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.