Effective Pray-ers – Part 2

Hey, podcast listeners! Thanks for streaming today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. Our mission is to pierce the darkness with the light of God's word through the most effective media available, like this podcast. To support Pathway to Victory, go to ptv.org slash donate or follow the link in our show notes.

Now, here's today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. God's Word with you every day on this Bible teaching program. On today's edition of Pathway to Victory, nowhere in the Bible does God promise to answer our every request.

Okay, everybody understand that? There is no blanket promise in the Bible that says, ask God anything you want, and He'll do it for you. Any promise in the Bible like that is always within the boundary of God's will. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. You know, God invites every one of His children to present their wants and needs to Him through prayer. So why doesn't God always answer our prayer requests?

And is there anything we're just not supposed to pray for? Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress answers several eye-opening questions regarding the subject of prayer. Now, here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.

Dr. Jeffress? Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. Before we get started with today's message, let me ask you if you can relate to any of these scenarios. You find it difficult to consistently read the Bible. You struggle repeatedly with the same sins.

When you pray, you don't really expect God to do anything. And frankly, going to church on Sundays has become a little bit, well, boring. Now, the reason I can describe those feelings so honestly and accurately is because I've been there too, even as a pastor of a church.

Yes, even pastors struggle in their spiritual walk from time to time. But that experience has allowed me to better serve and empathize with those who are facing the same struggles. And it compelled me to write one of my best-selling books titled I Want More. This book honestly documents my own spiritual journey from a dull and lifeless faith to being on fire for the gospel. And it contains the practical biblical inspiration and encouragement that I discovered along the way.

A copy of my book I Want More can be yours today when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. I'll say more about this opportunity later, but right now it's time to continue our study called Unleashed, Experiencing the Power of the Holy Spirit. Today, we're going to discover three ways to become more effective prayers. Remember we said prayer is always difficult. Don't ever think you're going to arrive in your prayer life.

Talking to an invisible being is always going to be a struggle in your life. And we said last time, the fact is we will never pray consistently until we settle four questions in our own mind and hearts. Last time we began by looking at the question, why should we even pray if God's going to do what He's going to do anyway? God has ordained the end, but He's also ordained the means to achieve that end, and it is through prayer.

Then secondly, we looked at the question, well, what kind of things should I pray about? You know, one of the greatest struggles we have when we kneel down before God is, God, do I want my will done or do I want your will to be done? And Jesus said, always put God's will first. Now let's look thirdly at a third component of our prayers. Jesus said we ought to pray for the provision for our needs.

God never promised to meet your greeds, but He did promise to satisfy your needs. And then fourth, He said we ought to pray for a pardon for our sins. Christians, if you will confess your sins, God will forgive you.

Now hear me on this. That word confess means to acknowledge your sin, but it does not refer to a cool, emotionally detached acknowledgement. Inherent and true confession is a sorrow, a brokenness for your sin. Psalm 51 17 said the sacrifices to God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart the Lord will not despise. We pray forgive us, Lord, of our sin as we forgive those who have sinned against us, and notice that inseparable link between our receiving God's forgiveness and our willingness to forgive other people. Jesus said before you can receive God's forgiveness, you have to be willing to forgive those who have sinned against you. After all, isn't that the prayer?

Lord, forgive us of our sins just as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us. What sort of things should we pray about? He said we should pray about anything and everything that we're concerned about.

And that leads to a third question. Why doesn't God always answer my prayers? How many of you this morning have ever asked God to do something that He didn't do?

Would you raise your hand? I mean we all wrestle with this problem of unanswered prayer. Why is it that God sometimes says no to our request? Well the Bible gives three answers, three possible answers for unanswered prayer. The Bible says wrong actions can be one reason for unanswered prayer. He gives a second reason and that is wrong motives. Turn over to James chapter 4 for a moment. Look at what he says in James 4-2.

