When You Pray

Adapted from a Steve Shepherd sermonhttp://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/when-you-pray-

steve-shepherd-sermon-on-prayer-how-to-84129

Two men met up on the street.One asked the other: "How are you?"

The other one replied: "I’m fine, thanks.""And how’s your son? Is he still

unemployed?""Yes, he is. But he is meditating now."

"Meditating? What’s that?""I don’t know. But it’s better than sitting

around and doing nothing!"

What did the Yogi say when he walked into the Pizza Parlor?

“Make me one with everything.”When the Yogi got the pizza, he gave the

proprietor a $20 bill.The proprietor pocketed the bill.

The Yogi said, “Don’t I get change?”The proprietor said, “Change must come

from within.”

I don’t mind joking about Transcendental Meditation, Yoga, etc. Because I think

they’re a joke!There are many people involved in

meditation, TM, Yoga, etc.But this meditation is not prayer!

One is thinking and one is talking, communicating.

This TM kind of meditation is nothing but some kind of self-hypnosis.It focuses on self, not God.

Transcendental Meditation, How I Paid $2,500 For a Password to Inner Peace:

My boyfriend had come of age in the late ‘60’s & early ‘70’s & would twice daily

practice TM. He said, “Look, I took a course 30 years ago, and I liked the technique, so I

stuck with it.” So, I signed up for a free introductory class on TM. Then the kicker:

the price for the beginner course was $2,500.

Wasn’t Inner Peace worth it?At the “graduation” ceremony I received a mantra, which, I will now tell you, is idiotic. “aima,” That’s my mantra. Two syllables. Vaguely pleasant sounding. If I repeat it

consistently for several minutes, I begin to feel a little spacey. The same thing

happens, I have found, when I repeat the word “Tallahassee.”

She then found out her boyfriend no longer used his mantra so technically, He wasn’t even doing TM; he was simply relaxing for

an hour a day.To achieve a similar result,

some people take a nap.Others go for a walk.

Lynn Stuart Parramorehttp://www.alternet.org/economy/

transcendental-meditation-how-i-paid-2500-password-inner-peace

Meditation in itself is not bad.It all depends on the object of meditation. If

we meditate about God and Christ, that’s great! Even then meditation must be

centered or based on the Word of God, because this is where we learn about God.

But if we just sit and meditate about ourselves, we can become self-centered.

Our world is already self-obsessed enough without adding any more to it.

Psalms 1:2 ESV but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates

day and night.Psalms 77:12 ESV I will ponder all your

work, and meditate on your mighty deeds.Psalms 119:15 ESV I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.

Psalms 119:99 ESV I have more understanding than all my teachers, for

your testimonies are my meditation.

Luke 11:1 ESV Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to

pray, as John taught his disciples."Jesus never taught His disciples to

meditate or chant.He taught them to pray!

And learning to pray is one of our great needs!

One preacher wrote, “I don’t understand prayer, but I believe it works.

There are a lot of other things that I don’t understand.

I don’t understand how I can push a button in my car and my garage door opens before

I even get there.But I use it. I don’t understand how a

cordless phone works.

I don’t know how your voice can travel through the air, through a transmitter and amplifier and then someone can hear you

clearly across town or across the nation or around the world.I don’t know how.

But it works.I don’t understand how prayer works, but it

works.So I pray in faith to my unseen God and He

promises that He will hear.”

Matthew 7:7 ESV "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and

it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be

opened.Billy Graham once said, “Heaven is full of

answers to prayers which no one ever bothered to ask.”

The Lord has given us some guidelines for prayer.

1- When you pray, don’t put on a show.2- When you pray, get away from people.

3- When you pray, don’t babble on and on.4- When you pray, forgive others.

Matthew 6:5 ESV "And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be

seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

When You Pray,Don’t Put On A Show

When Lyndon Johnson was President, he had several guests in for a meal at the

White House. LBJ had given the honor of giving grace to journalist Bill Moyers (an ex-Baptist minister). As Moyers began to

softly say grace, LBJ - who couldn’t understand what was being said,

interrupted Moyers, "Speak up man." Without looking up and barely stopping in

mid-sentence, Bill Moyers replied, "I wasn’t talking to you."

Preacher D. L. Moody said, “A man who prays much in private will make short

prayers in public.”There is nothing wrong with praying in

public but we must not be too quick to offer a public prayer. Meaning: Why do we want

to lead in public prayer? Is it to communicate with God and ask on the

behalf of others? Or is it because we want to appear “religious” to others?

