The Raging Battle to Pray!

Matt 26:41  ” Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”  NASU

 

We need a revival of real prayer in the Church. We live in a day when we are so busy with good things we have failed in our duty to do the best thing. The Church is powerless because she is prayer less. The Church is prayer less because she is living in unbelief.  Prayer seems to be such a burden, and to the flesh it most certainly is! However, it is a burden we must overcome or we will remain weak and impotent in the cause of Christ in our generation.

 

Prayer is so contrary to our inward feelings. We pray and don’t feel like we have the right things to say, or we don‘t know what to say at all. Prayers are short, shallow, and to be honest sad.

Monotony has killed prayer. We here the same lingo and the same forms, and consequently our hearts fade. We draw near with our mouths but our hearts are far from God. Where is the passion? Where are the cries of Zion for God’s help? Where are those moaning petitions for God to act in our day? Where are the Jacobs who would wrestle with God until He answers?

 

*May I suggest a few causes and a few remedies-

 

A. The causes- 1) Preoccupation with the things of the world- (Self, money, work, toys, sports, etc)

                     2) Shallow Bible Knowledge- (Sunday School has turned into psychological feeding frenzies, instead of doctrinal soul feeing bible studies)

                     3) Unregenerate Church Membership- (Many have joined the visible Church by praying a prayer, but have never joined Christ Church by Bible Repentance and Faith)

                      4) A disdain for any authority in the Church – (Solo Christianity is the theme of the day. Everyone already knows it all, and there is no longer a need for pastors and teachers called of God.)

                      5) Laziness- (The flesh is weak. It loves to play but it hates to pray! Prayer is a labor which is harder than plowing fields and chopping wood!)

                      6) Pride

B. The remedies- 1) Repent of prayerlessness

                          2) Stop worrying what others think- (In other words, worry about what God thinks about your prayers and not man! Always be remembering WHO you are talking to!)

                          3) Learn how to pray! (If the disciples of Christ needed to be taught so do we! Study the scriptures and learn how the people in the Bible prayed)

                          4) Learn to suffer and sacrifice- (Genuine prayer will always come with a cost to our fleshly appetites! Doing with less TV, less play, less computer, less sleep, etc)

                           5) Meditate on the fruits of prayer- (Seeing God do mighty things through prayer is great fuel for praying!)

 

*WOW! That was so easy for me to write! Oh that God would grant me the grace to be the first to apply it to my own life!

 

Alpheus