Every Man's Problem with Prayer

We’ve all heard it before: pray more, pray better, and pray continually. What does it mean to pray? Should prayers be verbalized? Does it matter? What does it mean to pray in the Spirit? With all the demands of a 21st century man of God, how do you even start the monumental task of attempting to pray continually?

Certainly there are times throughout scripture where prayers are aloud and in front of a multitude of people: Solomon in 1 Kings 8 (2 Chronicles 6), the priests and Levites in 2 Chronicles 30, Job in front of his three friends, Isaiah’s allusion to aloud prayer in Isaiah 26:16, the apostles together in Acts 4:24, and Jesus’ high priestly prayer in John 17. According to my research, it is inconclusive as to the expression of prayer through vocal cords for any other prayer in the Bible. Even though it’s written down in verbatim form, surely the Spirit of God that inspired our scriptures knows what each and every prayer said regardless of verbalization.

There are also other times when aloud prayers are discouraged because they can draw undue attention to the prayer issuer rather than the message or intent of the prayer. Such instances Jesus addressed in Matthew 6:5 (Mark 12:40, Luke 20:47) while he was denouncing the teachers of the law who basically were praying just to satisfy the need of themselves or their constituents to hear a prayer. Apparently, the apostles were so confused as to the method of prayer that they directly asked Jesus to teach them how to pray in Luke 11. Even the most pious of the fathers of our Church were clueless when confronted with the example of Jesus contrasted with their societal knowledge of prayer.

There are certainly examples where individuals make known their private prayers to the many for the encouragement of the many: Paul repeatedly informed the churches and various individuals of his personal prayers in every one of his epistles. Surely praying together with the same intent helps in times where we need someone to agree with us in prayer (Matthew 18:19) and for the mutual bearing of burdens with your Christian brothers. As men, we don’t like letting other men in to our personal problems or desires - but there’s nothing wrong with it; in fact, it is right and true and good. And then we’re confronted with the command to pray continually in 1 Thessalonians 5:16. By definition, we physically cannot continually pray aloud since God created us with the need to sleep, eat, and socialize. Therefore, there has to be an underlying coordination with the Spirit of God who prays for you and issues prayers, while coordinating with your soul, when even your mind may not be aware (Romans 8:26).

Praying, by definition, is a communication with your creator - the one who knows you on the level of intent and desires. He knows you past all the external walls we put up as men. He knows what we are really praying for, regardless of any words we may actually be saying, at all times. His Spirit is inside us constantly searching us, discovering our hearts’ desire, and detecting how we respond to various crises of ourselves, loved ones or community.

Jesus repeatedly went off in the wilderness or somewhere else by himself to pray and commune with his Father. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that when he was raising Lazarus from the dead in John 11:41, one of the few times he prayed aloud in the Bible, that he directly told his apostles and disciples that he was praying only so they could hear him. Jesus also indicated that praying by yourself while behind closed doors is acceptable and encouraged in Matthew 6:6. Jesus was leading by example when he went off alone for prayers and fellowship and he actually taught that praying and fellowshipping alone with the Father is pleasing to the Father.

Since Jesus was the firstborn of many brothers (Romans 8:29/Colossians 1:18), we should expectantly follow his example and instruction in order to become the men of prayer that God expects of us. After Jesus, and after we accept him as Lord, the Spirit of God makes his home in us and he continually ushers us into Truth and Goodness.

As we increase and grow regarding maturity in the Lord and spiritual maturity, we are gifted with an exponential increase in ability to engage in successful praying. As we are transformed into the likeness of Jesus, the intents and desires of our hearts are molded to the intents and desires of the will of God. As the Spirit of God groans and intercedes for us when our intents and desires are congruent with the will of God, we issue effective prayers - whether or not we are actually verbalizing them through the linguistic approximations of our minds.

In conclusion, I believe that every man has two choices: to want to be like God or to want to live life your own way. One way leads to becoming mature in the Spirit where you can effectively pray continually and the other leads to becoming further from the character of Jesus where your prayers are an abomination to the Lord (Proverbs 28:9). Therefore, whichever path you choose, even on a daily basis, depends on whether or not you can effectively pray - let alone pray continually.

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Men, each day you must make a choice that today you want to be a little more like God, that you trust him to mold you into the image of Jesus, and that you allow him to highlight times/people/places where you need to be. If our intents and desires are truly congruent with being like God, becoming perfect even as he is perfect, then our hearts will immediately commune with the Spirit of God to call forth a pleasing spiritual prayer to the Father. When the Spirit of God groans and prays with you, assuredly you should know that you’re partnering with God and that it pleases him.

Then and only then may we rest assured of the promises of Jesus in Matthew 21:22 and Mark 11:24, where we are promised that whatever we shall receive the desires of our hearts. Practically, this means that a little more God comes into our lives or circumstances and results in a little less suffering and pain.

Each day, every morning, make a conscious decision to trust God, to be like him, and to want to become more like Jesus. If you do that, your desires will increasingly be in accordance with the Father’s will, your prayers will increasingly become more effective, and you will see the power of God in your life. Are you ready to become an effective man of prayer?

