Encouraging prayer God offers an open invitation for his people to talk with him at any time about anything. On encouraging prayer, Dr. James Banks, author of the best-selling Prayers for Prodigals and many other books on prayer, provides weekly biblical insight to help you learn to love to pray. And now, here's James.
So how do you pray when you're not in the mood for it? On this encouraging prayer, we're going to be talking about the difference Prayer can make for our moods and why we need to pay attention to this, James. Yeah, that's a great place to start, Robbie. And it gets even better from there because It's important to talk about this because sometimes we can only seem like you know, prayer is something we have to be in the mood for. Kind of like the old song, you know, I'm in the mood for love.
Okay. I'm in the mood for prayer.
Well, no, no, it's It's about so much more than that. Think about what God said in Jeremiah 23: Am I only a God nearby, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them. It costs the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth?
So in other words, you know. He's saying, look. Yeah. I'm right here, guys. I'm right here.
And you can take that in this instance to mean even When we don't feel like he is, he is still there. It's fascinating this subject, you know, it's often the spirit obviously works in similar ways with all of us, you know, that we're kind of on some kind of lesson plan. And this must be, you know, part of what he's teaching us. Even last night, so I was you know, then that as a diabetic, my never-ending struggle that I just w have to eat something that, oh my goodness, I just have to I just can't go without right now, especially at night when I'm not supposed to. And I wasn't in the mood to pray.
I really wasn't. But I just all of a sudden it just hit me. I was like. Lord I'm going to pray for a dear friend that's really struggling with something right now. And I just stopped.
Rather than go after what my heart was craving. I decided to change directions and it was amazing the immediate relief that I had when my heart turned towards him, but it was also turning towards the person that I really felt he compelled me to pray for in that moment. And it was amazingly effective. Yeah, and it was better for you than your blood sugar as well. Yeah, the same also.
I was thinking about this because of something George McDonald, and again, you know, I've been reading a lot of lately. Um something he wrote. I am not all mood. I can judge betwixt or, you know. To put it in modern parlance, I'm not all mood.
I can tell the difference. You know, I can judge between the two. And um Yes. And this is This is not just about self-control. Just giving ourselves to God.
In the moment. You know, just Just learning to to rest in him and to account for. Order our thoughts. After him. And I got to thinking about: you know, where's a good place in scripture where I see this?
And Psalm 57 from David. You know, David had to be a guy who uh You know, he's an artiste in his own way. Oh, yeah. Oh, my goodness, wasn't he? But You know, if you look at him, Uh, in Psalm 57, he begins with, Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me, for in you I take refuge.
And I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.
So some say that this is when he was being pursued by Saul into a cave. And um Mm-hmm. Again, David is facing disaster. And maybe, you know, we've felt that way. Maybe you get that sense of darkness that just kind of comes in like a cloud and presses down.
And you know what? You know it's real. You know, the question is: where do you go? How do you find. Peace.
in all of that and David, you know, verse 2 says, I cry out to God. Most high. And in other words, I recognize God is over everything else, and then he tells God. You know, I'm in the midst of lions in verse Verse 4. And um Mm-hmm.
In verse 5, he says, Be exalted, O God. above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the earth. And then verse 7. My heart, O God, is steadfast.
My heart is steadfast. In other words, This is where I'm going to stand. I'm going to stand. And then he continues, I'll sing and make music. Awake, my soul Awake, harp and lyre I will awaken the dawn And I love that because it's like, wake up, man.
Come on. What do you believe? Who who are you really standing with and who are you standing for? Yeah. Then the whole thing ends with, Be exalted, O God, above the heavens.
Let your glory Be over. all the earth and you see And that psalm starts in one place. mood-wise and finishes in a very different one. Doesn't it? Oh, my goodness.
it it speaks right back to the George McDonald idea that He he's pushing through. um his mood to You know, I guess another place. Yeah, and as he does that, I mean God carries him. to the other place. And I think that's the key thing.
You know, this this is not This is not just our controlling our moods. If we can catch a glimpse of that, it'll make it easier for us to say, yeah, you know, I'm just. I'm going to be steadfast.
So This isn't just about printing when we don't feel like it. When when we do this, we discover that our faith is is so much more than self-persuasion. God has ways of meeting us of speaking to our hearts of even answering our prayers. that we would not have seen if we did not resolve to pray.
So just like you in that moment when you were wanting to reach for something, um to eat and got you know, showed you a better way He can do that in the most creative ways and instantaneous ways even. you know, again and again for us, if we will just Go there. Oh, it's so beautiful. I'm still getting over the fact that you said he carried you there. Or hi in case of David, he carried him there.
And that's exactly what that feels like. It feels like I was in this bad place where I knew I 99 times out of 100 make a bad decision. And all of a sudden, he carried me. That is so amazing. He carried me.
Um, like like the footsteps in the sand. Yeah, and I think that raises just Um The first is Um Will we go there? You know, will we allow ourselves to be carried, if you will? And then the second part of that is. the challenge, will we allow it not to be just about us.
Oh yeah. Gmail. that that our hearts will turn to him and all that he is. And that's That's the challenge, but that's also the place where he meets us. That's so awesome.
Well, it'd be a good time to pray like that, right? Yeah. Father bless us. Help us. Part uh to learn from David in this.
Just to turn to you too. yield to you, to let you carry us. To turn our hearts to you above our problems because you are so much greater. and you always deserve our praise. Thank you that our problems will one day be over.
but you never will be. And you are good. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.
You can hear more from Pastor James by visiting his website. JamesBanks.org or by visiting Peace Church in Durham, North Carolina. May God bless you and encourage you as you pray. Yeah.
