The Power of Prayer

Yesterday we started our first message in a six part series on prayer.  I think prayer makes all the difference.  All too often, though, we neglect this great privilege and then wonder why we celebrate only a mediocre faith experience.  

Prayer, as we learned yesterday is far to valuable to neglect.  I can honestly say, as your pastor, that I am totally committed to this subject.  I am totally committed to see that we come out of the mediocracy of our existence and enter into the joy of a true relationship with God, but i truly believe this will only happen "if" we "humble ourselves and pray and seek his face and turn from our wicked ways."  

I know, that sounds harsh.  You might be saying to yourself, "I am humble and I do pray and I have no wicked ways.  That verse is not for me, it is for the other people who don't live a good Christian life like I do."   If that's what your thinking then I challenge you to get a dictionary and look up the word "humble."  

The longer I serve in the ministry, the more I realize that God loves to work in the lives of the humble. . . those who are broken. . . those who have "gotten over themselves."  It is through weakness that we find strength.  It is in humility that we find God.  

The first step in a powerful move of God is a sweeping wave of humility that engulfs a community of believers.  People desperately seeking God by abandoning their own self interests.  People recognizing how they, individually, have been functioning as stumbling blocks in the path of God's blessing, and truly repenting of those attitudes and behaviors.  

We must all, "humble ourselves and pray, and seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways."  No one of us is exempt from this exercise.  We must all get alone with God and ask Him the question, "how have I, personally, been blocking the blessings of God in my life, the life of my family, and the life of my church."  Then, in the quietness of the moment listen to His voice.  Unless your name is Jesus, He will convict you of your sinfulness.  

God, I pray your wave of humility will strike our church in full force.  I pray that It will overcome me personally and change my life forever.  I pray that we as a people will seek your face in all that we do and find the unity that can only be found in the spirit of prayerfulness.  

God, we only have one chance at this life, and one chance at building this church.  Help us to do it in you will.  May your desires become our desires so that when we pray we are seeking your desires.  May we live in such a way that we experience the power that you modeled before us in the person of your Son Jesus Christ.  He, himself taught us that the mighty works that were manifest in His life were a result of His communion with You.  That same power that is manifest in His life resides with us in the person of Your Holy Spirit.  

Help us, Father, to have the kind of faith that moves mountains - the kind of faith that causes the lame to walk, the blind to see, the deaf to hear and the dead to live again!  Cause us to seek the kind of faith that is available to us through prayer, praying in Your will, and in the life of your Son.  

God, grant us power in the Name of Jesus, power to accomplish your will and way.  Help us, Father, to recognize our weakness in the light of your greatness, and surrender our lives to you wholly and completely.  

Cause us to pray.  Help us to recognize the value you placed on our prayers when you made them possible by the blood of your Son.  You paid a great price for our great privilege.  May we ever be mindful, and as a result, ever prayerful.

Amen

Church, I hope you have taken this challenge to pray seriously.  I hope this message series will do more to develop you individually and corporately than any other experience in your Christian life.  Please join me in faithfully praying for a powerful moving of God to sweep across our church  in the form of a huge wave of humility, washing away all desires that are not abiding in Him so He can abide in us.

Your prayer partner,

PK