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There is more to growing in prayer than loving God. Some folks think if you love God It all falls into place well loving God is certainly the the central issue in the revelation that God loves us is where it begins but there really are practical issues to growing in our prayer life and having a consistent prayer life. I want to tell just a little of my story, just a little snapshot of it but only because I have proven in my life is a weak and broken person that it can work so I know how much I did not like prayer and I already know how much I went. So I know now if I can, you can.
It's different now know. I understand the plight and the journey that some of you are facing when you think of not a chance, is never going to happen to me. While I understand the difficulties because I struggled through them. But by the grace of God and I want to say this humbly tenderly that I've been able to maintain a consistent prayer life for many many years for some decades now and I don't mean the prayer life has been amazing but it's been consistent. And I want to share a practical plan with you because I believe it will work for you and the reason I have energy on this is because it did work for me and I know that I started in a position of not really liking this whole thing called prayer. With three things I want to identify is the need to set a schedule time for prayer now right off the bat if you've never done that and I've taught.
Scheduling time for prayer, you won’t keep it all the time but you put it on your schedule it is stablished is when you pray not all the time you pray but it gives you a core a beginning as a core to developing a prayer life number to make a prayer list or prayer lists, cultivate a right view of God and what I mean by that, I don't mean just here one teaching on God loves you and then got it. But I mean by speaking the word before the Lord when the devil tells us lies about what God is like and how God views us and taking a stand and doing that spiritual warfare to break those wrong strongholds in our thinking about who God is and how he views us and I know a lot of folks that have heard about the love of God for years but it doesn't move their heart or doesn't reset their emotions or form their emotions and therefore it affects their prayer life in a very dramatic way.
My journey began back in my college days when a man at the university came to me and said, hey I encourage you to schedule prayer time. Every day and make a prayer list and I went what because he I told him how I was struggling in prayer He assured me he said this would change your prayer life and I looked at him and I thought not going to work but because I respected him so much and I met with him every week it was a lot of quite a few years older than me and he was holding me accountable and he asked me every time he met me if I did it so I kind of just out of that I did it. But I found out over time it really worked I want to make a bold statement. I must say it real bold. You will pray ten times more in the next year or two if you'll set prayer on your schedule make a prayer life. I've said that for years and folks protest is no way, legalism, that's not right but they continue for years without prayer life. There are so afraid of doing it this way but they're not afraid of going another decade without a prayer life. And I challenge I go to one year try for one year and I assure you you will be a satisfied customer and the reason I have I been saying this because it changed my prayer life and I've seen it change so many other people's prayer life. This one of the simple three things schedule prayer list in a right view of God or cultivating a right view of God. To scheduling a prayer time this is so simple. But there are so many demands on my time and your time if we're not intentional if we're not intentional about developing a prayer life we won't develop one. You all wake up one day deep in God it doesn't work that way it's just like exercise like taking vitamins you know it's not there is it one day where exercise makes it all better it's over months and years you can take vitamins and eat right it's not that one day all the sudden you are energized in your health it's over years of doing it same is true in our spiritual life. Now this is really obvious but it needs to be said. If you don't determine your schedule somebody else will I promise you. If you don't set your schedule determine to take control of it somebody else will take control of it. I've seen a lot of folks over a lot of years up go to a Bible school go to an internship have their schedule set for them and they don't really understand the value of that schedule and then the schedules lifted they get out and they get a year or two later and they don't have a prayer life at all and I thought well you know I would maybe by osmosis I would wake up one day with a prayer life well I did it you know I prayed a lot when I was there at least I said the prayer room and beloved sitting in the prayer room even if you're not engaging more is happening in your heart than meets the eye I mean I'm all for engaging but I'm saying don't write off the time where you're in there you're going this isn't really working there's other things that are happening positive in your life even in that posture I mean it's obviously a lot better to engage. Engage with the Lord is what I mean what I'm referring to. Now we're not going to keep our schedule one hundred prayercent of the time meaning. I'm talking about just the life even outside of those parameters that I would set my prayer time when I was I remember a eighteen nineteen years old I was sent my prayer time at nine o'clock every night and it was the dreadful hour of nine o'clock at Eight Forty five in the evening I would begin to sweat because in only fifteen minutes the hour of death began. Because I wished it was a joke. Lord I would be resigned to talk to you for an hour please deliver me from this. Funny but it wasn't funny then because I was convinced that I needed to grow in prayer to grow in God and that's true and so and I didn't like growing in prayer so but I want to grow God I was in a Catch twenty two.
And so. I have found over the years that I don't keep my prayer Time hundred percent but here's one thing that if I show up and begin and I don't always when I show up I don't know we stay in my prayer time the whole time I schedule but if I show up and start my prayer time whether it's at home my dorm room now and I hop or times it in my office or or at my home I have times I set apart from prayer and if I schedule and I find if I keep that schedule down eighty five percent meaning I show up and begin it don't always finish it sometimes it goes longer sometimes I get distracted and I quit short I'm not again talking about our sacred trust and I hope I'm talking about something more general than that but I feel good about that that if I'm keeping it about eighty five percent I feel like I'm really on a trajectory to succeed in my prayer life and again I show up often my mind is blank I don't feel like praying but I go here I am Lord I'm opening my heart to you and a lot of times all go for the time I've said and sometimes I'll come up short and some dumb dog distracted but I show up and I think just by showing up I mean before the Lord at that given time it's remarkable, how many times you actually will in the up in prayer even though I don't feel like it before I come. And I'm busy and a lot of things that are on my mind but I stuck the prayer time don't always end it but I do show up and I found it's remarkable how that one little point makes a huge difference.
I don't limit my prayer time to move that schedule time that's just the time where I position myself before the Lord as I do it no matter how I feel and I pray when I feel throughout the day as well I pray many times outside of that set time so don't limit that.
Consider this there is one hundred in sixty eight hours a week that everyone on the planet has everyone has one hundred sixty eight hours a week that's seven days twenty four hours a day if you take ten hours a day to eat to sleep and get dressed, not some people say I can do all that today hours well for the sake of the of the idea just go with me ten hours you sleep X. amount you eat X. amount you fix your hair X. amount. OK ten hours do you do that ten hours a day, beloved that still gives you almost one hundred hours a week in order to manage your time one hundred hours. Now you know some folks work forty some go to school forty some do I help fifty they still but they have one hundred hours to work with every week if it takes ten hours to eat sleep and get dressed my point is one hundred hours is a whole lot of 2 fifteen and thirty minute gaps of time that I find that people squander and waste and over years over decades it's a huge amount of human life huge amount of life that just kind of goes by the wind I wanted courage to lock in times or gets a lot I'm going to I'm going to schedule my life around the times I set before you I mean schedule my recreation and my entertainment and my social times around the times I sit with you not the other way around. And I believe that if you have been a little bit of creativity that hundred hours that you have after you eat sleep and get class ten hours a day that nearly one hundred hours with a little creativity you can move some things around and a person that really cares I mean I'm sure there's a few exceptions they really can develop time I mean find time developed prayer life before the Lord.
