The Importance of Prayer

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Sermon shared by Alan Tison

August 2010

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Summary: Prayer is one of God’s greatest gifts to his people yet it is often reduced to blessings at meals
and praying for our health and the health of our family and friends. Someone has said, “Many people pray
as if God were a big aspirin pill; they come only wh
Series: Red Letters; The Gospel of Mark
Scripture: Mark 1:35-1:39 (add scripture)
Tags: Priorities, Jesus Life, Prayer How To, Prayer (add tag)
Denomination: Christian/Church of Christ
Audience: General adults
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 Alan Tison
Florida Christian College
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Sermon:
Play Video “I Prayer from Blue Fish”
How is your prayer Life?
How often do you pray?
Why do you pray?
Questions like these force us to examine our prayer life. If you are like most people you
wish you could be better at communicating with God.
Prayer is one of God’s greatest gifts to his people yet it is often reduced to blessings at
meals and praying for our health and the health of our family and friends. Someone has
said, “Many people pray as if God were a big aspirin pill; they come only when they hurt.”
God wants our prayers to be so much more than prayer for our food and health.
Prayer is communication.
Prayer has played a vital role in the lives of people…
Abraham Lincoln; I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming
conviction that I had absolutely no other place to go.
Martin Luther King Jr; “To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive
without breathing.”
What are people praying for today?
More than any time in history, people are seeking answers to life’s struggles, problems, and
challenges. Natural and man-made disasters are causing more and more stress in people,
and their lives are under intense pressure. Hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, personal debt,
job losses -- it is hard to comprehend the pressure these exert upon families struggling to
make ends meet and survive.
While it seems more people are focused on prayers, their prayers reflect a desire for a
materialistic lifestyle rather than communication with God. On the website “Best & Worst”
the question was posed; “What are you praying for today?”
16% a new president
15% health
12% they would win the lottery
7% a new job
4% better sex
It seems we have strayed when it comes to understanding the purpose, value and power of
prayer.
What is needed today is a return to the basics of prayer, now just as a river is purest at its
source, so we can discover purest form of prayer by looking at the source of the one who
demonstrated the purpose, value and power of prayer in his own life. As the Hebrew writer
said, Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, so that we will not
grow weary and lose heart.
I believe we grow weary when we do not pray as we should.
In Mark’s gospel, Jesus teaches us two important principles regarding prayer. By following
these principles I believe we will avoid growing weary and losing heart in our daily walk with
God.
Principle #1 is found in Mark 1:35, Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus
got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.
Principle #1. Jesus’ prayer life was intentional
There is a big difference between an accident and an incident. An accident is something
that happens without planning or it happens because of unforeseen circumstances. A child
reaches for something and accidently spills the milk. The teenager reaches
ver to turn down the CD player in the care and accidently goes through the traffic light.
Preoccupied the stuff of life we forget to enter a ATM withdraw in our check register and we
accidently overdraw our bank account. Accidents simply happen. But incidents take
planning, they are calculated and are done intentionally. Too often many of us will have an
accidental prayer life. A crisis “Just Happens” and we pray hoping for some kind of relief
from the careless actions or unforeseen circumstances.
That does not describe the prayer life of Jesus. Jesus did not prayer by accident, no Jesus
prayed intentionally. Mark goes into great detail to describe the intentional prayer life of
Jesus.
Jesus set apart time to pray.
Early in the morning; while it was still dark…Jesus prayed. The Jews calculated time based
on the watch of the Roman soldier at night. 6-9 was the first watch, 9-12 the second, 12-3
the third and 3-6 the fourth and final watch. It was during this final watch; Jesus would get
up and pray. Why so early? Jesus awoke before daybreak because He wanted to avoid the
distractions that would come from people, events and duties. Jesus understood the value of
time therefore he arose early – making it a priority to spend time in prayer. Having grown up
in a Jewish home Jesus was familiar with the psalms, thus he was familiar with the wisdom
of Psalm 5:2-3, Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray.
3 In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; In the morning I lay my requests before you
and wait in expectation.
Harry Ward Beecher – The morning is the rudder of the day. I find there are two types of
people when it comes to mornings; One says, Good Morning Lord and the other says Good
Lord its morning.
Now Jesus is not setting forth a command to rise early in the morning to pray, however he is
demonstrating a wise principle of being intentional with our prayer life.
Unless we are willing to make sacrifices in getting to bed early and rising early, we will not
evidence a lifestyle that is fully yielded to the Lord. Give God the rights to your schedule and
He will help you maximize your contributions in all areas of your relationships, activities and
ministries.
Jesus set apart a place to pray
Not only did he wake up early for the purpose of prayer, Jesus made it a point to find a
place to pray. Mark says he left the house and went off to a solitary place
The amplified Bible calls it a deserted place – the implication it was a place where Jesus
could go to avoid the distractions of the stuff of life. Closing out the distractions is the key to
communication with God. Unfortunately it is becoming more and more difficult to do this in
our hi-tech culture. TV offers us 24 hour programming, the internet offers us constant
information and our cell phones give us instant access to everyone who has a phone. While
Jesus faced the demands of people in public, face the demands of people