Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Excuses Why Our Generation Skips Private Prayer....

Jesus clearly stated in Matthew 6:6, "But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut the door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly." This is one of the most talked about subjects in Christian circles yet it is one of the most seldom practiced at home. Why have we become so apathetic to talking with our Father in heaven? What makes us skip and create excuses to not enter our prayer closets? Is prayer a form for us or a lifestyle? Can we return as a generation to spending private quality time with the Lord again? Do YOU make excuses to avoid time in prayer?

I believe these are some of the more frequent excuses our generation has made to the area of private prayer....

1. Prayer Is Uninteresting. Give us hours and hours and hours of worship concerts, worship festivals, worship music, worship celebrations, worship awakenings but can I ask where is the same hunger for diligent PRAYER? More than anything, where is the passion for private prayer??

2. I Pray On The Go. We suppress our guilt-ridden conscious by praying on the go. We have enough time to swing by Starbucks and grab coffee and a bagel and along the ride we chew out words of requests to the Lord. We say we have prayed when we stand at a red light and utter ten words of thanks all the while sending five various text-messages to friends. If you want to KNOW the Father you must spend TIME with the Father. Prayer is not a drive-thru menu it's a place of separation, consecration, and dedication.

3. Busy! Busy! Busy! We love being busy! We have school engagements, church meetings, conferences, social parties, work obligations, college tests and on and on. We somehow are still able to fit all those events into our day yet we have dismal effort to find private time with the Father.

4. I Am Fatigued. More and more people are becoming weary not only physically but emotionally and spiritually. Our body screams at us to sleep one more hour and not to wake up. It has manipulating ways to make us go to bed without hearing the Father. The more we say yes to our flesh the more we say no to our spirit.

5. Prayer Starts and Ends in Church. If our passion is Jesus then let's meet with him privately. We love moving our lips during times of prayer in church but many times our hearts may be far from the One we are praying to. Church is a catalyst to keep our prayer life growing it shouldn't be our start and end point.

6. Prayer is Not MY Thing. Oh Really??! Prayer has never been any man's "thing". It has always been the tool to undo the flesh inside of us so that the Second Adam-Jesus Christ can rule and reign in every area of our lives. The Bible is not a buffet of teachings where I will take the blessings and let the praying be done by the leaders. Each of us gives personal account. Let's make prayer OUR thing in our generation!

7. I Get TOO Distracted. This is exactly why Jesus said to find a place and shut the door! Find a place and make the time to shut out the distractions. No iPhones, no texts, no emails, no books, no internet web browsing, shut it out. If you date your wife or husband and do all those other things while you are out, sooner or later it will cause awkward conversations. Dedicate the time solely to the Lord.

8. Pray FOR Me. As I travel the world, I notice more and more believers asking ministers, missionaries, pastors to pray FOR them. What's wrong with that, right? Well, when I follow up and ask, "Did you pray about it yet?", the reply usually is , "No not yet." We have a DIRECT line to the Father! Let's start using it. This is why Jesus suffered on the cross. This is why we have complete union with the Father again. Start talking with the FATHER. He is waiting for you.

9. I Cannot Pray Long. God is not desiring you to pray long prayers. He wants you to KNOW Him. It's not about what we tell God but what is God telling us? Does the Father know you or does He know about you? Stay in the secret place rain or shine. God always has something to tell you.

10. Just Pure Lazy. We can have an endless list of excuses yet one of the most underlining problems is pure laziness. That's right- LAZY! Our generation has a problem with responsibility and honest ethics. No one wants to admit and say, "Hey everyone! I'm lazy and really don't feel like it.". We must bring even our laziness to the Lord. Ask Him to give us the courage, will, and desire to be responsible enough to feed our souls and not blame pastors, church leaders, and ministers that they are not doing enough. It's time we stop being lazy Christians and start spending time with the Father one on one.

"If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor." -John 12:26

Twitter- @PaulMuzichuk

No comments:

Post a Comment