A preacher recalls a club he was a member of. Every year in January they held an annual banquet to recognize certain

members for their accomplishments, give out awards, eat a good meal and generally, have a good time of fellowship. And every year, we started our banquet with prayer. Why? Personally, I think it was a matter of

tradition and/or formality. I’m not sure many of those in the club were that

interested in prayer. But pray we did.

And I was asked several times to lead in prayer. I remember one time before I

approached the microphone, the President of the Club, who was a school principal,

whispered in my ear, “Make it generic and make it short.”

I laughed to myself.I made it short because I believe in short

public prayers.

I remembered what Jesus said about being seen of men and I didn’t want to make a

show of it. But I did not make it generic.

I closed my prayer in “Jesus’ name” as I had always done because I believe in Jesus

as the only Savior and our mediator; our only approach to God the Father.

Never fear praying in public when you are asked, that is, unless you just don’t do that

kind of thing.I know of people who won’t because it

makes them nervous to know that someone would be listening to them pray. Don’t do it

if you don’t want to. Pleasantly decline. Private prayer is the most important kind of

prayer anyway.

If you are asked to pray in public, just remember that we are not in the “show

business.”

We are in the God business of trying to honor and please Him.

Any time you pray you are talking to the Lord, not to people.

Matthew 6:6 ESV But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your

Father who sees in secret will reward you.Mark 1:35 ESV And rising very early in the

morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there

he prayed.

When You Pray,Get Away From People

Luke 6:12 ESV In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he

continued in prayer to God.

Here’s a story about a“Red Light Special!”You’ve heard of the

“Blue Light Specials.”The two men were in a car when they had

to stop at a red signal light.

The man at the wheel did not say anything. The other man by his side, fretting and

fuming, said, "The time we waste at these red lights - why, a man could write a book!"

The driver still said nothing. Finally the man beside him said, "Didn’t you hear what

I said?""No."

"How come?"I was talking."

"Who were you talking to?""I was talking to God," he said. "I’ve been

making it a practice every time I get to a red light to pray for one of my friends. It is

wonderful how many folks I have on my prayer list and how many I have time to

pray for in this way."I don’t necessarily recommend this kind of

“Red Light Special,” but it’s not bad. It’s better than not praying at all. And it’s better than not getting away by yourself to pray.

I got up early one morningAnd rushed right into the day;I had so much to accomplish

I didn’t have time to pray.Troubles just tumbled about me

And heavier came each task.Why doesn’t God help me, I wondered,

He answered, “You didn’t ask.”I tried to come into God’s presence,

I used all my keys at the lock.God gently and lovingly chided,“Why child, you didn’t knock.”I wanted to see joy and beauty,

But the day toiled on gray and bleak,I called on the Lord for the reason—

He said “You didn’t seek.”I woke up early this morning

And paused before entering the day.I had so much to accomplish

That I had to take time to pray.

We all need a private time for prayer. We need this both for ourselves and for the

sake of others, for those on our prayer list.Jesus recommended that we go off by

ourselves, in our room, etc. Your private prayer place could be anywhere. It could be

your car while driving to work; that is, if you can pray and drive at the same time.

Getting away by yourself for prayer, no matter where that place is, can be a time of

refreshing!It can be a time of worship, praise,

thanksgiving, and intercession on behalf of others.

But it can’t be done effectively unless you have your own “getaway” spot.

Jesus would get up early in the morning and leave the house where he was staying

so He could talk with His Father.Or at times He would spend all night in

prayer.We all need this time, for our sake, for the

lord’s sake and for the sake of others!

Matthew 6:7 ESV "And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for

their many words.

When You Pray,Don’t Babble On And On

A young boy was observed by a minister in church praying very fervently; but much to the preacher’s surprise, he was also heard

to say from time to time: "Tokyo, Tokyo, Tokyo."

So preacher approached the boy after he had finished his prayer and said, "Son, I was very pleased to see you praying so devoutly, but tell me, why did you keep

saying ’Tokyo, Tokyo, Tokyo?"

The boy replied, "Well, you see sir, I just finished taking my geography test in

school, and I have been praying for the Lord to make Tokyo the Capital of France.“

The preacher who told this story, wrote, “Sometimes I wonder if we do any better in

the church today.

I wonder if we are on parade with our praying. We work on saying the right

phrases. We pray with great enthusiasm. We pray with a holy pitch. And we pray with

holy language, a language that we don’t use anywhere else. And I wonder if it is not

just all babbling to God.”He may well have a point. We have all heard

some of those so-called long, pious prayers.

