[Faith-talk] Reclaiming Prayer: Fourth in a Series of Four Articles

[Ericka]

My Evangelical Lutheran worship service is full of prayers each week. Throughout the years I've had pastors actually preach on prayer and its importance. We teach kids how to pray. This is no new news to me.

Ericka Short
"What is right is not always popular; what is popular is not always right."

 from my iPhone 6s

> On Jun 24, 2016, at 11:39 AM, Paul Smith via Faith-Talk <faith-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hello and good day to my cyber readers out there.  We now conclude our series of four articles about prayer, today's contribution being written by Ronnie Floyd, the pastor of Cross Church of northwest Arkansas and also president of the Southern Baptist Convention.  The article in question is entitled "Bringing Prayer Back," rendered as follows:
> 
> In our lives and our churches, prayer must be our greatest action.
> 
> The greatest action we can take in any situation is to pray.  Yet, it is often the last action we take.  Should prayer not be the first choice we make? Why should it take a bad diagnosis, a major business loss or a big problem to move prayer up on our daily action plan?
> 
> I believe now is the time to bring prayer back into every fabric of our personal lives and into the worship services of our churches.
> 
> 
> 
> When we pray
> 
> In our independent world, we must refuse to declare independence from God.  Dependence on God is essential for our very survival.  Consider these thoughts on prayer and its importance in our lives:
> 
> 1.  Prayer is dependence
> 
> When we pray, we are depending on God.  When we do not pray, we are depending on ourselves.  Therefore, pray.  Talk to God daily.  Talk to God throughout the day.  Carry on a continual communion with God.
> 
> Talking to yourself may make you feel better, but only God can help you through your life.  Talking to others may provide some counsel, but Jesus will counsel you, coach you, and be your constant through your life.  The Bible calls Him the "Wonderful Counselor."
> 
> 2.  Prayer is faith.
> 
> When you pray, you are declaring absolute dependence on the Lord! Therefore, pray whenever you need to exercise any level of faith, because prayer is faith.  When you pray rightly, you are trusting in the Lord completely.
> 
> In fact, faith is built up greatly when we pray with and for others.  My ongoing daily prayer list is continually changing.  Prayer builds faith in my life.  It creates expectancy for God to move in the situation.
> 
> 3.  Prayer is action.
> 
> When you start your day with God, you are taking action upon your day.  When you pray anywhere about anything, you are taking action.
> 
> Oftentimes, we take matters in our own hands.  Our impulsiveness or impatience shows we are depending on ourselves and not upon God.  Please remember:  Prayer is not inaction; prayer is your greatest action.
> 
> Let me reiterate:  The greatest action you can take is prayer.  This does not eliminate other actions.  If a person needs a job, we do not simply pray for a job, we also take the action of trying to find a job. But prayer is a matter of priority and prominence in your life.
> 
> Now is the time to bring prayer back into our churches.
> 
> Christians want prayer back in the schools; however, we ought to first bring it back into the worship services of our churches! Most churches spend more time in their worship services promoting the ministries of the church than praying.  Jesus wants His church to be a house of prayer for all the nations!
> 
> When is the last time you experienced an entire Sunday morning worship service dedicated to prayer? Has this ever occurred? Has prayer received more than a small focus in any worship service you have attended recently?
> 
> If not, why? If we are not filling God's churches with passionate prayers that are focused with purpose, what are we filling our worship services with? Could it be that we are not seeing that our greatest need is for the power of God to intervene in our lives, our church and our nation? Could it be that we do not connect the deep need of prayer with the church's greatest mission--to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ too all the nations?
> 
> 
> 
> Four characteristics of prayer services
> 
> Some churches are committing entire worship services to the ministry of prayer.  Four characteristics build an effective prayer service:
> 
> Each prayer time needs to be based on a teaching time from God's Word.  We stand on His Word, not on our words or passions.
> 
> 2.  Principles
> 
> Each prayer time should be focused on principles like repentance, revival, surrender to the Lordship of Christ and the filling of the Spirit, spiritual awakening, and reaching the world for Christ, beginning in your own community.
> 
> 3.  Led by the Spirit
> 
> Worship and prayer moments should be led as God's Spirit leads, not necessarily according to the order of service.
> 
> 4.  Expression
> 
> Hymns and worship songs are given to us to express our worship of Jesus Christ as our Lord.  These can be powerful expressions as transition moments, moving from one prayer time to the other.
> 
> 
> 
> Just Imagine
> 
> What could happen in our church if an entire Sunday morning service was turned into a prayer service? You could experience God moving in ways unlike you have seen in a long time, perhaps ever.  People could come to Christ.  Personal repentance could result in a releasing of the Spirit upon your church, unleashing the church to greater worship and ministry.
> 
> Here is what I know:  If we do not plan to pray, we will not pray!
> 
> It is past time for us to prioritize prayer, both personally and in the church.  For far too long, we have seen what _we can do; it is time for us to see what _God can do.  This can only happen when we pray.
> 
> Acts 4:31 says, "When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak God's message with boldness."
> 
> 
> 
> EACH DAY
> 
> MAKE prayer your first choice.
> 
> REALIZE that when you pray, you are demonstrating great faith in God.
> 
> LIVE in a way that proves prayer is important to you.
> 
> MAKE prayer a priority in your church.
> 
> IN YOUR life and in your church, pray like it matters.
> 
> And there you have all four articles in this series on the subject of prayer which I hope were a blessing to you.
> 
> Before I close, I'd like to give you an invitation to join the undersigned and many others to join the Interactive Christian Community, an online group of voice chatterers and e-mailers who just love God's Word and His people.  For those of you reading these lines who are ICC members, you know all about it.  But why not some of the rest of you? I've been a member since June of 2010 and not only have I received blessings, but have also given them out.  If you'd like to join, point your browser(s) to:
> http://www.iccsite.com.
> Fill out the form and hopefully before too long, Tim Snyder, our lay administrator, will send you your own unique username and password.  When you log in for the first time, just type the appropriate information in the spaces provided and you should be good to go.  You need not enter that info each time you come into our chat rooms.  Of course, you'll need a microphone and will have to download the Talking Communities (TC) client, but hopefully that won't be that difficult.  Oh, by the way, the best thing about ICC is that membership is free, whether you wish to speak to us directly or chat via email.
> 
> And that will do it for today.  Until tomorrow when, Lord willing another daily thought message and article will be posted, may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, in these last days in which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul
> 
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