Title: Watch and pray (Matthew 26:40-43)
Contents
Martin Luther King said, "To be a true Christian without prayer is as impossible as living without breathing." The average person can only hold their breath for 2-3 minutes, and if you don't breathe for 4-5 minutes, your brain will be damaged and eventually you will die. According to the Guinness Book of Records, there are people who do not breathe for up to 18 minutes, but it is only for a brief moment that a dead person can endure without breathing. A person is only as long as he breathes. A saint becomes a saintly saint, a church becomes a church Christianity becomes a Christian depends on prayer. For the saints and for the church, the revival of prayer is more urgent than any program or technique. It depends on the revival of prayer. The root cause of our unspiritual life is that we do not have the constant and sure secret of prayer. The times when we do not want to pray are the times when we need prayer the most. When we do not want to pray, when we do not want to go to church, that is the time we need to pray the most and it is the time to visit the temple of the Lord.
It is the work created by performance artists that reveals contemporary thought well. Tough, T.V, or anything like this, that and that, I took everything and pasted it, and put only the name on the work I made without knowing what it was. Everyone! The same goes for faith. Modern people's beliefs are becoming like this. The life of faith is not a life of faith, but the one thing that is truly necessary is prayer.
Dear saints, the people God is looking for are people of prayer. God's instrument is man. The church is dedicated to pursuing a better way, but God is looking for better people. What the church needs today is not more facilities or better structures. It's not a new organization, or a new, better, nobler way. Rather, they are people of prayer that the Holy Spirit can use. That is, they are warriors of prayer who have experienced the power of prayer. The Holy Spirit comes on people, not on any facility or method, and it is not about grand plans, but about anointing people of prayer.
Are we really people of prayer?
For a person of faith, the most terrible failure is the failure of prayer. The most terrible fall for a person of faith is the fall of prayer. For a believer, the most clumsy faith is a faith without a prayer life. Remember. Prayer will bring miracles into our lives. Only prayer will increase our spiritual strength and make us passionate people of spirituality. So, those who pray are beautiful.
When the Lord was going to do anything, he always prayed first. Even before starting his public ministry, he fasted and prayed for 40 days. Even when he was choosing his disciples, he went up to the mountain and prayed all night long. And even before he was crucified, he went up to the Garden of Gethsemane and prayed.
1. Pray regularly
If we want to progress in the fields of piano, baseball, basketball, golf, fitness, drawing, writing, etc., we must practice regularly.
It is important to have a regular prayer time because prayer life cannot become a habit unless you practice it regularly.
If we want to live in God's presence, we must close our eyes to the world and focus on God at least once a day, every day.
The prayers of those who do not have a regular prayer life are only superficial.
To be a man of prayer useful to the Lord, we must not only pray silently, but we must also set aside a time to pray deeply.
Daniel had a holy habit of praying to God regularly. It was not a formality, but that he had a holy habit of doing all his heart and all his life. The Bible says that he risked his life. “Even though I know that this decree has a fish seal” (verse 10), this is a habit that risked my life. He is risking his life, knowing that his life is in danger. Even though he knew that if he did that, he would be thrown into the lions' den, he could not give up the holy habit he had had with God until now.
In Luke 22:39, Jesus also went to Gethsemane "according to custom" and prayed.
We want our prayer life, like Daniel and like Jesus, to become a holy habit and be lasting.
If we want to pray consistently, the important thing is to set up a special place and special time for our encounter with the Lord like Daniel did.
Create a closet for prayer. Make time for prayer. As we long for fellowship with the Lord and pray, the Lord will come into our lives. The Lord wants to walk with us more earnestly than we do. Prayer is the key to the secret.
2. For regular prayer, we recommend going to the temple first and early in the morning (dawn).
It is best to pray in the temple, which the Lord called the house of prayer for all people. There are many buildings and institutions on this land. But among them, only the church is the house of God, the holy temple. The church is the only spiritual institution on this earth that has received the key to heaven. God has given the church the key to heaven. The Lord has promised that every year in the Church, what is bound in heaven and loosed on earth will be loosed in heaven. The temple is already a holy place that many people of faith have cleaned through prayer. Therefore, it is better to pray in the temple of the Lord, where the Lord said my house is the house of prayer for all people, rather than praying in any other place.
And there will be many hours, but God helps us in the morning, and in the morning we hear the kind words of the Lord. Let's read Psalm 143:8 together. "Let me hear Your kind words in the morning, for I trust in You. Make known the way I go, for in You I trust my soul." Therefore, we must offer the new morning to the Lord first.
It is natural to sharpen an ax when cutting wood. Great performers never start a concert first. Play after tuning the notes of the instrument. Starting the day with God's Word and prayer is what helps reduce mistakes and makes the day a victorious one. Above all else, it is wise to set aside time to arrange one day with the Lord. A day without prayer is a day without blessings, and a life without prayer is a life without power.
Let us meditate on what the Lord is saying to us and come before Him quietly. When we are always with the Lord, our harmony will shine even more at our concerts. You will enjoy the abundant life of a Christian.
3. The Most Powerful
Prayer is more powerful than habit, heredity, or innate temperament. Prayer can overcome all of this. It is stronger than the force that holds the planets in place.
Even a prayer that comes from the heart of a child of God who is weak and feeble like a child, if it meets God's will, just as Joshua's prayer stopped the sun, it can also stop the laws of the universe.
There is no power in this world that the enemy of our souls hates and fears more than prayer. Satan trembles when he sees even the weakest saint kneel. The evil devil and Satan are most afraid of the prayers of saints. British Prime Minister Churchill said, "One man who prays is better than a million soldiers."
In the face of suffering, we must listen to the voice of the flesh and do not despair, but pray to know what the will of God who saved us is. God will reveal the will, and He will give you the power to undertake it.
The author of William Carey's biography made a surprising discovery while researching how William Carey was able to continue this ministry with enthusiasm. William Carey had a weak older sister. When my sister left India, she said: "William, I can't do anything for you. I'm so weak that I can't help but lie in bed. All I can do is pray." The biographer focused on 'a woman who can only pray, this woman who can do nothing but prayer, a woman who cannot discover her existence except through prayer' behind William Carey's great ministry. The biographer did not miss the amazing ability of William Carey to accomplish ministry in his sister's prayer. William Carey's older sister did not know the reason for her existence. However, he understood why he had to lie down for the rest of his life in weakness before God's will.
Our prayers of faith never fall to the ground. It does not disappear in vain until it must be achieved and accomplished. Behind every great work and great man is an invisible praying man. If you sow seeds with prayer, there will always be a harvest. If you pray, you will be transformed. The environment changes. You are given abilities. It gives you problem-solving skills. Prayer brings thanks and praise. let's pray