Overcoming Opposition to Prayer
Many Christians may feel God's presence as they go through the day, but when they stop to pray, and really talk to Him, suddenly a thousand things are running through their mind, and it is hard to concentrate on the Lord. Is there any good way to pray without getting sidetracked by other things? This problem can become so annoying that Christians may give up trying to engage in lengthy and fervent times of prayer. This is probably a universal phenomenon which accompanies prayer, especially serious prayer, since Satan will do anything to disturb our prayer-life or distract us from praying. He knows that when we pray, he is in greatest danger of being defeated with regard to some person he is tormenting or some other evil scheme he is cooking up. If he can stop us from praying, his defeat is deferred.
Here is some advice from Jesus about how to pray from Matthew 6: 5-13, and other scriptures...
SEEK A PLACE OF SOLITUDE
Get alone with God. First of all, realize that all great men of the Bible recognized the necessity of getting alone to be with God when they prayed...
CONFESS ANY UN-DEALT-WITH SIN IN YOUR LIFE
Turn away from it (repent) and decide you want God to remove it permanently from your life.
KEEP AN ATTITUDE OF EXPECTANCY
Be convinced that God is going to answer your prayer, in no uncertain terms.
NEUTRALIZE THE OPPOSITION
Pray for Satan and his power to be bound.
ORGANIZE YOUR THOUGHTS
Decide what you are going to pray beforehand-and be specific. Write your requests on a "prayer list".
PERSEVERE
Keep praying until the answer arrives. Don't give up just because the answer didn't come as quickly as you thought it should. There are spiritual battles being waged in heavenly places that we are not aware of, which can frustrate a timely answer to our prayers. God promises to answer our prayers, and we should take Him at His Word.
HUMILITY
Submit yourself to the will and wisdom of the all-knowing God. Once again, Jesus Himself gives us an example to follow.
THANKFULNESS
God is deserving of all praise for answered prayer. Like anyone else, God is disappointed when we are not thankful for what He does for us.
AND LASTLY, DON'T BE IN A HURRY
Be prepared to spend a minimum of 20 minutes in deep concentrating prayer seeking God's face and communing with Him. The longer you spend with Jesus, the more fulfilling your experience will be regardless of the answer to your prayer. Emergency prayers "on the run" are fine and often necessary when we are at work or at school or under some emergency situation, But God deserves our close and prolonged attention and fellowship, and rewards our time with Him with unspeakable joy and peace.
And the Apostle Paul gives us one further instruction about prayer, and that is to make prayer a continual part of your daily life. Talk to God about everything all the time. And thereby prayer will become a familiar activity in your experience, and not something out-of-the-ordinary. This will make it easier to pray at times of stress and difficulty.
God Bless you, in your pursuit of God's Presence and Power.
Many Christians may feel God's presence as they go through the day, but when they stop to pray, and really talk to Him, suddenly a thousand things are running through their mind, and it is hard to concentrate on the Lord. Is there any good way to pray without getting sidetracked by other things? This problem can become so annoying that Christians may give up trying to engage in lengthy and fervent times of prayer. This is probably a universal phenomenon which accompanies prayer, especially serious prayer, since Satan will do anything to disturb our prayer-life or distract us from praying. He knows that when we pray, he is in greatest danger of being defeated with regard to some person he is tormenting or some other evil scheme he is cooking up. If he can stop us from praying, his defeat is deferred.
Here is some advice from Jesus about how to pray from Matthew 6: 5-13, and other scriptures...
SEEK A PLACE OF SOLITUDE
Get alone with God. First of all, realize that all great men of the Bible recognized the necessity of getting alone to be with God when they prayed...
CONFESS ANY UN-DEALT-WITH SIN IN YOUR LIFE
Turn away from it (repent) and decide you want God to remove it permanently from your life.
KEEP AN ATTITUDE OF EXPECTANCY
Be convinced that God is going to answer your prayer, in no uncertain terms.
NEUTRALIZE THE OPPOSITION
Pray for Satan and his power to be bound.
ORGANIZE YOUR THOUGHTS
Decide what you are going to pray beforehand-and be specific. Write your requests on a "prayer list".
PERSEVERE
Keep praying until the answer arrives. Don't give up just because the answer didn't come as quickly as you thought it should. There are spiritual battles being waged in heavenly places that we are not aware of, which can frustrate a timely answer to our prayers. God promises to answer our prayers, and we should take Him at His Word.
HUMILITY
Submit yourself to the will and wisdom of the all-knowing God. Once again, Jesus Himself gives us an example to follow.
THANKFULNESS
God is deserving of all praise for answered prayer. Like anyone else, God is disappointed when we are not thankful for what He does for us.
AND LASTLY, DON'T BE IN A HURRY
Be prepared to spend a minimum of 20 minutes in deep concentrating prayer seeking God's face and communing with Him. The longer you spend with Jesus, the more fulfilling your experience will be regardless of the answer to your prayer. Emergency prayers "on the run" are fine and often necessary when we are at work or at school or under some emergency situation, But God deserves our close and prolonged attention and fellowship, and rewards our time with Him with unspeakable joy and peace.
And the Apostle Paul gives us one further instruction about prayer, and that is to make prayer a continual part of your daily life. Talk to God about everything all the time. And thereby prayer will become a familiar activity in your experience, and not something out-of-the-ordinary. This will make it easier to pray at times of stress and difficulty.
God Bless you, in your pursuit of God's Presence and Power.
No comments:
Post a Comment