A Prayer Revolution!

Hello, this is Will Hardy with ManTalk Radio. We are all about breaking down the walls of race and denomination. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few minutes. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Podcast Network.

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. So here we are on the first Encouraging Prayer of the Year. And because we're looking at a new year, we're going to talk about resolutions today, or at least one in particular. But to set this up, we're going to start talking about the resolutions we made last year. So James, you start.

Thanks a lot, Rami. I made a resolution last year to be on time more. When I was growing up, my mother was late everywhere she went. Sometimes my dad jokingly referred to her as the late Mrs. Banks, and he loved her.

I'm afraid I'm my mother's son. Oh, so how far did you get with that resolution? Months, actually.

Several months. And I thought I was safe. I had heard someone wise say that it takes so much time to break a habit and form a new one, and I started to get talky, you know. I blew way past that number. But then it happened. And it happened again.

And before I knew it, I was back in my old, late ways. So I'm speaking with the late James Banks. I'm afraid so. And that brings us to the point I want to make about prayer and resolutions. I'll spare you having to talk about yours.

Thank you. You've got to be careful when you make a resolution to pray more. And by the way, you may be one of those folks who doesn't make New Year's resolutions if you're a listener. But we still do make goals for ourselves all the time. So here's the thing. If we see prayer as just one more thing to do, we're going to have a hard time with it. Oh, I really know what you mean, because prayer was never meant to be something that we check off our list. And if we did resolve to do it more and succeeded in it for a while, as I've experienced, like almost every day, we could start to get pride, you know, in ourselves for it.

And, you know, that's not good. Still, like you were saying, we need to pray more. So we often stay stuck just feeling guilty about it.

So, you know, what's the way out of that, James? Well, I think that we have to recognize we can't do this in run strength. If we just see prayer as this continual effort that we have to make, we'll end up exhausting and feeling like it's an unrealistic goal. And God doesn't want that for us. And this is where we have to go straight to Jesus and ask for his help. We can start by admitting that we can't do anything without him and ask him to lead our hearts and our minds as we pray.

Just start right there by asking him. So instead of pushing so hard, we need to lean into him more as we pray. Absolutely. And this does several things. It helps us listen and be quiet. And it also helps us to be less willful. If we're always pushing and making an effort, we find ourselves quite naturally insisting on things instead of praying like Jesus and saying, Your will, not mine. So if we lean into him, we're surrendering ourselves more, not not pushing so hard. And the cool thing about that is that he will make this easier for us because when we are truly aware of his presence, that he's right there, then he has a way of helping us want what he wants. Wow, what we're talking about here is really letting him in more.

Yeah, it is. But again, it's not all about our effort. We will try and fail and try and fail again.

But he knows we will. And the beautiful thing is he will pick us up again and again. And this shows us that prayer isn't just about that push, about talking all the time. This is the theme we keep coming back to on Encouraging Prayer.

It really is about relationship. And it seems so simple, but it's a revolutionary thing to realize that Jesus is with us always, just as he promised to be. We say that so easily, but it's a truth that we will keep growing into as we live with him, and that will help us pray.

Yeah, it really is. Just think about those areas where we're tempted. We don't like to think of Jesus being with us when we want to do what we want to do. But if we realize that, you know, he really is, then it makes our choices in that moment all the more clear. I mean, we're either going to worship him and put him first, or we're going to turn away. Exactly. And that is so important, you know, when we're tempted to just call on him.

And this brings up a great point. Learning to lean into Jesus. Sometimes it is hard to call on him in those moments. So learning to lean into him isn't always about resting. We might like the way that sounds, you know, leaning in, and that sounds kind of easy. But as we spend time just being with him, we'll find that often he gives us something to do.

I like what C.S. Lewis said, he said, I'm often praying for others when I should be doing things for them. It's so much easier to pray for a bore than to go and see him.

Ouch. But that's right. I mean, it's amazing the things that can come to mind as we pray. I mean, the things God puts on our hearts. And we really can learn to discern his voice in all those things, as Lewis was doing. Yeah, and sometimes that work is more prayer, too.

Not, again, the pushing of our own wills, but genuinely caring for others and giving ourselves as we pray for them. Oswald Sanders pointed out that when Joshua was fighting the Amalekites and Moses was praying for him with his arms lifted up, he said it was Moses who tired, not Joshua. And that's interesting.

And Sanders explained that the seeming inactivity of prayer on the hill provided to be a greater test of spiritual stamina than fighting in the valley. Wow. So don't just do something. Stand there.

Yeah. Sometimes that's exactly what we have to do. Go deeper. You know, as we lean into him, focus more, pray harder. And, you know, as the Lord leads us, leaning into him won't make us more self-focused. It will do exactly the opposite as we give ourselves to him. And he leads us, you know, to caring for others. And through this, he empowers us to really live with him.

Yeah. So we're not resolving to pray more, but just running to Jesus and putting ourselves at his feet. That there's no better place to be in the new year or always. And think about Mary, who Jesus said chose what is better when she put herself there.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, let's close with a prayer that we can do just that. Jesus, I'm so grateful for this insight. And I pray that we could be really honest with you and share where we're really at and our struggles and that we would lean into you so that we would sense what it would be that would please you in the coming year as far as our prayer time and what we're really struggling with. I pray that you give that opportunity, a nudge of some kind so that we can begin to lean and pray for your spirit to guide us through that. And so grateful for James' message today. In Jesus' name, I pray. 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.