered praying first thing in the morning, we "Stand Firm". When we feel guilty about our prayer life, we "Stand Firm". And when we feel that God is not answering out prayer, we "Stand Firm". 

To summarise...

How do we overcome the many problems of praying? 

The truth is, we will never overcome the problems of praying. 

"We are still contaminated by failures, sin and self-centeredness; we are not yet what we ought to be." D.A Carson. But by Gods grace we are not failures because we do not feel like praying, instead love and mercy is poured out on us through Jesus Christ.  

However...

We must try to overcome this problem by doing two things. 

1.Eyes off self.

2.Eyes on the cross  

1.By taking our eyes away from our selfish hearts, we remember who God is. We remember that he is our maker and that he is the only one who deserves our attention. When we take our eyes of ourselves, we suddenly remember how unworthy, weak and powerless we are before Him and we fall to our knees in worship.

2.By focusing our eyes on the cross, we remember just what Jesus has done for us and how privileged we are. We remember that Jesus took the FULL FURIOSITY of Gods rightful wrath, instead of us. We remember that God loved us so much that he created this master plan of the cross when we rightfully deserved to be destroyed.

When we do this and our eyes are completely focussed on Christ, we begin to see something of the wonder of prayer and we catch a tiny glimpse of the glory of God our saviour. 

Listen to these words...Can we truly sing them knowing that we want God alone to be our vision?

High King of heaven, my victory won.

May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!

Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,

Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

A misconception about Christianity...

God: Well Laura, you have done some pretty dodgy stuff in your life. 


Laura: I know God, but look at the good stuff I've done, what do you think about them?


God:Hmm yes, there is some pretty good stuff in there. Hang on, let me count up how many good things you have done, and compare them to the bad things you have done.


Laura: I think I have made it by the skin of my teeth.


God: ... 1399,1400. Yup, your in, your good deeds have outweighed the bad. Well done- You have passed the test of life. 

Thankfully, not so! 

The belief that our entrance to heaven depends on our good deeds, is a complete and utter myth. 

There would not be a single person who would be able to reach heaven if it depended on our goodness. Why?

Because of the simple fact that we are human. Through Adam and Eve, sin entered the world. They decided to turn their back on God's ways and turn to their own ways therefore a curse was upon the human race.


So even if we do all the good in the world the fact is it doesn't matter-we are cursed. our hearts do not want God first, they want self first and God later...maybe.

 But why is self such a bad thing? 

 C.S Lewis wrote “we are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”


You see by thinking that OUR way is best, we are missing out an this amazing opportunity to have a relationship with the one who created the universe, the one who knows us best and the one who created us! 


Can you picture that child choosing to play in a dirty slum instead of having the joy of experiencing the sea, the waves, the sand and its glorious freedom. I know what option I would choose...


So lets abolish this misconception of "good deeds=heaven" and start to wrap our minds around the fact that it is about having a real relationship with and experiencing the living God!

He took our sin, all the bad stuff we have ever done. The one who was sinless became SIN because he LOVED us so much. Are our "good deeds" more sufficient than his death?
 We all have the option to chose whether to play in the slum with the mud, or to experience the glorious freedom of the beech.

Life is not a test to see how well we do. Jesus said...

" I have come so you they may have life and have it to the full." John 10v10

The beginnings of my pursuit of God... or His pursuit of me.

"If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, I can only conclude that I was made for another world." C.S Lewis

So this is one of my favourite quotes and one of my favourite songs by Brooke Fraser-a paraphrase of a quote from C.S Lewis' 'Mere Christianity'...


 I can say that I do "find in myself desires that nothing in this world can satisfy" and have concluded that "I was made for another world." Most Importantly I have concluded that I was made by a God who loves me and who is so rich in grace and mercy that he died a horrific death so that he could win back my soul, and bring me into a relationship with Him. 


AMAZING!


Ok, so how did this come about? 
Well-your average Christian testimony begins.."I was brought up in a Christian family.."
                     and so I was, a great one who really helped me understand something of who God is and what he had done for me. 
Although I committed my life to God at a younger age, I really believe I did not see the fruits of the gospel in my life or understand something of God's grace until I came to university.


You see before I really committed my life to Christ, my relationship with him consisted of seeing how much he could do for me-when really it's NOT about ME- its ALL about HIM.
I would go through a series of short highs after Christian activities etc and then long periods of lows where I would basically turn my back on God and decide for myself what I thought was the best way to do life.


After some major mess ups, I was hit like a ton on bricks, with the realisation that if there was a God- there was no way could I live my life purposely going against his will. And if there wasn't that I would carry on living my life anyway I wanted-after all why be good if there is no ultimate purpose to this life anyway? 


And so my pursuit of God began....
To confirm my faith in Jesus, I began to check out other religions, Atheism and a series of Ultimate questions. 
My Conclusion: Jesus is the ONLY way and the only answer that satisfies. 
                   
 No other religion presents such a loving God, that even when we chose to turn our backs on him, he chose to pursue us.
                                      But how did he do this?


                      "And being found in appearance as a man, 
                                  he humbled himself 
                            by becoming obedient to death— 
                                even death on a cross!" Phil 2v8


You see the amazing thing is, this God who created the universe, chose to love me and chose to save me and so what more can I do but give my life to the pursuit of Him! 


He is the only one who eternally satisfies the soul that is thirsty for the love of God. 


Am I now perfect and sinless? Far From It. My best deeds are filthy rags. Hence my desire to continue to pursue God, so that I might become a little more like him and a little less like my sinful self.