Going Vertical: How to Keep Prayer Fresh

This week we look at the third week in our Going Vertical series.  We'll be looking at How to Keep Prayer Fresh.  If you are anything like me, there are times that our time spent in prayer is a little dull, a little hard to keep your eyes open.  How do you keep it new?  We look at an idea or two, so join us Sunday as we look at How to Keep Prayer Fresh. 

This message is from Psalm 51:10-12.  To read it now, click here.
 
 
 
Have you ever gone to the kitchen to make a sandwich or a snack, and you grab a piece of bread, and it’s stale?  It’s gets hard, and it might get crumbly.  That happens to food when it sits around too long, it gets stale.  That can happen to our prayers, too.  Our time with God can get a little stale.  So this week we look at how to keep your prayer life fresh – How do we keep the things we do on a daily basis fresh, because if it’s not fresh, it’s stale.  And when it gets stale, it’s a little like bread; life gets hard, and begins to crumble.
 
When our prayer life is stale our hearts can be hardened to the things of God.  God begins to seem very distant.  When God is distant, our life can become crumbly.  Things begin to fall apart.  The temptations you once stood against become more and more difficult to resist.  We become more susceptible to sin in our life. 
 
Maybe you’ve gone through a period like this in your life.  A time when everything seemed harder, you pray, but it doesn’t seem to be answered.  God seems distant.  And when that happens, everything gets harder.  I can tell you I’ve had times like that.  Times when everything just seemed harder than it needed to be.  That’s often a symptom of a spiritual issue, usually related to a stale prayer life.
 
The reading I want to share with you today is from Psalm 51.  David wrote this at a time in his life where he probably felt the same way.  He had just committed adultery with Bathsheba, and then to hide it, to keep it quiet, he has her husband, a soldier, sent to the front line where he was killed.  David basically murdered him to keep him from coming home and discovering what he had done.  We can see this in 2 Samuel 11. 
 
In chapter 12, the prophet Nathan came and told David a story about a rich man with lots of cattle and sheep, and a poor man who had just one little ewe.  A traveler comes, and the rich man throws a feast for him.  But instead of killing one of his own animals for the feast, the rich man took the poor man’s little ewe.  David became livid that a man would do such a thing and demanded to know who it was so he could bring justice.  Nathan said, “You are the man!”  You are the one God is upset with, you stole that mans’ only lamb.  You have sinned greatly.
 
David becomes very convicted and wants to get right with God.  That’s where we find our reading this morning, Psalm 51…  David is desperate to get right with God again.  He pleads in this Psalm to reconnect with God.  When our prayer life becomes stale, we find ourselves feeling distant from God, and we are longing to restore that relationship, we find ourselves pleading with God.  When our prayer life is stale, it isn’t helping us – we lose our connection with God.  And we want to get right again.
 
This morning I want to look at things that can help keep our prayer life fresh.  To do this, I have a list of things that can kill our prayers.  Seven prayer killers that will make our prayer life seem stale and our prayers ineffective.  But then I also have seven prayer catalysts that can help us through the seven prayer killers.  And the way I’ll do this, I’ll give you a prayer killer, and then the corresponding catalyst to help you through that.
 
Now please understand this, if your prayer life isn’t getting stale, don’t do anything.  I don’t want you doing anything that would change a healthy prayer life.  But if you’re having some troubles with any of these, you might find something here that will help restore a sense of God’s presence.
 
The first prayer killer we’ll look at this morning is simple – it’s unresolved sin.  Is there any unresolved sin in your life?  Sin puts up a barrier between you and God.  It severs your connection – your communication.  Paul tells us that nothing can separate us from God.  But sin severs your lines of communication.  It’s harder to hear from God and focus on God when there is sin in your life.
 
The catalyst for this prayer killer is to repent of your sin, confess it and seek forgiveness.  You admit the sin, you confess, and you don’t sin any more.  Seek God’s forgiveness.  Repentance means turning back to God, away from the sin.  To repent, you give up the sinful behavior.  If you seek forgiveness but you never actually repented, you never really give up the sin, you won’t receive God’s forgiveness. 
 