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This is a Guest Post by a great friend of mine, Ryan E.

Click here to check out more posts by this author!

Why the Train Tracks?

If you haven't noticed, a few of my profile pictures on my sites show a train or the tracks in the background. This is, of course, is by no accident. My wife and I were actually traveling along the top of West Virginia. We decided to take some back roads due to some potential traffic hazards that were showing up on our phone maps. These back roads turned out to be pretty cool. We left our house in Virginia to go to Pennsylvania really early in the morning. When we ventured out on these back roads, it was just getting light outside and there was some fog in the air. We passed some really cool fields, where the fog was settling just right. We traveled along the rivers edge for a few miles and enjoyed the eeriness of water ripples. Eventually we came to a point of the road that traveled alongside the rail road tracks. You see, for some time I had been praying and hoping for an opportunity to find the perfect setting for a photo of myself on the train tracks. We came up to a little side road that crossed the tracks and decided to stop.

There were two sets of tracks at this particular location and the slight fog in the air added the right touch of softness. I told my wife that I wanted to run down the tracks a ways and have her take a picture of me with my arms out and my head faced up looking to God. I proceeded to run down the tracks thinking "I hope a train doesn't come now." I looked back, struck my pose and my wife took a few photos of me standing on the tracks. Let me go back in time a little bit.

A little over a year ago, you would not have known this man who is now writing this blog. I was an angry, doubtful and hopeless man. My marriage was literally on the rocks and at the verge of divorce. My heart was long gone from any emotion and I was ready to move on with my life away from everything I knew. I had been raised in a Christian home and school my entire life, but I never actually knew who Jesus really was. Marriage only brought out this fact more and in a much stronger way. I know why now, but I had no idea then and did not care to. As I considered the idea of divorce, I had a few brothers from my Church that would continue to press into me and lead me back down a straight path. I would meet with one of my buddies on a weekly basis and listen to him try to sway me. (He is the author of A Man of Hope and Quality Construction). Near the end of this madness, I started to meet with my pastor. This was honestly one of the last things I wanted to do on my list, but for some reason I just went with it.

I entered his office thinking this was a waste of time. There was no way he was going to convince me to change my mind. I went forward and discussed the whole story with him and got into most of the ugly details. He proceeded to talk to me about what real marriage is, what it stands for and what it is suppose to mean. He challenged me with reading the book of Proverbs and to start researching what it really meant to walk and worship with Christ. Towards the end of the meeting, I told him the following phrase "In order to change, I am going to have to get hit by a Freight Train." His answer was perfect. God gave him the other half of that phrase and it was at this moment that something shifted. Something in my heart, my realist, logical heart broke. He said the following phrase:

In order to get hit by a freight train, 

you have to put yourself on the tracks.

I know it doesn't appear to be mind blowing, but for me it was life changing. The train can only hit me if I am willing to stand on the tracks. In other words, I will not find God unless I am willing to go to Him. How am I to find God if I am not willing to take the first steps to get onto the tracks? How am I to find God if I don't have the courage to stand on those tracks until the train hits me? How am I able to love God, if I don't give him my heart? Think about it. Thats all I did when I left his office. I thought about it over and over again and I started to realize what my answer was. God was, has and still is waiting for me to get on the tracks. He was was waiting for me to take the first, bold step of faith. Ever since I decided to take that first step, my life has been forever changed.

What step of faith is God waiting for you to take? Are you willing to step on the tracks?

Oh, and I forgot to mention that as we were taking the final photos, a train did 'ring' in the distance and about 5 minutes later a train came right past us, on the same set of tracks we were standing on........

Fury of Life & Nature

The week of August 22-28, was a crazy week of experiencing the fury of nature. Here in Virginia we have experienced some wild events.

 Earlier in the week we experienced a 5.8 earthquake. This was the first earthquake I have ever experienced, or at least actually felt. There were a few aftershocks that followed, but nothing too major. A couple days later we had violent thunderstorm that felt more like Tropical Storm conditions. All of these things occurred while we were listening to the forecast of the giant Hurricane Irene on it's way. Hurricane Irene is now going through Virginia and we are feeling some of her power. On top of that we have heard of tornadoes touching down due to the force of Irene in different parts of the country. I’m waiting to hear of a sudden snow storm….

With all these crazy weather patterns happening lately, I can’t help but relate them to our lives. There are many storms that we go through in life. Some examples are broken relationships, family issues, work problems and identity failures. We are never sure of what kind of storm we will face next, but we will face them eventually. This week in weather, is like having a really hard week in our lives. Sometimes we get hit with storm after storm and we start to lose hope, we start to give up. We figure the storms are too large and are out of our control. Instead of going to others for help, we close up shop or we check out. Where do we go and what do we do…

The answer to all of these storms is God. We know that we have no control over the weather and we know that we are never really ready for the storms of life. If we have a rock, a solid foundation to stand on, we can be sure that we will be safe. Instead of isolation and worry, we can put our trust in Him that everything will work out for good. If we can recognize that we don’t have control of the storms, we can give Him control. We can allow him to handle the storms for us. He will guard us.

Stay safe everyone! And Pray for all those in need!