How Long Do You Pray? Even though much of today's so-called "prayer" offends God, He is big enough to handle it! Our heavenly Father is great enough to put up with some immaturity in His beloved children. Everything I am teaching against, I once did. God tolerats and even blesses us while we still pray these ways. He is not mad at us, but many of our so-called "prayers" go unanswered. When I confront one of the ways you pray, please do not think I am saying that God is mad at you. He is not! God's a good God; but if you are like me, you are snared by the words of your mouth. I am discovering that there are right and wrong ways to pray. Through His Word, the Lord radically is changing my view and practice of prayer even as we speak. I am so glad He is because my mindset needs to be changed. As you listen to this message, keep an open heart and an ear tuned in to the Holy Spirit. He is your Teacher and Guide who leads you into all Truth. Do not let an occasional offense stop you from listening to this all the way through to the end. By continuing to hold on to unproductive prayer patterns, you have much more to lose than gain! In fact, your humility and willingness to consider before the Lord what I am sharing with you could mean the difference between life and death for you or someone you love. Trust me, it is not worth the risk! I do not claim to have "arrived" concerning prayer, but I have definitely left! My mentor regularly sees miracles of every kind happen in his life and ministry. My own son won a significant law suit, wich was a victory for both of us. You see, although he is grown and has been living on his own since he completed his time in the military, I was contributing considerably to his living expenses. So you see, this represented a considerable ecconomic gain for me also. Secondly, the doctor told me that I was supposed to have died from a stroke, which was a brain anurism. Nevertheless, I am still here. This same brain anurism compromised my ability to read. Through God blessing me with ideas and inventions my taking in information from the written word multiplied significatly. Thirdly, the doctor also told me that I needed a back operation immediately. He went on to say that my condition would progressively deteriorate, till I was begging him for the operation. That was over five years ago. Not only did the condition not deteriorate, but the condition became significately better. Last, but not least, I considered myself a victim of racism. Despite the fact that I considered myself significantly better qualified then most of my peers around me, I seemed to be standing still. I shed many tears over this. Then one Sunday as I listened to the preacher call a fast and proclaim the foundation of the fast was Isaiah 58:7-8. Isaiah 58:7-8 proclaimed that this fast was for the oppressed and if you participated in this fast your healing would come speedily. I knew that this was my fast for my situation. So I immediately, committed to my first fast, which was a three week water fast. To my amazement, when I went to work that Monday, I was told that I was given the job promotion which I was clearly denied. Now that was speedily, beyound my greatest expectation. For what sayeth the word. "A day is like a thousand years, And, a thousand years is like a day. You might expect it to take a day yet it may end up taking ten years. Nevertheless, the opposite is also true. You might expect it to take ten years. Yet, it may happen overnight. As a friend of mine says. If you are prepared to wait forever, you won't be waiting very long. According to the wisdom of this world "an intelligent man learns by his mistakes". To this same end, acording to the wisdom of God: Romans 8:28. /,/,/ And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [his] purpose Proverbs 24:16. ,/,/,/ For a just [man] falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief. ,/,/,/ Isaiah 41:10. ,/,/,/ Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. ,/,/,/ So you see, when my mentor talks about how he raised his own son from the dead, after being dead for about five hours, I am dumb enough to believe him. I believe him when he talks about how he has seen many blind eyes and deaf ears opened, not to mention all of the cancers healed, people coming out of wheelchairs, and demons cast out. Also, how his ministry experiences a constant flow of abundant provision to do what God has called him to do. I do not need scientific evidence to cause me to move to action. The expeiential knowledge that I have is sufficient for me. According to the wisdom of this world "a wise man learns from the experiences of others". To this same end, acording to the wisdom of God: 1 Corinthians 10:11. ,/,/,/ Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. ,/,/,/ I do not mention these things to condemn you or exalt myself or my mentor, because all of the glory belongs to our Lord Jesus Christ! However, I do want to challenge you to consider these results compared to what you are getting. If you are not seeing these kinds of things on a regular basis, why would you want to keep holding on to a less productive form? Honestly evaluate your prayer life as I confront different attitudes and popular understandings. This is your chance to recognize and root out unwanted