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Donald Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines: Chapter 4 Prayer

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    Spiritual

    Disciplines for

    the Christian

    Life

    Donald S. Whitney

    Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    PRAYER...

    FOR THE PURPOSE OFGODLINESSChapter 4

    Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    A survey of 17,000 evangelical

    Christians found that on average

    they prayed for less than 5

    minutes each day

    A survey of 2,000 pastors and

    their wives found they prayed forless than 7 minutes per day.

    Whitney says that prayer is

    second in importance only to

    Gods word.

    Carl Lundqvist said this about

    prayer and the wog...

    Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    The New Testament church built two other disciplines upon

    prayer and Bible study, the Lords Supper and small cell

    groups. John Wesley emphasized five works of piety byadding fasting. The medieval mystics wrote about nine

    disciplines clustered around three experiences: purgation of

    sin, enlightenment of the spirit and union with God. Later the

    Keswick Convention approach to practical holiness revolved

    around five different religious exercises. Today Richard

    Fosters book, Celebration of Discipline, lists twelve disciplines

    all of them relevant to the contemporary Christian. Butwhatever varying religious exercises we may practice, without

    the two basic ones of Emmaus prayer and Bible reading

    the others are empty and powerless.

    Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    PRAYER IS EXPECTEDJesus expects us to pray

    Matt 6:6-9 But when you pray

    , gointo your room, close the door and pray

    to your Father,who is unseen. Then your

    Father, who sees what is done in

    secret, will reward you. 7And when youpray

    , do not keep on babbling like

    pagans, for they think they will be

    heard because of their many words...9This, then, is how you shouldpray:Our Father in heaven,

    hallowed be your name,

    Lk 11:9, 18:1

    Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    GODS WORD MAKES IT CLEAR

    Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    GODS WORD MAKES IT CLEAR

    Col 4:2Devote yourselvesto prayer, being watchfuland thankful.

    Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    GODS WORD MAKES IT CLEAR

    Col 4:2Devote yourselves

    to prayer, being watchful

    and thankful.

    1 Thess 5:17praycontinually,

    Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    GODS WORD MAKES IT CLEAR

    Col 4:2Devote yourselves

    to prayer, being watchful

    and thankful.

    1 Thess 5:17praycontinually,

    Did you notice anythingabout these two verses?

    Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    GODS WORD MAKES IT CLEAR

    Col 4:2Devote yourselves

    to prayer, being watchful

    and thankful.

    1 Thess 5:17praycontinually,

    Did you notice anythingabout these two verses?

    They are commandsTuesday 8 May 2012

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    GODS WORD MAKES IT CLEARCol 4:2Devote yourselves to prayer,being watchful and thankful.How devoted are you to prayer -

    compare this devotion to your

    devotion to other things in your life.

    1 Thess 5:17pray continually,This emphasises that prayer is

    relational - it comes out of an

    unbroken relationship with the Father.Whitney suggests it is like having two

    phone lines - God is always on one of

    them and you are aware of him even

    when speaking on the other.Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    Martin Luther,

    As it is the

    business of tailors

    to make clothes

    and cobblers tomend shoes, so it

    is the business ofChristians to

    pray.

    Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    What excuses do you use for not

    praying? Most people claim other

    demands, priorities etc. - yet if

    you asked them they would gladly

    tell you how important it is to

    pray!The call to prayer is also an

    invitation - Heb 4:16Let usthen approach Gods throne of

    grace with confidence, so that we

    may receive mercy and find grace to

    help us in our time of need.

    Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    Note here that there is no need

    to be pessimistic about praying -

    God is happy to hear and give

    grace - prayer is not an obligation

    but an opportunity to respondand receive

    Gods command is a command of

    love - he wants to hear from us,

    to communicate with us and to

    bless us.

    Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    Prayer is important in spiritual

    warfare: John Piper suggests we can

    see prayer as the use of a walkie-talkiein warfare, not for our own

    convenience or ease of life.

    The example of Jesus in prayer is

    important - he prayed and so should

    we, he needed it, so do we - Lk

    5:16But Jesus often withdrew to lonelyplaces and prayed.Major reasons for prayerlessness:

    - a lack of discipline - prayer time is

    not planned or prioritised

    Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    - the problem of often not seeing the

    result of prayer - after all it is primarily

    a spiritual activity

    - sometimes we do not feel Gods

    nearness when we pray, it is easy to

    pray when we feel Gods closeness- when we dont see the need to pray,

    Jn 15:5apart from me you can do

    nothing- yet we are proud and self

    sufficient

    - when we do not see Gods greatness,

    when we lose focus on the cross

    Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    PRAYER IS LEARNED

    We start the Christian lives in need

    of learning to pray - and continue

    to grow and learn about prayer

    throughout our Christian lives.On one level we know instinctively

    how to pray - much as a baby

    knows how to talk from its

    earliest days - yet still we need to

    see, as the disciples did, that we

    need Jesus to teach us to pray - Lk

    11:1 - how do we do this?Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    By praying

    Just as we learn a foreign

    language by using it - we

    might read about it, know

    how to pronounce words,

    build sentences etc. - butultimately we have to speak

    out the language - HSp

    helps us in this,Jn

    16:13But when he, theSpirit of truth, comes, he will

    guide you into all the truth.

    Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    By meditating on scripture

    Meditation is the missing link

    between Bible intake and prayer.

    Reading the Bible should lead us

    into prayer, should help us to

    pray. After reading the Bible

    meditation allows us to take itdeeper into ourselves, to digest it

    - then we can take it back and talk

    to the Lord about it in a

    meaningful way. What we read has

    now become more meaningful and

    purposeful in our lives.

    Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    John Owen:Pray as you think.

    Consciously embrace with your

    heart every gleam of light and

    truth that comes to your mind.

    Thank God for and pray about

    everything that strikes you

    powerfullyMatthew remarked on Psalm 19:14

    Davids prayers were not his

    words only, but his meditations; as

    meditation is the best preparation

    for prayer, so prayer is the best

    result of meditation. Meditation

    and prayer go together.Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    Thomas Manton, Puritan pastor said

    Gods Word feeds meditation and

    meditation feeds prayer. These dutiesgo hand in hand; meditation must

    follow hearing and precede prayer.

    To hear and not to pray is unfruitful.

    It is rashness to pray and not

    meditate. What we take in by the

    Word we digest by meditation and let

    out by prayer. Men are barren, dryand sapless in their their prayers for

    want of exercising themselves in holy

    thoughts.

    Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    William Bates, Puritan pastor indicated

    What is the reason that our desires

    like an arrow shot from a weak bowdo not reach the mark? But only this,

    we do not meditate before we pray.

    Our prayers are ineffectual if we

    dont meditate before we pray.

    Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    Speaking of the puritans Peter Toon wrote,

    To read the Bible and not to meditate was

    seen as an unfruitful exercise: better to read

    one chapter and meditate afterward then to

    read several chapters and not to meditate.

    Likewise to meditate and not to pray was likepreparing to run a race and never leaving the

    starting line. The three duties of reading

    Scripture, meditation, and prayer belonged

    together, and though each could be done

    occasionally on its own, as formal duties to

    God they were best done together.

    Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    Whitney finishes this section with some insight fromGeorge Muller,

    It has pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, the benefit ofwhich I have not lost, for more than fourteen years. The point is

    this: I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and

    primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to

    have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned

    about was not how much I might serve the Lord, or how I might

    glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state,

    and how my inner man might be nourished...Before this timemy practice had been, at least for ten years previously, as an

    habitual thing, to give myself to prayer, after having dressed

    myself in the morning...

    Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    Now, I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to

    give myself to the reading of the Word of God, and to meditation

    on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged,

    warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, by means of the

    Word of God, while meditating on it, my heart might be brought

    into experiential communion with the Lord...I began therefore to

    meditate on the New Testament from the beginning, early in themorning. The first thing I did, after having asked in a few words

    the Lords blessing upon his precious Word, was, to begin to

    meditate on the Word of God, searching as it were into every

    verse, to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of the publicministry of the Word, not for the sake of preaching on what I

    had meditated upon, but for the sake of obtaining food for my

    own soul.Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    The result I have found to be almost

    invariably this, that after a very few

    minutes my soul has been led to

    confession, or to thanksgiving, or tointercession, or to supplication; so

    that, though I did not, as it were,

    give myself to prayer, but tomeditation, yet it turned almost

    immediately more or less into

    prayer.

    The full story is wellworth reading: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?

    q=cache:lHJJhsc8TlEJ:www.connsbrook.org.uk/

    George%2520Muller%2520and%2520Bible

    %2520Reading.doc+&hl=en&gl=uk

    Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    By praying with others

    One of the great learning experiences for

    the disciples must have been being with

    him and hearing Jesus pray.

    Find good models in prayer and learn

    from them.

    Do not repeat their habits but learn fromtheir insight, passion, use of scripture etc.

    Do not repeat their words - or repeat

    the same words over and over Matt

    6:7

    Make it a habit to pray with other people

    - many great movements have started in

    this wayTuesday 8 May 2012

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    By reading about

    prayer

    Remember Proverbs27:17 & 13:20

    Take time to read of the

    great prayer warriors -

    learn from their struggles as

    well as their successes.

    Almost every great man or

    woman who achieved thingsfor God were people who

    prayed and prayed and

    prayed.

    Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    By reading about

    prayer

    Remember Proverbs27:17 & 13:20

    Take time to read of the

    great prayer warriors -

    learn from their struggles as

    well as their successes.

    Almost every great man or

    woman who achieved thingsfor God were people who

    prayed and prayed and

    prayed.

    As iron sharpens

    iron, so oneperson sharpens

    another.

    Walk with the

    wise and become

    wise, for acompanion of

    fools suffers harm.

    Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    By reading about

    prayer

    Remember Proverbs27:17 & 13:20

    Take time to read of the

    great prayer warriors -

    learn from their struggles as

    well as their successes.

    Almost every great man or

    woman who achieved thingsfor God were people who

    prayed and prayed and

    prayed.

    Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    PRAYER IS ANSWERED

    Psalm 65:2 You who answer

    prayer, to you all people will come.

    Whitney says all prayer is

    answered, Matt 7:7-8 Askand it will be given to you; seek

    and you will find; knock and the

    door will be opened to you.Foreveryone who asks receives; theone who seeks finds; and to the

    one who knocks, the door will be

    opened.Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    Andrew Murray comments on Christs

    pledge. Ask and you shall receive,

    everyone that asks receives.

    Therefore, if you ask and receive not it

    must be because there is something

    wanting in our prayers. Maybe God

    answered in a way that is not obviousto us. Maybe we are asking for things

    that are outside the will of God or will

    not glorify Him. Maybe we are praying

    with selfish motives. Maybe we are

    failing to deal with blatant sin in our

    life. God does not mock us with His

    promises to answer prayer.Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    C.H. Spurgeon said I cant

    imagine anyone of youtantalizing your child by exciting

    in him a desire that you did not

    intend to gratify. When God

    leads you to pray, He means for

    you to receive.

    We need to discipline

    ourselves to pray and prayaright so we can experience

    the joy of answered prayer.

    Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    MORE APPLICATION

    Since prayer is expected willyou pray?You need to develop a

    specific plan about your prayer life.

    At what time of the day will you

    faithfully go before the Father? Howlong will you pray each day? Will

    you read the Bible? Will you read

    books about prayer written bygodly men so you can learn how to

    pray aright? Where will you pray?

    You need a special place. Will you

    take action today?Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    John Piper says, Unless Im badly mistaken, one of the main

    reasons so many of Gods children dont have a significant life of

    prayer is not so much that we dont want to, but that we dontplan to. If you want to take a four-week vacation, you dont just

    get up one summer morning and say, Hey, lets go today! You

    wont have anything ready. You wont know where to go. Nothing

    has been planned.

    But that is how many of us treat prayer. We get up day after

    day and realize that significant times of prayer should be a part

    of our life, but nothings ever ready. We dont know where to go.Nothing has been planned. No time. No place. No procedure.

    And we all know that the opposite of planning is not a

    wonderful flow of deep, spontaneous experiences in prayer.

    Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    The opposite of planning is the rut. If you dont plan a

    vacation, you will probably stay home and watch TV. The natural,

    unplanned flow of spiritual life sinks to the lowest ebb of vitality.

    There is a race to be run and a fight to be fought. If you want

    renewal in your life of prayer, you must plan to see it.

    Therefore, my simple exhortation is this: Let us take time thisvery day to rethink our priorities and how prayer fits in. Make

    some new resolve. Try some new venture with God. Set a time.

    Set a place. Choose a portion of Scripture to guide you. Dont be

    tyrannized by the press of busy days. We all need midcoursecorrections. Make this a day of turning to prayerfor the glory

    of God and for the fullness of your joy.

    Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    Since prayer is learned, will

    you learn to pray? Will you learnabout how others have prayed? Will

    you meet others to pray? Will you

    learn to pray by linking Bible readingto prayer via meditation? When will

    you start? Start where you are. If you

    are not praying, start. If you are not

    meditating, start. If you are not

    reading your Bible, start.

    Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    Since prayer is answered will

    you persistently pray? Matt 7:7-8 is

    in the present, continuous tense. That

    means we must pray persistently before

    answers come. If we fail to persist it may

    mean that at the heart of our prayer

    lacks seriousness about our request.God may want us to persist in order to

    strengthen our faith in Him. George

    Mueller observed, The great fault of the

    children of God is, they do not continue in

    prayer, they do not persevere. If they desire

    anything for Gods glory, they should pray

    until they get it.Tuesday 8 May 2012

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    Spuregon said, Even as the moon

    influences the tides of the sea, even

    so does prayer influence the tides ofgodliness.

    JC Ryle, "What is the reason that

    some believers are so much brighter

    and holier than others? I believe the

    difference, in nineteen cases out of

    twenty, arises from different habits

    about private prayer. I believe thatthose who are not eminently holy

    pray little, and those who are

    eminently holy pray much."


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