Make a prayer list making a prayer list this is very simple tool but a prayer list what help keep us focused in our prayer times. So I've you know I show up you know I remember back in college it was nine o'clock nine to ten o'clock and I stayed in there till ten even though you know sometimes a bunch of time I was complaining but you know what I was actually praying. I didn't know as prayer go God this is a really bad way to run your kingdom. If I was you I would take a guy like me and use me but you want me to sit here and talk to you about nothing, I've already told you everything I'm most actually praying and didn't even know that was actually praying. I thought I was complaining. Well it was but I didn’t have prayer list. OK. But I didn't have a prayer list and my leader he says will get a prayer. Like, what you know. What do you know to play for I go I you know I've prayed for thank you God I have food there's people the world starving thank you that I have arms and legs are people the world thank you…. Thirty seven years later when the best thing that ever happened to me in my life. But anyway. The simple tool he said will get a prayer list, start putting things down right I'm down right a few things that come to mind and just go down the list and as you do it you'll develop it more and more severely. So I begin to, make lists. Often when I sit down to pray you know again at the university it's nine o'clock at night I said down I got the hour set apart but my mind's blank even now when I hop forty years later. I sit down in the prayer room, in my mind blank. I don't know what to pray I'm sitting in the prayer room going, I'm tired I'm distracted, blank. And I need a little jump start and I look down and and I see my prayer list, fill my heart with the love of God. OK good fill my heart, with the love of God I go that's why that's what I'm here for. Pray for the power of God evangelism I have a few names there. I'm am exaggerating a little bit not entirely but I look at it it's kind like a jump start you know like a jump start a car and how to get it going. I still have prayer list and I use them all the time because I've gone through them so many times I don't have to look down at them but I stop and I go oh yes yes my prayer list but many times I feel the inspiration of the Lord in and I'll follow the leading of the Lord it's not on my prayer list at all so I don't limit myself to the scheduled time I pray or the prayer list those are just practical tools to get me going and when I'm inspired I'm going in a different direction, I forget my prayer list and I don't finish my prayer list every day, don't even try to. I use it when I need to when I show up before the Lord and I'm feeling a little tired and disjointed my mind is blank that's when I use my prayer list or when I pray for a few minutes and I've kind of well I guess I did that I looked I go yeah and I retarget I refocused my mind.
I have three different Prayer list that I've had over the years I have a personal prayer list for my prayer life. I pray for my own spiritual life my heart in God. I pray for my ministry pray for my personal circumstances and I use the acronym fellowship which we will go through it's ten letters there are ten different prayers that I pray like F is for the fear of God to grow in my heart. And I go down the list and I just sit there in the prayer room or where sometimes when I'm driving an hour or I'm just taking a walk and I'll just go down that list and many times I'll be inspired by the Lord and the Lord will breathe on it. A lot of times nothing much is different other times it's very special I never know and sometimes I begin a prayer life a prayer time very lethargic and feeling disconnected and I end it with the a presence of God touching me in a surprising way so I don't think by how you store it your prayer time is how it's going to end I have found over the years I just show up and start and many times I just feel that inspiration of the Lord that feeling of God's presence I go there I love this but I never know exactly what that time is going to be like That's why I try to keep my prayer times I try to keep a faithful to the times I set before the Lord and I pray for my personal life, pray for people or places I have a pretty obvious but I got a list of people got a list of places cities I pray for the cities I've prayed most for are Jerusalem Cairo those are two cities the Lord's put on I put on my heart a special way now Jerusalem God calls everybody to pray for Jerusalem but I pray for other cities as well Kansas City or pray for Kansas City. I pray for justice I have a justice prayer list where it says you know it's the main topics that are happening in the nation or whether there's a maybe there's a great storm ordered or or some natural disaster that takes place or some human trafficking focus that you know comes to the awareness of a nation or a city or not that you need to wait for that to preview much Africa and that's a key one to pray for all the time but anyway so I got my personal life I have people in places and then I have justice issues.
Some people protest that having a prayer list or a schedule is legalism now it can be legalism but it doesn't have to be legalism. Legalism is what you do when you try to earn God's love if you're in a prayer time because you think God doesn't love you and you say all even pray if you'll just love me that's legalism if the addressee legalism isn't the activity it's the attitude of the heart in which you do the spiritual activity you can do the disciplines of the Kingdom trying to earn God's love and those disciplines are legalism you can do those same disciplines with an attitude of confidence in the already loves you and that discipline will position you to experience more. So don't let somebody write off all the disciplines of the Kingdom of God or write them all off as legalism. don't buy that age old lie that if you do something consistently regularly the same time it is therefore legalism and rigid I have seen a lot of folks lose a lot of time in their spiritual life by buying into that lie they go out of it's nine o'clock every night and this is that every night again. I'm going back to my college days but most nights it near and sometimes I got surprise the Lord touch me and sometimes it did and then when I was in my twenty's and thirty's I had different time set but the setting of the time is not what makes it legalism it's if you think you're earning God's love by doing it but if you are there with confidence even the emerging confidence of beginning confidence that's not legalism that's positioning yourself to experience the grace of God in a greater way.