Proverbs 28:13 says, “He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.”  So if you feel disconnected, examine your life and see if there isn’t any unresolved sin.  If so, repent, turn back to God, and seek forgiveness.
 
The second prayer killer:  Broken Relationships.  Relationships are vitally important.  Our entire Christian faith can be summed up with the word “relationship.”  We begin a relationship with God through Jesus, and that relationship changes every other relationship we have.  But if there is a relationship in your life that’s not what it should be, that can affect your relationship with God.  We’re called to love one another, and if we aren’t, if there is a broken relationship, that will affect all our other relationships.
 
The catalyst that goes with this one, the solution, is to ask, give, or get forgiveness.  Matthew 5:23-24 talks about our relationships with others and how important they are.  It says that if you are offering a sacrifice at the altar and there you remember that you have something between you and a brother, leave your gift there in front of the altar, and first go and get reconciled with your brother, then come back and offer your sacrifice.  Before you and God can be right, you and other people have to be right. 
 
And you remember from last week Matthew 6:15, “if you don’t forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”  Relationships are really important in our Christian faith.  Make sure they’re right.
 
The next prayer killer – number 3, Disobedience.  Is there some area of your life that you have just said no to God?  If you’ve ever had a young child, you know what it feels like to have someone stand firm against you and say no.  They usually seem to learn the word no right after Mommy and Daddy.  That’s usually one of their first three words:  Mommy, Daddy, No. 
 
Look at where disobedience put Jonah.   Think about that story.  Jonah was a very well respected prophet of God.  He went where God told him to go, and he said what God told him to say.  Till one day he refused to go where God sent him.  What happened to him?  He jumped on the first ship going the other way, away from where God wanted him to go, away from Nineveh.   Then what happened?  The big storm came up.  The ship was almost lost before they threw Jonah overboard.  He put other people at risk.  Our disobedience can put other people at risk.  Others are affected by our disobedience.  Especially if God wants us to talk to them, and we don’t.  Or if God asks us to help them in them in some way, and we don’t.  We don’t live our lives alone; we don’t walk our Christian life just for us.  We become servants of God.  And as such, we need to be obedient to God.
 
So what’s the catalyst for this one?  As Nike says, “Just do it.”  Is there something he is asking you to do, that you’re thinking about, maybe you’ve said no, maybe you’re just delaying.  Just do it.  Things in our life seem smaller than they really are.  If God is asking you to do something that doesn’t seem like it’s that big, he still wants you to do it.  He wants us to obey even in the small things.  And even if what He is asking is a small thing, disobedience is never a small thing.
 
Somebody once said, and I have no idea who, but “great doors of opportunity swing on tiny hinges.”  The little things we do, the times we’ve been obedient in the little things, that create the really big opportunities in our lives.  Your obedience will lead to greater clarity.  Each time you do what God asks, it’s a little easier.  If you have always been obedient in the little things, it will be much easier to yes to the big things.  Have you ever wondered how someone could give up everything to go and be a missionary overseas?  It was easy for them, because they’ve always been obedient.  When you are obedient in the little things, the big things are easier.
 
The fourth prayer killer is not setting aside consistent quiet time.  I don’t think I need to elaborate too much on the problem, we’ve probably all been there.
 
The catalyst for this is to make sure to set aside the same time every day.  I don’t think it’s all that important how much time you pray; it could ten minutes, twenty minutes, an hour.  I don’t think it matters.  But what does matter is that that time is sacred.  It’s set aside.  Nothing can interrupt it.  It needs to be regular and it needs to be quiet and uninterrupted. 
 
Jesus always found times of solitude.  In Mark 1:35, we see, “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”  Jesus often went off by himself to find a quiet place to pray.  And for Jesus, it was almost always in the morning.  Other then the evening at Gethsemane, I can only think of one other time that wasn’t in the morning.  Psalm 88:13 says, “I cry to you for help, O Lord; in the morning my prayer comes before you.” 
 
