Practice: Prayer 2.1 - October 4, 2009

Practice #2 – Pray
2.1 – The Discipline of Emptying

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NIV)
Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

2 Divergent Worldviews:
 
1.    What Do I Want?
2 Timothy 3:1-5 (NIV)
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

2.    What Does God Want?
2 Timothy 2:4 (NIV)
No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs—he wants to please his commanding officer.

Romans 14:4 (NIV)
Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
 
John 3:36 (ESV)
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
Prayer is the process of EMPTYING myself that allows the transition to a different worldview. 

Romans 12:2
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Genesis 2:25-3:7
The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ” “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
If we understand prayer as an emptying of ourselves of our own agenda, then it changes how we read passages about prayer.

Psalm 37:4 (NIV)
Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.
How do we let go of our agenda and align with God’s?
 
John 10:10 (NIV)
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
 
Prayer is a constant conversation with God in which we submit our agenda to Him in every moment of every day.  And in turn, we rely on His replying to us with what His agenda is for each moment.
 
1 Thessalonians 5:17 (ESV)
Pray without ceasing.
 
Where do I start?
1.    A decision to make God’s agenda more important than my own.
2.    Knock out the major stuff…
3.    Surround yourself with the right influences…