Look at Galatians five Paul says You've been called the Liberty don't use your liberty to walk in the flesh and what how I'm using that in this context some people thinks liberty is being passive just you know I'm not going to do anything in this and with any kind of focus or any type of regularity and all I can do any activity, going to do whatever comes if you live by that mostly you won't engage with God very much you will some but you will engage with God far more if you're intentional about it and you actually take time to cultivate that dialogue in your life with the Lord so don't think Liberty means that you don't have anything that is regular in committed in your schedule that's done with liberty and that's using the idea of liberty for the opportunity for your flesh to just give way and we will grow in the Lord and that's the thing I have passion about is that I know that I sit before the Lord The analogy I've used over the years is you know you're taking you know if you take a frozen piece of meat out of the out of the freezer and you put it in front of that fire that fire is going to make that frozen steak or hamburger or whatever it will fall out and it will be very tender and using that imperfect analogy you take a cold hard and put it before the fire of God's presence your heart will get tenderized and energized over time. It's not, the power of speaking before the fire its the power of the fire the tender rises and so I encourage you to put your cold heart in front of the fire I do that still my heart gets cold at different seasons I just put it before the fire and I find that that cold and that that a frozen place stays tender or becomes tender if it gets cold. Well the third area is cultivating a right view of God Now again this is the way we cultivated this by reading what the Bible says about God and in the most general sense the big subject by the way God is a tender father Jesus is a bridegroom king he's a king with power but he's a bridegroom with desire he actually enjoys you. The father is tender he likes you Jesus likes you he enjoys the relationship even in our weakness. Now we get that clear in our mind and we grow in that and then when the devil comes in accuses us and says you know God are just about ready to just kick you out of the kingdom or he's going to punish you because you don't pray enough he's going to punish you don't pray enough and he's mad at you that's not it God doesn't call us to pray to see if we can endure long times with him and if we can endure God then he'll say OK you passed the test you endured me that's not what prayer is. He longs for communication with us he longs for a relationship is not going to punish us if we don't spend time in prayer but if we do spend time in prayer we will experience more because we put our cold hard in front of the fire of his desire and that desire touches our hearts.
So we know the truth about God as a tender father Jesus as a bridegroom King we're in are judged in our hearts we'll pray much more if we have a right view of God And again this is more than taking a class on Jesus the bridegroom or a class on God the Father heart of God when the enemy comes we have to speak the truth and resist the accusations of the enemy because he will accuse us night and day night and day and I know people that have been through all the classes but in their personal life they don't engage with that truth and they still live with the wrong view of God though they have heard the teachings for years. Beloved are prayer life will be very different when we have confidence that he desires us that he enjoys us even in our weakness when I find that when I feel that he enjoys me even when I'm not doing all the things I've set my heart to but he says I love the relationship I enjoy you doesn't mean he enjoys every area of our life but he enjoys the relationship he enjoys the person. I run to him instead of run from him. And when I've blown it or come up short or didn't do the things I was committed to I come as a father but it least you like me and you enjoyed me this is the this is the refuge I can come to.
I mean people are disappointed they'll write you off but God I know that you won't, now some people are the wrong view of God. They think God is the one punishing them because they are not praying or God's the one finished with them because they stumbled it's exactly the opposite. He has the most patients he has the most desire he will be the most long suffering with our weakness you know what it means longsuffering him and suffer long. It is really what it means he will stay with this long beyond what anybody else would. So when others give up. On you he has it when you give up on you he has it when you don't like you he still likes you. Now it's Or I mean that's the refuge I can go there it's a home ah you like me I like people who like me Father I like those who like me thank you and I can feel that's the refuge that's the home plug that's the home center so for my heart and for your.
We cry we receive the spirit of adoption Paul said we cry Abba father. Abba is a term of endearment it's like in our culture saying papa. But it's a respect but with affection and intimacy in the heart we open our heart without fear we have confidence the Abba cry is Father you are the great God but you are my papa some people get silly with their view of God as papa don't turn it into silliness maintain our Father who art in heaven He is the most high God who reigns over the heavens he is our father but he already in heaven is what Jesus said he's the transcendent Most High God but he is. And so we come with respect great respect but with this. Endearment this term of endearment this confidence and affection confidence that he likes us papa here I am my heart is hurting I feel weak papa my heart is I'm excited by this thing that's happened in my life and he is and has joined with us he doesn't just have. Emotion when we're struggling actually has feels emotion when we're doing well and in our hearts are excited by what he's doing it touches his heart as well. This will equip us to reject Satan's accusations we can say that it is written He is my father he is Abba I've been adopted into the family. We approach is thrown with confidence.
Jesus is not just a king he's a bridegroom King he's not just a king with power he's a bridegroom with desire he actually delights in us.
He has fiery emotions he has tender emotions is deep commitments to us I mean we are His eternal companion forever he chose us even in our weakness, he wanted you when you didn't want him he wanted you when you didn't want you he stayed with you and said you're with me forever you will be part of my eternal companion for ever you will reign with Me a near Me ,beloved. Do we know who this man is who is fully God and fully man?
God says, I delight in them I like them more than they know tell them this and this view of God is a very important part of growing in prayer you can set the schedule you can have the prayer list but you have a wrong view of God your prayer life. Won't go anywhere you can have the right view of God But if you don't make time to talk to him you still will some because you just love him as you go but you'll talk to him far more if you actually put it into the routine of your life or your schedule and again you're not limited to your schedule you don't keep your schedule hundred percent but you'll end up over five in ten years praying I believe ten times more if you put it a part of the routine of your life double page for. Too busy to pray. Well most of us feel we're too busy to pray. Well the truth is we're too busy not to pray honestly. Because we can't we can't afford to carry out our spiritual responsibilities spiritually burned out I mean we can afford to carry out our responsibilities not just our spiritual ones as moms and dads as those are the marketplaces I mean you can't as a student be a student if your sponsor burnout you can't succeed as a student we can't do our work right spiritually burned out we have to have. Some interaction with the Lord our spirit is being renewed invigorated. The Lord calls all of his children to pray no matter what occupation he calls the maintenance man the doctor the home schooling mom the teacher. He calls the student he calls the athlete, they talk to some they go are so busy we can make the prayer of everyone is called to be in prayer because prayers about interacting with the heart they can do their job in the way God intended if they are spiritually burn, out we can work for him but he wants us to work with him and working with him means having dialogue in the work whether the work is a student studying that your work whether it's a it's a mom do a home schooling Well that's of father loving man loving his wife and raising his family that's part of the work God gave a gig gave that man he will do the work far better working with God instead of working for God even in those arenas.
Some worry they take time to pray they lose time to love their families they say if I pray if I take the time to pray where am I going to get time for my family or my business or my ministry. I have exactly the opposite conclusion you take time to pray you'll be a better father homeschooling mom you will love with greater energy. and you'll impart more to your children by taking time to interact with God even time away from your responsibilities you will carry your responsibilities the totally different spirit. You need to be spiritually invigorated or be on that pathway not just be a workaholic in the kingdom.
The best thing a man can do to love his wife is have a prayer life and I mean you have to pray five hours a day but a man with a prayer life will love his wife and children far more. Women. Encourage your husbands don't badger him but encourage them in their prayer life and I don't mean by you know putting tracks under the pillow and I think oh no here another message on prayer what I mean is if they are inclined in that direction don't say what about me what about time for me. Know that if that guy touches God he will like you more sanctified selfishness he likes God he'll like you more he will be a better father of your children if he's touching God more and again I'm not putting this outside of the two the super saint you know the man that's like Moses who talks to God face to face at the mountain I'm just talking about just the routine growing in God Little by little day by day month by month year by year. It's not a question of choosing. Work or prayer we can do both Jesus did both I have a little bit on that.
