WHEN WE PRAY

When I was in college, two friends and I went out to the University baseball field one summer, where we bothered no one and no one would disturb us, and there we prayed for hours each night. Each of us was praying for something significant. Paul was praying to find a church to pastor. In September he became a pastor. Larry, an evangelist, was asking God to bless an upcoming revival where he would be preaching. In September he went to Texas and 130 people came to Christ during the revival. I was a pastor of a small Baptist church in the tobacco fields of Kentucky, and I was praying for people to be saved. In September, at least one person came to Christ at my church every single week! That year, while I was still a young man, I learned the importance of praying for hours at a time to secure the blessings of God. This week, I pray our commitments to prayer will increase.

SCRIPTURE READINGS:

Express: Romans 4-5

Advanced: 1 Corinthians 11; Mark 3; Ephesians 1

Challenge: Revelation 19; Matthew 28; Hebrews 10-11, James 1-5

MY SERMON NOTES FROM SUNDAY 

PRINCIPLES OF PRAYER
Nehemiah 1:1-11

Jim Cymbala: “Persistent calling upon the name of the Lord breaks through every stronghold of the devil, for nothing is impossible with God. For Christians in these troubled times there is simply no other way.”

Oswald Chambers: “Prayer does not equip us for greater works- prayer is the greater work.”

Title/Text

PRAYER EMPOWERS YOU TO ATTEMPT SOMETHING NEW FOR GOD  … (vv. 4-11)

Jack Taylor: “How sickening that we should be content to operate within the confines of our puny power when the power of God is waiting to be released. And the means by which it is released is prayer.”

Wesley Duewell: “There is no limit to what any Christian may accomplish through prayer!”

– adoration (vv.4-5)
– intercession (v.6)
– confession (vv.6-7)
– petition (v.11)

GOD BLESS YOU AS YOU DEVELOP A LIFE OF PRAYER! ~jkb