hindrances that have been choking your effectiveness in prayer. Remember, growing pains just mean you're being stretched as you mature! Matthew 6:6. ,/,/,/ But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. People actually contend that this verse means, "You should never pray in public!" Jesus prayed in public. The parallel of this passage begins in Luke 11:1 when Christ's public praying caused the disciples to ask, "Will You teach us to pray?" If the Lord literally meant to always pray in secret so that nobody ever heard you, then He broke His own instructions. Here in Matthew 6:5-6, Jesus basically declared, "Don't be like the hypocrites who pray for the attention and recognition of people." Having been to many churches, I have heard all kinds of public "prayers." People often speak loudly in a form of King James English, thinking it is more spiritual. I am not against the King James Version of the Bible (it's actually my favorite), but I don't feel like I have to talk that way to God in order to truly pray. I have met individuals who never talk King James style, except when they "pray." They become all religious sounding and speak in a different tone of voice, "Thou musteth doeth this and that for me!" That's hypocritical! It may shock you, but God does not enjoy many of our prayers! I found this out the hard way. When we are young christians, people often presure us to pray an hour a day. They actually attempted hold me in condemnation because I did not pray as long as they did. The logical flow of this line of reasoning is if an hour is good then two or three hours is better. Trying to spend a certain segment of time each day praying greatly frustrated me. In fact, it never really seemed to produce any good results. Many believers have started and stopped this not only once, but multiple times. For me, it just never seemed to flow. Many people who truly love God with all of their heart find it difficult to pray in such a prescribed manner. Their once vibrant relationship with the Lord becomes stifled, mechanical, and lifeless instead. Despite what is been taught, this rigid model of praying for a certain period of time each day is not consistent with the whole of God's Word. If you are attempting to pray this way, perhaps the reason why it's not "flowing" is because the Holy Spirit is trying to talk you out of it! This practice can help us to discipline ourselves. It avoids spending so much time watching television or doing something else harmful to faith, but overall, this prayer time was a real drag! I actually prefered spending that time studing God's Word. Nevertheless, I found it to be a strange example of it is not either or, but rather both and. Why Am I Doing This? I remember first starting out. I closed my eyes and prayed for what seemed to me to be an extended period of time. After a while, I wondered, How long have I prayed? Looking up at my clock, I saw that five minutes had passed, five minutes! I thought it had been at least thirty minutes, perhaps even an hour. Disappointment set in as I continued praying, It seemed like this hour was never going to pass! I would be enjoying the Lord's presence and great things would be happening while studying the Word and worshiping. Then it would be time for me to go "pray." I thank God for parying in tongues. If it was not for the tranquility produced from praying in tongues, I do not know how I would have made it through those hours of prayer. Jesus addressed this very thing in Matthew 6:7:. ,/,/,/ But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.. ,/,/,/ From God's perspective, praying an hour a day has no value in and of itself! Most people basically believe, "The longer I pray, the better it is and the more God will answer. Therefore, praying longer is the solution to everything." Brothers and sisters, there is absolutely no virtue in long praying! Jesus normally kept His prayers short. Only twice in the whole New Testament did He pray all night. Since both are recorded in all four Gospels, you might think it was eight. Really, it was just two different occasions. The Lord didn't usually pray for extended amounts of time. The shorter the prayer, the greater the faith! "Peace, be still" calmed a raging storm (Mark 4:39). That was prayer! "Lazarus, come forth" raised the dead with just three words (John 11:43). As you understand prayer more correctly, yours will shorten too. In fact, a friend of mine teaches that "HELP!!!" is a great prayer! When I pray for longer periods of time, a significant portion is usually spent praying in tongues. I'm not so much petitioning God as I am promoting my own spiritual growth. I am praying for and receiving wisdom and revelation from the Lord. Self-edification is an important New Testament purpose of prayer. (1 Corinthians. 