Time for God and time for people. I mean I hear the argument all the time I don't have time for the people if I make time for God, no you could do both. God never gave you an assignment so intense you don't have time for him in the assignment I go the assignment you're carrying it wrong you get a wrong view of what the Lord requires of you, you have a wrong view of how this works and when you get burned out a minute later you'll get bitter and then a minute later you'll drop out of the work and I said no you can't sustain the work without being invigorated by the Lord so don't choose the people and the relationships over time with God. Now some go the other way it will look at that in just a few moments I think that's a copout people choose their say time with God in the it's a copout for being antisocial and that's it's a way to avoid other issues.
We don't have to give up our prayer times to fulfill the will of God. Most of us there are exceptions we can smoke people can steal some of their time from their entertainment recreation in their play time to engage with God in a greater way.
We must be fiercely determined. To grow in the Lord I mean we've got to be serious about stealing that time. For the kingdom I mean to grow in God I mean I mean even away from some of our ministry to people we've got to prioritize putting that time because our culture is increasingly busy our culture is increasingly noisy and our culture is crowding out that sacred space of our heart that was meant to interact with God in the social media generation I mean there's so much noise and so much conversation and so much activity that many folks they love Jesus but their actual interaction with him is getting less and less because of their perpetual interaction with others through the media the social media.
We don't schedule our time others will take it. And we'll end up living in the tyranny of the urgent That's a phrase that has been used by many over the years the tyranny of the urgent whatever situation is presenting itself to us that moment we do it whatever social opportunity whatever need whatever crisis we'll just leave whatever for that and there are times to leave what we're doing for those things but I know some folks many they live in the tyranny of doing whatever is presented to them five years go by ten years go by twenty years go by they love Jesus but they've never grown spiritually. They have the same fears they have the same confusion in their spiritual life they have the same goal heart they have the same lack of understanding of the world they had twenty years ago. And the Lord say no my presence is for you yeah but Lord I just you know I'm just trying to be a blessing to the people he goes Yeah but in even made to be a blessing to the people and you can live in the tyranny of the urgent. Responding to every situation presented to you there's times we have to say no to people if we're going to grow in God Absolute that that's the most difficult challenge in my life. The most difficult challenge isn't about money the biggest challenge isn't about doing this or doing that or it's about saying no to people. When I want to say yes and they want me to say yes because the Lord says I've called you to do this so you can serve them in a far better way but if you say yes to every one your ability to serve them in the spirit will go way down over time.
Some people live by the whim of everyone and everything that comes their way.
We got to live by God's will in our life not by everything that comes our way or we're going to live with regret we're going to have regret twenty and thirty years later or less. I don't want to look back over the years and say Lord I just wish I would have done it all differently I wish I would have done that.
Some of us need to downsize our lifestyle. We need to downsize some of the things that we do, some of the things we own, some of the things that we're responsible for we did downsize a few things to make time that our heart can grow. Holy Spirit can lead you best he'll show you which are what to do but ask him. Ephesian chapter five Paul gives a very important exhortation, he's talking to the church in Ephesus. Now the Church of Ephesus had the greatest revival in the New Testament even beyond the Book of the city of Jerusalem. The revival of Ephesus and Acts twenty actually surpassed in power and influence the revival in Jerusalem. But here's Paul I mean within the within you know a few years after the great revival he's telling them wake up I'm talking to the Saints a deficit to the great revival center of emphasis. He goes you sleep or spiritual He met him at the believers in that revival center we're already becoming with orgy. He goes rise up shake off the lethargy and Christ will shine on you that means the presence of God touching our heart that's what that means he's talking to born again believers. Verse five he says let me tell you in the most practical way how to rides. He says be careful how you spend your time. If you use your time right. You'll position yourself for Christ to shine on you and you to cast off spiritual lethargy again I know folks twenty thirty forty years later there are still stuck in the same lethargy they had years ago. It's about time you see they're not living in conscious deliberate sin where they're defying the Lord's leadership over and over I mean they might stumble here and there but they if that's not the issue it's not the wrong image of God It's the wrong use of their time and that's what Paul connects here verse fifteen he goes you want Christ to shine you want to feel the presence of God more than experience more take some time to cast off lethargy and be in his presence. And that's not just they worship service it is but it is time whether corporately or privately you're talking to the Lord with an open Bible.
Mary and Martha. Martha was busy serving, she goes to Jesus is my little sister Mary. To go with that Jesus rebuked her, Martha I love you, but your little sister has made the better choice now some people misinterpret this passage they think that Jesus is putting sitting before Jesus against serving. No Jesus said the servant is the greatest of all he's done putting into contrast the one who serves in the kitchen that's Martha and the one who sits at Jesus goes to the prayer meeting that's Mary. No he wasn't rebuking Martha for serving in the kitchen he was rebuking Martha for serving with the wrong spirit. But when we are to serve in the kitchen I mean the King I mean the servants of the kingdom are the greatest in the kingdom it's not against serving in the kitchen that's why I was talking about is talking about serving but being content without an interaction with the Lord in our lives. And this is your little sister is on the right trajectory she's chosen the right path you'd be wise to pay attention to her and you'll serve with a very different spirit Martha. Says she's chosen the right part. The good part.
Encourage people and their prayer times turn off I mean you hear this over and over and you've probably said it over and over turn off the social media. We're in and we can be over stimulated by information and will not connect with God in the same way I don't mean just in the prayer room just over stimulation just like you can be over stimulated physically and work too many hours a day and not rest in a proper way you can be over stimulated emotionally and not read. Properly from turning off some of this stuff to where you have that sacred space in your heart we were not created to be in a perpetual dialogue with people all across the earth just thoughts bombarding us from all the good these different folks and ideas and stories that sacred place was designed to be your conversation with the Lord and I mean you can do social media but we need to see it really reduced and guarding the sacred space in our heart.
Strong relationship or strong prayer, we need both in which anybody that has a strong prayer life will have a strong relationships in time it's not one verse the other a personal that grows in love and encounters a love of God will love people better we don't choose prayer or people the first commandment Love God in the second commandment love people flow out of one reality and when we interact with God we love God better we love people better and I have a little bit written on that here on page six. Well amen and amen I want to encourage it up schedule time make a Prayer list get cultivate a right view of God and determine this next five in ten years not that it takes that long you're going to be different in five years ten years fifteen years you'll look back later and say I don't regret having spent that time with the Lord.