Another way to keep it fresh is just to keep it conversational.  Just talk to God.  Talk about the stuff of the day, so it’s different every day.  Last week we talked about using the Lord’s Prayer –  the conversation that comes out of each line in the prayer is going to be different every day, so it doesn’t feel like the same thing.  Just connect and let it all out.  Do you have a consistent committed time and place.  If not, you need to work on getting one.
 
Number five:  God’s word is not in your heart or in your mind.  Is God’s word in your mind and in your heart?  Psalm 7:2-3 says, “Keep my commands and you will live, guard my teachings as the apple of your eye.  Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.”
 
The catalyst to this is comes in two parts – and you need to do both.  Read the Word daily, and spend time with God’s people.  Jesus compared God’s Word to food, you do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God.  We can’t live by bread alone, we need God’s Word.  David loved God’s laws; he meditated on them day and night so he wouldn’t go astray.
 
The second part is to be with the people of God – be with other Christians as much as possible.  Iron sharpens iron.  We encourage each other, we support one another, we lift each other, we make each other stronger.  We become filled with the peace of God.  Come to church, hang out with each other, and Come every time the building is open.  If you really want to see your faith come alive, you’ve got to spend time in God’s Word and you’ve got to spend time with His people.
 
The sixth prayer killer can happen if we only go to God when we need something.  If we only go to God when we want something, our prayers become self centered, and we focus on the gifts received more than the giver of the gifts.  God is the giver, our prayers need to be centered on God.
 
The catalyst for this is to begin to thank God for everything and pray for others as much as ourselves.  Go to God because He is God, not because he has a magic wand and can make everything better.  Build a relationship with Him.  He is our friend, our Savior, go to Him regularly and get to know Him, build a relationship.  It provides a whole new outlook than if we only go to God when we need something.
 
In 1 Timothy 2:1 we see Paul teaching Timothy about the importance of Timothy’s praying for others.  “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone. – for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful lives in all godliness and holiness.”  Thanksgiving is an important part of that.  Make sure your prayers contain petitions for others, and that they contain thanksgivings. 
 
A challenge that makes this easier: Have you ever gone on a prayer walk?  I heard of a church that had a pamphlet that provided a self guided prayer walk around the church building, try that sometime.  We don’t have a self-guided brochure, but you can pray around the building, pray for the people that attend here, that are ministered to here, pray for the church, the body, begin to pray over others, walk around and pray for others.  And be thankful even for the things that you don’t like.  It will change your perspective.
 
The last prayer killer, number seven, and this is important – Has it been a long time since you’ve heard God’s voice.  This can be difficult.  If you’ve been faithful in prayer, faithful in all the parts of your walk, none of the other parts of this message have applied, everything seems as it should be, but you just haven’t heard from God, it can get a little discouraging.  If this is where you are, don’t give up. 
 
The catalyst for this is to trust that God is preparing you for something new, and keep praying.  Don’t give up.  Furthermore, know that you’re in good company:

• Moses spent forty years in the wilderness as a shepherd before the burning bush
• Paul was at the point once that he prayed, Lord if it’s time for me to die, then take me, if not, I will do what you want.
• Jesus, even Jesus, while hanging on the cross, said “why have you forsaken me.”  God’s own Son felt disconnected.

 
Keep up your prayer, even when you don’t sense God’s answers.  Matthew 7:7-8, says, “Ask and it will be given you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” 
 
Keep praying trusting that the answer you are waiting for is just a little further along.  Have you ever heard the acronym PUSH:  pray until something happens.  Keep praying, keep pushing. Don’t give up, on the other side of your persistence; there is an answer.
 
If you are out of place on anyone of the seven, go to God and say Lord, this is where I’m at; this is what I think has happened.  I want to get right with you again.  Follow the catalyst and trust in Him to bring you through, to bring a freshness to your prayers again, to bring freshness to your life again.