14:4; Jude 1:20-21.) However, the majority of the body of Christ views prayer primarily as an opportunity to petition God. They see it very narrowly as their time to plead with Him to meet their needs. Of course, there are scriptures which reveal that asking and receiving is a valid use of prayer, but you ought to confine it to 5 percent or less of your prayer life. Do not Fool Yourself. What would be left of most Christians' prayer livs if all the repenting for sin, asking for things, and intercession were subtracted? Hardly anything! Most people's prayers consist of, "Oh God, I'm so sorry because I've failed again. Help me overcome this problem. God, heal this and provide that." And if they're really spiritual: "Do this and that for these other people!" That's about what it amounts to. Adam and Eve prayed for none of those things! They had nobody to intercede for, no demons to cast out, and no kingdoms to tear down. They had no clothes, food, houses, or even jobs to believe for, no petitions at all. Yet they met with God every evening in the cool of the day and communed with Him. Their conversations with God had nothing in them concerning sin, lack, need, problems, repenting, begging, or pleading. Yet they prayed, communed with God, every single day! Prayer becomes religious when you try to use it for something God never intended. That is why it does not flow. You can promise Him, "I'm going to pray an hour a day if it kills me!" and then do it for a week, a month, or two. But it never lasts because that is not the way He is leading you. Do not fool yourself into thinking you will be heard by praying long periods of time or using certain words to petition Him again and again and again. The Lord made it very clear that this is not what prayer is. (Matthew 6:7.) When I think of why do people compare the number of hours that you pray to the number of hours that they pray. I come up with two dominant reasons: 1) They want to compare themselfs to you in the hope that they would come out looking better (build up their ego and feel good about themself), or 2) They want to condemn you and use their apparent "spiritual leverage" to somehow start manipulating and controlling you to respond favorably to them. Those are the primary two benefits I can see to this endever. While pondering this idea, I asked myself, how much time do you spend with your wife daily?" I responded, ideally the whole day doing different things. The next question was, If you were with your spouse all day long, how is it an improvement to reduce your time to just spending one hour a day with her. God is available to us all the time. He said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. If I reduced our relationship down to just one hour of prayer a day, that would be a sorry relationship compared to what we already enjoy!" Communion is prayer. Constant Communion. Prayer is communion with God! If He's with you all of the time, you ought to be praying all of the time. The expression of this communion isn't limited to a particular set of body positions. In the Bible, people knelt, raised their hands, and even looked up into heaven at times, but do not make a religious form out of these things and require their presence in order to consider something "prayer." You can pray with your eyes open or closed, hands raised or down, standing, kneeling, or prostrate. Since meditation is prayer (Psalms. 5:1), you don't even have to talk out loud! Your communion with God should be constant. Turn with me to: Psalms 5:1. ,/,/,/ Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation. ,/,/,/ There are "special times" when you have an intimate relationship with someone. Spouses do not necessarily have a schedule that allows us to have a "date night" every single week, but it is important they set aside time to do things together regularly. The face-to-face time alone that they share helps build intimacy into their marriage relationship. Without setting aside these times, it would be easy to get so busy with life that they would never have time for each other! Likewise, it's appropriate to isolate yourself alone with God for special times of intimacy, but not all of the time! You must learn to relate to Him in the midst of your daily responsibilities and weekly routines because they occupy the majority of your life. It is totally unrealistic for spouses to limit their relationship only to their "special times" together. Jesus, your eternal Husband, is the same! Do not limit your relationship with Him only to "dates." Walk and talk with Him all day, every day! Some people try to make their relationship with God be this constantly spectacular thing. They think they must be screaming at the top of their lungs, kneeling, hands held high, tears rolling down their cheeks, lightning bolts flashing, and thunder crashing all around in order to really be "in communion with God." If that's what you consider "prayer," you're never going to prosper! One of the reasons for getting married in the first place is the fact that you enjoyed bing with each other. You do not have to entertain or impress each other. You can spend hours without saying a word and have a great time together. There is a place for this kind of attitude in prayer. God wants each of us to mature to the point where we can enjoy just hanging out with Him. He desires our fellowship when there is nothing being said and nothing specific happening other than being together and loving each other. Personally, I like to build my relationship with God through studying Scripture. Reading the Bible is prayer to me because I do it with my heart, not just my head. When I am fellowshipping with God, one scripture can occupy me for quite some time! As I meditate, ask questions, and let Him speak, revelation comes. This is prayer!