He says, you do not have because you do not ask. A few years ago I was in a small pastor's meeting and the late Dr. Adrian Rogers was with us. And Adrian told us the most interesting story. He said when he was in Bible college in Florida he wanted to preach at this church one weekend and the church couldn't afford to pay him anything so the chairman of the deacons gave him these two big burlap bags filled with oranges. Adrian said he didn't know what to do with all those oranges so he put them in the back of his car, drove home and he lugged them upstairs to his two story apartment and he put them in the closet there and really forgot about them for several days. He said one day he was sitting there studying and he looked out the window and he saw this neighbor boy climbing the fence and when he got to the top of the fence this little boy reached over to the orange tree in Adrian's backyard and picked one of those oranges, looked around to make sure nobody was watching, he took that orange, he put it in the pocket of his overalls and scampered away. Adrian said he began to laugh to himself picturing this little boy getting home, taking out this orange and biting into it because what this boy didn't know was that orange was a sour orange. A sour orange just looks like a real orange until you bite into it and then you know the difference. Adrian said you know if that little boy instead of stealing that orange, if he had simply walked up the flight of stairs, knocked on my apartment door and said mister could I have one of those oranges from your orange tree, I would have said you don't want one of those oranges.

But son come in here and I would have opened up my closet and I would have showed him those two burlap bags filled with oranges, I would say I've got more oranges than I know what to do with, help yourself. He said that little boy had not because he asked not. And then Adrian made this point, he said you know the devil cannot keep God from answering but he can keep us from asking. I think if there are any regrets in heaven, one of the greatest regrets is when we see all of the blessings that could have been ours if we had simply had the faith to ask God.

Now I don't want anybody to misunderstand this. I don't think it's God's will always or perhaps even most of the time to heal people physically. The reason I say that is because no matter how miraculous the healing, a person will get sick again and they will die. I mean that's just part of God's plan. I don't think it's God's will every time to heal but I do think sometimes it's His will to heal us.

I think sometimes God wants to prolong our life. And I think one reason there may be so much sickness in the Christian community today is our failure to believe that God is able to heal if we ask Him. Remember you have not, James says, because you ask not. But then he gives a second reason for unanswered prayer here and it's the one we're looking at today. He says wrong motives can also be an explanation for unanswered prayer.

Look at verse three. He says you ask and you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives so that you may spend it on your pleasures. Now what does it mean to ask God for something with wrong motives? Pastor, you just told us that we ought to pray for what our needs are. We ought to pray what's in our hearts, not what should be in our hearts. Is it a selfish prayer to pray for a job? Is it selfish to pray for God to meet a financial need? Is it selfish to pray for God to heal a broken relationship? What does he mean to pray with wrong motives? Let's get something straight here. All of us have mixed motives when we come to God. I like what Richard Foster says. He said we all approach God with this tangled mess of motives that only God can sort out.

But He's big enough to do so. Instead of waiting until everything is perfect in our life, we should remember this when we come to God. We're saved by grace, we live by grace, and we pray by grace. I think when he says be sure that your motives are right when you pray, he's talking about the general direction of your life. He's saying before you come to God, ask yourself this question. Is my life self-centered or is it God-centered? Is my life about building my kingdom or is it about building God's kingdom? When he's talking about praying with wrong motives, he's talking about not a single request. He's talking about the general direction of your life, a life that is self-focused rather than God-focused. Why does God not answer all of our prayers?

It can be wrong actions, it can be wrong motives, or third, the Bible says it can be because of wrong requests. Turn over to 1 John 5, verses 14 to 15. I think all of us would say that faith is an essential quality in prayer. James talks about the prayer of faith. What does it mean to pray with genuine faith?

Well, let's get a couple of things settled here. First of all, nowhere in the Bible does God promise to answer our every request. Okay, everybody understand that? There is no blanket promise in the Bible that says, ask God anything you want and he'll do it for you. Any promise in the Bible like that is always within the boundary of God's will. Look at 1 John 5, verses 14 and 15, we see that perfectly here. John says, this is the confidence which we have before him, that if we ask anything, and underline this, according to his will, he will hear us.

And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request which we have asked from him. God's promise is within the boundary of his will. Now listen to this, God's will is a hedge of protection that is built around your life.

And that hedge of protection, God's will, exists around your life, not to keep good things out of your life, but to keep evil things from entering into your life. Now I look back in my prayer journal at some of the things that I have asked God persistently to do for me, and I shudder at some of those prayer requests. I am so grateful that God said no to those requests.

I didn't even realize what I was asking for. But God knew what was best for me, and he said no. That's the way God's will is.

It's not to keep good things out of your life, but to keep evil things from entering into your life. Second, let's always realize, when we talk about praying with faith, to pray with faith doesn't mean building up this kind of positive attitude that says, oh, I know God's going to do this, I know God's going to do this. That's not what faith praying is.

