4 reasons people don’t pray
1. Not sure how to pray
2. Bored or distracted
3. Request too small for God
4. Prayers dont make a difference (didn’t work last time )
What is prayer? Communicating with God! Simple but hard to believe!
Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my sighing. Listen to my cry for help, my
King and my God, for to you I pray. In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in
the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.
Here David is showing his intimate relationship with God! He was CONNECTING with Him!
Prayer is connecting to God! Its all about how to connect to God! Its not jut kneeling down…
You could:
1. Write
2. Sing
3. Pray during your day
4. Hurting (cry)
5. (having a great day) excited
Break out of our pre conceived ideas!
Big Idea: Prayer is COMMUNICATING with God
4 ways to communicate with God
1. Gut level honesty
Matthew 6:5-7
And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.
Don’t put on a SHOW for God in prayer! Don’t talk to God differently than anybody else! Be authentic with God!
Be reverent and worshipful! You can say.. I don’t get it!
Jesus criticized 2 things about peoples prayer!
A. Praying for show
B. In authentic (meaningless, just babbling)
Don’t be more concerned about what people would think than God! Your prayer doesn’t have to be unnecessarily long or fancy! Talk to God with gut level honesty!
2. Talk to God about EVERYTHING that matters to you
1 Peter 5:7
cast your cares upon Him because he cares for you!
Moses and Sampson asked for water
Zacharias. asked for a son
Daniel had a dream asked God to reveal
David prayed for forgiveness
Elijah prayed for the rain to stop.. 3 yrs later prayed to “MAKE IT RAIN”
Paul prayed for the thorn in his side! His problem
What matters to you? Problems with friends, need help on a test? (u need to study too), mom and dad fighting?
3. Talk to God continually
1 thess. 5:16-18
Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this
is God's will for you in Christ Jesus
go 20 minutes straight without praying! – Smith Wigglesworth!
P- pray
U until
S-something
H-happens
Push in Prayer! Pray till God changes the circumstances or God changes me!
4. Listen for His response
Psalms 5:3
In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests
before you and wait in expectation.
God wants to hear us, but he also wants us to HEAR Him!
He can speak through a loud voice… Or a still small voice, Through His word
Through people Through circumstances, Through Holy spirit!
