I’ve found that oftentimes when it comes to prayer, when it comes to praying and communicating with the Lord, people are frustrated. Everybody knows they should pray, right? But oftentimes people are frustrated because they don’t know how to pray and as a result—they get bored with prayer. If we're not careful, we can easily become apathetic in prayer. Sometimes we forget that when we pray a real God listens to real prayers and really answers! Let's talk about some motivation for prayer.
Who’s ever had good intentions to pray? There’s a verse in the Bible that talks about Jesus and His prayer life; that He got up “a great while before day.” Oftentimes when we’re teaching on prayer we’ll ask people, “How many of you have gotten up a great while before day?” Usually lots of hands go up. Jesus got up—the Bible says a great while before day—and it goes on to say that He went a solitary place.
How many of you have found a solitary place, a little prayer closet you go to or your bedroom, or your car or closet, to meet with the Lord. And how many of you have gotten up a great while before day, gone to a solitary place, and there you fell asleep? We all can testify! One reason is that sometimes people can get bored in prayer. We might think, “All right, I got up, I’ve made it to this alone place, now what do I do? I said ‘hi,’ I asked H for a couple of things. I gave Him my checklist—now what?” Let’s talk about some really practical ways to have a dynamic prayer life with the Lord where you’re not bored or frustrated.
The Itch
A fellow by the name of Judson Cornwall said something once, and I love this because I think it’s so apropos. He’s a pastor, and he said many times in prayer: “You’ve tried to satisfy the craving of your spirit by your relationships with men, but it is not your soul crying, ‘I want a man,’ but it is your spirit screaming, ‘I want God.’ The itch in your spirit cannot be scratched in your soul.”
Who’s ever recognized or felt what he’s describing? What he’s describing is all of us, and I think it’s a God-thing that there’s this restlessness in our spirit, in the innermost part of us. There’s this itch, there’s this restlessness that can only be satisfied, a scratch that can only be itched by spending time with the Lord. It’s time in prayer with the Lord, time in His oWrd, time in fellowship with the Lord. But like Judson Cornwell, a lot of us try to scratch that thing with everything else: with relationships, with music, with activities, with hobbies, with getting heavily involved with one thing or the other.
Here’s what Judson said: one night he was home, and after a delicious meal he became aware of a deep longing or craving for something.
Who knows what he’s talking about? You’ve got this itch. You’ve got this thing on the inside that really, truly only will be scratched by spending time with the Lord. But sometimes we think a bag of Doritos will do it. We think a bowl of ice cream will do it. We think going for a run will do it. No, there is this God-thing that He’s put on the inside of us, and it’s this spiritual itch that only He can scratch by spending time with Him in prayer.Rationalizing that I had not taken time to listen to music for many weeks, I put in some classic music on the stereo and sat back to relax and enjoy its soothing sounds. But the music only increased my edginess. Thinking it was the wrong type of music for my mood, I changed to gospel music, but its affect on me was no better. I switched the music off and began to read, assuming my intellect needed feeding because of my involvement with so many building projects at church.
Nevertheless, I couldn’t find any type of literature that satisfied me. Almost absent mindedly, thinking that my craving was for food, I wandered into the kitchen and prepared myself a large sandwich. But in as much as I’d already eaten my wife’s cooking less than an hour ago, I soon realized that my craving was not physical. Finally, I had to admit that my need was not physical, emotional or intellectual. This left only my spirit.
So I got on my knees and began to pray and began to touch the presence of God. Total satisfaction swept through my being. All along, it had been my spirit yearning to contact God’s spirit, and I had misread it as a craving in my soul or my body. For the rest of the evening, any music and any literature were enjoyable, for the deep crying of my spirit had been satisfied in God’s presence.
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