PH 5-minute Bible teaching
The straw of prayer
We wrapped up our You Asked For It series this week with a VERY applicable question on prayer. Specifically: “why don’t I want to do it and what can I do to change that?” As I mentioned in the message, a quick Google search turns up over 26 million responses to the statement “struggling to pray.” This is a very common problem for us.
On the heels of the conviction I felt last week, this was a timely message for me to prepare and preach. Prayer isn’t the destination. We have to remember it’s a path. Our desire has to be for the destination and THAT will make all the difference in our prayer life. If you want the audio-only version of this clip, click here.
If you want to see the full sermon associated with this clip, you can find it here.
Transcript: What is forgiveness?
Wed, Nov 29, 2023 : Peter Heck
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Prayer. Don't miss this. If you are like me than your desire, that desire for peace in your life that should drive your desire to pray. Don't do this by discipline. “Well, I got to do a better job. I got to set aside an hour every morning, 20 minutes every morning to set five minutes aside every morning and pray.” It's okay if you do that. But that's not going to last. Your discipline will only take you so far. It's not going to change your desire.
If you desire peace, that should motivate your desire to pray, flip to Philippians. If you would, look at this promise that we're given, we overlook this all the time. You know the song, right? What a friend we have in Jesus. Oh, what peace we often forfeit. Right? Why? Because we don't do what? We don't pray. We don't carry everything to the Lord in prayer. Why? Look at the promise.
Paul writes, chapter four, verses six and seven, “do not be anxious about anything.” I'm anxious about everything. And he's saying don't be anxious about anything. So how do I avoid it? “In everything, by what prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” And what good is that going to do? Look at verse seven. If you do that, “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
And that's a promise in God's word. Do I believe the Word of God or not? And this is kind of what hit me this week, because I'm trying all of these things. And there's all of these earthly solutions to find peace. You go to counseling, you read a good book, you have good deep conversations with a friend, somebody to talk to, you go get a drink. That's how the world deals with all of their desire for peace. If I believe the Word of God, the most effective way to achieve a peace that passes all understanding is to pray. That's the solution that is right there.
Do I believe it? Or do I not believe it? Why desire to pray? Because it is a path, the word tells me that will always lead to peace. It's not going to resolve necessarily every circumstance in your life, but it will bring peace to those situations in your life. So I look back on what I've been struggling with for months and months and months, the things that I cannot get over and I'm told you want the peace, then pray. That's where you're going to find it. Prayer is not the path. It's not the end in and of itself. We're not told to pray simply for the sake of praying. It's not the destination, I shouldn't have said, it's not that it is the path that leads to the destination. It is not the destination itself.
So really, here's what I came to. My lack of desire to pray isn't really a lack of a desire to pray. It's a lack of a desire for peace. I don't want peace enough, or I would be praying. That's my motivation. How much turmoil am I willing to put up with before I go to the solution and desire that solution? I'll give you an example.
Wednesday, we had off from school, we took, no it was Tuesday night, we took a family thanksgiving trip up to the Essenhaus. You know where that is right up in northern Indiana. Yes, the Essenhaus. It's like this full Amish buffet. It is awesome. All right. So we drive up there now. It's a long drive. We loaded up after school. And we drove all the way up there. The kids hated it. They hated the two hour trip. They were miserable the whole time fussing and whining and fighting. They didn't they didn't want to go and they whined the entire time. Two hours.
Why? Why did they whine about that trip? Listen, because the miraculous food that was waiting at the end of that trip, it wasn't enough for them. It wasn't a big enough desire for them to overcome the agony of having to go through this two hour trip. Now, to Jen and I, oh it's totally worth it.
Like, typically on a normal day, I'm not into getting in the car and driving two hours just to listen to “he won't stop touching me. He's got boogers, he's flipping boogers!” “Daddy you know that I don't produce boogers. I can't produce boogers. I can't be doing that.”
Normally, I don't want to listen to that stuff. But if you tell me at the end of that, I get the roast beef and the chicken and noodles, then I'll put up with it. I’ll join in. “Gray can't produce boogers huh? Well take a look at this!” I'll join in. I don't care because of what is waiting for me at the other end of that. It's my desire for that food.
How badly then do I want peace? How badly do I want it if I want it? That's the solution. And that is what will motivate me into prayer.
Maybe this analogy will help? A person drinking out of a cup. Let's use that as an analogy. What is in the cup? That is the living water that brings peace that passes all understanding. And that person is our soul and they desire that living water. Any guess as to what this little object right here the straw is going to be? That's it. That's prayer. That is the purpose of prayer. Now look, you can look at the cup and be like, “Oh, that would really be good. But I don't think I can exert the force to go ahead and suck that out of the drink. I just can't do it.” Right, then you don't desire that water enough. But the thirstier you are, that's going to increase your desire to put your lips around that straw and get the living water. That's what I'm talking about, that's where your motivation is lacking.
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