It's different now know. I understand the plight and the journey that some of you are facing when you think of not a chance, is never going to happen to me. While I understand the difficulties because I struggled through them. But by the grace of God and I want to say this humbly tenderly that I've been able to maintain a consistent prayer life for many many years for some decades now and I don't mean the prayer life has been amazing but it's been consistent. And I want to share a practical plan with you because I believe it will work for you and the reason I have energy on this is because it did work for me and I know that I started in a position of not really liking this whole thing called prayer. With three things I want to identify is the need to set a schedule time for prayer now right off the bat if you've never done that and I've taught.
Scheduling time for prayer, you won’t keep it all the time but you put it on your schedule it is stablished is when you pray not all the time you pray but it gives you a core a beginning as a core to developing a prayer life number to make a prayer list or prayer lists, cultivate a right view of God and what I mean by that, I don't mean just here one teaching on God loves you and then got it. But I mean by speaking the word before the Lord when the devil tells us lies about what God is like and how God views us and taking a stand and doing that spiritual warfare to break those wrong strongholds in our thinking about who God is and how he views us and I know a lot of folks that have heard about the love of God for years but it doesn't move their heart or doesn't reset their emotions or form their emotions and therefore it affects their prayer life in a very dramatic way.
My journey began back in my college days when a man at the university came to me and said, hey I encourage you to schedule prayer time. Every day and make a prayer list and I went what because he I told him how I was struggling in prayer He assured me he said this would change your prayer life and I looked at him and I thought not going to work but because I respected him so much and I met with him every week it was a lot of quite a few years older than me and he was holding me accountable and he asked me every time he met me if I did it so I kind of just out of that I did it. But I found out over time it really worked I want to make a bold statement. I must say it real bold. You will pray ten times more in the next year or two if you'll set prayer on your schedule make a prayer life. I've said that for years and folks protest is no way, legalism, that's not right but they continue for years without prayer life. There are so afraid of doing it this way but they're not afraid of going another decade without a prayer life. And I challenge I go to one year try for one year and I assure you you will be a satisfied customer and the reason I have I been saying this because it changed my prayer life and I've seen it change so many other people's prayer life. This one of the simple three things schedule prayer list in a right view of God or cultivating a right view of God. To scheduling a prayer time this is so simple. But there are so many demands on my time and your time if we're not intentional if we're not intentional about developing a prayer life we won't develop one. You all wake up one day deep in God it doesn't work that way it's just like exercise like taking vitamins you know it's not there is it one day where exercise makes it all better it's over months and years you can take vitamins and eat right it's not that one day all the sudden you are energized in your health it's over years of doing it same is true in our spiritual life. Now this is really obvious but it needs to be said. If you don't determine your schedule somebody else will I promise you. If you don't set your schedule determine to take control of it somebody else will take control of it. I've seen a lot of folks over a lot of years up go to a Bible school go to an internship have their schedule set for them and they don't really understand the value of that schedule and then the schedules lifted they get out and they get a year or two later and they don't have a prayer life at all and I thought well you know I would maybe by osmosis I would wake up one day with a prayer life well I did it you know I prayed a lot when I was there at least I said the prayer room and beloved sitting in the prayer room even if you're not engaging more is happening in your heart than meets the eye I mean I'm all for engaging but I'm saying don't write off the time where you're in there you're going this isn't really working there's other things that are happening positive in your life even in that posture I mean it's obviously a lot better to engage. Engage with the Lord is what I mean what I'm referring to. Now we're not going to keep our schedule one hundred prayercent of the time meaning. I'm talking about just the life even outside of those parameters that I would set my prayer time when I was I remember a eighteen nineteen years old I was sent my prayer time at nine o'clock every night and it was the dreadful hour of nine o'clock at Eight Forty five in the evening I would begin to sweat because in only fifteen minutes the hour of death began. Because I wished it was a joke. Lord I would be resigned to talk to you for an hour please deliver me from this. Funny but it wasn't funny then because I was convinced that I needed to grow in prayer to grow in God and that's true and so and I didn't like growing in prayer so but I want to grow God I was in a Catch twenty two.
And so. I have found over the years that I don't keep my prayer Time hundred percent but here's one thing that if I show up and begin and I don't always when I show up I don't know we stay in my prayer time the whole time I schedule but if I show up and start my prayer time whether it's at home my dorm room now and I hop or times it in my office or or at my home I have times I set apart from prayer and if I schedule and I find if I keep that schedule down eighty five percent meaning I show up and begin it don't always finish it sometimes it goes longer sometimes I get distracted and I quit short I'm not again talking about our sacred trust and I hope I'm talking about something more general than that but I feel good about that that if I'm keeping it about eighty five percent I feel like I'm really on a trajectory to succeed in my prayer life and again I show up often my mind is blank I don't feel like praying but I go here I am Lord I'm opening my heart to you and a lot of times all go for the time I've said and sometimes I'll come up short and some dumb dog distracted but I show up and I think just by showing up I mean before the Lord at that given time it's remarkable, how many times you actually will in the up in prayer even though I don't feel like it before I come. And I'm busy and a lot of things that are on my mind but I stuck the prayer time don't always end it but I do show up and I found it's remarkable how that one little point makes a huge difference.
I don't limit my prayer time to move that schedule time that's just the time where I position myself before the Lord as I do it no matter how I feel and I pray when I feel throughout the day as well I pray many times outside of that set time so don't limit that.
Consider this there is one hundred in sixty eight hours a week that everyone on the planet has everyone has one hundred sixty eight hours a week that's seven days twenty four hours a day if you take ten hours a day to eat to sleep and get dressed, not some people say I can do all that today hours well for the sake of the of the idea just go with me ten hours you sleep X. amount you eat X. amount you fix your hair X. amount. OK ten hours do you do that ten hours a day, beloved that still gives you almost one hundred hours a week in order to manage your time one hundred hours. Now you know some folks work forty some go to school forty some do I help fifty they still but they have one hundred hours to work with every week if it takes ten hours to eat sleep and get dressed my point is one hundred hours is a whole lot of 2 fifteen and thirty minute gaps of time that I find that people squander and waste and over years over decades it's a huge amount of human life huge amount of life that just kind of goes by the wind I wanted courage to lock in times or gets a lot I'm going to I'm going to schedule my life around the times I set before you I mean schedule my recreation and my entertainment and my social times around the times I sit with you not the other way around. And I believe that if you have been a little bit of creativity that hundred hours that you have after you eat sleep and get class ten hours a day that nearly one hundred hours with a little creativity you can move some things around and a person that really cares I mean I'm sure there's a few exceptions they really can develop time I mean find time developed prayer life before the Lord.