Two elders prayed around the Lord’s Table.They were father and son elders in this

particular church.One prayed, then the other and it sounded very much like some sort of a contest as to who could pray the longest, the best and

with the right phrases.

Have you heard prayers offered, probably mostly by preachers, who did more

preaching in their praying than talking to God.

A little boy was afraid of the dentist. So his father decided to set the example and have his teeth examined, too. The dentist looked

inside the father’s mouth and said, "Oh, there’s a tooth that has to be pulled."

The father asked, "How much will it cost?" The dentist answered, "We charge $35 a tooth." Then the father asked, "How long will it take to pull the tooth?" The dentist

answered, "About a minute."

The father protested, "I get paid by the hour and when I think of paying $35 for a

minute’s work, that is a terribly high hourly wage."

"Well," the dentist said, "I can pull the tooth more slowly if you like."

Sometimes we think that we get more for our money the slower we go.

Or perhaps the longer we pray, we think the more spiritual we are.

Jesus said: “When you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they

will be heard because of their many words.”

Matthew 6:14 ESV For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will

also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will

your Father forgive your trespasses.

When You Pray, Forgive Others

Charles Colson in his book titled “The Body” tells the story of a Priest, Father

Jerzy in Poland.Soon after the birth of Solidarity, Father

Jerzy preached among the striking workers in Warsaw’s huge steel works.

He showed them how alcohol contributed to their oppression: If their drinking caused absenteeism or mistakes at work, it could

be used to blackmail them. After that, alcoholism dropped dramatically.

Not long after martial law was imposed and Father Jerzy instituted a monthly “Mass for the Homeland,” dedicated to all victims of

the repressive regime.Eventually thousands, then tens of

thousands, attended these services at St. Stanislaw Kostka, with Father Jerzy

ministering from the balcony and the people fanning out in the courtyard and

streets below.

Father Jerzy’s influence did not escape the notice of the authorities. He was far too popular, far too independent, and far too threatening to the regime’s control. He

must be silenced.The secret police followed Father Jerzy

everywhere. He received unsigned death threat letters. On the first anniversary of

martial law, a pipe bomb sailed through the front window of his small flat, exploding in

his sitting room.

Then, on October 19, 1984, while driving back to Warsaw from Bydgoszcz where he

had celebrated a special mass and delivered a message called “Overcome Evil

with Good,” Father Jerzy disappeared.On the last Sunday of October, as fifty

thousand people filled St. Stanislaw Kostka in an emotional Mass for the Homeland and listened in tears to a tape of Father Jerzy’s

final sermon.

The announcement was made on public television that Father Jerzy’s body had

been found in the Fistula River. When the people heard the report about Father Jerzy they went down on their knees, crying out

and shouting; what they had feared the most had happened.

Then the crying crowd repeated after the presiding priest three times in unison: “And forgive us our trespasses as we

forgive them that trespass against us.” It was a Christian answer to the unchristian

deed of the murder.On November 2nd, the day after Father

Jerzy’s funeral the people marched in the streets past the secret police headquarters

bearing banners reading, “We forgive.”

Charles Colson makes the comment: “Regardless of their expertise in murdering the body, the executioners could not kill the

soul. Father Jerzy had taught his people well.”

One of the hardest things that we have to do in life is to forgive others when they

offend us or sin against us.

It’s almost unspeakable some of the things that people can do to others and even some who claim to follow Christ, BUT

FORGIVE WE MUST.If we want God’s forgiveness, we too, must somehow learn to forgive. Jesus did it best

and did it on Calvary when He prayed for those who crucified Him, “Father, forgive

them for they know not…” When you pray, forgive others.

E. M. Bounds in his book on prayer said that Stonewall Jackson was a man of

prayer. Jackson said, “I have so fixed the habit of prayer in my mind that I never raise a glass of water to my lips without asking God’s blessing, never seal a letter without

putting a word of prayer under the seal, never take a letter from the post (office) without a brief sending of my thoughts

heavenward,

Conclusion

never change my classes in the lecture-room without a minute’s petition for the

cadets who go out and for those who come in.”

That’s the kind of praying we need!We need to be in constant prayer, praise

and petition!As William Carey once said, “Prayer is my

real business! Cobbling shoes is a sideline; it just helps to pay expenses.”

Prayer is our real business.Since we’re in business with God we need to be in constant communication with Him.

He is our God and even more.He is our loving Heavenly Father who

wants time and fellowship with us.

PRAYER IS OUR REAL BUSINESS.

“Lord, teach us to pray!”