How to Pray More

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Share it. But most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network. And for his people to talk with him at any time about anything. On Encouraging Prayer, Dr. James Banks, author of the bestselling 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 James, I'm hoping you can take it from here. Anyone might think it was a correspondence between two saints. She's saying the same thing.

You guys sound holier than you actually are. And I thought about some of our broadcasts, and I thought, oh man, we've got to be careful here. And it's like she's adding, why don't you talk about what a challenge it is to pray? Paul put it this way.

We have this treasure in jars of clay. So we're always a work in progress, and we never want to sound like we've got this down, because just when we think we do, we'll have to start all over again, because then our eyes are on ourselves and not on God. Oh, the irksomeness of prayer, right? A very honest way to put it, because that's what our conversations with ourselves would sound like sometimes, right?

Oh, I know I need to pray, but I don't really have time for it today. It just feels like one more thing. That's exactly right. And we've all had those conversations, not so much with God maybe, but with ourselves. And they usually end up in a place like, well, I'm a Martha, I'm not a Mary, and the Lord understands that. I mean, after all, it's the practical people who get things done.

But that's just the thing. When you learn to consistently make time for prayer, you find that you're actually able to get a lot more done. Your work becomes more efficient because God is in it and in you that much more. And most of us understand that, but still we struggle to actually do it. Besides, we know we need to pray more. We know God wants us to do it. So today, let's talk about how right here, right now, we can learn how to pray more and praise Him more, step by step, and then actually love doing it.

Here's step one. Make a practice of trying to thank God more. This is important for a number of reasons.

Of course, God's Word tells us to pray, giving thanks in Philippians 4-6, we may know that. And if you think about it, it's a way to let God into everyday life. It really becomes helpful.

The first thing it does is it affects our attitudes. If we're thanking God for something, we're a lot less likely to see ourselves as the center of the universe. And so often that's the problem, right? And then we're also less likely to complain. So we really need to do this, and we will be happier if we do. Oh, that's so true. And we have so many things we can thank God for, right? And what seems like the smallest thing, like the flour or the warm chocolate chip cookie, which I wouldn't really like right this minute, are some of the best. So, you know, step one, apparently, is to thank God more. So what's step two?

Okay. Well, we can't stay stuck on thanking God just for things in our lives, because that would make it all about us. And then when difficult moments come, you know, then it would be perhaps, why have you allowed this to happen? So the more we thank him, the more we realize that he's done so much for us, and we really don't deserve it. It brings us to this point of, why should I be so blessed?

Why should God be so good to me? So that's why we need to try to thank him. And then that flows into this thought, almost automatically brings us to the next thing we need to do. And that is thank him until we can praise him for him, praise God for God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you know, just for God and himself.

And that will help us be more spontaneous about this and actually love to do it. That reminds me of what the Bible says about loving the Lord with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength and mind. You know, praising him is one of the ways that we really love him.

Yeah, that's exactly right. But I think about what G.K. Chesterton wrote, angels can fly because they take themselves lightly. I love that because I think his point is, the more we take our eyes off of ourselves and try to put them on our Savior, the more our spirits are lifted. All right. So step one is to try to thank him more. Step two is to thank him until we can praise him from the heart. So what's step three? Okay, well, notice the way step one starts, try to thank God more. So this is something we have to decide to do. When Scripture says to love the Lord with all your heart, it's a command.

C.S. Lewis said that the two great commandments Jesus talked about, loving God and loving others, boil down to behave as if you love God and man. Because no one can love just because they're told to. So love has to come from the heart.

It's got to be freely given. But as we already saw with step two, the more we thank God more, the more we will want to praise him and just praise him for him. So step three is understand that God loves it when we make the effort, and that will help you do it more. The most selfless love is really an act of the will. Jesus showed us that at the cross. So here's the last quote from those letters from C.S.

Lewis. He writes, I have a notion that what seem our worst prayers may really be in God's eyes are best, those I mean which are least supported by devotional feeling and content with the greatest disinclination. For these, perhaps being nearly all will come from a deeper level than just feeling. That's a comforting thought, James, because we can feel guilty sometimes about not feeling more when we pray. But I see where you're going with this, really, that those may be some of our best moments because we're sincerely making the effort.

Yeah, that's exactly right. And God has a way of meeting us unexpectedly when we do. So I really believe this gets easier with time, and we may be trying so hard and looking for him in one place, but he knows that we're making the effort, and he has a way of tapping us on the shoulder from behind when we try. So the beautiful thing is that even when we don't feel like anything's happening, when we're not feeling it, those moments are of incredible worth to him.

So let's sum up. Try to thank God more, thank him until you can praise him for him, and understand that God loves it when we just make the effort. And when we feel like nothing is happening, we may be at our very best and look out, because that's just the moment God will bless you in a special way.

That is so awesome and so practical. Well, let's finish with a prayer that we can really put this into practice. I am just personally thankful for, Lord, you putting this on James' heart, that we would see the many, many ways that you have poured into us, especially through Jesus our Savior and that love. Lord, help us to praise him to the point that we really can love him with all our heart, love you with all our heart and soul and strength, and that through that you can help us push into the places where normally we can't go. 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. This is the Truth Network.