Make a prayer list making a prayer list this is very simple tool but a prayer list what help keep us focused in our prayer times. So I've you know I show up you know I remember back in college it was nine o'clock nine to ten o'clock and I stayed in there till ten even though you know sometimes a bunch of time I was complaining but you know what I was actually praying. I didn't know as prayer go God this is a really bad way to run your kingdom. If I was you I would take a guy like me and use me but you want me to sit here and talk to you about nothing, I've already told you everything I'm most actually praying and didn't even know that was actually praying. I thought I was complaining. Well it was but I didn’t have prayer list. OK. But I didn't have a prayer list and my leader he says will get a prayer. Like, what you know. What do you know to play for I go I you know I've prayed for thank you God I have food there's people the world starving thank you that I have arms and legs are people the world thank you…. Thirty seven years later when the best thing that ever happened to me in my life. But anyway. The simple tool he said will get a prayer list, start putting things down right I'm down right a few things that come to mind and just go down the list and as you do it you'll develop it more and more severely. So I begin to, make lists. Often when I sit down to pray you know again at the university it's nine o'clock at night I said down I got the hour set apart but my mind's blank even now when I hop forty years later. I sit down in the prayer room, in my mind blank. I don't know what to pray I'm sitting in the prayer room going, I'm tired I'm distracted, blank. And I need a little jump start and I look down and and I see my prayer list, fill my heart with the love of God. OK good fill my heart, with the love of God I go that's why that's what I'm here for. Pray for the power of God evangelism I have a few names there. I'm am exaggerating a little bit not entirely but I look at it it's kind like a jump start you know like a jump start a car and how to get it going. I still have prayer list and I use them all the time because I've gone through them so many times I don't have to look down at them but I stop and I go oh yes yes my prayer list but many times I feel the inspiration of the Lord in and I'll follow the leading of the Lord it's not on my prayer list at all so I don't limit myself to the scheduled time I pray or the prayer list those are just practical tools to get me going and when I'm inspired I'm going in a different direction, I forget my prayer list and I don't finish my prayer list every day, don't even try to. I use it when I need to when I show up before the Lord and I'm feeling a little tired and disjointed my mind is blank that's when I use my prayer list or when I pray for a few minutes and I've kind of well I guess I did that I looked I go yeah and I retarget I refocused my mind.
I have three different Prayer list that I've had over the years I have a personal prayer list for my prayer life. I pray for my own spiritual life my heart in God. I pray for my ministry pray for my personal circumstances and I use the acronym fellowship which we will go through it's ten letters there are ten different prayers that I pray like F is for the fear of God to grow in my heart. And I go down the list and I just sit there in the prayer room or where sometimes when I'm driving an hour or I'm just taking a walk and I'll just go down that list and many times I'll be inspired by the Lord and the Lord will breathe on it. A lot of times nothing much is different other times it's very special I never know and sometimes I begin a prayer life a prayer time very lethargic and feeling disconnected and I end it with the a presence of God touching me in a surprising way so I don't think by how you store it your prayer time is how it's going to end I have found over the years I just show up and start and many times I just feel that inspiration of the Lord that feeling of God's presence I go there I love this but I never know exactly what that time is going to be like That's why I try to keep my prayer times I try to keep a faithful to the times I set before the Lord and I pray for my personal life, pray for people or places I have a pretty obvious but I got a list of people got a list of places cities I pray for the cities I've prayed most for are Jerusalem Cairo those are two cities the Lord's put on I put on my heart a special way now Jerusalem God calls everybody to pray for Jerusalem but I pray for other cities as well Kansas City or pray for Kansas City. I pray for justice I have a justice prayer list where it says you know it's the main topics that are happening in the nation or whether there's a maybe there's a great storm ordered or or some natural disaster that takes place or some human trafficking focus that you know comes to the awareness of a nation or a city or not that you need to wait for that to preview much Africa and that's a key one to pray for all the time but anyway so I got my personal life I have people in places and then I have justice issues.
Some people protest that having a prayer list or a schedule is legalism now it can be legalism but it doesn't have to be legalism. Legalism is what you do when you try to earn God's love if you're in a prayer time because you think God doesn't love you and you say all even pray if you'll just love me that's legalism if the addressee legalism isn't the activity it's the attitude of the heart in which you do the spiritual activity you can do the disciplines of the Kingdom trying to earn God's love and those disciplines are legalism you can do those same disciplines with an attitude of confidence in the already loves you and that discipline will position you to experience more. So don't let somebody write off all the disciplines of the Kingdom of God or write them all off as legalism. don't buy that age old lie that if you do something consistently regularly the same time it is therefore legalism and rigid I have seen a lot of folks lose a lot of time in their spiritual life by buying into that lie they go out of it's nine o'clock every night and this is that every night again. I'm going back to my college days but most nights it near and sometimes I got surprise the Lord touch me and sometimes it did and then when I was in my twenty's and thirty's I had different time set but the setting of the time is not what makes it legalism it's if you think you're earning God's love by doing it but if you are there with confidence even the emerging confidence of beginning confidence that's not legalism that's positioning yourself to experience the grace of God in a greater way.
Look at Galatians five Paul says You've been called the Liberty don't use your liberty to walk in the flesh and what how I'm using that in this context some people thinks liberty is being passive just you know I'm not going to do anything in this and with any kind of focus or any type of regularity and all I can do any activity, going to do whatever comes if you live by that mostly you won't engage with God very much you will some but you will engage with God far more if you're intentional about it and you actually take time to cultivate that dialogue in your life with the Lord so don't think Liberty means that you don't have anything that is regular in committed in your schedule that's done with liberty and that's using the idea of liberty for the opportunity for your flesh to just give way and we will grow in the Lord and that's the thing I have passion about is that I know that I sit before the Lord The analogy I've used over the years is you know you're taking you know if you take a frozen piece of meat out of the out of the freezer and you put it in front of that fire that fire is going to make that frozen steak or hamburger or whatever it will fall out and it will be very tender and using that imperfect analogy you take a cold hard and put it before the fire of God's presence your heart will get tenderized and energized over time. It's not, the power of speaking before the fire its the power of the fire the tender rises and so I encourage you to put your cold heart in front of the fire I do that still my heart gets cold at different seasons I just put it before the fire and I find that that cold and that that a frozen place stays tender or becomes tender if it gets cold. Well the third area is cultivating a right view of God Now again this is the way we cultivated this by reading what the Bible says about God and in the most general sense the big subject by the way God is a tender father Jesus is a bridegroom king he's a king with power but he's a bridegroom with desire he actually enjoys you. The father is tender he likes you Jesus likes you he enjoys the relationship even in our weakness. Now we get that clear in our mind and we grow in that and then when the devil comes in accuses us and says you know God are just about ready to just kick you out of the kingdom or he's going to punish you because you don't pray enough he's going to punish you don't pray enough and he's mad at you that's not it God doesn't call us to pray to see if we can endure long times with him and if we can endure God then he'll say OK you passed the test you endured me that's not what prayer is. He longs for communication with us he longs for a relationship is not going to punish us if we don't spend time in prayer but if we do spend time in prayer we will experience more because we put our cold hard in front of the fire of his desire and that desire touches our hearts.
