Andrew Fountain - Improving our Prayer Lives
- Artist: Andrew Fountain
- Title: Improving our Prayer Lives
- Album: Newlife Church, Toronto
- Track: 1
- Genre: Prayer
- Year: 2014-08-10
- Length: 35:45 minutes (14.32 MB)
- Format: MP3 Stereo 44kHz 56Kbps (VBR)
Link to Video:
Improving our Prayer Lives Full sermon notes - Motivations to Pray Fervently and Persistently
- I want to talk about fervency and persistence in prayer
- If we really believe something will work, then we will persist in it.
(e.g. Dan: 20 calls to Julie in Pakistan)
- But if we don’t believe it will work, then we won’t even try ()
- Do we really believe that God takes notice of prayer?
- How sure are we?
- If we are not absolutely sure, then it will weaken our prayer.
- If we were utterly convinced then we would pray an awful lot more.
- Everything we do is motivated by our beliefs—we are logical thinking beings.
- If I want to urge you to pray more,
- I can plead with you as much as I like
- I can reprimand you as much
- I can scold you, I can encourage you, I can threaten you, I can beg you
- but you will take no notice, unless I actually convince you that it will work.
- So this morning I want to talk about persisting in prayer
- Read The God who Hears p.54
- Has been a very strong motivator for prayer
- But is it true?
- we end up with a God who is powerless without our prayers
- There is no Biblical support: Who was praying for Abraham to be called?
- What about Saul—nobody believed he could be saved
- Israel has been sent into exile for their terrible behaviour
- But God wants to restore them
- But he wants to do it in answer to prayer
- Are we just puppets then?
- Law of cause and effect:
If I let go of a book, it will fall. God has decreed this in spiritual things: Luke 11:9,10“Hasn’t God planned it?” what about the day you will die?pray—>answerif God wants to bless, he will cause us to freely choose
- Understand that we live in a universe of “cause and effect”, and prayer is just as much part of it as gravity!
- Problem 2 —maybe we have been disappointed in prayer
- I am convinced that we tend to forget the answers and remember the disappointments!
- Artin
- Problem 3 “Prayer is only for ‘spiritual’ things”
- James 4:3 “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it on your pleasures”
- But God has promised to meet our needs — Take no thought for tomorrow. eat, drink, wear
- Problem 4 “does our own fervency affect God’s answer, or should we just state our requests?”
- Parable of persistent widow
- This raises a question: is God the sort of God we can wear down? reluctant? needs persuading, only answers us because he is annoyed at us constantly asking? Obviously not.
- so why persist?????
- because he is developing a relationship w us (Bingham Hunter & his son p.79f)
- Someone to whom you can tell everything
- Our lives are full of surface relationships
- We long for friendships where we can be totally open, honest and are completely understood
- We don’t have to pretend, but can share our deepest thoughts and feelings
- God wants us to be like that with him
- We can be absolutely honest with him, and tell him exactly how we feel
- He won’t be shocked by our failures
- He will understand us totally and be our closest friend
- So, to sum up, In order to be persistent and fervent in prayer, you have to believe that
- God is listening and will hear your prayer, and will make a difference
- Do you believe that?
- God is the person we can be totally real with
- God is listening and will hear your prayer, and will make a difference
- More about this next week!
Two things to remember this week:
- God wants you to treat him like your closest friend, be totally honest and open with him.
You can do that!
- Cause and effect. Prayer is just as much how this world works as the law of gravity.
Your prayers this week will count
Updated on 2014-08-10 by Andrew Fountain
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