SMALL PRAYERS

I have written a great deal in the past about praying great prayers. And I still believe they are terribly important. I have said, “I have cancer. I don’t want to spend my time praying for a better parking place at the Old Country Buffet.”

However, it is important to pray for small things as well. Jesus told us to pray for “our daily bread.”

One of the crucial things about praying for small things is that they are daily. I need to pray for my daily attitudes, my daily habits, my daily devotions. If I do not pray for these I will find I have little power to pray for great things that we face in life. The prophet warned us not to despise the day of small things. They are often the foundations of the mighty works of God.

Praying for small things lays the foundation for my relationship with God. I once heard a man say, “Some of the best praying I have ever done was when I was lying on my back wrestling with a stubborn nut underneath a car I was working on.” As we take our small struggles to God we become instant in prayer. We learn to begin praying as an instant response to life.

http://daveswatch.com

SLOW DOWN

Have you ever felt you needed to slow your life down enough to pray? I have. I seem to be naturally in a hurry. Prayer calls me to slow down and rest, focus and commune with God. I have even felt the need to slow my prayers themselves down. Two weeks ago I made that as a commitment. So each day as I prayed through prayer lists and took needs to God, I told myself over and over again “Slow down.”

I tried to slow down to narrow my focus on people; to slow down and watch; to slow down and listen; to slow down and remember; to slow down and think; to slow down and give thanks, even or especially when I am not focused on anything I deem thankworthy.

 

The primary thing I learned in the experience was that I need God to help me slow down. I cannot do it on my own. Like every other facet of prayer. I need God’s help. It is worth asking God to help us slow our prayers down to connect with God rather than the hurried world.

 

 

http://daveswatch.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

POOR IN SPIRIT

Our pastor is preaching through the Sermon on the Mount on Sunday mornings. A few weeks ago he preached on the first Beatitude, “Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.” He pointed out that the word translated “poor” here means to be destitute. It can be used for a beggar who is absolutely dependent upon help from others. Poverty of Spirit is the heart of prayer.

We come to God because our help, our strength, our hope of salvation, our very lives depend upon Him.

Spiritual poverty is the starting place for prayer. “God be merciful to me a sinner.”

Faith springs from spiritual poverty. “I come to You, Father because I know I cannot solve this problem. I cannot even understand the problems I face.”

The extent of my spiritual poverty is shown by the fact that I do not even know how to pray as I ought. I even depend on God’s Spirit to help me pray.

"Thank You, Lord, that You died for my spiritual poverty. Thank You, Father, for meeting my poverty with Your everlasting wealth."

 

 

 

http://daveswatch.com/

WHO ARE YOU PRAYING FOR?

Throughout history God has brought about great movements that shook the earth with His Spirit by raising up a man whom He chose to use. God raised up Martin Luther, John Wesley, Evan Roberts, D.L. Moody and the like to bring about great revivals.

Are you familiar with the prayer meeting held on the Graham farm where young Billy Graham who had not yet accepted Christ as his Savior was in the barn pitching hay? Eighty years ago men gathered on the Graham property to pray for spiritual awakening. Praying together in May of 1934 one of the men suggested a bold prayer. They prayed for God to raise up a young man who would be used to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.

http://billygraham.org/story/praying-for-revival-80-years-ago/?SOURCE=BY146ANL1&utm_source=BGEA+Today+email&utm_medium=bgemail&utm_campaign=bgemailnewsletter&utm_content=6.3.14+email+1

Can we pray again for God to raise up such a person who would turn the hearts of America to Him? Can we pray for God to raise up another Moses or Elijah, an Ezekiel or a Daniel for our day? We could pray like the men prayed eighty years ago on the Graham farm. God heard them. We could pray for God to raise such a person up in China, South America or Africa that would preach to the entire world. You could also be praying for young people you know who already sense God’s call on their lives. For some time I have been encouraging people to pray seminary students at the Pacific Northwest Campus of Golden Gate Seminary. Can you pray for a seminary campus near you? Are there such young people in your church or otherwise in your acquaintance? God has brought them to you to pray for them. What great thing might God bring about in our day if we ask Him?

http://daveswatch.com/