Creator Communication – Prayer

Posted on 19. Mar, 2011 by frank in faith

I’ve always felt that there are 3 main parts of communication with God, prayer is one of them (I’ll be posting on others soon). However, prayer isn’t something that comes easy for many Christians, but its an essential part of being a Christ follower.  Early church records from the book of Acts demonstrate the importantce of Prayer:

Acts 2:42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.

The early church was devoted to prayer.  I’m not sure how many of us would say that our churches are devoted to prayer.  I recently spoke at Crossroads College and was asked to speak on the topic of devotion.  When I thought of the word devotion it made me think of obedience, commitment, and passion – not prayer.

Barriers

Time: One of the biggest things we seem to waste and one of the first excuses I hear people offer.  When I asked my friends on facebook what gets in the way of them spending time in prayer they offered these reasons:

“ADD culture, very rarely do I sit down and do anything without doing 3 other things.”

“I think busyness gets in the way, but the reality is we should never be to busy for God. Its just the fast paced world we live in.”

“Too much talking and not enough listening.”

I think many of us seem to have the impression that the longer we can spend in prayer, the more spiritual we are.  BOGUS!  Hours on your knees does not mean  you are a more spiritual person.  When Jesus taught on prayer he made it pretty clear that prayer should have a purpose and be focused.

Matthew 6:7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling

Plus the actually prayer he modeled for us only takes about 30 seconds to recite… not to say we can’t pray for extended periods of time, but we certainly shouldn’t assume that longer prayers are more spiritual prayers.

We can’t let time be a barrier to communication with our creator.

Guilt: I think there are instances when many people feel they aren’t worthy enough to talk to God.  I’ve actually had people ask me to pray for them because they don’t believe God will hear their prayers. One of  my favorite books of the Bible is Philippians, in it Paul says this about prayer…

Philippians 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

We know that God wants us to pray and we know that he wants us to live in a righteous manner.  Again the Lords Prayer tells us that God wants us to pray for forgiveness but he also wants us living a lifestyle of forgiveness in our relationships with others.

We can’t allow guilt to get in the way of communicating with our creator.

Fear: Sometimes we are afraid to even ask God because our faith isn’t strong enough.  There are some people I’ve met that don’t know how to handle life when prayers seem to go unanswered.  The truth is that their prayers didn’t go unanswered, God just didn’t say yes.  His answer might have been no or simply wait…

I love 2Timothy 1:7-8

For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God.

God doesn’t promise the easy life for us. When Paul writes these words he’s asking Timothy to join him in suffering. That means we must embrace the spirit of God so our faith is not shaken when God asks us to wait or says no.

We can’t allow fear to get in the way of communication with our creator.