This is the Truth Network. 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. Oh, today's episode for me, I know, is just what the doctor ordered. And James, I love what you start out with. It's not LOL today, it's L-T-L. We've got to learn it.
That's right. That's right. We're going to talk about learning to linger. Learning to linger. And Uh that means l learning just a Spend time with God in prayer.
What does that look like? What does that feel like? And why does that matter? Yeah. And I'll be honest, Robbie, as we start with this.
Man, I need to learn this as well. It's a work in progress in my life. You know what I mean? Oh, uh do I ever? Because I have an idea what you're going to say.
Yeah, it's very convicting that um Man, I I I know it's just Spot on, and looking forward to what the listeners hear when you share it. Again, this is something that is tough for us. Right? Because we're always moving from one thing to the next and Sometimes we define achievement that way. And In God's eyes, it's a different thing.
And I think as we start the year where there's so much emphasis on doing things differently and not doing that and doing, doing, doing. Uh it it helps.
So look at Being, just being. And when it comes to prayer, what that means is lingering. And so. How do you linger? spend time really without an agenda.
Okay. Again, why do you want to? And I I think the best answer to that Why question is because lovers linger. You know, think about that girl that you liked in middle school. Right.
And you were just always kind of hanging around, right? I actually stood on the street where she lived many times, just hoping I'd get a glimpse of her coming out the door, almost you know, stalking really. Yeah, yeah. It's that That notion, but in a healthy way. I don't know if there's a negative senses of that word lingering, but the.
The healthy sense is when there is a a genuine mutual interest. And maybe you don't have anything to say, but you just like to be with each other. And that's a beautiful thing, that's a God-given thing, that's part of the nature of affection. And You know, we have to have that with God. That's part of loving him with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind.
And so um A good verse on this, of course, is Psalm twenty seven, four. You mentioned that to me before we started. One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple. Think about that.
That gazing upon the beauty of the Lord. That's also something lovers do. You know, they like the way the other person looks, and so they just. Yeah. And It th this has to do with an internal Gaze.
If you will. It's it's that And what Paul prays about when he says, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, may be opened. you know, to know the goodness of God. And so I just want to encourage us to not have an agenda, to just go to God, to be with God. Yeah, and I want to share a note that I got.
I have a friend. Uh Don Long, who uh Also, he has a prodigal prayer ministry. And so we work together sometimes. And Don sends out devotions. And he sent this yesterday.
With a sense of this, is what the Lord put on his heart. Let me read this: He said, Your greatest blessings happen. when you linger in my presence. Many of your best moments occur when you are with me in prayer and sacrificially stay with me longer than you anticipated. You rush to your next agenda while I seek to spend more time with you, my love.
You pray for more. Yet you give me little. You seek my gifts. You wonder why you ask it, you do not receive. I delight in giving.
Yet you have not desired my total presence. I desire you wholly and totally. If only you knew the things I have in store for you now and eternally, your agenda and the things you rush to while with me, would pale in comparison. O my loves, stay, linger, and sup with me, and there will be no regrets, nothing lost, but much gained. Oh, my love, the time is short.
Seek me now, linger in my presence while there is yet time. I love that. Oh, wow. It might even be better the second time I've heard it. You know, that is that's it, right?
That that that's exactly how we feel when we're desperately in love. And it's it's almost Hard to accept, like in the Song of Solomon, when she said, I'm black yet comely. You know, he just, we don't feel worthy of that. Right. Right.
Yeah. Yeah, there's that, and of course, you're using the King James Version there where she's saying her skin has been darkened by the sun. Um And You know, there's that notion of, I guess, I guess that was a negative thing then, sure isn't now, you know. I'm glad it's not. Um It it's just such a Such a beautiful thing to realize that God just loves us.
just loves us and wants to be with us. And I want to encourage our listeners in that. Oh, to to go there, to go there. more this year. Just Just Do it.
Waste time in God's presence, and it will never be wasted. That's well said, yes. I think it's a good time to pray, don't you? Do it. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. That we may linger, that we may learn to linger. uh that we would learn it more. Um That that that we would Again, seek your face.
As it says in the Psalm so much, Lord, we pray that you would. Continue to stir that hunger in our hearts. Continue to bring this message. to the forefronts of our minds as we even um Enjoy you today. In Jesus' name I pray.
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.
