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How To Pray Week 10
#1
CHAPTER X
WHEN TO PRAY
If we would know the fulness of blessing that there is in the prayer life, it is important not only that we pray in the right way, but also that we pray at the right time. Christ's own example is full of suggestiveness as to the right time for prayer.
1. In the 1st chapter of Mark, the 35th verse, we read, "And IN THE MORNING, rising up A GREAT WHILE BEFORE DAY, He went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed."
JESUS CHOSE THE EARLY MORNING HOUR FOR PRAYER. Many of the mightiest men of God have followed the Lord's example in this. In the morning hour the mind is fresh and at its very best. It is free from distraction, and that absolute concentration upon God which is essential to the most effective prayer is most easily possible in the early morning hours. Furthermore, when the early hours are spent in prayer, the whole day is sanctified, and power is obtained for overcoming its temptations, and for performing its duties. More can be accomplished in prayer in the first hours of the day than at any other time during the day. Every child of God who would make the most out of his life for Christ, should set apart the first part of the day to meeting God in the study of His Word and in prayer. The first thing we do each day should be to go alone with God and face the duties, the temptations, and the service of that day, and get strength from God for all. We should get victory before the hour of trial, temptation or service comes. The secret place of prayer is the place to fight our battles and gain our victories.
2. In the 6th chapter of Luke in the 12th verse, we get further light upon the right time to pray. We read, "And it came to pass in those days, that He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued ALL NIGHT in prayer to God."
Here we see Jesus praying in the night, spending the entire night in prayer. Of course we have no reason to suppose that this was the constant practice of our Lord, nor do we even know how common this practice was, but there were certainly times when the whole night was given up to prayer. Here too we do well to follow in the footsteps of the Master.
Of course there is a way of setting apart nights for prayer in which there is no profit; it is pure legalism. But the abuse of this practice is no reason for neglecting it altogether. One ought not to say, "I am going to spend a whole night in prayer," with the thought that there is any merit that will win God's favor in such an exercise; that is legalism. But we oftentimes do well to say, "I am going to set apart this night for meeting God, and obtaining His blessing and power; and if necessary, and if He so leads me, I will give the whole night to prayer." Oftentimes we will have prayed things through long before the night has passed, and we can retire and find more refreshing and invigorating sleep than if we had not spent the time in prayer. At other times God doubtless will keep us in communion with Himself away into the morning, and when He does this in His infinite grace, blessed indeed are these hours of night prayer!
Nights of prayer to God are followed by days of power with men. In the night hours the world is hushed in slumber, and we can easily be alone with God and have undisturbed communion with Him. If we set apart the whole night for prayer, there will be no hurry, there will be time for our own hearts to become quiet before God, there will be time for the whole mind to be brought under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, there will be plenty of time to pray things through. A night of prayer should be put entirely under God's control. We should lay down no rules as to how long we will pray, or as to what we shall pray about, but be ready to wait upon God for a short time or a long time as He may lead, and to be led out in one direction or another as He may see fit.
3. Jesus Christ prayed BEFORE ALL THE GREAT CRISES IN HIS EARTHLY LIFE.
He prayed before choosing the twelve disciples; before the sermon on the mount; before starting out on an evangelistic tour; before His anointing with the Holy Spirit and His entrance upon His public ministry; before announcing to the twelve His approaching death; before the great consummation of His life at the cross. (Luke 6:12-13; Luke 9:18,21,22; Luke 3:21-22; Mark 1:35-38; Luke 22:39-46 ) He prepared for every important crisis by a protracted season of prayer. So ought we to do also. Whenever any crisis of life is seen to be approaching, we should prepare for it by a season of very definite prayer to God. We should take plenty of time for this prayer.
4. Christ prayed not only before the great events and victories of His life, but He also prayed AFTER ITS GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS AND IMPORTANT CRISES.
When He had fed the five thousand with the five loaves and two fishes, and the multitude desired to take Him and make Him king, having sent them away He went up into the mountain apart to pray, and spent hours there alone in prayer to God (Matt 14:23; Jn 6:15). So He went on from victory to victory.
It is more common for most of us to pray before the great events of life than it is to pray after them, but the latter is as important as the former. If we would pray after the great achievements of life, we might go on to still greater; as it is we are often either puffed up or exhausted by the things that we do in the name of the Lord, and so we advance no further. Many and many a man in answer to prayer has been endued with power and thus has wrought great things in the name of the Lord, and when these great things were accomplished, instead of going alone with God and humbling himself before Him, and giving Him all the glory for what was achieved, he has congratulated himself upon what has been accomplished, has become puffed up, and God has been obliged to lay him aside. The great things done were not followed by humiliation of self, and prayer to God, and so pride has come in and the mighty man has been shorn of his power.
5. Jesus Christ gave a special time to prayer WHEN LIFE WAS UNUSUALLY BUSY. He would withdraw at such a time from the multitudes that thronged about Him, and go into the wilderness and pray. For example, we read in Luke 5:15-16, "But so much the more went abroad the report concerning Him: and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed of their infirmities. But He withdrew Himself in the deserts and prayed." (R.V.)
Some men are so busy that they find no time for prayer. Apparently the busier Christ's life was, the more He prayed. Sometimes He had no time to eat (Mark 3:20), sometimes He had no time for needed rest and sleep (Mark 6:31,33,46), but He always took time to pray; and the more the work crowded the more He prayed.
Many a mighty man of God has learned this secret from Christ, and when the work has crowded more than usual they have set an unusual amount of time apart for prayer. Other men of God, once mighty, have lost their power because they did not learn this secret, and allowed increasing work to crowd out prayer.
Years ago it was the writer's privilege, with other theological students, to ask questions of one of the most useful Christian men of the day. The writer was led to ask,
"Will you tell us something of your prayer life?"
The man was silent a moment, and then, turning his eyes earnestly upon me, replied:
"Well, I must admit that I have been so crowded with work of late that I have not given the time I should to prayer."
Is it any wonder that that man lost power, and the great work that he was doing was curtailed in a very marked degree? Let us never forget that the more the work presses on us, the more time must we spend in prayer.
6. Jesus Christ prayed BEFORE THE GREAT TEMPTATIONS OF HIS LIFE.
As He drew nearer and nearer to the cross, and realized that upon it was to come the great final test of His life, Jesus went out into the garden to pray. He came "unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here while I go and pray yonder." (Matt 26:36) The victory of Calvary was won that night in the garden of Gethsemane. The calm majesty of His bearing in meeting the awful onslaughts of Pilate's Judgment Hall and of Calvary, was the outcome of the struggle, agony and victory of Gethsemane. While Jesus prayed the disciples slept, so He stood fast while they fell ignominiously.
Many temptations come upon us unawares and unannounced, and all that we can do is to lift a cry to God for help then and there; but many of the temptations of life we can see approaching from the distance, and in such cases the victory should be won before the temptation really reaches us.
7. In 1 Thess 5:17 we read, "Pray WITHOUT CEASING," and in Eph 6:18, R.V., "praying AT ALL SEASONS."
Our whole life should be a life of prayer. We should walk in constant communion with God. There should be a constant upward looking of the soul to God. We should walk so habitually in His presence that even when we awake in the night it would be the most natural thing in the world for us to speak to Him in thanksgiving or in petition.
—How To Pray
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#2
:pray: Amen to all said about when to pray!

More for this week:

Get Fervent About Your Answer
Pastor Mark Stephens
Apr 9, 2007



GET FERVENT ABOUT YOUR ANSWER!

Are you aware that it is easy to stop somewhere in the middle of the plan of God and never see the final outcome you desire?

God’s plan won’t just drop in your lap like an apple falling off a tree. You grow into it day by day as you continually feed on God’s Word and fellowship with Him.Eventually that Word will begin to govern how you think and how you speak

Through this message it is our desire to assist you in getting to that place in God. We want you to be able to come before God’s throne on a daily basis and lay hold of His plan-not for yourself, but for the great harvest of souls God so desires in this time and hour.

That’s what we are believing for you. If you are in agreement read on.

If you’re like most people, you can think of many times in your life when you prayed for something and never saw the answer. You never saw the results you were believing for to come to pass. That’s a problem God never intended for you to have. He has provided a way for you to get answers every single time you pray according to the Word. He wants all your prayers to be effective.

What are the elements of effective prayer? James 5:16 tells us that “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availed much.” The Amplified Bible says it this way: “The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working].”

You will become so grounded in it that nothing will be able to shake you or move you off your stand of faith. When that happens, you can be sure that God’s plan will be fulfilled in you.

We see here two characteristics that effective “pray-ers” posses: they are righteous and they are fervent.

That first characteristic might scare some people. They might say, “Oh dear, I’m not good enough to qualify as a righteous person.” If you have that thought, let me remind you that it is not your goodness that makes you righteous-it is Jesus’ goodness. We do not pray in our name; we pray in His name. By simply believing in Him, we qualify as righteous because our faith puts us in Him.

Every time you pray, remind yourself of that. Say to yourself, “He who knew no sin was made to be sin for me (insert your name where the “me” is) so that I could be made the righteousness of God in Christ” (2nd Corinthians 5:21). So your prayer is the prayer of the righteous!

The second characteristic of answered prayer that we see from the passage in James chapter five is fervency. The righteous person in this verse isn’t just saying something with his mouth. He’s not saying some “mamby pamby” prayer. He has a fire within him. You see, fervor isn’t something your project with your voice; it is something that comes forth from the heart. The truth is, you can sound bold with your voice and still be quivering with fear on the inside. Thus, fervency is a condition of the heart, and it comes through a constant tuning of the heart to heaven.

How do you tune your heart to heaven? By going to God’s Word and finding out what He has to say about your situation. You stop praying about the problem all the time, and you start praying about God’s plan for you. Jeremiah 29:11 is a good verse to know God’s plan. It says, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you saith God. Thoughts of good and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”

However, if you are going to pray fervently about that plan, you will have to do more than just know it. You will have to meditate on it until God’s plan is bigger on the inside of you than the problem is.

You are probably familiar with what happens when you meditate on the problem all the time. You can get so fervent about your problem that you just have to do something-and that “something” is usually to cry!

But you can change that by meditating on God’s promises. Joshua 1:8 says, “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.”

If you’re not sure what promises to study, just read your Bible until some Scripture hits your heart in a special way and blesses you so much that you just can’t get away from it. When that happens, you will find that every time you go to the word and try to study other scriptures, you will have a hard time doing it. You will think, “now it’s time for me to read something else in the Bible.” But each time you do, your heart will be drawn back to this particular verse that just keeps blessing you.

Why is it so difficult to go on to other scriptures in the Word at times like this? Because the Holy Spirit is moving on that particular verse. He is quickening that verse to you. If you will keep feeding on it, it will “rev up” your spirit every time you read it. After a while, you will reach the place of fervency, the place from which you need to pray. God’s plan for your situation will grow inside of you until it’s so big in your spirit that you think you’re going to pop.

You will get so fervent in your heart concerning the answer to your prayers that you won’t be able to sit in your seat-you’ll have to jump, shout, or whatever you do to give God the glory and praise He so rightfully deserves. That is the time to open your mouth and begin to praise God for your answer because even though you cannot see it, you are sure it is to come!



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