A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World
By Paul E. Miller
“What Good Does It Do?” Chapter 1
What Good Does It Do?
We struggle with many symptoms of a dysfunctional prayer life:
Cynicism – because of unanswered prayers or insincere lip-service to prayer
Guilt – not praying long enough, often enough, well enough, focused enough, worshipful enough, etc.
Hopelessness – we begin to wonder if prayer makes any difference
A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World
By Paul E. Miller
“What Good Does It Do?” Chapter 1
What Good Does It Do?
- We struggle with many symptoms of a dysfunctional prayer life:
- Cynicism – because of unanswered prayers or insincere lip-service to prayer
- Guilt – not praying long enough, often enough, well enough, focused enough, worshipful enough, etc.
- Hopelessness – we begin to wonder if prayer makes any difference
Problems Not Surprising
- We should not be surprised that we struggle in prayer with God.
- We were designed to pray and communicate with our Creator.
- But the Fall disrupted our ability to commune in fellowship with God.
- Evil has marred the image of God in us.
- We want to talk to God but we can’t or we find it very difficult.
The Hardest Place in the World to Pray
- The busyness of American culture
- Work, productivity, & success
- Entertainment & leisure
- Discomfort with silence and inactivity
- Intellect, competency, & wealth sometimes make prayer seem unnecessary.
The Oddness of Praying
- Prayer seems one-sided compared to other conversations. How do we talk with a Spirit?
- How do we know we aren’t just listening to ourselves when we think we’re hearing God?
- What should I pray for?
- How do I pray?
- Why pray if God already knows what I need? Isn’t that nagging?
A Visit to a Prayer Therapist
- Imagine a visit to a prayer therapist or counselor to help you with prayer
- How would you answer the question to describe your relationship with your heavenly father as a son or daughter of God?
- Would it sound more doctrinal and formal or personal and relational?
- What is it like to be with your Father, and to talk with Him?
“Where we are headed” Chapter 2
The Praying Life…Feels Like Dinner with Good Friends
- Jesus describes the intimacy he wants with us in Revelation 3:20:
"Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. (Rev. 3:20, NLT)
- Our prayer life should become more and more like a natural conversation between friends or family members.
- More focus on God and less on prayer
The Praying Life…Is Interconnected with All of Life
- Prayer is all about relationship, so we can’t work on prayer as an isolated part of life.
- Frustrations with prayer come from working on prayer as a discipline in the abstract.
- Prayer is interrelated to our growth in faith, love, kindness, wisdom, etc.
- Learning to pray is identical to maturing over a lifetime.
- Don’t hunt for a feeling in prayer.
- We often desire an experience of prayer or an experience with God.
- Once we make an experience our quest, we lose God.
- You don’t experience God; you get to know him. You submit to him. You enjoy him. He is, after all, a person.
- A praying life isn’t accomplished in a year; it is a journey of a lifetime.
The Praying Life…Becomes Aware of the Story
- God’s sovereignty, love, wisdom, and patience combine to make a divine story.
- If God is sovereign, then he is in control of the details of my life.
- If God is loving, then he is going to be shaping the details of my life for my good.
- If God is all-wise, then he’s not going to do everything I want because I don’t know what I need.
- If God is patient, then he is going to take his time to do all this.
- We are actors in God’s divine drama.
- You can’t have a good story without tension and conflict, without things going wrong. Unanswered prayers are part of the tension. They draw us deeper into God’s story.
The Praying Life…Gives Birth to Hope
- If God is sovereign, loving, wise, and patient…and is writing a story with our lives—that gives us hope. Our lives are not static; they are part of God’s ever-moving story.
- Many Christians have become functional deists, thinking that prayer doesn’t really work and God is not directly involved in his world. This leads to cynicism.
The Praying Life…Becomes Integrated
- Many assume that the spiritual person is unruffled by life, unfazed by pressure, and somehow floats above life.
- A praying life is not a disconnected one…living the quiet, contemplative life without the busyness of life.
- Learning to pray doesn’t offer you a less busy life; it offers you a less busy heart: Outer busyness/Inner quiet
The Praying Life…Reveals the Heart
- As you get to know your heavenly Father, you’ll get to know your own heart as well.
- In the process, your heart will be changed by God.
- God is a person. We don’t learn to love a person without it changing us
- As you develop your relationship with your heaven Father, you’ll discover cynicism, pride, and self-will.
- This process will unmask our hearts.
- None of us likes to be exposed. We have an allergic reaction to dependency, but this is the state of the heart most necessary for a praying life.
- A needy heart is a praying heart. Dependency is the heartbeat of prayer.
- “Abandon all, you will receive heaven.” When you give God your life, he gives you the gift of himself.
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