Midweek Message, October 3, 2018

In October our church will be focusing on prayer. A sermon series, the Wednesday night study, and our Thursday Women’s study will all center on the topic of prayer. Ephesians 6:18 says, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests….”. There is a strong and powerful relationship between putting on the armor of God (that is to pray in the Spirit) and praying. These two things belong together; in fact, one grows out of the other. It is not enough to put on the armor of God; you must also pray. It is not enough to pray; you must also have put on the armor of God. It is impossible to divide these two. Putting on the armor is essentially something that is done in the realm of your thought life. It is an adjustment of the attitude of your heart. The apostle does not reverse this and say, First pray, and then put on the armor of God. This is what we try to do, and this is why our prayer life is so feeble, so impotent. There is great practical help here if we follow carefully the designated order of Scripture. I think most Christians would confess that they are dissatisfied with their prayer life. They feel it is inadequate and perhaps infrequent. Sometimes we struggle to improve the quality as well as the quantity of our prayer lives. Sometimes we adopt schedules we attempt to maintain or long lists of names and projects and places we try to remember in prayer. In other words, we begin in the wrong place. The place to start is not with the doing, but with the thinking. Prayer follows putting on the armor of God. It is a natural, normal outgrowth. If you take the whole range of Bible teaching on this great subject of prayer, you will find that underlying all the biblical presentation is the idea that prayer is conversation with God. What the apostle is saying is, after you have put on the armor of God, after you have gotten your thinking right, then talk to God about it. Tell God the whole thing. Tell God your reactions, tell God how you feel, describe your relationship to life around you, and ask God for what you need. Forgive me, O Lord, for the way I have looked at prayer as though it were insignificant and optional. Help me to take it seriously. Help me to realize that You have made this my point of contact with You. Teach me to pray. Cliff CHURCH NEWS: New members join this Sunday as a part of World Communion Sunday! The Pumpkin Patch is coming! Sign-up to help today!


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