The Prayer Train

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 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. I'm excited about this because I'm going to learn something I don't know. So, tell me, James, about this prayer train.

All right. Well, I'm not sure I'd call it a prayer train, but I was, before Robert and I went on the air, we were talking about an old illustration that you used to see around church sometimes about faith and fact and feeling, and it was usually drawn like a little train. And the first train was fact, and then the second train was faith, and the third was feeling after that. And the point of all of it was that we have to let a reasonable faith direct our feelings. And it's a good point, but it's not always comforting when, you know, there are circumstances happening in your life that, you know, seems allowing and you don't know why. But the point is, sometimes we just have to choose to believe, like it's written about Abraham in Genesis 15, Abraham believed God, and he credited it to him as righteousness. Sometimes that belief is a choice that we make when we don't feel like it. And I think that's so important for us, especially when we're praying, because, you know, sometimes when we pray, we don't feel like it, but we keep going. We keep believing because it's about so much more than, you know, than us. It's about turning to God and, you know, letting go of ourselves a little bit and saying, I'm going to take my stand with him. Yeah, I can't help but think about, I recently went through a real struggle with a family that was losing their daughter to brain cancer, and that eventually happened, unfortunately. But, you know, it's a really, really difficult thing when you're facing those end days and you don't know what you're praying against, and it's hard to continue to have faith and even trust in that particular situation. But I've seen the fruit of their continued faith through this and that, you know, that God has come through.

I like what John Eldredge writes about this. He writes, God is by your side right this very moment, as you read the sentence, despite this reality, and what a wonderful reality it is, we don't always feel him near, don't have a consistent experience of his presence. And some people rarely experience his presence. It can be so disheartening.

I hate that roller coaster, but I don't think we understand what's happening. We think God either presents himself to us or doesn't, according to some rules of the spiritual game we aren't always sure of. So we go about our days waiting for the next appearance, like people who missed the 515 train and are milling about until another one arrives, like stargazers waiting for the next shooting star. Yet God is always here, not only around us, but within us. And then Eldredge goes on, and this is from his book, Get Your Life Back, to quote one of Jesus' promises that he'll make his home with us through the Holy Spirit, and that's in John 14 verses 16 through 20.

And then also he mentions Ephesians 3.17 telling us that Christ will make his home within us, and Colossians 1.27 telling us that Jesus lives within us as our hope when we've received him. And what Eldredge does is he compares our ability to sense Jesus' presence with us to a lamp with a faulty switch. The power is on, Jesus is there, but sometimes the light flickers because we're broken. But here's the thing, the switch, while it's faulty, because we are, can still be switched on, but we have to choose to do it.

We might have to flip it a few times, if you will, but that switch is belief. And he writes about a morning where he woke up worried and unsettled, and listen to this, he says, as I struggled through my prayers that morning, I chose to observe the power of belief. I gently detached from my low feelings and simply chose to believe that God was near.

I basically said to my forlorn soul, Feelings, I'm sorry you aren't well, but I'm not letting you define my experience right now. I think you are misguided. God is right here. I am his. We are close friends.

I'm not sure why I feel low, but it simply isn't true. Then he writes, I turned my attention toward God, and he was right there next to me. Father, thank you that you are right here, that we are good.

There's nothing wrong. I simply align myself with you again today. From this point, he continues, I carried on with my prayers. The effect was startling. Suddenly God was back, as if he had reappeared. Don't you love that? I not only love it, I experience that, seems like every morning. That's the prayer experience right there for me, is often I have to get to that place where I actually believe, but I never isolated it like what you're describing.

Yeah, I thought Eldridge describes it so well, because we have to discipline ourselves to pray, and often when we do that, we will find that God meets us, and we come at it feeling like I've got nothing, but okay, so I've got nothing. It's not about me, it's about him anyhow, right? Oh, I love that. I love this train of thought.

I think it's one of those check yourself before you wreck yourself things. If we make it all about ourselves, then it's not going to end well. So we choose to take our stand, to believe, and as we do, we find he's good. Oh, what a great place to end in prayer. Why don't you do that for us?

I would love to. Lord, this is a hard thing. Help us to believe. Help us to take this and use it practically in our prayers when we're not feeling it. You know, Lord, help us to stick with it and realize we're faulty.

Our wishes are faulty. Help us to believe. Give us that faith. We ask it 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. This is the Truth Network.