Pastor Larry on Todd Bentley

More video available from Pastor Larry on the subject on youtube.com

Incentives to Keep Praying (Part 3)

Keep on praying because you’re special to God.

My daughters are much more likely to keep on asking me to take them to McDonald’s than they would an acquaintance or even a friend. Why? They know that they have a special relationship with me, which will make any more inclined to hear and answer their persistent request, than an acquaintance or friend would. That is what encourages them to keep asking. It is the same with you and me. When we realize how special we are to God, how much he loves and cares for us, then we are motivated to keep on praying.

Jesus specifically refers to us as "his chosen ones." In other words, you are special to a caring God, so you can expect an answer to your persistent prayers, even more so than the widow in the parable did. If it worked for her, then it is much more likely to work for you. This is an incentive or motivation to keep on praying. God does care and can be expected to respond to our prayers, because of who he is and because of who we are by his grace.

When you understand this, it will change your whole prayer life. I keep on praying because I expect God to listen and respond to my request. I don’t expect him to listen and respond because I have great faith. I don’t expect him to listen and respond because I have fasted or prayed for many hours. I don’t expect to be heard because I’ve been exceptionally righteous or religious. I expect God to hear and respond because he is a wonderful, caring God who loves me and sees me a special. I, like all Christians, am one of his chosen ones, so I just keep on praying.

The Lord will not ignore his children who "cry out to him day and night." He may delay answering our prayers for a time, but he will not "keep putting us off."

In the paparble I shared in our first article, it should be noted that the widow’s request in the parable was for what was right, and that God will not honor our request if they come from wrong motives, no matter how much we may persevere or belief.

James 4:3 says, "When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures." Wrong motives would include asking for things out of pride, greed, lust, or to satisfy fleshly pleasures. Jesus says in verse 8 that God will see that his people’s prayers are answered "quickly." "Quickly" could also be translated as "suddenly." This expression or word could mean that God will not delay too long in meeting his people’s request or it could refer to the answer coming very suddenly, instead of gradually.

If Jesus were to come this week, would he find faith in your life? Would he find you persevering in prayer? Or would he find that you had quit praying because you do not really believe? I hope that he would find us persisting in believing prayer. We certainly have every incentive to keep on praying.

Incentives to Keep Praying (Part 2)

Keep on praying because perseverance in prayer is essential for success.

Suppose a man was changing a stage light, which is about 50 feet above the stage. Suppose somehow the ladder he was on fell but he managed to grab hold of the light fixture and not fall. Would I need to give a motivational speech to him on why he should persevere and hold on? Of course not! He is going to hold on and not give up because he recognizes that perseverance is essential to success. He has all the motivation he needs to persevere, to keep holding on.

In the same way, we need to keep on praying because we know that it is essential for success. By success, I meant success in accomplishing God’s purposes. We need to understand that we have no other options, no hope, no other recourse but to keep praying, no matter how long it takes to get an answer.

The woman in the story I shared yesterday with you was a widow, without money to bribe the judge, without a husband to speak up for her, and without influence to pressure the judge to do what is right. In essence, she was in a helpless situation, without any other source or recourse. Her only option was to keep asking the judge to help her; persevering was essential for success! She had no other alternatives.

Now the window in the story represents God’s people. We need to realize that we must, not should, but must persevere in prayer because we have no other source of hope or help. I do not think we will really pray and especially keep on praying until we come to the place of complete desperation and have no other plan or recourse. We need to get to a place like the patriarch Jacob did, when he wrestled with God. When his hip was dislocated, he had no leg to stand on, no strength of his own, all his self-reliance was gone. It was then that he held on and wouldn’t let go of God until he got the blessing. In his weakness he knew that perseverance was essential.

We also need to get to the place where we realize that we have no strength of our own, that no plan that we have will succeed, that God must come through. This will motivate us to keep praying, because we will understand that God answering our prayers is our only hope

...to be continued...

