Prayer & Personal Life

Dr. Charles Stanley: As long as you know in your heart, that your first priority in life, is your relationship to Jesus Christ, that's more important than winning souls, preaching the gospel, teaching the gospel, ministering to a church, your personal relationship to Christ is first. Because if that's not right, everything else you and I do, will not carry much weight, won't be very fruitful, won't have any real lasting value. How is it that prayer can be a continuing priority in your life and mind?
Guest (Male): Welcome to In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. Today, we begin a week-long focus on those who are called to lead God's people. The lessons you'll hear also apply to all believers since we are all representatives of Christ on earth. Here's part one on prayer and personal life.
Dr. Charles Stanley: Now, let me just say in the very beginning, that you're going out into a society that you and I are going to be prepared for, because there is no school in the face of this earth that can repair you for what is coming in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so I want to encourage you to listen very very carefully to what I want to say to you in these next four sessions. It is not my purpose to demonstrate my ability to exegete a passage. But what I'm interested in is that you listen carefully about your life. Because you're going to have to live in a very trying society. And you're going to have to minister in situations and circumstances that our forefathers never ministered in. If you listen carefully and you take to heart what I want to share with you, you'll make it no matter what happens. But if you don't, some of you are not going to make it. And I want you to turn if you have your Bible to Mark chapter 1 verse 35. I want to look at several verses, but I want us to look at this one as the beginning. The scripture says in verse 35 of Mark 1, and in the early morning while it was still dark, he that is Christ arose and went out and departed to a lonely place and was praying there. I believe that prayer must be the priority activity in the life of the servant of God. And if you'll think for just a moment the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, in this particular passage the Bible says that early in the morning, Jesus was up and out there alone praying in a place by himself. And so if you look at the life of the Lord Jesus Christ and all of his wisdom and knowledge and understanding and his relationship to the Father, if he out praying early in the morning, late in the evening, all night long, slipping away even amidst people who are thronging him because of their needs, it should say something to you and to me about the place of prayer in our own personal private life. But oftentimes even though we know it's a priority and should be, we don't do it. But let me just remind you of something. The Bible nowhere says that you're not to be great preachers or great teachers. Doesn't say we're to be great missionaries, great servants of God, build great churches, have great ministries. But it does say that you and I are to live a holy life. And my friend, there's no such thing as holy living unless prayer is a priority in our life. There will not be peace, no ability to sustain the storms and the trials, the temptations, the heartaches, the heartbreaks, the suffering, the pain, the trials, the tribulations unless prayer is a priority in your life. If you don't make it a priority now, it won't be later on. I think in my own life how grateful I am to my mother. Because as a kid growing up, my father passed away when I was about 7 months of age and so it was just my mom and myself. But so early I can't remember that before I would go to bed at night, my mother would get me down by the bedside, not after I got in the bed, down by the bedside and she and I would pray. And I can still hear my mom praying some things that she prayed for me every single night. She wasn't educated, had a good school in the sixth grade because her mother passed away and she had to raise the rest of the family. My mom learned to depend upon God. But my mom was wise enough to teach me very early that the most important thing in my life was to learn to pray. She didn't say here's how you pray. She just demonstrated it to me. And so when I got my first paper route, the truth is to be honest I was afraid of the dark. And so I got up in the morning at 5:00 and had to deliver newspapers for about an hour or so. And my first couple of weeks or so I prayed all the way around the paper route because I was afraid. And after a while, I realized I was no longer afraid. And the Lord Jesus Christ and I became intimate companions delivering newspapers. But I remember to this very moment the time in my life when God said to me, this is why it must be a priority in your life. I used to live in Fort Worth. And I remember being over in the corner of the living room, which was my prayer place one morning, one evening, and I was praying and I remember God so clearly said to me that night on my knees, whatever you accomplish in life, you will have to accomplish on your knees. And my friend, I can tell you, I believe that's God's best way of accomplishing his work. It is a whole lot less troublesome than trying to do it in my flesh and in my own strength. And as I look back over my failures, and I have a long list of them, they have always come as a result of getting too busy to do it God's way and to do it my way, which is on my feet rather than on my knees. But you see, in order for prayer to be a priority, there has to be a discipline. Because it's not just going to happen. You are not going to say, well, I'm going to start putting prayer as a priority in my life. Doesn't work that way. There's a discipline that is required. And that discipline demands that I have a time and a place and a plan and a purpose. Very simple. But listen to me. If you don't have it, it won't be a priority. In my own life, I have a time. But I have a place and I think the place is just as important as the time. And somewhere nobody ever taught me this, but I learned that having a place was very important. And when I was growing I didn't have a place in my home where I lived that I could get aside. I had a place in the Sunday school