That's just positive thinking mumbo jumbo, okay? The fact is, most of the time when we pray, we don't know whether this request is in God's will or not. We don't know if it's God's will to heal me or a loved one. We don't know if it's God's will for me to get this job. We don't know if it's God's will for this particular relationship to be restored.

We don't always know. So Paul said in Romans, chapter 8, verse 26, for we don't know how to pray or to pray as we should. Well, then what does it mean to pray with faith?

I want you to write this down. To pray with faith means to boldly ask God for our requests and to quietly trust him to do what's best. Praying with faith means boldly asking God for our requests and quietly trusting him to do what's best. You know, you see that in the Bible illustrated with the two greatest characters in the New Testament. Do you realize that the two greatest characters in the New Testament both experienced unanswered prayer? Think about Jesus Christ.

How did he pray in the garden, Luke chapter 11? He said, Father, here is my request and it is a bold request. Keep me from going to the cross.

Let this cup pass from me. That was a pretty bold request, wasn't it? Especially when he knew that was God's will. He said, Father, let this cup pass from me.

That's the bold request. But then he said, not my will, but your will be done. Quietly trusting in God to do what's best. Or think about the apostle Paul. He made a pretty bold request. In 2 Corinthians 12, he was suffering from a physical handicap, a thorn in the flesh. He said, Father, remove this thorn from me. He didn't pray it once. He prayed it three times.

That was the bold request. And then he quietly rested in God to do what's best. When God said no three times in a row, he said, God's grace is sufficient for me.

I'm going to trust him. I'm going to see the best in this because through my weakness the power of God is made manifest. That's what it means to pray with faith.

Boldly ask God for what's in your heart, your request, but then trust him to do what's best. Years ago I was visiting with a woman in our church who was dying from cancer. Her case was terminal. And she had grown up in a faith tradition that said it's always God's will to heal people from physical illness. So I went by to see her and I was curious about how her theology, how she was reconciling that with her situation. And I'll never forget what she said to me.

She said, Robert, the most liberating truth I've ever discovered is this. I can give everything in my life to God, even my illness. If God chooses to heal me, praise God. If he chooses to take me home, praise God.

Either way, I win. Now that's what it means to pray with faith. We went to her hospital room. We anointed her with oil. We prayed for healing for her just as she requested.

But then she trusted in God to do what was best. The Bible says that's what it means to pray in faith. You may be saying today, well, Robert, you convinced me that prayer is a channel through which God pours his blessings into my life. But how can I be more effective in my prayer life? My prayer life right now is virtually nonexistent. How can I be an effective prayer? Let me give you finally three simple ways to make prayer a regular part of your life.

Write them down. First of all, pray briefly. Pray briefly. Remember we saw last week, God is not interested in the length of your prayers.

He's not impressed by your many words, Jesus said in Matthew 6. It's not the length of your prayers. It is the strength of your prayers that count.

And I personally found it is much more effective to pray brief prayers frequently throughout the day than to find one long period of time to devote to prayer. First Thessalonians 5, 17 says, pray without ceasing. That word translated without ceasing literally means pray with the frequency of a hacking cough.

That's what it means in the Greek text. That's a pretty vivid picture, isn't it? How we're to pray with the frequency of a hacking cough. You can't suppress it no matter how hard you try. Prayer for a Christian is like spiritual breathing. It's something we need to do continually. Think about this.

When you wake up in the morning, do you say to your mate, no, no, no, don't bother me. I need to go in the room here and I need to spend 30 minutes sucking in all the oxygen that I need for the day. And you go into this private room and you go... And you spend 30 minutes trying to get all that oxygen in and then hold it for the rest of the day. You don't breathe that way.

Nobody can take in enough air in a few minutes that he's going to need for 24 hours. You have to breathe continually. And it's that way with praying. Paul says pray without ceasing. Make it a habit. Pray when you get up in the morning. Talk to God when you get in the shower. Talk to God while you're in the car, especially if you're going down the tollway. Talk often to God about that. Talk to God before you go in a difficult meeting. Talk to God when you're conversing with a friend. Make it a habit, a part of your life.

I like what Dallas Willard says. He said, the more we pray, the more we think to pray. And the more we think to pray, the more miracles we see in our life. Pray briefly. Frequency is much better than linked to prayer. Secondly, pray persistently. Pray persistently. That is, keep on praying even when the answer doesn't come immediately.

