Problems With Prayer

Last week we ran our first "Connected" evening. It is a different format for doing church aimed at inviting your friends along. For our first evening we looked at "What does it look like when God answers prayer?" In our YouVersion live event post I asked why people find it hard to pray. (If you have come here from this week's YouVersion event ad welcome!) The answers we got back were very interesting. They included being tired to being caught in sin. I thought it might be worth having a very brief think through about prayer here. I hope it will be some help to you.

There is a sense in which, for the Christian, prayer should be like breathing. In all things our minds and hearts should incline towards God at all times. However our relationship with God is just that - a relationship. We show how much we value our relationships by how much exclusive time we are willing to give them. My wife knows I love her when I stop doing everything else and just give her my time. In the same way the time we take out to "be with" God in prayer and the Scriptures reveals the value we place on that relationship. If you are finding it hard to pray is it because your love for God has dried up or gone cold. If so, please don't feel alone. I don't know a Christian who doesn't sometimes get in this place. Prayer and Bible reading, if done at all, becomes a tick box exercise; read my Bible, check - prayed, check, brushed my teeth, check, - etc.... If we get here we have forgotten the gospel - we've forgotten why we loved him in the first place. Perhaps we should remind ourselves.

Jn 3:16
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

1Pe 1:18-19
18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

Isa 53:5
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

Rom 5:8
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

1Jo 4:10
10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

I don't know if these are familiar verses to you, I hope they are. Don't let them wash over you. Go back read and re-read them. Allow the truth of them to sink into your hearts. Remember that the Christian life is a life of repentance (true sorrow and seeking of forgiveness for all your sin) and faith (believing God loves you better than you ever could, and so following after your Lord). Those two steps need happen again and again every day. The reason we can be sure we are safe when we do is the cross - the demonstration of God's love - and the resurrection - the demonstration of God's power.

The reality of the gospel, and the forgiveness of our sin through the death of Christ in our place means that this is true:

Heb 10:19-22
19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Because of what the Lord Jesus has done we may come to God in heaven as our Father (perfect, beautiful, glorious, eternally loving Father) knowing he will accept us every time. We can rejoice in the Lord and:

Phi 4:6
6... not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Our Father in heaven loves you so much he did not even withhold the life of his eternal Son from us. And so we love him, because he has loved us. The Lord Jesus wants to spend time with us so much that he gave his life so we could be with him in an eternal home.

Now of course if you are caught in a sin you can't escape it will keep you from prayer. You will feel dirty and unworthy. (That's why we need Jesus folks.) Do not stop fighting that sin, but remember grace from the throne of heaven is always there for you. If you don't seek God how do you to overcome your sin. The only way to do it is by God's grace. You really want to beat that sin - then pray! Ask for God to be merciful to you. Pray and don't give up. There is grace for you.

If your tired - I know how you feel! (As I do with the sin issue actually). This morning I fell back asleep as I tried to pray - woke up late and was in a rush to get the kids to school! Do you know how I feel when one of my children curls up on my lap and goes to sleep in the middle of the conversation. I'm not annoyed! I'm delighted that my child feels so safe with me. Of course it isn't ideal. Perhaps like me you need to sleep earlier (hence this post is about to finish). But don't beat yourself up over it. Your heavenly Father won't! Set aside 5, 10, 15 minutes to spend time talking with your Father in heaven. Praise him in his glory, thank him for his goodness, seek his will in his Lordship and repent knowing you are safe in his mercy.

Welcoming Visitors To Church

Walking into a church building for the first time can be a daunting prospect. Even for a mature believer, perhaps on holiday somewhere, it can be a difficult thing to walk into an unfamiliar church service.

Recenlty this story was related to me. A lady walks in to a small church in London. She sits down at the back. Before the service no-one speaks to her. At the end of the service as she gets up to leave; meanwhile a deacon approaches the pastor before he has even left the pulpit and the members begin to chat among themselves. Seeing the lady about to leave without anyone having said, "Hello," let alone given a proper welcome the pastor excuses himself from the deacon, shimmies through the congregation and dashes to the church door where he is able to great the lady, and then introduce her to another member of the church who she talks with for 10 minutes or more before she eventually leaves. What is wrong with this picture?

