4 Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. 5 Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. (Psalm 25:4 – 5)
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5 – 6)
Theme: If not You, then Who?
Today we begin a 3-day review of the Discipline of Prayer. God blessed us richly in our review of the disciplines of Bible Study and Spiritual Warfare last week and I am looking forward to more of the same this week.
Back in the 1960s (yes, I am dating myself), there was a popular TV series called Mission Impossible. In each episode, a team of secret government agents known as the Impossible Missions (IM) Force would be sent on a daring mission. They would get their orders from a mysterious government official known as the Secretary. At the start of each episode, the lead agent would get instructions for the mission via an audio taped message, which would include the following statement: “As always, should you or any of your IM Force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This tape will self-destruct in 5 seconds.” In other words, the IM Force were on their own.
It is comforting to know that when we sign up for God’s service, He doesn’t leave us on our own and He never disowns us. And, unlike the Secretary, God wants to maintain communication throughout the mission.
This makes the prayer in our passage from Psalm 25 and the promise from Proverbs 3 very potent. Like David, we can and should communicate with God every step of the way and like Solomon we can be confident that as we trust God, He will direct us. “O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer!” (from the hymn, “What a Friend we have in Jesus”).
Question
Even though God is willing and ready to guide us, we often forget to maintain communication with Him. From your experience, what are some of the reasons why we don’t stay in communication?
March 1, 2021 at 3:57 am
We don’t stay in communication with God because we lose focus. Due to the everyday demands of family, work and life, in general, prayer is often “scheduled” and/or a last resort. However, when we do pray, the peace, comfort, guidance and/or hope we receive is a fantastic reminder of its importance.
March 1, 2021 at 5:14 am
Some of the reasons people don’t stay in communication with God are:
– they get busy and totally forget
– they only think about communicating with God when they are in a difficult situation
– they think it’s irreverent if they don’t kneel and/or close their eyes and clasp their hands when talking to God; praying while driving, shopping, showering, etc. won’t happen.
– they are angry at someone and feel like they can’t talk to God if they are in a bad mood
– they are angry at God
For myself, I feel like I am constantly praying. It helps me not to worry. I find it peaceful to remind myself that I already “gave” a situation to God, so however it works out will be what He wants. When I don’t see changes in a circumstance that I have prayed about, I just pray about it again. It doesn’t mean certain situations don’t sadden me and don’t rest on my heart, but I have hope that God is in control.
March 1, 2021 at 6:02 am
When we lose focus and panic and get overwhelmed by the situation in stead of focusing on the bigness of our God we lose communication with God. . When our focus is on God we experience His peace n the situation and know that He will work it out
March 1, 2021 at 6:30 am
Sometimes I get very busy with several important activities and calculate that spending a certain segment of time in intensive prayer might not be wise. This is not a good decision on my part.
Praying about some of the same items over a long period of time with no observable change in the situations can cause me to temporarily wonder if I should leave those matters for a while and move on to other items.
March 1, 2021 at 8:57 am
Usually, my communication with God is lackluster when I allow other priorities to monopolize my time. I also may shy away from communicating with God when I’m scared of receiving a “no” from Him.
March 1, 2021 at 9:49 am
When I begin the day with reading the Bible & praying, it greatly helps me to maintain communication with God throughout the day.
March 1, 2021 at 9:54 am
Getting distractect and not focused on the Lord plus having such hectic schedule can be reasons for not communicating with God. In my case,I find it easier to talk to God in prayer when I’m in my very comfortable and/or in my usual everyday routine. For example, when I’m riding my bicycle on the way to gym, or after my workout. My prayer always starts with being grateful for his protection and that I can workout or do what I need to do for the day in His mercy and grace. I also can pray while walking to the station on my way to work because it takes 20 minutes by foot from my place to the train station. Usually, when I’m on my way home from work that I can pray more, because my day at work is done, and I’m not rushing anymore to catch the train. At home, after I see off my husband in the morning, right after I close the door, I will say a short prayer of thanks that my husband could go to work again and that the Lord will bless him and keep him safe. My short prayers everyday are mostly full of thanksgiving and praises to God. My supplications and requests, are more in detail when Iim praying on the bed in my room befrore sleeping or in the morning when I do my devotional. Sometimes there are situations that I’m cooking or doing something else and suddenly someone’s prayer request or concern comes to my mind and so right there at that moment, I will say a prayer and lift the person or the issue/problem to God. I think I pray longer and more detailed when I have a big problem or better yet when I know I’ve grieved the Holy Spirit with sins I committed like anger, frustrations, or simply being stubborn or strong willed…yes, at times I can be such a person and when that happens, I feel so tiny in front of the Lord in my prayers , and words are not enough to express my sadness and repentance. I also had a prayer moment in my life, where it seemed to me, like I don’t want to listen or follow what the Lord was telling me. My prayer life is like a roller coaster too, sometimes full of praises and thanksgiving, but there are also times, I have questioned the Lord in my prayer because I struggle to understand the situation or the pain I’m going through. I can also be tired of waiting for Him to answer my prayer or I may also not want to accrept God’s answer to my prayer. But since my Gid knows me well, I’m not afraid to open up to him everything I feel or I want to say. When praying, I can feel the Holy Spirit descending on me not only whenI’m
happy thanking the Lord but also when I’m
truly sorry for my sins. I also have scheduled prayer time such as meal time, morning time,devotional time and bed time prayer. At night sometimes I fall adleep while praying and in the morning when I wake up I will ask forgiveness for not being able to finish my prayer last night. I think sometimes the Lotd finds my prayer funny too! But my favorite way of talking to God in prayer, is when I can communicate or pray to Him anywhere, anytime and whatever I’m doing. It doesn’t have to be like a litany of requests and favors but mostly prayer of thanksgiving and praises. Like when I’m walking outside and the sight of beautiful sunshine and some cherry blossoms trees , prompt me to praise God and be thankful. I think the Lord is glorified if we can put Him in our mind and heart even just for a short while ( of course as often as possible is much better) during the day, as it proves, that we think of Him and we spend time with him despite the busy schedule we have. We can access to our Lord, Jesus 24/7. He hears our prayers and sometines we just have to be still and listen so we can obey and glorify Him.
March 1, 2021 at 10:07 am
Sorry there were many typing and spelling errors in my comment. I didn’t double check before posting. I hope readers can understand what I was trying to say. Thank you.
March 1, 2021 at 8:56 pm
Your message was very clear and helpful Aurora. Thanks!
March 2, 2021 at 6:00 am
Glad to read all your comments.
I pray all the time.Nothing formal.
I also pray for Christians as supposedly Ghandi said ” You Christians are nothing like your Christ”.
I observe people and I notice that we all need Prayer as we focus on the ” Ego” too much.
I take this bible study to learn what I am in need of learning.