Making the Most of Your Prayer Life - Part 2

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, May 4th. Scripture tells us to devote ourselves to prayer. Today's podcast helps you follow those instructions by teaching how to make the most of your prayer life.

I believe if you and I had asked the Lord Jesus Christ what is the priority in his given day on any given day, here's what he would say. It's the time I spend with my father. You recall the Scripture says that he was up early in the morning out alone with the father praying, that in the evening he was alone with the father praying. He said, I only do those things that please the father. I only do those things I see the father doing.

I take no initiative of my own. Jesus Christ was in continuous fellowship with his father. But that wasn't just because he was God, but simply because he took time to be alone with his heavenly father. Well, I want you to turn, if you will, to Colossians chapter four. And here Paul gives us an admonition. And I believe in this passage, he really deals with about every facet we need to deal with when it comes to praying.

We'll deal with one primary part of it. In Colossians chapter four, verse two, he says, Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving, praying at the same time for us as well that God may open up to us a door for the word so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ for which I also have been imprisoned. In order that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak. Now, I want to talk about something very practical for a moment about our prayer life, because if I'm going to devote myself to prayer, it won't be just haphazard praying down the expressway on my way to work or sitting at a table having a blessing and so forth. But you see, a lot of people have lots of problems and heartaches in life, and they don't realize God would either eliminate or sustain them through those if they've just spent enough time talking with him and letting him give them wisdom as to how to respond to these things. If you're going to have a prayer life that really makes a difference, that's going to have any impact, have an impact on your life, the lives of other people, there are four things I believe are essential. Number one, and that is to set a definite time. If you don't, you won't devote yourself to prayer.

It doesn't happen. The reason I know that is because since Satan hates that above every other activity you and I engage ourselves in, he's going to do everything in his power to keep you what? Busy.

To keep you busy so you can say, I don't have time to pray. Number one, a time. Secondly, a place. You say, what in the world does a place have to do with it?

Here's what it has to do with it. There's something about having a spot in your home, a place in a bedroom or wherever it may be, the den or maybe in the bathroom, if that's the only place you can have privacy. A place where you and God get together.

Where you battle it out with those things that you and He just need to deal with privately in your life. There's something about having a place and something to remind you. The third thing is a purpose. If you don't have a purpose, you won't pray. You'll just pray here in Yondons, things arise and this, that and the other.

You'll pray a little bit here and there, but you won't pray much. What's the purpose? Now, here's the purpose. The purpose ultimately is not to get something from God. You know what God sees as our primary purpose for praying? Developing an intimate, warm, personal intimacy with Him. That's His ultimate purpose. And then, of course, meeting our needs and all the rest. The fourth thing is a plan.

Here's a simple plan. It's very important and it's so simple you're going to look over it if you're not careful. There's something about recording what you're praying about.

It's a cheap little notebook. Write down the request. Put the date at the end of it when you made the request. And then when God answers that prayer, draw one line through it.

Only one so you can still read it and put the date at the end. Here's what happens. Every time you open that book, here's what the line says. God heard me. God loves me. God cares for me. God's interested in me. God's intervening in my life. God's answering my prayer. God's developing my relationship to Him. I'm growing in my faith.

Life is getting exciting. God is in my life. And then he says watchfulness. He says watchfulness. Be alert and with the attitude of thanksgiving, expressing gratitude toward Him.

And keeping that prayer journal will motivate you to give thanks again and again and again for what God is doing in your life. So that's his first word to us. Then I want you to notice what he says. Now devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert with an attitude of thanksgiving, praying at the same time for us as well, Paul is talking about himself.

He's writing this from prison now. And he says that God may open to us a door for the Word, that is the gospel, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ for which I've also been imprisoned. In order that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak. Now I want you to listen carefully. God didn't give us this awesome opportunity of prayer just to get our needs met.

Though that is part of it. Our personal concerns and our concerns for people that our friends and loved ones have been concerned about, but also for ministry. Now, as I think about what Paul spoke of here and he says praying for us also, what he's doing is trying to motivate these Colossians to really talk to God. So what I want to give you is ten results. Here are ten things that will happen when you and I begin to pray, not just for ourselves, but for the world, for ministry around the world. There are ten things that are going to happen in a person's life when you get serious about that. So I want you to jot these down. The first one is, as we said in the very beginning, your personal intimacy with God. Something's going to happen in your relationship to Christ when you get serious about praying.

Number one. Number two, your perspective about life is going to be enlarged. You're going to be able to see things the way God sees them. You're going to be able to get concerned about things that you've never been concerned about before. And you're going to be able to have a discerning spirit about things that you've never had before. Number three, a positive faith attitude is going to develop when you begin to pray seriously and you keep that notebook and you just keep marking down the things that God's been saying to you and how He's been working in your life.

