ARE MY PRAYERS WORKING? (1) ‘Yet you don’t have ... because you don’t ask God for it’ James 4:2 NLT The Bible is a book of prayers – and answers. Prayer isn’t about trying to persuade a reluctant God to act; it’s about aligning ourselves with Him and taking hold of His willingness to be involved in life’s situations – both big and small. (You might want to read that line again a few times). Yet sometimes the thing that gets in the way is us. Here are the two ways in which we can hinder our own prayers. 1) Failure to pray. The first problem is, whilst we spend a lot of time talking about prayer, we often fail to get down to the business of praying! Charles Turnbull said ‘Prayer releases the energies of God’ and until you learn to pray in faith and wait on God for the answer, you’ll get nowhere. We ‘do not have because we do not ask...’ 2) Unconfessed sin. ‘Your sins have hidden God’s face from you, so that He will not hear’ Isaiah 59:2 NIV. Your first prayer should always be wanting to make sure you and God are ok - clearing the air by cleansing your heart. If you’ve got sin that you’ve not brought to Him and apologised for, then get on that, pronto. And my friend, you and I are dripping in sin we don’t even realise we’ve committed - asking His forgiveness for that, for everything, is a big part of asking to be realigned with His heart. If you’re not aligned with God, your prayers won’t be either. What now? Schedule an extra prayer time into your plan for this week (OR start Pray21, what are you waiting for?!) – and stick to it. Let the first thing you ask for be forgiveness.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Jul 2013 07:57:24 +0000
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