Incentives to Keep Praying (Part 1)

Luke 18:1-8 - Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. he said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.' "For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!' " And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"

There's a magazine cartoon that shows a little fellow kneeling beside his bed for his bedtime prayer. He says with some measure of disgust, "Dear God, Uncle Jim still doesn't have a job; Sis still doesn't have a date for the social; Grandma is still feeling sick - and I'm tired of praying for this family and not getting results."

Probably all of us have felt this way, at one time or another, in regard to our prayers. Each one of us has probably felt like quitting. Each one of us has probably felt like giving up on seeing answers to our prayers. Probably more than a few of us have actually stopped praying, maybe not altogether, but we have quit praying for certain things. Things that God had laid on our heart! Things that are important and not trivial. Things like seeing a loved one saved or return to Christ. Things like having a marriage restored ministry successful, sickness or infirmity healed, or an urgent need met. We quit praying because of discouragement and doubt. We quit praying because we sometimes wonder if it does pay to pray. Even though we would never voice such thoughts, the idea does sometimes come into our minds.

Jesus knew that his disciples would be tempted to quit praying. Jesus had just talked to his disciples about his return and the coming Kingdom of God. He told them that his coming, and the establishment of Kingdom of God with it, might be delayed and that during this time they would long for his return. Things would not be as good as they longed for them to be.

Keep on praying because sometimes the answer to prayer will be delayed.

In other words, we should not stop praying just because we don't see results quickly. In verse 1 we are told that Jesus gave this parable to show his disciples that they "should always pray and not give up." There would be no need for such a teaching if most prayers were answered quickly!

This knowledge motivates us because we're now not going to be discouraged when the answer does not come quickly; we will recognize that the delay is what Jesus told us to expect. Do not make the mistake of equating a delay in the answer to your prayers as a denial to answer your prayers. You can pray for something that is within the will of God and still not see a quick or easy answer.

Perhaps you have stopped praying fervently for something important also? Perhaps you have grown discouraged or convinced that your prayers will not be answered? Perhaps you have thought, like I did, that maybe your request was not in God's will after all and you therefore accepted the status quo? If so, I hope you will do like I did and get back on your knees and keep praying.

...to be continued...

Who is Jesus?

A guy I met recently had a problem. His identity had been stolen. He had been at one of those cart/kiosks at the mall to buy a cell phone and unbeknownst to him the clerk who sold him the cell phone had secretly taken down his credit card number. A few days later my friend found that over $600 dollars had been taken from his account. The crooked sales person had stolen my friends identity!

According to 2 studies done in July 2003 (Gartner Research and Harris Interactive), approximately 7 million people became victims of identity theft in the prior 12 months. That equals 19,178 per day, 799 per hour, 13.3 per minute. It is a rampant evil in this country.

Identity is such a important thing in our culture, who you are is one of the only things that counts. For your identity to be questioned, for someone to reject you for who you say you are and come up with their own opinions would be hurtful and outrageous.

Can you imagine if a you went to a doctor to perform surgery on you and you found out halfway through the procedure that he wasn’t a doctor at all but had gone to school to be a lawyer and upon graduating decided to practice medicine, without any training. You would be outraged because you had put all of your faith in what that doctor claimed about his identity.

I think the same thing happens with Jesus. It is possible for men to have good thoughts of Christ, and yet not right ones, a high opinion of him, and yet not high enough. Jesus means so many things to so many people. I hear people say all the time well I believe in Jesus, I just don’t think he was the Son of God

Matthew 16:15-17 "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven."

You can speak of Jesus as prophet, holy man, teacher, or spiritual leader, and few will object. But speak of Him as Son of God, divine, of the same nature as the Father, and people will line up to express their disapproval

It's sad that people, the media, schloars...etc portray Jesus as just a regluar person after He told us so plainly who He was. Jesus has been a victim of identity theft. His credibility has been dragged through the mud by our culture. But we know who he is, he’s told us, and we can put our hope in Him.