PRAYERLESSNESS - TEACH US

Prayerlessness. Now that’s a mouthful. Almost sounds like a made-up word. But it’s not, it is a real word.

Prayerlessness is the fact of not having, not doing, or not being, because of not Praying.

You know about prayer, you believe in prayer, but you just don’t pray and its affecting what you have, what you do, and who you are.

Who knew that not praying could have such an effect? I sure didn’t!

But I do believe that Jesus’ disciples might have understood something. Look at what they asked him.

“Lord, teach us to pray” Luke 11:1

Interesting to note, they didn’t ask him to teach us How to Pray but rather teach us To Pray. There is a difference!

Being taught the need to pray is different that being taught how to pray. We need both teachings.

Today we will explore why we need to pray. Teach Us!

Lord, teach me To Pray & Teach me to praying about everything.

There are those who don’t believe in prayer. Some have never prayed. Some have only prayed when they got in a tight spot. Others prayed, got disappointed and then stopped. Some occasionally pray.

There are many reasons why we don’t pray. But guess what, none of those reasons matter to God.

Perhaps you’ve been bruised and broken and think you can’t pray. Maybe things are so good right now that you feel you really don’t need to pray. Still, that doesn’t matter to God.

Do you know why? Allow me to tell you.

Its because God longs for our presence above all else.

Just like when you are in love with someone, all you want to do is just be around them. You don’t care if they’re sick, tired, grouchy, smelly, fussy, unkempt, broke, whatever it is, you just want to be with them.

That’s exactly how God feels about each of us.  

Many people think that God is looking for that perfect “stained glass” image of prayer. He’s not.

They think I’ve got to have everything all together before talking to God. That’s just not the case. God says come as you are.

I recently read this quote. “Pray as you can, not as you can’t”.  Dom John Chapman

That is so very powerful and true.

I can’t pray the perfect prayer, but I can pray My prayer.

God is waiting for us with open arms. He’s waiting with an open heart.

He knows we are in a world of noise and distractions. Everything and everyone vying for our attention. So, he just waits. Waits until we realize that we need him.

He’s there waiting to welcome us back home. Home with him where we belong.

Home to peace and quietness. Home to where we can relax and collect our thoughts. He invites us into the family room of heaven just to relax, take off our shoes and make ourselves at home. Or we can sit around the kitchen table and drink tea or coffee while we chat aimlessly about our day. Whatever our day is about God wants to hear it. All of it!

That’s what prayer is, a comfortable casual conversation.

Not the grandiose spectacle of ritualism where we speak Shakespearean.

All haileth the great cloud walker, thoueth whom sitteth uponeth the rainboweth and doeseth knoweth alleth.

Pleaseth Stopeth the Foolishnesseth!

Prayer is not a theatrical production.

Prayer is supposed to be simple and easy.

Its like a conversation had with your confidant. All your secrets are safe with God. Tell him what you will. Fuss! Cuss! Cry! Yell! Be honest.

I get it, we are all busy. But our busyness seldom keeps up from eating, sleeping, or other things we desire to do. So, let’s just add prayer to that list of things we will do regardless of our busyness.

When we’re hurting, we should pray. When we’re confused, we should pray. When we’re happy, we should pray. When don’t know what to do, we should pray. When we don’t want to pray, we should pray.

Prayer is just about making touch points all throughout the day with God.

Whatever you feel, instead of talking to yourself or someone else, talk to God.

Lord, I’m tired. Lord I’m hungry. Lord what she said made me mad.

You can share your whole heart with God, even when you’re wrong.

“Don’t worry about anything but pray about everything” Philipp. 4:6

Prayerlessness is like being lost.

We use GPS for travel, God is our GPS for life.

We use google for information, but God says he’ll tell us all we want to know.

Lord teach us to be more intentional in coming to you in prayer.

This is a Thompson Truth