Chapter 1 - Problems With Prayer

Section 01 - The Joy of Prayer

I knew that He was there and that He answered prayer. But it was kind of like in the natural where you have a distant relative.

Perhaps you have an aunt, an uncle or a cousin. You know they exist, and you maybe phone them once or twice or you write letters to them. You sort of know them, but you don't know them intimately like you know a brother or sister.

That was the sort of situation I was in for many years, until I at last had a breakthrough and discovered what the Lord was really like. I came into an intimate relationship with Him that was absolutely wonderful.

At the time when it happened, I became rather like what you could call a prayer junkie. I prayed morning and afternoon, sometimes even in the evening. I just loved it.

I was kind of like a drug addict if you want to call it that. But of course it didn't have the bad effect of giving me a lift and then dumping me. I just went in there to the Lord's presence and He gave me a tremendous boost. I shared and fellowshipped with Him and it was wonderful.

Perhaps you are in a situation right now where your prayer life is not the way I reached back there. It is perhaps the way I was at the beginning when I wasn't so sure what was going on. You may have some cares or concerns about what your prayer life should be like.

Well this is an introduction to this new book on prayer. And because this is the beginning I thought I would take peoples' concerns or problems with prayer.

A lot of people don't really know how to pray. Either that, or they have had bad experiences or something has gone wrong which has blocked their prayer life.

Maybe you are one of them right now and you are not flowing the way you want to flow. So I want to start by taking any concerns you may have.

I want to take different ones and then show you how the Lord can in fact change those concerns. I want to show you that you don't need to have them when it comes to prayer.

Let's face it, if you have had a serious problem like having an accident or something, you don't want to go back to the scene where it happened. You would rather just leave it completely and not go back there.

I think many people have that same problem with prayer. Something has gone wrong, they have had a bad experience and they don't want to go back there again.

So in this first section I want to encourage you and give you some hope that you can change this. I hope that by the end of this section you will realize where you can go if you have had any of these things.

Problem No. 1: Don't Know What to Expect

Perhaps you are a new believer. You have just come to know the Lord and that is wonderful. You are saved and you know that the Lord loves you, but where do you go from here?

You have no prayer knowledge at all and you don't know how to go about it. You actually need some assurance from someone who will be able to tell you,

"I've been through that whole thing. I can tell you what it is going to be like."

It is like when you face a new situation in the natural. Perhaps you are going to do something that you have never done before. Sometimes it is scary and you don't know what is going to happen. That is when you need someone to say to you,

"I've been through it and I know that it is good. You won't have a problem with it."

So to answer that concern, let's go back to the Garden of Eden. When God made Adam and Eve, what was His prime reason for making man? It was to fellowship with him and to love him; to pour out everything that He had onto man.

I want you to know that when you come to the Lord in prayer, you do not have to fear what to expect. The Lord is there to love you and to care for you.

Every time you come into His presence you will have a good experience. You can expect one, because the Lord does not want to give you something bad or negative. He loves you so much and He wants to fellowship with you.

The first thing then you need to realize is that He wants to fellowship with you. He loves you, and that was His whole reason for making man.

Problem No. 2: God Doesn't Care for Me

Perhaps you feel like a drop in the bucket. You think about the Lord and about the fact that there are millions of people on this earth. So what are you? You are just like a little ant in the economy of things, and you probably think,

"Why should the Lord care about me? What have I done that He should care about me?"

Let's look quickly at Matthew 10:29 and 30. It says,

Are two sparrows not sold for a farthing? And not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father [knowing it]. And the hairs on your head have all been given a specific number.

That is an amazing Scripture. If you think that the Lord doesn't care for you and you are a little number somewhere, He even knows the hairs of your head. And if He is concerned about a sparrow that falls to the ground, He is concerned about you. You must know that He loves you and cares for you so much.

I think about myself and sometimes I don't even remember what I did last week. But the Lord knows about all the things that are going on and He knows every single detail of your life.

That is another reason to realize that you can come to Him in prayer and that you can fellowship with Him.

Problem No. 3: God Doesn't Want to Answer

This is a very common problem, especially if you have asked the Lord for something and your prayer has not been answered. If this has happened it is easy for you to think,

"The Lord doesn't want to answer me."

Many years ago I had a brother who had a serious motor bike accident. He was in a coma for 6 days before he died.

I knew in theory that the Lord could heal him, so I prayed and prayed, and so did my mom who was a believer. But unfortunately it didn't work out and my brother died in the end.

Looking back I realize that my faith was totally lacking. I also had a lot of other things that were standing in the way and blocking it, and this was preventing it from being answered. It would have actually taken a huge miracle for the Lord to heal him in the condition that he was in.

Anyway I pushed on with the Lord and carried on believing, even though this thing had happened. But for my mom it was very difficult. After this incident, whenever I spoke to her about praying and asking the Lord for something she said,

"Why should I pray? The Lord doesn't care about me and He doesn't answer my prayers."

But I want you to know that the Lord will always answer you. If He doesn't answer, then there is something blocking it. It is usually your faith that is not strong enough. But there may be other blockages that can stop the Lord from answering you.

But the one thing I want to stress here is that if everything is in place the Lord will always answer you. This is what He wants to do.

Problem No. 4: I Can't Face Him Because I've Sinned

This is a terrible problem if you have sinned and you know that you have failed the Lord.

Can you remember what it was like when you were a child and you maybe did something wrong? It is such a horrible feeling.

Perhaps you lied to your parents and said that you had done something, or you hadn't done something. You thought it was fine and you would get away with it. But then they found out that this was not the case.

Now what do you do? You can't face your parents, and you know that some time or another there is probably punishment coming because you lied or did something wrong.

In the same way, when you have sinned or done something that the Lord said you shouldn't do, you have that same problem with Him. You want to avoid Him and run away.

You want to hide in your room and just not speak to Him because you think He is a God of judgment. Maybe you are concerned that He will come and swat you or something.

I want you to know that the Lord still loves you, even though you have sinned and your sin has caused a separation to come between you and the Lord. The Lord still hears you and is still open to your prayers. All you need to do is say,

"Lord, I've missed it; I've sinned. Please forgive me."

When you do that, your relationship will immediately be restored. You don't need to let that be a problem to you. You just need to come and confess your sin and you will get back to that relationship.

The good thing is also that the Lord is not like human parents either. He will not reject you even if you have sinned seriously badly; even if you have done something you know you should not have done and you have totally failed the Lord.

He won't reject you. He still loves you and cares for you. And He wants you to come to Him and get back to that relationship with Him.

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Addicted To Prayer - Chapter 1 of 27