"A Praying Life" (chapters 1-2)

A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World

By Paul E. Miller

 

“What Good Does It Do?” Chapter 1

 

What Good Does It Do?

• We struggle with many symptoms of a dysfunctional prayer life:
  • Cynicism – because of unanswered prayers or insincere lip-service to prayer
  • Guilt – not praying long enough, often enough, well enough, focused enough, worshipful enough, etc.
  • Hopelessness – we begin to wonder if prayer makes any difference

 

Problems Not Surprising

• We should not be surprised that we struggle in prayer with God.
• We were designed to pray and communicate with our Creator.
• But the Fall disrupted our ability to commune in fellowship with God.
• Evil has marred the image of God in us.
• We want to talk to God but we can’t or we find it very difficult.

 

The Hardest Place in the World to Pray

• The busyness of American culture
  • Work, productivity, & success
  • Entertainment & leisure
  • Discomfort with silence and inactivity
  • Intellect, competency, & wealth sometimes make prayer seem unnecessary.

 

The Oddness of Praying

• Prayer seems one-sided compared to other conversations. How do we talk with a Spirit?
• How do we know we aren’t just listening to ourselves when we think we’re hearing God?
• What should I pray for?
• How do I pray?
• Why pray if God already knows what I need? Isn’t that nagging?

 

A Visit to a Prayer Therapist

• Imagine a visit to a prayer therapist or counselor to help you with prayer
  • How would you answer the question to describe your relationship with your heavenly father as a son or daughter of God?
  • Would it sound more doctrinal and formal or personal and relational?
  • What is it like to be with your Father, and to talk with Him?

 

“Where we are headed” Chapter 2

 

The Praying Life…Feels Like Dinner with Good Friends

• Jesus describes the intimacy he wants with us in Revelation 3:20:

"Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. (Rev. 3:20, NLT)

• Our prayer life should become more and more like a natural conversation between friends or family members.
• More focus on God and less on prayer

 

The Praying Life…Is Interconnected with All of Life

• Prayer is all about relationship, so we can’t work on prayer as an isolated part of life.
• Frustrations with prayer come from working on prayer as a discipline in the abstract.
• Prayer is interrelated to our growth in faith, love, kindness, wisdom, etc.
• Learning to pray is identical to maturing over a lifetime.
• Don’t hunt for a feeling in prayer.
  • We often desire an experience of prayer or an experience with God.
  • Once we make an experience our quest, we lose God.
  • You don’t experience God; you get to know him. You submit to him. You enjoy him. He is, after all, a person.
• A praying life isn’t accomplished in a year; it is a journey of a lifetime.

 

The Praying Life…Becomes Aware of the Story

• God’s sovereignty, love, wisdom, and patience combine to make a divine story.
  • If God is sovereign, then he is in control of the details of my life.
  • If God is loving, then he is going to be shaping the details of my life for my good.
  • If God is all-wise, then he’s not going to do everything I want because I don’t know what I need.
  • If God is patient, then he is going to take his time to do all this.
• We are actors in God’s divine drama.
• You can’t have a good story without tension and conflict, without things going wrong. Unanswered prayers are part of the tension. They draw us deeper into God’s story.

 

The Praying Life…Gives Birth to Hope

• If God is sovereign, loving, wise, and patient…and is writing a story with our lives—that gives us hope. Our lives are not static; they are part of God’s ever-moving story.
• Many Christians have become functional deists, thinking that prayer doesn’t really work and God is not directly involved in his world. This leads to cynicism.

 

The Praying Life…Becomes Integrated

• Many assume that the spiritual person is unruffled by life, unfazed by pressure, and somehow floats above life.
• A praying life is not a disconnected one…living the quiet, contemplative life without the busyness of life.
• Learning to pray doesn’t offer you a less busy life; it offers you a less busy heart: Outer busyness/Inner quiet

 

The Praying Life…Reveals the Heart

• As you get to know your heavenly Father, you’ll get to know your own heart as well.
• In the process, your heart will be changed by God.
• God is a person. We don’t learn to love a person without it changing us
• As you develop your relationship with your heaven Father, you’ll discover cynicism, pride, and self-will.
• This process will unmask our hearts.
• None of us likes to be exposed. We have an allergic reaction to dependency, but this is the state of the heart most necessary for a praying life.
• A needy heart is a praying heart. Dependency is the heartbeat of prayer.
• “Abandon all, you will receive heaven.” When you give God your life, he gives you the gift of himself.