July 12, 2023
Author: Pastor Gordon Cook
July 12, 2023
"And he told them a parable, to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart."
Luke 18:1
"praying
at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that
end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for the
saints."
Ephesians 6:18
I think because prayer is so important and that might explain why
it’s often so difficult. Prayer is so important and why is it so
difficult? I think if you could ask any Christian, every Christian would
say to some degree they struggle, not every time they pray but they
struggle with prayer. I think you see even Jesus and the apostle Paul
understood it wouldn’t be easy for us to pray. Both emphasized the need
for perseverance when it comes to prayer. That word perseverance assumes
there’s challenges, there’s difficulties and obstacles that must be
overcome. The biggest obstacles is our own remaining sin. Paul in Romans
seven mentions the fact that “When I would do good there is sin within
me.” There’s that obstacle we could say within ourselves. But I think we
could also say, some would even argue that this is our biggest foe, the
devil himself. Arguably next to our sin a lot of cancellation or
negation or abort of prayer could go back to the devil’s influence. He
doesn’t want us praying. Even the Lord’s prayer recognizes that we need
help when it comes to temptations, “Lead us not into temptation, but
deliver us from evil.” Some translations actually say, “From the evil
one,” very well indicating the devil himself. If you’ve ever read that
massive work by the puritan William Gurnall, it’s a literary work of his
sermons. It is 600 pages in the small print, and it’s titled The
Chrisitan in Complete Armour. It has a section where he deals with the
devil and prayer. And he points out a number of ways in which the
devil attacks us when it comes to praying, on the front end and even on
the back end. But he will play upon or doubts, our fears and our sins.
The bible says here’s a great hope and confidence we have, James says
“Resist the devil, and he will flee from you”. And there are far more
encouragements in our bible than discouragements when it comes to
prayer. And I have three great reasons to encourage us to pray, they are
very simple, but they all focus on God himself, the three person God.
First great incentive to overcome obstacles and challenges and struggles
when it comes to prayer is you have a perfect father who listens to our
prayers. Second reason you have a perfect savior and model who teaches
us how to pray. And thirdly, you have a perfect helper who helps us to
pray. Let me just go through those very quickly. The great incentives
when it comes to prayer. We have a perfect father who listen to all of
our prayers, and he listens perfectly to all of our prayers, listens to
every sigh, every groan, every whisper. And I think we could say he
always answers prayer whether its yes or no, he always answers prayer.
Not always in the way would we like, not always in the way we would
expect, not immediately, but he listens. He listens with perfect ears
and a perfect heart of love. Jesus assures us if you seek you will find
and when you knock it shall be opened. The second great incentive and
encouragement as I mentioned we have a perfect Savior. He taught us how
to pray “Our father which are in heaven.” But not only does he teach us
by his words, but also by his life. He was the perfect prayer. He never
did not pray perfectly and consistently. He prayed with perfect
submission, he prayed with perfect love, he prayed with perfect faith
and perfect perseverance. He never gave up, even in the throes of death,
on the cross he’s still praying. Perfect Father, a perfect Savior and
model and then thirdly, we have this encouragement to pray we have a
perfect helper, the Holy Spirit. When Paul highlights prayer in Romans
chapter eight, which is probably the place to go to learn about the Holy
Spirit. We are able to cry out abba Father, because we have the Spirit,
and the Spirit is identified as the Spirit of adoption.
The
devil doesn’t want us praying, sometimes I think that’s even why it’s
hard for people to get to prayer meeting. He doesn’t want us here and
why? Well, he’s afraid he knows what praying can accomplished when
blessed by God. But the Christian will always pray, you really can’t
stop the Christian from praying. If you have the spirit of God, the
Spirit of adoption he enables us to cry, it’s like a baby you can’t stop
a baby from crying, and we will always cry to the Lord we will always
cry Abba Father.
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