Remember in Luke 18, Jesus told a parable to show his disciples how they ought to pray at all times and not lose heart. You remember the story. This widow is being persecuted by her enemies and so she goes to a judge to seek legal protection. And Jesus said, this judge didn't fear God and he didn't like people. And so this widow kept going to him, asking for protection, and he said, no, get her away from me, she's bothering me. But finally, she wore him down. And he said, I'm going to do what this woman is asking me to do. Not because I fear God, not because I like her.

I'm going to grant her request, lest by her continual coming to me, she wear me out. And then Jesus said, hear what the unrighteous judge said. Now Jesus is not teaching that God is some stingy deity that we have to wear down in order to give us what he really doesn't want to give us. That's not what Jesus is saying. What Jesus is saying is, if an unrighteous judge who doesn't fear God and doesn't like people is willing to grant this widow her request, how much more is your loving Heavenly Father willing to do to those of you who are his children?

It's a parable of contrast. What Jesus is saying is, keep on praying. Don't pray just when the answer seems easy. Pray when the answer seems impossible.

I like what somebody calls the push principle of prayer. They've said, when everything seems to go wrong, just push. When the job gets you down, just push. When people don't react the way you think they should, just push. When your money looks funny and the bills are due, just push. When people don't understand you, just push.

Push. Pray until something happens. Jesus said, pray persistently. The third principle for activating an effective prayer life, pray honestly. Pray honestly. Remember, don't pray what you think should be in your heart. Pray what is in your heart. God already knows about it anyway. If there's something you desperately want God to do for you, go ahead and tell Him.

Go ahead and ask Him for it and trust Him to do what's right. Is there somebody you're really ticked off with? You're angry with? I don't care how angry you are with that person, you're probably not as angry as the psalmist who prayed, Lord dash the babies of my enemies against the rocks. You're probably not that angry. So you can go ahead and tell God about that person as well. Are you frustrated with God Himself? Are you disappointed with His actions or His inaction on your behalf?

Go ahead and tell Him about it. His shoulders are broad enough, His love is wide enough to accept your frustration. Remember, in the end, prayer is not a theological formula.

It's not a religious ritual. Prayer in its very essence is simply talking with, conversing with, the one who loves you, the one who made you, the one who cares most about you. As you've been listening to today's message on Pathway to Victory, perhaps you've been thinking about a specific prayer request on your own heart, something you've asked God to do time and time again, but it feels like God just isn't listening.

Remember, pray briefly, pray persistently, pray honestly, and trust God to do what's best. Earlier in today's program, I talked about a book I've written called I Want More, and this book is one of my more personal writings because it documents my own spiritual journey from just going through the motions of faith to truly being passionate about the gospel. If you feel like something is missing in your relationship with God, then I would urge you to request your copy of my book, I Want More. Every Christian can experience God's supernatural power and presence in their life, and this book will show you how.

When you give a generous gift to support Pathway to Victory, I'll be pleased to send you a copy. As you think about the gift God is leading you to give, I'd like to reaffirm that any gift truly makes a difference. People all across our country and even around our world are connecting to God in new and refreshing ways because they're hearing and applying the truth of God to their lives.

Plus, they're learning to deploy the power of God's Spirit in their lives. So, when you give, I want to thank you for your partnership by sending you a copy of my book called I Want More. David will repeat these details and give you our contact information, and I look forward to hearing from you today. Now, don't forget you can watch Pathway to Victory Sundays on hundreds of stations and thousands of cable systems around the world. You can always catch us Sunday mornings at 9 a.m. Central, 10 a.m. Eastern on TBN, the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

Or you can catch us Sunday afternoons at 5 p.m. Central, 6 p.m. Eastern on Daystar. David? Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. A copy of the book I Want More is yours today when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. Call 866-999-2965 or make your request online at ptv.org.

And when you give a gift of $75 or more, you'll also receive this month's teaching series on the Holy Spirit Unleashed on both audio and video disc. One more time, our phone number, 866-999-2965, or go to ptv.org. You could write to us, here's the address, P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222.

Again, that's P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. I'm David J. Mullins. Since the beginning of the Church, worship has been an integral part of Christian gatherings. So, what exactly is worship, and why is it so important? Join us for a message called, Up with Worship. That's Thursday on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we're so glad you're here. Pathway to Victory relies on the generosity of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible. One of the most impactful ways you can give is by becoming a Pathway Partner. Your monthly gift will empower Pathway to Victory to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and help others become rooted more firmly in His Word. To become a Pathway Partner, go to ptv.org slash donate, or follow the link in our show notes. We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory.