Lay Siege to Prayer

1986

There’s a song that says, “Just a little talk with Jesus.” You know that song? It can really create a deadly mentality if we think of that in a particular way. “Well, I’m just gonna have a little talk with Jesus,” “Now I lay me down to sleep…” “Bless us oh Lord in these Thy gifts,” “Our Father who art in Heaven…” “Hail, Mary, full of grace…” If that’s what we’re gonna do is just have a little talk with Jesus, we’re in big trouble because that’s not Biblical at all!

We’re talking about the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much! I mean there is no biblical way to substantiate from the Word of God this little tiny talk with Jesus as being anything other than a delusion. It’s got to be a life that is grappling with God and wrestling with Him as Jacob did, and totally invested in supernatural warfare by praying to God.

1 Samuel 12:23: “God forbid that I sin against you by refusing to pray.” That’s a sin. Prayerlessness is a sin. To not be a prayerful person is a sin. And the reason that it is sin is because all that it is really is pride that says, “I don’t need You, God! I’m going to make my own decisions. I’ll just use You as my insurance policy if I get in trouble.” You see, that’s pride. It’s kind of like occasionally my daughter—I’ll want to do something for her and she’ll say, “No daddy, I’ll do that. I wanna do that by myself.” And that’s really what we’re saying when we don’t pray—if we’re not totally involved in God, it’s godlessness, it’s pride! We’re saying, “God, I can do that all by myself.” You may not be praying it, but that’s your prayer, “God leave me alone. I’m doing it by myself now.”

Between the two evils of “little praying” or “no praying”—perhaps “little praying” is worse than “no praying.” “Little praying” is a kind of make-believe, a salve for the conscience, a farce, a delusion. “Little praying” is possibly worse than “no praying” because somehow we tend to justify ourselves. “Hey, I prayed. I prayed just last week if I recall.” That’s no good! That is not the heart of God. (In Acts 2:42) 3,120 members of the Jerusalem church of Christ—every one of them were devoted to prayer. The word “devoted” there means “to lay siege.” In Acts 10:42, “All the believers laid siege to prayer as well as the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship and the breaking of bread.”

In Acts 6:1-4 we find the leaders of the Jerusalem church. They wouldn’t even take time to do a good deed of helping the widows with the food supply because they said, “We can’t do that! That wouldn’t be right before God and the Holy Spirit for us to take time to wait on tables. We need to be devoted. We need to lay siege to prayer and ministry of the Word.” And so you see the awesome responsibility of leadership, but more than that, the fact that every believer in Acts 2 laid siege or was devoted to prayer. It was a very important part of their life. You see that when you read the book of Acts. If you go through the book of Acts, in 20 out of 28 chapters somebody is praying! All the way through the book of Acts which is the history of the church somebody is praying somewhere. And that was the church that felt the blessings of God’s Presence.

They knew in their hearts that if they were going to do very much for God, it was because they were going to be very much with God in prayer. Those two things go hand in hand. We’ve got to have those prayerful lives. Just for a personal standpoint, Philippians 4, “And the peace that surpasses understanding…” which some of you may not have right now if you are honest. It says that if you are prayerful and give thanksgiving and certainly you have to an obedient life and walk in agreement with God—but see, if we pray with God and walk with Him then the “peace that transcends understanding” is going to “guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.” So prayer has to do with peace of mind. In John 16:24 there’s no joy without prayer. In Hebrews 4:16 there’s no mercy, no help in time of need without prayer. It’s very important.

Now, would you say that’s a pretty good case for prayer? Would you say that sounds like a good reason to pray? It is for me. But in spite of all that, and all the promises that God makes about prayer, and all the direct commands about prayer, and all the beautiful examples of prayer—in spite of all of that there’s that innate quality within mankind to make excuses. Amen? We make excuses. In spite of all of that, we tend to make excuses and then procrastination and rationalization rule our lives, and they shouldn’t do that.

There’s a statistical survey taken back a couple years ago. 3,700 churches of Christ were surveyed. Fewer than 10% of the members prayed daily, sincerely; fewer than 2% have a prayer list; fewer than 5% feel their congregation is praying (1 out of 20). That means that maybe 4 people in here believe that the congregation is praying. And the majority is probably right in that case. Fewer than 50% believe that God hears prayers and answers them. Can you believe that? Fewer than 50% of the members of the church of Christ believe that God hears prayers and answers them. That’s just a very, very scary thought.

My challenge is to break the curve. Ok? Let’s destroy those statistics in the Body here and not fall into that. The people those statistics referred to—those are “treadmill disciples,” always learning but never able to acknowledge the Truth. Always hearing sermons on prayer and on other subjects, but never changing their life. “Treadmill disciple” denying the power of God—“having a form of Godliness, but denying its power.” Think of it like a dog tied to a post just going around in circles barking, but never really being free to move on ahead. The challenge I want to offer you is to not be like that. To learn but also to acknowledge the Truth. To have a form of Godliness but also to walk in His power. And to live that way.

Make a decision right now in your heart that you’re gonna get up an hour earlier tomorrow and as many mornings a week as are possible, without compromise. You get up an hour earlier, even if it’s a long while before day. And if the thing you’re thinking is, “Well, you don’t know how early I have to get up anyway.” I don’t care! Get up a long while before day to be like Jesus, and maybe you’ll find some of the benefits that come from walking with God and being like Jesus. Make a decision that you’ll get together with people to pray with them, maybe 2 or 3 times a week. Decide that you’re gonna get together with somebody to pray. I am more convicted about that now than I ever was. It’s important, vitally important if we’re really going to be about the Father’s business.