room down in the basement of the church where I was attending. And I would go up there oftentimes a couple of times a day in the morning and in the evening and I had the privilege of getting into the church and back in the basement, back in that Sunday school class. But I having a place and having something to remind me of it. At this point in my life, my favorite place is in my study at home. But I have an African which my mother made for me and a pillow. And it happens to be stretched out so when I walk k in my study, the first thing I see is that African and an open Bible and a pillow. Because I get busy just like you do. I travel just like you do. And I could give you a lot of reasons not to have any time to pray, as many reasons as you could give me. And I discovered something by accident. If I have a place and I have something that remind me, every time I walk in that study, the first thing I see is the place where God and I carry on business. That's where he and I fellowship. That is the place. And when I'm kneeling over there, the only thing I am doing is talking to God. I'm not studying for sermons. I'm not "trying to figure out something else. It is a place. You say I live in a small apartment. I don't have a place. You can always choose the bathroom. Go in and shut the door, stretch out on the floor, and you're alone bp with God. It doesn't make any difference where. But I want to tell you there's something about a place where you talk to God when your heart is aching and when you've got difficulties and hardships, when you want things to work out in your life that seem to be impossible. A time and a place. And if you don't set the time and I know that you feel right now that your schedule is such and your studies are such, you just don't have time to pray. I didn't say you had to pray more than study. Priority doesn't mean that you do that more than anything else, but it has the quality time and the priority time. And my friends, you can explain it away all day long only to suffer the consequences of it. There's something about a time and a place and a plan. And I I give you a very simple plan. Get yourself a little stenographer's pad. And you write in that pad your prayer request, the date. And then when God answers it, you put one line through it. Don't scratch it out. Just put one line through it and the date that God answered your prayer. And here's what will happen. That prayer book of yours will become several things. First of all, it will become a systematic reminder to bring you back to pray for some things over and over and over again. Secondly, it will become an impetus to your own faith because every time you've drawn a line through and put a date by it, it is an answer. And what happens is that on page after page after page those lines are drawn, those dates are there. God has answered this prayer and he's answered this one and he's answered this one and he's answered this one. But a third thing it becomes is this. It becomes a little biographical sketch of your walk with God. Because as you set down your goals and your dreams and the things that concern you, the things about your family, your wife and your children, your financial needs, your studies, those for whom you're concerned, over a period of time that little book begins to sketch your own personal walk with God. And my friend, one bin of these days if you'll keep that book and you'll be keep adding them to them, you'll have no greater gift to give your children than your prayer diary. Because it will say something to them about their dad, about their mom, that nothing in the world will ever equal. Because they're going to be able to flip through those pages and see well, my dad was having a problem here and he was having a problem here and I'm having the same kind of problem in my own life. My friends, you'll build up their faith, you'll strengthen their walk with God with your own simple little prayer book that nothing else in the world will substitute for it. But notice I said that in order to make prayer a priority in your life, there had to be a discipline. And that discipline not only is a time and a place and a particular purpose and plan. I'm going to talk about the purpose in a moment. But that discipline demands something else. And that is that these two principles you and I settle in our heart. And that is to be able to say no without feeling guilty is a principle you have to learn to live by. I want to tell you something. You have to learn to say no to some good opportunities, wonderful opportunities, great opportunities. But you just have to say no. If Jesus Christ is going to be the priority in your life and if the activity that is priority is prayer, you're going to have to say no. No, I can't do it. And the second principle is this. The need alone is never proper motivation to do anything. And if your goal in life is to minister to everybody, you can forget it. You can't. To meet everybody's needs, you won't be able to do it. And if you place prayer as a priority in your life, you're going to be misunderstood by some folks. They're going to think you're a loner. Or they're going to say, well, you know, you don't have a heart for the ministry. Or they'd have to accuse Paul and the Lord Jesus Christ of the same thing. But you're going to have to learn to say no. I can't do it. Well, why can't you do it? And the truth is you don't always have to give everybody an answer for why you can't do everything they ask. As long as you know in your heart that your first priority in life is your relationship to Jesus Christ, that's more important than winning souls, preaching the gospel, teaching the gospel, ministering to a church, your personal relationship to Christ is first. Because if that's not right, everything else you and I do will not carry much weight, won't be very fruitful, won't have any real lasting value. So we said first of all that prayer must be a priority. Now, here's the catch. What usually happens when everything gets to going our way? What usually happens if we're honest is we spend less time praying. And maybe that's because our purpose for prayer is not what it ought to be. If prayer is going to be a continuing priority, then I must understand what the ultimate purpose of my prayer life ought to be. When you look at