Loyal, OK

 
Pastor Leon Seaton

Hindrances to Prayer

Last week someone asked me if we should ever give up on prayer. Wow! What a question! The short answer is “no.” Galatians 6:9 states, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” The long answer is that we may need to do some self-examination to see if our desires and plans are in line with the scriptures.

Disclaimers:

1. Prayer does not change God… prayer changes us. Prayer may change God’s planned action. When God threatened to kill all of the Israelites except Moses, Moses deterred Him, stating that the enemies would declare God to be too weak to deliver His children from bondage to their homeland.

2. God answers prayers that are in line with His word. James 4 notes that prayers are not answered when prayed for the wrong reason.

Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

When struggling with a particular issue, remember two things.

1. God’s actions are based on His complete and pure love for us.
2. God knows things that we do not know. His timing and knowledge greatly influence the answers to our prayers.

3. God gives everyone the freedom of choice. No matter how well intentioned my prayers are for my children, God will not override their free will. (We prayed that God would bring people into their lives to help them in areas where they were struggling and we were not able to help.)

As you pray, remember that God always acts out of love for you.

Nine things that greatly hinder prayer:

1. Fear
2. Guilt
3. Doubt
4. Unforgiveness
5. Unresolved Anger
6. Self-Centeredness
7. Motive
8. Busyness
9. Impatience

This is a continuation of a study on prayer. We will start on this list today and see how far we get. Next Sunday we will continue the study.

In living 70 years, 59 of those as a Christian, I have discovered that when facing major problems the best answers always come when I spend an hour a day in concentrated prayer, seeking God’s will, forgetting my own agenda.

Praying an hour a day is not always easy, but it is less difficult when we are scared to death! However, fear and faith are not good friends. They do not work well together.

Spending an hour a day in prayer is difficult for most of us because we have a thousand things to do. And Satan loves to remind us of those things! Probably the best way to accomplish this is to see it as our personal time with God.

Helpful hints:

1. Prayer List.
2. Worship time – remind yourself how much you love God.
3. Praising God elevates our faith in God, for it reminds us of His loving power. Jessie Duplantis says he sometimes prays, “God, how are You doing? Now Lord, You really need to take care of Yourself, because without You we would be in a lot of trouble!”

No matter how you worship, spend time doing that.

I do the best kneeling with an open Bible in front of me, sometimes just leafing through this love letter from God. After all, it is His way of communicating to us.

Yes, men and women wrote the Bible, but they were inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Recently I read an article, probably from Billy Graham. The lady stated that she liked to pray with her husband, but he liked to walk around the room praying with his eyes open. She did not think that this was reverent enough. He responded that praying together is a good thing to do and that we should not be legalistic about it.

FEAR

Obviously there is a place for fear. Abraham was concerned that people would hurt him because they did not fear God. When Moses was instructed to recruit men to help him govern he was to choose men that feared God. Exodus 18:21, “But select capable men from all the people--men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain--and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.”

Psalm 111:10, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow His precepts have good understanding. To Him belongs eternal praise.”

Exodus 20:20, “Moses said to the people, 'Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.'”

Fear has a negative aspect. Job 4:25, “What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me.”

Mark 5:25-34 tells the story of the woman with an issue of blood for many years – she had a bleeding problem that was killing her financially and physically. She determined that if she could just touch the hem of Jesus’ garment she would be healed. Note that she had powerful faith, but she had a lot of fear and insecurity. After she touched Jesus’ clothes, she was healed. But she was overcome with fear when Jesus asked about it! Let’s read the scripture:

Another way to define fear is “godly reverence.” In godly reverence we stand in awe of God and His love. We do not want to offend Him. There is a fine balance between true love and a casual indifference to His mighty power. The term “Abba Father” can also be translated “Daddy”, which denotes a close relationship with the Father. However, in the 3 times it is used in the NIV (Mark 14:36, Romans 8:15, Galatians 4:6) it is used as a term of respect. When Jesus was praying that the cup of the crucifixion pass from Him He cried out, "Abba, Father," He said, "Everything is possible for You. Take this cup from Me. Yet not what I will, but what You will."

2 Timothy 1:7, “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (KJV “fear”), but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.”

A fearful person is a self-centered person!

One of our greatest fears is public speaking. Why? We worry about what people will think of us. That is being self-centered.

The root cause of being self-centered is pride! We do not like to be criticized. We want everyone to accept us. Roberta is teaching leadership classes in the local school system. Like all of us, the kids have trouble standing up in front of their class and giving a speech on something that is very important to them. No doubt every person in this audience today would have some of the same feelings. We did an exercise in the class last Monday. After three of the kids had given their speech we did an exercise. Every student paired off with another student. The first student talked for two minutes about what they had done over the weekend. The second student was to listen actively. After two minutes they switched roles.

Wow! What an animated conversation! It was inspirational and the speakers and listeners were all actively involved. Yet when giving their speech they struggled with listening as well as speaking.

I believe that the difference was simply the “pressure to perform.”

How does this relate to prayer? First, to pray is not to perform. It is simply to talk to God. Public prayer is to talk to God on the behalf of others. Many believers shy away from public prayer because they apparently believe that they are performing.

Fear in private prayer is also a problem. I want to close this morning with an article from the Christianity Today/Campus Life web page:

Afraid to Pray

by Jason Boomsma, as told to Amy Adair

"Does anyone have a prayer request?" Ryan, my youth pastor, asked.

I slumped down in my seat. I dreaded praying with the entire group.

As a freshman, I was new to the high school youth group. And even though everyone was super nice, I just didn't feel comfortable praying out loud with a bunch of people. It was weird to me and I didn't want to speak up. I was sure I'd totally mess up and say the wrong thing.

Ryan took some prayer requests. Then he said, "I'll open, and you all can pray as you see fit."

We didn't pray in any kind of order. People just blurted out a prayer whenever they felt like it. And we kept praying until all of the prayer requests had been mentioned.

The worst part was the silence between each prayer. After Ryan prayed, no one said a word. My stomach did a flip-flop. I held my breath and counted the seconds. I couldn't help but wonder what everyone else was thinking. I hoped they weren't waiting for me to pray.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the girl next to me prayed. And then someone else went. And another. It took forever to get through all the prayer requests. I was relieved when Ryan finally wrapped it up.

Although I liked youth group and kept going back, I always felt like an outsider when we prayed. It seemed like everyone but me was totally into it and knew exactly what to say.

Then one night, Ryan told us that when we prayed we needed to listen to God. "When you pray, don't always pray for what you want," he said. "Pray for what God wants. Give Him control of your life."

For some reason, that really hit me. I'd been a Christian since I was real little, and I'd prayed for a lot of stuff. But I'd never stopped to ask God what He thought was best for me. The more I thought about what Ryan had said, the more I wanted to change the way I prayed. When it came time to pray that evening, I still didn't pray out loud. But instead of worrying about what other people were thinking, I tried my best to concentrate on God and to listen to Him.

When I went home, I couldn't get Ryan's words out of my head. I started to take just a few minutes each day to pray. I quit always asking for stuff I wanted, and started asking God to give me what He knew I needed. The more I prayed, the more I felt God's presence. But still, I struggled with praying in front of others.

Over time, I started to make some good friends at youth group. I didn't feel as self-conscious when we prayed. Then one night, after Ryan prayed, I just blurted out a prayer for a girl whose mom was sick. I hadn't planned on it, but for some reason I just had the courage to pray. I didn't say anything earth-shattering. But no one laughed at me or said anything about it. After that, I prayed out loud more often. Each time I did it, it got a little easier.

I'm a junior now and I'm still part of the same youth group. We continue to pray together, and I've seen how prayer can change someone's life, including my own. Sure, there are times when I stumble over some words or don't know exactly what to say. But I've stopped worrying about that. After all, prayer is really about listening to God and trusting Him to do what's best. And while I know prayer doesn't magically make my problems disappear, I know that when I put my trust in God He'll always take care of me.

Jason, a junior, leads a Bible study for junior high students. In his free time, he likes hanging out with friends and playing ultimate Frisbee.

Copyright © 2006 by the author or Christianity Today International/Ignite Your Faith magazine. November/December 2006, Vol. 65, No. 4, Page 11