Meanwhile the same week a couple arrive at another London church for the first time. They are greated at the door and pointed down to the main hall. Before they have sat down they are greated again and before the service starts they are engaged in brief friendly conversation, asking a few questions and explaining where to find songs words. At the end of the service, as people sit quietly considering what has taken place in the service the pastor makes his way up to the door of the church. After chatting with someone else the couple make their way towards the door where they are greated by the pastor and invited to stay. Fully intending to spend some time directly with them once others have been greated at the door, the pastor goes into to the refreshment hall and isn't able to chat with either husband or wife, because both have been engaged in conversation by different members of the church. What is right with this picture?

Which church is most likely to see the visitor(s) again? Which church most exhibits the gospel in it's natural response to visitors?

What happens the moment you walk in to a church and the moment the service ends can play a massive role in how someone responds to the message that has been preached. The message can be removed from their minds by an unfriendly, uncertain attitude to strangers and leave people thinking, 'Well that was interesting but I'm not going there again,' or, 'Not sure I agree with what was said, but there is something here that I like.' As James says, "Faith without works is dead." However good your doctrine is, if it doesn't work out in your lives then your gospel will be discreditted. To have great doctrine but to have foresaken the love you had at first is a recipee for church closure. The great work of Jesus on the cross was to be foresaken by God so that we can be adopted into the family of God. Jesus in the parable of the sheep and the goats tells us the evidence of faith is the welcoming and blessing of his people. We're told that some by entertaining strangers have unwittingly entertained angels! As God in the gospel welcomes us into glory as his loved children, the outworking of the gospel in our lives, and so especially our churches ought to be a selfless, warm, welcoming environment. If that is missing then there is something missing in your faith.

But welcoming and fostering a welcoming atmosphere is about more than simply saying "Hello". It is about more than having people on 'welcome team' or 'stewarding' rota. It is about Christians together understanding the welcome they have received in the gospel. That though we were excluded from the people of God, through Christ's exclusion we have now been welcomed, with all our faults and failings, right into God's heart. That together we are the family of God, with God's love lavished upon them. If this reality has changed our hearts then we are able to look beyond our own problems and desires on Sunday morning and begin to welcome the foreigner and stranger and "sinner" into the community of God's people. Not smothering them with greedy and slightly manic eyes, desperately trying to persuade them to come next week too! But making them welcome, helping them relax, giving them space, showing them there is a place here and friendship here if they are willing to respond to the offer. This is the atmosphere of the gospel that needs to soak through the church.

There are of course practical issues. It is important to have people at the door to show an immediately friendly face and give any necessary directions and answer any presenting questions. But it is as necessay to have people not 'on duty' who are able to say at least a brief, "Hello," rather than leaving them there to stew for 5 minutes before the service starts. It is important that the preacher is allowed to get to the door quickly so that he can personally great any visitors. It is equally important to allow people to leave quickly if they really do want/need to go!

Assuming people stay after the service (please do provide an opportunity for this) then people need to be ready to chat. Think of a few questions you can ask beyond, "What's your name," and, "Where do you live." It may be appropriate to ask, "If you don't mind, can I ask what brought you to church today?" This may even open an opportunity to share some of your testimony of God's goodness to you. Other questions you could ask are, "Have you read much of the Bible?" And the follow up, "What did you think?" Even, "What did you think of the service/sermon?" Be ready to give your own answers if you get a one-word answer back with no return question. There's no need to be pushy, or feel we need to unload the whole gospel on them. But we also mustn't be afraid to talk about spiritual matters with them. They have come to church after all!

One final practicallity of welcoming people. The initial welcome is often actually the easy bit. The great question, it seems to me, is how the church responds when someone has been coming for a month or two. Everyone knows their name, what they do and where they are from, and no-one speaks to them anymore. When they came first they were welcomed. Now they get no more than a friendly smile. Deliberately think of things to talk about with them. Pray for them and be interested in their lives. "How was your week?" "Did you get that job?" "Have you been reading your Bible; what part; have you found it useful?" "What are you praying towards at the moment?" "Are you going away in the summer?" And so on. Invite them out for a meal - or better still over to your house. Share with them, not only the gospel, but your life as well.

Christ gave all of himself for us, so let us give ourselves to the new face. When the gospel preached is matched by the atmosphere of the gospel lived the way is opened in God's grace for lives to be transformed and churches to grow, all to the glory of God.