Mar 14
Love0

Why do we struggle with prayer?

By Prayer

Prayer…Is it a sweet comfort you look forward to every day–one that is a part of your daily life? Or does it conjure feelings of guilt or dread? I’ve had those feelings too! Though most would describe me now as a “prayer warrior,” I wasn’t always one. Not so many years ago I struggled to pray.

Many, if not most, Christians find prayer difficult at some level. David Powlison, in his forward to A Praying Life by Paul E. Miller, says:

It’s hard to pray. It’s hard enough for many of us to make an honest request to a friend we trust for something we truly need. But when the request gets labeled as “praying” and the friend is termed “God,” things often get very tangled up.

And even if we’re good at making requests of God, other forms of praying may feel stilted. That’s because, for many of us, prayer has become a “production,” as Powlison labels it. We think it has to last for a certain amount of time or include Christian verbiage or formulaic elements we’ve been taught. And so prayer becomes a “discipline” at best, or, for most of us, a chore in reality. Couple that with the notion most of us hold that Christians “should” pray, and we often experience some level of guilt with our non-prayer saturated lives. No wonder we don’t want to engage!

Some of the more motivated of us may attempt to change ourselves. Perhaps prayer becomes a New Year’s resolution. “I’ll do better this year,” we convince ourselves. But, like most New Year’s resolutions, we start strong but find ourselves derailed by mid-January (if we’re lucky).

Yet prayer, as we cognitively know, is just talking with a friend. It shouldn’t be difficult or onerous. So why do we struggle?

I think the answer lies in the fact that every single person who accepts Jesus’ free gift of salvation is engaged in a raging battle (whether we’re aware of it or not). When you were transferred from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of God’s beloved son (Colossians 1:13), Satan lost the battle for your soul. Now his goal in your life is to wreck as much havoc as he can, derailing you and preventing you from experiencing the joy and victory Jesus purchased for you.

Prayer is one of our primary weapons against the enemy, so Satan is going to do everything in his power to keep us from engaging in it. He effectively uses all kinds of lies and distractions to interfere in your connection with God and your victory over the darkness.

“So what do I do?” you might ask. In this case the standard Sunday school answer works!

Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ…

2 Corinthians 2:14a, NASB

Jesus is our battle commander and has given us everything we need to engage our enemy and come out victorious! Not only this, but He’s given us His Spirit to indwell us and empower us. A powerful prayer life requires only a little training, some practice, and surrender to our commander. Truly.

This year one of the pastors’ goals for our church body is to focus on prayer together. We’ll learn and grow in our skills as spiritual warriors. We’ll grow our prayer muscles and develop hearts and habits toward prayer. We’ll encourage one another and keep each other accountable.

Every month you’ll receive a prayer blog from me to encourage you and provide insight and tools toward growth. I’ll be loosely following Paul E. Miller’s book A Praying Life. It is one of the best resources I’ve found on understanding and engaging in prayer. I highly recommend you get a copy and read it for yourself! You can order it on Amazon here.

We’ll also have an increased number of opportunities for you to pray with fellow believers. This provides practice (remember I said you’ve got to develop your prayer muscles!) and accountability. It also has the added benefit of covering our church in prayer, so the enemy can’t work havoc here! Currently, these opportunities exist for corporate prayer:

  • Sunday mornings 8:30-9:15 a.m., room 204 – all church prayer
  • Tuesdays during the lunch hour (12:00-12:15 p.m.) online – all church prayer, connect here
  • 3rd Wednesday of every month 7:00-7:30 p.m., room 204 – parents of teens

God wants you walking in victory, and He wants a sweet and personal relationship with you! But this doesn’t come by trying harder. It comes by cooperating with the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in your life. The above are just tools to help you do this. The real work comes through humility and surrender. May this prayer be the beginning of that journey for you:

Lord, I want to grow in my relationship with You and in my prayer walk. I don’t want to try to change myself anymore; I just want to be real and honest with You. I know You want me to walk in victory over the schemes of the devil, so I surrender to You. Holy Spirit, do the transforming work in this area of my life.

Until next month…I’m praying for you,
Aimee Fuhrman

May 09
Love0

Written in Stone: God’s Purposes in the Law

By Blog

Like the Israelites of old, following their liberation from slavery in Egypt, we are about to embark on a long journey. A journey through the Old Testament Law – the Law of Moses – contained in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

To understand God’s law is to understand God himself, for they are a reflection of his nature, values, and character. The Bible says that these are the things to which Christians are presently being conformed! Psalm 111:2 says, “Great are the works of the LORD, they are studied by all who delight in them.” And so we are going to study them!

Also, Proverbs 25:11 speaks of “apples of gold in settings of silver.” A silver setting is meant to accentuate and showcase what is gold. Likewise, one could say that the silver of the old covenant is designed to highlight the “gold” of the new covenant. Like those two precious metals, both are glorious, but the latter is more glorious. 

Hardly a Sunday morning goes by that we don’t reference one or more of God’s laws. God is a moral Being, and his laws are what differentiate good from evil, and what is loving from that which is not loving. So whenever someone claims that, “You can’t legislate morality,” they are grossly mistaken regarding the very nature of law itself. All laws are inherently moral in nature, because they are inextricably bound to moral values. For example, why do we have speed limit laws? Because we deem human life to be valuable and worth protecting.

All of God’s laws are loving, and given for our well-being. Unfortunately, the Law of Moses often gets a bad rap when it is erroneously contrasted with God’s grace. Grace is not the antithesis of law, because both grace and law call for obedience. The contrast that the Bible speaks of, is between obedience that is from faith, versus obedience that is from works (or human, self-righteous effort). Or put more simply, we do not obey God’s laws to become righteous, but because we already are righteous.

Many people today are asking, “What is the role of God’s law in the life of the believer, and what is its role in society and in human government?” To answer those questions, we are going to take 24 weeks to examine both the history and substance of the old covenant, and then follow it up with a series on the new covenant as explained in the book of Galatians. 

It’s going to be intensely practical, getting to the very heart of our struggles, identity, security, and freedom as Christians. And we’re going to get to know our God – the God of the Bible – better.

Romans 15:4 says, “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” Pray that God will use this series to produce in us: endurance, encouragement, and hope!