Number four, there's going to be a peace in the midst of pressures. Now, I didn't say that prayer's always going to take away the pressure, take away the hardship, take away the trials, tribulations, heartaches, burdens, tears, hurts, sorrow. No, He's not going to take all that away. But what He does, when you and I begin to get serious about our prayer life, what happens is there begins to prevail over us an awesome sense of peace that no matter how strong the pressures are, how deep the hurt may be, there is going to be an awesome sense of peace that we begin to experience that we had not experienced before. You say, you mean just talking to God's going to make that kind of difference? I guarantee you if you get serious about your prayer life and listen, begin to get devoted, spend time with Him, listening to Him and talking with Him. Then, number five, it's going to have a purifying effect upon your life. There's no way to come to Him with an open heart day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year without God beginning to reveal things in our life that we'd not seen.

Maybe somebody else had seen them, but we had not seen them. Beginning to stir up within us a sense of conviction about something or an awareness of something, not necessarily just sins, but things in our life that God knows would be better if we were without them or something that He wants to add in our life. Number six, it is the pathway to true, genuine spiritual growth in every area of our life. As you and I begin to pray, what does He do? He shows us the facets of life that you and I should be involved in. He shows us how to invest our spiritual gifts.

He begins to give us more concrete direction about where our money is to be spent, how it's to be invested, where we're to give, whom we're to support, what ministers to support. God begins to give clear direction in every aspect of our life. Number seven, we begin to develop a passion to obey God. As you begin to pray, and listen, as God begins to reveal Himself to you, you want to obey Him. You desire to obey Him. Satan's not going to give up.

He's not going to quit. And you're going to, listen, it may be that when you get serious about praying, Satan begins to launch his most vicious attacks more frequently than ever before and you begin to wonder, Lord, what in the world's happening? That's the time you and I can rejoice because, listen, when the devil's not bothering you, you're not bothering him.

And when you begin to get serious and intercede and begin to pray, then Satan begins to get upset and he's going to launch his most vicious attacks. Number eight, he's going to provide every single need of your life. Physical needs, material needs, emotional needs, whatever they are, they're going to begin to flow into your life in a way that's much smoother than they have been before. Number nine, there's going to be a power in your service for God, whether you're singing in the choir or taking up an offering or teaching a class or preaching a sermon or singing a solo, it doesn't make any difference whether it's on your job as the boss or an employee in the home, as a mother, as a father. Whatever you and I are doing, there will be more of the awareness of the presence and power and wisdom of God to do it and do it well.

And then number ten, sum it all up, you're going to be productive in every facet of your life. When prayer becomes that major issue, when it becomes the priority time, the most important event, and God becomes the most important person in your life, and your relationship to Jesus Christ becomes the most important relationship, and when you begin to major on that, something happens to every single facet of our life. And the only way for you to find that out is not listening to me, the only way to find that out is to try it for yourself. And so as I think about the awesome opportunity we have, listen, what he's saying is that you and I have become the channels by which God releases His omnipotence in heaven and gets it down here on earth and gets it involved in the lives of people and the situations and circumstances that change people's lives. When you and I develop our prayer life, we begin to learn to listen to Him and talk with Him. God will burden us to pray specific things for people we'll think, well, why am I praying that? And I have people that call me once in a while, and this has been going on for years, will call me and say, well, is everything all right?

Usually it probably isn't. But is everything all right? Well, what do you mean? Well, yesterday I was praying for you, and I had this tremendous burden for you. And I can tell you, I don't remember anybody ever calling me and telling me that, that I couldn't tell them, yes, I needed that. Yes, let me tell you what was going on. Yes, God must have had me in mind to put me on your heart.

Yes, yes, yes. Now, you think about this. How many of you would love to have a group of people praying for you every day? How many of you are willing to be that prayer partner for somebody else? You see, if you want folks praying for you, then you've got to start praying for somebody else.

And you know the tragedy? Listen, I'd hate to think for one minute that I had to be the pastor of anybody's church and have nobody praying for me. God help me, I'm here to tell you, I couldn't handle it. And the truth is, you and I can't even handle life without somebody praying for us.

We can't handle it. Listen, every teenager should cry out to God for parents who pray for them and call their names daily. And every parent should be crying out to God for their children. And we should be crying out to God for people who are in need. And what we don't realize is we don't realize the power of people's prayers lifting us up and asking God to protect us and give us wisdom and direction and decisions in life.

