Sunday November 14
Dan Harding
*Christians think that prayer is very natural, but most of us has a time in our life where you read in the bible that prayer is very easy and directional and we can grow with God through prayer. But...it is not that easy
*Some of us hear directly from God and answered prayers
*Some of us will grow stronger in our relationship with God
*We think that prayer is easy but we have exams to study, kids filling your time, we are exhausted and busy!
*Praying and spending time with God just doesn't fit in our lives
*Most of us are just lazy
*If your struggling in fitting prayer in our everyday life, Jesus struggled more than any of us.
*He had to have a strategy to fit prayer into everyday life
*Luke 5:15: Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses.
*Luke 4:42: At daybreak Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them.
*Luke 6:12: One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spend the night praying to God.
*Luke 21:37: Each day Jesus was teaching at the temple, and each evening he went out to spend the night on the hill called the Mount of Olives.
*Luke 22:39: Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him.
*Luke 9:10: When the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus what they had done. Then he took them with him and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida.
*Luke 9:18: Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, "Who do the crowds say I am?"
*You need to withdraw from everyday life because it is getting out of control
*Jesus taught the disciples that to connect with God in prayer, they needed to disconnect with everyday life
*Our connections with our everyday life was so different with the connections of God
*When your worrying about finances instead of praying to God
*When your worried about doing everything perfectly when we can rely on God
*When were so into church matters where we could rely on the God who started it
*When were so worried more about the sin where we have a God to forgive us
Some ideas- keys to disconnect from the world
1. Obey the Sabbath - have a day off -meditate the bible, sing songs, cruise into creations and praise God
2. Have a treat - a week, a day, a whole weekend to set aside to speak and listen to God
3. To buy time -when you have no time, buy some time o spend time, buy a coffee or meal and just pray
4. Change your schedule - you could wake up earlier, spend 5-15 minutes in God and prayer. Limit 5 minutes from exercise, develop habits after a fun, sleep
5. Have a journal
6. Written Prayers
* Luke 11: Jesus' Teaching on Prayer
*Do something that we could grow closer to God
*"The more you do it, the more you enjoy it!"
**Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path**
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