Prayer: Session #3

Prayer: Successful

We must make sure that we do not decide that we shall succeed. If we decide to succeed then we may succeed without succeeding in God's way. But if we go on from day to day seeking to do his will, then we shall be prepared to receive success from him if he wills it; and if he does not, then humbly say --It is God's decision that David shall not build the temple, but he will raise up Solomon. W.A. Visser't Hooft as quoted in That They May Have Life by Daniel T. Niles

Too often prayer has no such importance in our lives that everything else fades away to give it room. Prayer is additional to a great many things; we wish God to be present, not because there is no life without him, not because he is the supreme value, but because it would be so nice, in addition to all the great benefits of God, to have also his presence. He is additional to our needs, and when we seek him in that spirit we do not meet him. Yet notwithstanding all that has just been said, prayer, dangerous as it appears, is the best way to go ahead towards the fulfillment of our calling, to become fully human, which means in full communion with God and, ultimately, what Peter calls partakers of the divine nature. From The Approach to Preaching by W.E. Sangster

Scripture Study
Jonah 2:1-10
Habakkuk 3:17-19
Matthew 26:36-39, 42, 44
Acts 4: 24-30

These troubles and distresses that you go through in these Waters are no sign that God hath forsaken you, but are sent to try you, whether you will call to mind that whi9ch heretofore you have received of his goodness, and live upon him in your distresses. Then I saw in my Dream that Christian was as in a muse a while. To whom also Hopeful added this word, Be of good cheer, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole; and with that Christian brake out with a loud voice, Oh, I see him again, and he tells me, When thou passest through the Waters, I will be with thee; and through the Rivers, they shall not overflow thee. Then they both took courage, and the Enemy was after that as still as a stone, until they were gone over. Christian, therefore, presently found ground to stand upon, and so it followed that the rest of the River was but shall0w. Thus they got over. From The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan

"Write thy blessed name, O Lord, upon my heart, there to remain so indelibly engraven, that no prosperity, no adversity shall ever move me from thy love. Be thou to me a strong tower of defence, a comforter in tribulation, a deliverer in distress, a very present help in trouble, and a guide to heaven through the many temptations and dangers of this life. Amen" Thomas a Kempis

Prayer: Session #2

Prayer: Our Native Tongue? Our First Language?

"Beginners at prayer --children, new converts -- find it easy. The capacity and impulse to pray both are embedded deep within us. We are made, after all, by God, for God. why wouldn't we pray? It is our native tongue, our first language. We find ourselves in terrible trouble and cry out for help to God. We discover ourselves immensely blessed and cry out our thanks to God. But prayer doesn't stay simple. We spend years slogging through a wilderness of testing and begin to question the childlike simplicities with which we started out. We find ourselves immersed in a cynical generation that corrodes our early innocence with scorn and doubt. Along the way we pick up notions of prayer magic and begin working on slight of hand rituals and verbal incantations that will make life easier. It isn't long before those early simplicities are all tangled up in knots of questions, doubt and superstitions. It happens to all of us. Everyone who prays ends up in some difficulty or other. We need help." Eugene Peterson in Forward of The Soul of Prayer

"The worst sin is prayerlessness." P T Forsyth, The Soul of Prayer


"Prayer is irksome. An excuse to omit it is never unwelcome. When it is over, this casts a feeling of relief and holiday over the rest of the day. We are reluctant to begin. We are delighted to finish. While we are at prayer, but not while we are reading a novel or solving a cross-word puzzle, any trifle is enough to distract us. And we know we are not alone in this. Now the disquieting thing is not simply that we skimp and begrudge the duty of prayer. The really disquieting thing is it should have to be numbered among duties at all. For we believe that we were created "to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." And if the few, the very few, minutes we now spend in conversation with God are a burden to us rather than a delight, what then?" C S Lewis, Letters to Malcolm

Scripture Study
Isaiah 30:19; 55:6; 58:9; 65:24
Matthew 6:6,7; 7:7; 18:19; 21:22
Ephesians 3:14-21
Colossians 1:9-14

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and sustain in me a willing spirit. Psalm 51:10-12