the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, what is it that kept him going back early in the morning and late at night and praying all night and walking away from all these people? Here's what I believe his ultimate motivation was. And that was his intimacy with the Father. He didn't have to confess or repent of anything. He had the power to do anything and everything and all things that fit into the Father's will for him. But why did he spend so much time talking to the Father? Because Jesus love for the Father, his desire for intimacy with him kept him on his knees early in the morning, late in the evening, in the middle of the day, and all night long. Let me ask you this. What does it take to get you on your knees longer than 30 minutes at a time? What would it take to get you on your knees for a whole hour? What would it take to get you on your knees all day long? Or just want just through one night? What would it take to get you on your knees that long? Would it take bad news, sickness unto death? What would it take to get you on your knees that long? And when you pray, what does your prayer focus on? Financial needs and God knows them. Needs in your families, spending some time with your wife or your children. Or maybe difficulties that your children are going through. What is it that you have your focus on when you kneel to pray? Let me go back again to say if our focus is always based on need, when the needs are fulfilled, prayer will no longer be a priority. But none of these things was the priority of Jesus Christ. There was something else in his prayer life that motivated him and kept him coming back. And what was that? His desire for intimacy. Now, think about this for a moment. If you kneel to pray and your prayers are hurried and they are focused primarily on your material needs, your needs for your studies, your health, your family, your finances, all of these things. And you're not particularly interested in spending a lot of time at it. And really you're willing to be able to spend time and then receive what you've asked for. And you have no real genuine hungering, thirsting, longing just to kneel and be quiet and ask for nothing, but to be satisfied with his presence alone. So I just want to challenge you to ask yourself the question to be honest, Lord, what is the focus of my praying? Is it me myself and I? Am I really happy, satisfied just being in your presence, being alone? Or do I get restless? Does my mind wander? Do I honestly feel it's a waste of time kneeling and saying nothing and doing nothing, just being in your presence? My friend, with all of my heart I want to tell you, you're not going to make it in the ministry. That is make an impact unless prayer is a priority in your life. And unless the motivation for that prayer is a yearning, hungering, thirsting desire to be the man and woman God wants you to be. Which is the result of not great sermons and great churches and great ministries. But quiet private time alone in the presence of Jesus Christ. That will make your life have an impact. And Lord Jesus, we thank you for making it simple and plain, for loving us enough to accept us just the way we are, for the privilege of walking in your forgiveness. And most of all, for the wonderful privilege of enjoying your presence. For you said we are to be holy men and women, that we are to get live godly lives. And we know that a godly life is one that lives in the never-ending awareness that we're walking in the continuing presence of an awesome and holy God. I pray that each one of us would be honest enough to examine what our priorities are. Not only in our time, but in our love is my prayer in Jesus' name. Amen.
Guest (Male): What's your motivation for prayer? Are you content to sit in God's presence and get to know him? Dr. Stanley's message reminded us that there's nothing more important than our intimate relationship with the Lord. You can find help for your journey with Christ at intouch.org or go back through this message again by following the link to today on radio. And if you'd like to have a copy of Dr. Stanley's complete message, you can order at the bookstore. The title is Prayer and Personal Life or order his teaching set The Prayer Life of a Ministry Leader. Our web address again is intouch.org Call or text to 1-800 intouch. If you prefer, you can write to us at intouch Post Office Box 7900 Atlanta, Georgia 30357. There's something very valuable waiting for us when we're alone with God. Stay with us. A follow-up to today's lesson is just ahead in a moment with Charles Stanley.
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Guest (Male): You're listening to In Touch. What ultimately is the reason you pray? With Insight for Believers, here's a moment with Charles Stanley.
Dr. Charles Stanley: If you can be satisfied being quiet in the presence of Jesus Christ and get up and walk away fulfilled and contented and overflowing, then maybe you've missed the whole purpose of prayer in the life of the servant of God. It isn't a getting. That's a part of it, but it should not be the priority. He says ask and it shall be given you, seek and you will find, knock and it shall be opened to you. This is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, we know that we have the petition we desired of him. I'm not saying that you and I should not come to him with our needs. Our sense of dependence upon him, God never wants that to change. But you see, that shouldn't be my ultimate priority. And if prayer is going to be a priority, it's got to be higher and greater and far grander than just things. It must be a desire to be alone with him, to be satisfied just knowing him.
Guest (Male): You can learn more about how to connect with God when you visit us at intouch.org. Is there a new insight you received from today's program that helps you grow in your faith? Tell us about it today. Up next on In Touch, God isn't looking for leaders who rely on their own expertise and training. He wants people who are dependent on him. Hope you'll be back with us again to learn about prayer and leadership on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. This program is a presentation of In Touch Ministries Atlanta, Georgia and remains on this station through the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.