Listen, the best asset you've got in your life is not what you've got in the bank or Wall Street. The best asset you've got, people praying for you, lifting you up to God, crying out to God on your behalf. And that's what Paul is talking about here when he says, Praying is at the same time for us as well, that God may open a door of opportunity. And he says, praying for the ministry, he says now two things primarily. He said that God, God would open up a door of opportunity. You see, it's prayers that open up doors of opportunity.

That's how we got into other countries in the world. We began to pray, God, you must open the door. What can we do? We don't know who to talk to. We don't know how to go about it.

We don't have the money. Lord, we're going to trust you to open the door. And today in every single country in the world, every day. And it's the result of God's people praying. So if you want God to work in your life, get somebody praying for you. If you want to get somebody praying for you, you begin to pray for someone else. And God will raise up people to pray for you. And you can ask people to pray for you and get in a small group of people praying. But spend time alone with God on your face before Him, crying out to Him for those things that are needed in your life.

And so here's what he says. Listen, he's just praying at the same time, brothers, as well, that God may open us up a door for the Word. That God would open opportunities for Him to preach the Word of God. And then he said, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, which he was referring to primarily, that the Gospel is open to both Gentiles and to Jews, preaching the Gospel in essence, for which I've also been in prison. Now listen to this. He said, I want to make two requests in praying ministry-wise.

Number one, that God would open doors of opportunity. And second, listen to what he said. He said, and also that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak. Once in a while I want to say to people who are members of churches and sometimes they criticize their pastor, well, you know, my pastor, I just don't like the way he preaches. I don't like the way he dresses. I don't like the way he speaks. I don't like this. I don't like that.

I don't like the other. Let me ask you a question. When's the last time on your face before God, you began to cry out to God on His behalf and ask God to work in His life?

Or do you just enjoy criticizing Him? Because I want to tell you, this pastor, no pastor is perfect. What in the world would you do with a perfect pastor?

You'd have to go find another church because there are no perfect church members. And so all of us are imperfect. And that's why all of us need one another. And the most powerful thing we can do for another is to talk to God.

Talk to God in behalf of each other. And what is He going to do? He's going to do what He enjoys doing, answering our petition and our behalf. And Paul is saying, here's what I need you to do. He said, I need you to pray that God will open doors of opportunity, but I need you to pray that God will show me how to speak the truth clearly. And I can tell you that is certainly the prayer of my own heart, that you would pray for me to know how to speak the truth simply and clearly so that nobody, not even a child, would misunderstand. Now, the only way that can happen is for people to pray for God to speak.

That's the only way it can happen. You see, oftentimes people say, you know the best thing I got out of that sermon? I'll say, what's that? It'll be something I never said. I never said it. I know I didn't say it.

What is that? That is the Holy Spirit taking the Word of God and doing what? So working it that when you hear it, you get what you need. It may have been something I said or didn't say. That's why you should never miss coming to church. You say, well, I don't know whether I like that sermon or not.

Well, you may not, but I'll tell you something else. As long as God's doing it, you better listen to Him, because He can say it in a way that I can't say it. And Paul said, I want you to pray that I'll be able to speak the truth so clearly nobody will misunderstand it. Now, I'm glad he prayed that.

I'm glad he asked him to do that, because when I read some of the things he wrote, I think, goodness, what in the world did he mean by that? And yet, as you and I keep on praying and seeking and reading and studying, God begins to give us understanding. So let's think about your prayer life for a moment. Personally, do you spend most of your time praying for yourself, your needs, your family, people closest to you? How much time do you spend outside that little circle? Listen, this is the circle most of us pray in.

How often do you get out of that circle into the big circle of this world? And praying for people to be saved by the millions. And think about all the homeless, helpless, hurting, dying people in other countries of the world in the midst of bloodshed, warfare, vengeance, hostility and anger, brother against brother and sister against sister, family against family, and people who desperately, desperately need to know the truth. You and I know enough about what's happening in this world to know that people need the gospel and they need to be saved. And we read enough letters to realize that people are hungry for the truth. They want to know the truth.

And what do we read in these letters? Please tell us the truth. Please tell us.

I beg you, tell us the truth. And here we sit with enough truth to save the whole world. Paul says devote yourself to prayer. And my challenge to you is that if you want your life to really count for God, and you want your life to bear an impact, and if you want to make your life full of things that really make a difference, if you will devote yourself to prayer, you will discover a relationship to Him that you never dreamed possible, and secondly, God will begin to use you in ways you never thought you were even worthy of being used. It is so simple, it is a matter of giving time to the Father and let Him do in your life what He chooses to do. Thank you for listening to Part 2 of Making the Most of Your Prayer Life. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.