So we know the truth about God as a tender father Jesus as a bridegroom King we're in are judged in our hearts we'll pray much more if we have a right view of God And again this is more than taking a class on Jesus the bridegroom or a class on God the Father heart of God when the enemy comes we have to speak the truth and resist the accusations of the enemy because he will accuse us night and day night and day and I know people that have been through all the classes but in their personal life they don't engage with that truth and they still live with the wrong view of God though they have heard the teachings for years. Beloved are prayer life will be very different when we have confidence that he desires us that he enjoys us even in our weakness when I find that when I feel that he enjoys me even when I'm not doing all the things I've set my heart to but he says I love the relationship I enjoy you doesn't mean he enjoys every area of our life but he enjoys the relationship he enjoys the person. I run to him instead of run from him. And when I've blown it or come up short or didn't do the things I was committed to I come as a father but it least you like me and you enjoyed me this is the this is the refuge I can come to.
I mean people are disappointed they'll write you off but God I know that you won't, now some people are the wrong view of God. They think God is the one punishing them because they are not praying or God's the one finished with them because they stumbled it's exactly the opposite. He has the most patients he has the most desire he will be the most long suffering with our weakness you know what it means longsuffering him and suffer long. It is really what it means he will stay with this long beyond what anybody else would. So when others give up. On you he has it when you give up on you he has it when you don't like you he still likes you. Now it's Or I mean that's the refuge I can go there it's a home ah you like me I like people who like me Father I like those who like me thank you and I can feel that's the refuge that's the home plug that's the home center so for my heart and for your.
We cry we receive the spirit of adoption Paul said we cry Abba father. Abba is a term of endearment it's like in our culture saying papa. But it's a respect but with affection and intimacy in the heart we open our heart without fear we have confidence the Abba cry is Father you are the great God but you are my papa some people get silly with their view of God as papa don't turn it into silliness maintain our Father who art in heaven He is the most high God who reigns over the heavens he is our father but he already in heaven is what Jesus said he's the transcendent Most High God but he is. And so we come with respect great respect but with this. Endearment this term of endearment this confidence and affection confidence that he likes us papa here I am my heart is hurting I feel weak papa my heart is I'm excited by this thing that's happened in my life and he is and has joined with us he doesn't just have. Emotion when we're struggling actually has feels emotion when we're doing well and in our hearts are excited by what he's doing it touches his heart as well. This will equip us to reject Satan's accusations we can say that it is written He is my father he is Abba I've been adopted into the family. We approach is thrown with confidence.
Jesus is not just a king he's a bridegroom King he's not just a king with power he's a bridegroom with desire he actually delights in us.
He has fiery emotions he has tender emotions is deep commitments to us I mean we are His eternal companion forever he chose us even in our weakness, he wanted you when you didn't want him he wanted you when you didn't want you he stayed with you and said you're with me forever you will be part of my eternal companion for ever you will reign with Me a near Me ,beloved. Do we know who this man is who is fully God and fully man?
God says, I delight in them I like them more than they know tell them this and this view of God is a very important part of growing in prayer you can set the schedule you can have the prayer list but you have a wrong view of God your prayer life. Won't go anywhere you can have the right view of God But if you don't make time to talk to him you still will some because you just love him as you go but you'll talk to him far more if you actually put it into the routine of your life or your schedule and again you're not limited to your schedule you don't keep your schedule hundred percent but you'll end up over five in ten years praying I believe ten times more if you put it a part of the routine of your life double page for. Too busy to pray. Well most of us feel we're too busy to pray. Well the truth is we're too busy not to pray honestly. Because we can't we can't afford to carry out our spiritual responsibilities spiritually burned out I mean we can afford to carry out our responsibilities not just our spiritual ones as moms and dads as those are the marketplaces I mean you can't as a student be a student if your sponsor burnout you can't succeed as a student we can't do our work right spiritually burned out we have to have. Some interaction with the Lord our spirit is being renewed invigorated. The Lord calls all of his children to pray no matter what occupation he calls the maintenance man the doctor the home schooling mom the teacher. He calls the student he calls the athlete, they talk to some they go are so busy we can make the prayer of everyone is called to be in prayer because prayers about interacting with the heart they can do their job in the way God intended if they are spiritually burn, out we can work for him but he wants us to work with him and working with him means having dialogue in the work whether the work is a student studying that your work whether it's a it's a mom do a home schooling Well that's of father loving man loving his wife and raising his family that's part of the work God gave a gig gave that man he will do the work far better working with God instead of working for God even in those arenas.
Some worry they take time to pray they lose time to love their families they say if I pray if I take the time to pray where am I going to get time for my family or my business or my ministry. I have exactly the opposite conclusion you take time to pray you'll be a better father homeschooling mom you will love with greater energy. and you'll impart more to your children by taking time to interact with God even time away from your responsibilities you will carry your responsibilities the totally different spirit. You need to be spiritually invigorated or be on that pathway not just be a workaholic in the kingdom.
The best thing a man can do to love his wife is have a prayer life and I mean you have to pray five hours a day but a man with a prayer life will love his wife and children far more. Women. Encourage your husbands don't badger him but encourage them in their prayer life and I don't mean by you know putting tracks under the pillow and I think oh no here another message on prayer what I mean is if they are inclined in that direction don't say what about me what about time for me. Know that if that guy touches God he will like you more sanctified selfishness he likes God he'll like you more he will be a better father of your children if he's touching God more and again I'm not putting this outside of the two the super saint you know the man that's like Moses who talks to God face to face at the mountain I'm just talking about just the routine growing in God Little by little day by day month by month year by year. It's not a question of choosing. Work or prayer we can do both Jesus did both I have a little bit on that.
