Ministries:
Adult | Teens | Children

Pastor's Pen's:
2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001

Sermon Series:
Following Jesus
Earthly Cross
His Name Is
Apostles Creed
Dealing with Feelings
Jonah
Get Real
Promised Land Living

Grace Church
257 Kendall Street
Burlington, WI 53105

(262) 763-3021

Email:
Pastor Scott Carson

Secretary Patti Hall

PASTOR'S PENS 2006

Grace Church of Burlington August 20, 2006 What's the difference between people who pray in church and those who pray in casinos?  The answer, "The ones in the casinos are serious."             How serious are you when you pray? How serious am I? I fear too often my prayer life can devolve into rote rather than reality.             Recently, I read that Martin Luther, the father of the Protestant Reformation, had a good friend and assistant by the name of Friedrich Myconius. In 1540, Myconius became very ill and was expected to die shortly. On his deathbed he wrote a tender farewell message to Luther. When Luther read the message, he immediately sent a reply: "I command you in the name of God to live because I still have need of you in the work of reforming the church. The Lord will never let me hear that you are dead, but will permit you to survive me. For this I am praying, this is my will, and may my will be done, because I seek only to glorify the name of God." While those words might seem bold and brash, the fact is that Myconius, who had already lost the ability to speak when Luther's reply came, soon recovered from his illness, and lived six more years. In fact, he finally died two months after Luther did. What an amazing testimony to the power of prayer! Wouldn't you like to be able to pray like that? I know that I would!             One of the best ways to learn how to pray is to study the prayers that are contained in the Bible. By listening in across the centuries, we learn a great deal about the content of Biblical prayer and the intensity with which we should pray. While content is obvious, the concept of intensity may be new to some people. Many contemporary Christians find themselves easily distracted when they attempt to pray. If the truth were told, often we are playing around at our prayers instead of approaching prayer with a holy intensity. How different this is from the prayers of Moses or Hannah or Daniel or David or Mary or Paul. These Biblical saints prayed with fire in their souls. They cried out to God with a single-minded focus that seemed to shut out the world around them. That’s why we’re working our way through our new series, Paul’s Prayers. We want to learn how to pray from someone who had a hotline to heaven.             As we work our way through Paul’s prayers, there is one repeated lesson...Prayer is the window of the soul. The fact is that what we pray for, we care for. We all pray for what concerns us. And the reverse is also true.  What we don't pray about, we don't care about. That's a solemn and convicting  thought,  and though we may try to escape its force, we cannot escape the truth. We can say all we want about how much something means to us, but if we never bring it before the Lord in prayer, we cannot truly say that we care deeply about it. What we pray about, we care about.             Someone has suggested that there are at least three things that hold us back in the area of prayer. First, we fear that we don't pray often enough. Second, we worry that we won't use the right words or we fear we'll say the wrong thing. Third, we think we don't have enough faith. Or more accurately, we're sure we don't have enough faith to be heard by God.             I believe that’s one reason that the Bible records the prayers of the great saints of God. We listen as Moses pleads with the Lord; we listen as Nehemiah and Daniel intercede with the Almighty. We hear Hannah pouring her heart out before God. And in John 17 we observe the Lord Jesus talking intimately with his Heavenly Father. Scattered throughout the epistles, we have numerous short prayers by the Apostle Paul. All of these Biblical prayers are given to us as models and examples. They are not forms to be slavishly followed, but guides to help us frame our thoughts as we come before the Lord in prayer. If we need help in prayer (and we all do), then we will be richly repaid as we study the prayers of the Bible.             We’re just in the beginning of this new study. I hope that it helps you grow and go forward on your knees for the Kingdom!