Monday, October 30, 2006

IDEA: We believe in prayer in theory, but it’s difficult to practice.

We’ve been studying Hebrews 11. It’s a chapter on faith. Would you agree that one expression of faith would be prayer?

I. Is it an essential relationship?

Can you have faith and not pray?

Can you pray but not have faith?

So what is the relationship between faith and prayer?

There seems to be an essential relationship between faith and prayer.

II. Why, then, do people who profess faith admit that they don’t pray very much?

We sing the hymn “Sweet Hour of Prayer.” Do you think many Christians--including pastors--pray for an hour each day? Do they or we pray for an hour a month?

Why don’t we pray more?

Do you think it was easier for people in the past to pray for long periods? Luther is supposed to have prayed for three hours every day.

Was prayer more necessary in the past because they had to deal with the gaps in their understanding? Much of prayer in the past dealt with “the God of the gaps.”

In the past, during a drought people prayed for rain. Now we can follow the progress of a storm on the 6 o’clock news.

In the past, when there was sickness, people prayed that the sick would get well. Now we go to the doctor and get a shot of penicillin.

Is it possible that we don’t pray as much today because we don’t need the “God of the gaps”? Science seems to make us less dependent on prayer.

Can you think of other reasons why Christians find it hard to pray? Most of us believe that “Sweet Hour of Prayer” is a wonderful hymn in theory but hard to practice.

III. In the book of Hebrews the relationship of faith and prayer is evident.

In Hebrews we are urged to come boldly to God to find grace and help basically for our sinfulness in time of need.

Do you think we sin less today and therefore need God less? Obviously not. No matter the situation in life, there is always a deep relationship between faith and prayer.