January 5, 2020

All Scripture from NIV unless otherwise documented.

1 Thessalonians 5: 16 – 18 “16Be joyful always; 17pray continually; 18give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
Ephesians 6: 18 – “18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.”

As we begin a new year, we come to the end of our sermon series on prayer. We looked at the topics of How to Pray, Six elements of Prayer, The Mechanics of Prayer, and last week Hindrances to Prayer. Today I want to conclude with a brief message titled, “When to Pray”.
When should you pray? To many of you that might seem to be an obvious question with an obvious answer, and I guess when people are being rational, I guess it is. But have you ever been in a state of mind where you just didn’t know what to do, and the last thing you turn to is prayer? A lot of people are that way. A crisis enters their life and rather than give it to God through prayer, they try to figure out a solution to the crisis on their own, or through the counsel of a friend or colleague. Sometimes the last thing people think about is praying.

Today I want to share with you seven suggestions by Torrey concerning when we should pray. Yes, they may seem to be simple and obvious suggestions, but let us allow them to simply remind us that we should pray in each of these circumstances.

Six of these examples are taken directly from the example of Jesus. The first is that we should pray “in the morning”. In Mark 1: 35 we read: “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” Very early in the morning suggests that He got up before anyone else in the house did and spent time alone with His Father. That requires discipline. You can’t be one of those people who likes to lay around in bed until the last minute and then get up and get ready to go, unless of course you can spend that time in prayer without distraction.

Torrey states that “More can be accomplished in prayer in the first hours of the day than at any other time during the day.” It can be a time of charging your spiritual life for the trials and temptations that you may encounter during the day. As a matter of fact, it may help you avoid these kinds of issues because you prayed them away before they had a chance to even come up. Make early morning a priority in your prayer life if you want to have power throughout the day.

The second suggestion by Torrey is for you to pray through the night. In Luke 6: 12 we read concerning Jesus, “One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.” While not a constant practice of Jesus, there were times in His life, and there may be times in our own lives that we should give up the whole night in prayer. Torrey doesn’t suggest that we set a night aside on a regular basis and spend the night in prayer. He does suggest that there may be times when we might have a need that could require a whole night in prayer, and when those times come, that we set that time aside. If, however, while praying we come to a point where we have prayed things through and have peace of mind about it, then retire for the night. There isn’t a need to be legalistic about it and continue simply because you set that time aside.

The third suggestion concerning when to we should pray is before any great crisis. Now I know that we might not always have advance warning before a crisis comes into our lives, so let me use the word monumental events. Some things that we face in life may not seem to be a crisis but would be considered monumental events. Such things for Jesus were the Sermon on the Mount, the beginning of His public ministry, and His crucifixion. Some things that you might want to pray about before you set out in life are whether to go to college or not and if so, where to attend, how you will afford it, etc. Marriage would be another monumental event that you might want to pray about. Are you ready, what are your expectations, is this the right
person for you? You might want to pray about a job, or a trip, or any number of things that we often go into without much thought or prayer. And of course, when problems arise or health issues appear, you would want to spend time in protracted prayer about things like this too.

Another time that you should spend time in prayer is after you have had a great achievement or overcome a crisis in your life. After Jesus fed the 5,000, he sent the disciples away and went up on the mountain by himself to pray. I’m sure that He was tasked by the day’s events and needed to recharge, but He also wanted to give praise to the Father for what had been accomplished that day. It’s easier for us to cry out to God when we are in the middle
of something and we need His help than it is to pray after some great achievement in our life or after a crisis has been averted. I can’t help but be reminded of the ten lepers who were healed by Jesus and only one came back to say thank you. All too often we pat ourselves on the back for what we have accomplished rather than saying thank you to God.

Next Torrey said that we should give special time to prayer when life is unusually busy. That’s what Jesus did. When the multitudes pressed in on Him, he would go into the wilderness and pray. Luke 5: 15 – 16 says: “15Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. 16But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” Many years ago, I went to the doctor because I was always tired and lethargic. Do you know what he told me to do? Exercise more. I told him that I was too exhausted to exercise, and he told me, begin exercising and you will get more energy. I guess that’s kind of what Torrey means here concerning prayer. When you think you are too busy to pray, that’s when you need to set more time aside for prayer. When we take time to pray, maybe, just maybe, some of the things that are causing us to be so busy will either become less important, or maybe even disappear. We allow time to be crowded out by things that are urgent, but maybe not that important. When you are unusually busy, make time for prayer.

Another time that we need to pray is when great temptations come into our lives. Do you ever face temptations in life? Some of them aren’t too difficult to overcome. You know what is right and you choose to be obedient to the teaching of the Scripture and to your faith. But sometimes you may be faced with a temptation that really requires you to exercise great faith to overcome, and one way you can face that temptation is through prayer.
When Jesus faced the cross, I believe that His human nature struggled with what He was about to endure. As
the eternal God, He had seen it all and how it would play out. The beating, the mocking, and the agony of the cross. How did He overcome the temptation to skip the cross? Through prayer. In Matthew 22: 36 – 39 we read: “36Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” 39Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.””
Jesus gained the strength to overcome this temptation through prayer, and I believe that we too can be strengthened by God to overcome the temptations in our own lives if we will simply yield to Him in prayer.

And finally, from the verses that were read at the beginning of this message, we should always be in a season of prayer. Ephesians 6: 18 says – “18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.”
And 1 Thessalonians 5: 16 – 18 says “16Be joyful always; 17pray continually; 18give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

We should always be in an attitude of prayer. When something good happens, give praise and thanks to God in that moment, when something bad happens, ask God for help, when someone needs intercession, lift them up to God at that moment. Be connected to God throughout the day and continually be in an attitude or spirit of prayer. If we were to do this, it just might make our day to go better and our relationship with God to blossom.
I hope that you have enjoyed these messages on prayer, but even more so, I hope that they have been helpful to
you and that you are putting them to use in your own prayer lives.