Time for God and time for people. I mean I hear the argument all the time I don't have time for the people if I make time for God, no you could do both. God never gave you an assignment so intense you don't have time for him in the assignment I go the assignment you're carrying it wrong you get a wrong view of what the Lord requires of you, you have a wrong view of how this works and when you get burned out a minute later you'll get bitter and then a minute later you'll drop out of the work and I said no you can't sustain the work without being invigorated by the Lord so don't choose the people and the relationships over time with God. Now some go the other way it will look at that in just a few moments I think that's a copout people choose their say time with God in the it's a copout for being antisocial and that's it's a way to avoid other issues.
We don't have to give up our prayer times to fulfill the will of God. Most of us there are exceptions we can smoke people can steal some of their time from their entertainment recreation in their play time to engage with God in a greater way.
We must be fiercely determined. To grow in the Lord I mean we've got to be serious about stealing that time. For the kingdom I mean to grow in God I mean I mean even away from some of our ministry to people we've got to prioritize putting that time because our culture is increasingly busy our culture is increasingly noisy and our culture is crowding out that sacred space of our heart that was meant to interact with God in the social media generation I mean there's so much noise and so much conversation and so much activity that many folks they love Jesus but their actual interaction with him is getting less and less because of their perpetual interaction with others through the media the social media.
We don't schedule our time others will take it. And we'll end up living in the tyranny of the urgent That's a phrase that has been used by many over the years the tyranny of the urgent whatever situation is presenting itself to us that moment we do it whatever social opportunity whatever need whatever crisis we'll just leave whatever for that and there are times to leave what we're doing for those things but I know some folks many they live in the tyranny of doing whatever is presented to them five years go by ten years go by twenty years go by they love Jesus but they've never grown spiritually. They have the same fears they have the same confusion in their spiritual life they have the same goal heart they have the same lack of understanding of the world they had twenty years ago. And the Lord say no my presence is for you yeah but Lord I just you know I'm just trying to be a blessing to the people he goes Yeah but in even made to be a blessing to the people and you can live in the tyranny of the urgent. Responding to every situation presented to you there's times we have to say no to people if we're going to grow in God Absolute that that's the most difficult challenge in my life. The most difficult challenge isn't about money the biggest challenge isn't about doing this or doing that or it's about saying no to people. When I want to say yes and they want me to say yes because the Lord says I've called you to do this so you can serve them in a far better way but if you say yes to every one your ability to serve them in the spirit will go way down over time.
Some people live by the whim of everyone and everything that comes their way.
We got to live by God's will in our life not by everything that comes our way or we're going to live with regret we're going to have regret twenty and thirty years later or less. I don't want to look back over the years and say Lord I just wish I would have done it all differently I wish I would have done that.
Some of us need to downsize our lifestyle. We need to downsize some of the things that we do, some of the things we own, some of the things that we're responsible for we did downsize a few things to make time that our heart can grow. Holy Spirit can lead you best he'll show you which are what to do but ask him. Ephesian chapter five Paul gives a very important exhortation, he's talking to the church in Ephesus. Now the Church of Ephesus had the greatest revival in the New Testament even beyond the Book of the city of Jerusalem. The revival of Ephesus and Acts twenty actually surpassed in power and influence the revival in Jerusalem. But here's Paul I mean within the within you know a few years after the great revival he's telling them wake up I'm talking to the Saints a deficit to the great revival center of emphasis. He goes you sleep or spiritual He met him at the believers in that revival center we're already becoming with orgy. He goes rise up shake off the lethargy and Christ will shine on you that means the presence of God touching our heart that's what that means he's talking to born again believers. Verse five he says let me tell you in the most practical way how to rides. He says be careful how you spend your time. If you use your time right. You'll position yourself for Christ to shine on you and you to cast off spiritual lethargy again I know folks twenty thirty forty years later there are still stuck in the same lethargy they had years ago. It's about time you see they're not living in conscious deliberate sin where they're defying the Lord's leadership over and over I mean they might stumble here and there but they if that's not the issue it's not the wrong image of God It's the wrong use of their time and that's what Paul connects here verse fifteen he goes you want Christ to shine you want to feel the presence of God more than experience more take some time to cast off lethargy and be in his presence. And that's not just they worship service it is but it is time whether corporately or privately you're talking to the Lord with an open Bible.
Mary and Martha. Martha was busy serving, she goes to Jesus is my little sister Mary. To go with that Jesus rebuked her, Martha I love you, but your little sister has made the better choice now some people misinterpret this passage they think that Jesus is putting sitting before Jesus against serving. No Jesus said the servant is the greatest of all he's done putting into contrast the one who serves in the kitchen that's Martha and the one who sits at Jesus goes to the prayer meeting that's Mary. No he wasn't rebuking Martha for serving in the kitchen he was rebuking Martha for serving with the wrong spirit. But when we are to serve in the kitchen I mean the King I mean the servants of the kingdom are the greatest in the kingdom it's not against serving in the kitchen that's why I was talking about is talking about serving but being content without an interaction with the Lord in our lives. And this is your little sister is on the right trajectory she's chosen the right path you'd be wise to pay attention to her and you'll serve with a very different spirit Martha. Says she's chosen the right part. The good part.
Encourage people and their prayer times turn off I mean you hear this over and over and you've probably said it over and over turn off the social media. We're in and we can be over stimulated by information and will not connect with God in the same way I don't mean just in the prayer room just over stimulation just like you can be over stimulated physically and work too many hours a day and not rest in a proper way you can be over stimulated emotionally and not read. Properly from turning off some of this stuff to where you have that sacred space in your heart we were not created to be in a perpetual dialogue with people all across the earth just thoughts bombarding us from all the good these different folks and ideas and stories that sacred place was designed to be your conversation with the Lord and I mean you can do social media but we need to see it really reduced and guarding the sacred space in our heart.
Strong relationship or strong prayer, we need both in which anybody that has a strong prayer life will have a strong relationships in time it's not one verse the other a personal that grows in love and encounters a love of God will love people better we don't choose prayer or people the first commandment Love God in the second commandment love people flow out of one reality and when we interact with God we love God better we love people better and I have a little bit written on that here on page six. Well amen and amen I want to encourage it up schedule time make a Prayer list get cultivate a right view of God and determine this next five in ten years not that it takes that long you're going to be different in five years ten years fifteen years you'll look back later and say I don't regret having spent that time with the Lord.
