(Bonus) 4 Prayer Lessons for “May the 4th Be With You” Day

I know, I know this is my second post today, but I just had to pass along these prayer lessons for today. Have fun:

1. Never forget to pray for the week and needy. You never know when Anakin Skywalker or Jar Jar Binks will play an important role in His story.

2. Pray for discernment in life. You don’t want to end up kissing your sister.

3. Keep praying, “Lord, teach me to pray.” We will always be padawan learners when it comes to prayer. A great learning tool is my book Enjoying Prayer. 🙂

4. Come to Him as a child. “Truly wonderful the mind of a child is.” –Yoda (From StarWars.com)

So go through this day with Jesus and live long and prosper. (Just kidding, I know that is Star Trek.)

Are you missing out by not connecting to God’s network?

I spend a good amount of time connecting with people. We have booths at conventions to introduce the ministry to people who need to learn about it. I am lunches and coffees with pastors and leaders to hear their heart and see how we might work together. Networking can sound sleazy at times, but my attitude is to build a “net” of connections so that together we can do the “work” that God has given us.

But there is a problem. Let me nerd out on you for a moment. Even if I was introduced to a new person every second, 24 hours a day -7 days a week, for the rest of my life I wouldn’t even meet half the people in the world. And what if I need to meet someone in the other half to accomplish the mission God has for my life. That is why my prayer life is so important.

I love the story of Moses after the mountain. God told Moses he could have Aaron as a partner in the ministry of leading the people out of Egypt. But Moses couldn’t get down the mountain and text his brother to come down and visit him. So God went to work. “The Lord said to Aaron, ‘Go into the desert to meet Moses.’” (Ex 4:27) God was connecting them together.

We do our part, but we are also dependent on God to introduce us to the people that we could never meet on our own. Maybe before you go on with the rest of your day ask God to lead you to someone he wants you to “network” with this week!

5 Surprising Results of Not Praying

These things may be surprising but they are each a result of not building your prayer life:

1. You will not appear as smart.

James says that if we lack wisdom we should ask God for wisdom and He will give it. The reverse of that is that if we don’t ask for wisdom we may not get the insight we need. Are we not getting the benefits of asking for wisdom?

2. You have to overcome more temptation than needed.

This may seem surprising, but it seems clear from Jesus’ teaching on prayer. He encourages his disciples to pray, “Lead us not into temptation.” This would imply that if we don’t pray that we may face more temptation than if we had. I think I will pass on unneeded temptation, thank you very much!

3. You have less of the things that you need in life.

With the same teaching on prayer about temptation Jesus teaches them to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” As Mark Batterson says, “The greatest tragedies in life are the prayers that go unanswered because they go unasked.” We shouldn’t miss out by not asking.

4. Your life will be more boring.

Again this may be surprising but true prayer helps to prevent boredom in life. Part of the life of prayer is listening prayer. When we pray God promises, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.” (Psalms 32:8 NIV) I have found that when I listen He often sends me on an adventure that gets my heart pounding. What adventure in life will we miss by not giving Him that space?

5. God may seem further away.

It should be no surprise, but sometimes it is, that spending time in prayer makes us more aware of the presence of God. Henry Blackaby in his classic book Experiencing God says that, “True prayer does not lead to an encounter with God; it is an encounter with God.” How often has God seemed far away when He wouldn’t if I have pressed into a time of prayer?

This post is not to make you feel guilty, but rather encourage you to take advantage of turning each of these negatives around by building your prayer life.

If you want to build your prayer life, why don’t you sign up for the blog?