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  SPENDING TIME WITH OUR HEAVENLY FATHER
  by Annie Poonen
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Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of prayer in uncertain
times, highlighting the need for a consistent prayer life, addressing
common struggles in prayer, and providing practical guidance on how to
pray effectively. It encourages believers to approach God with faith,
gratitude, and a heart of forgiveness, while also reminding them of the
continuous intercession of Jesus and the Holy Spirit on their behalf.

Topics: "The Power of Prayer", "Faith in Uncertainty"
Scripture References: Matthew 6:6, Psalms 66:18, James 1:6, Romans 8:26, Luke 18:1, Proverbs 8:34, Psalms 84:10

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon emphasizes the importance of prayer in uncertain times,
highlighting the need for a consistent prayer life, addressing common
struggles in prayer, and providing practical guidance on how to pray
effectively. It encourages believers to approach God with faith,
gratitude, and a heart of forgiveness, while also reminding them of the
continuous intercession of Jesus and the Holy Spirit on their behalf.

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CONTENT
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Shall we just begin with a word of prayer? Our Heavenly Father, we come
into your presence again with so much need in our hearts and in our
lives. And we want you to speak to us, Lord. You know our need.

We pray that this time we spend together will be a time of blessing for
each one of us. Thank you for making it possible for us to meet again.
We pray that you speak to each one of us again.

We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. I want to echo the song that we just sang,
What a Friend We Have in Jesus, because the burden that I have on my
heart is on those same lines.

These are uncertain days, or what the Bible might call perilous days,
maybe. I wonder if we are in those perilous days. And our greatest need
is God.

And He's the only one who can comfort us and give us some hope,
security. Because everything in this world seems to be changing. We
cannot predict what's going to happen, especially for our children.

Like we say, maybe in a couple of months they'll go back to school. Then
we hear that maybe they won't go back to school. They'll still be with
us.

Then some people say maybe they'll lose a whole year if they don't go to
school. And if they go to school, they may get sick. So much of
uncertainty, and we are so involved in that because it concerns us, our
children, our husbands' jobs, our parents who are here with us or far
away.

And all that uncertainty, we don't know where to find comfort except in
God. Some of the sisters have sent me e-mails telling me, asking me, we
know that we should spend time in prayer, but how can we pray? Can you
give us some help? We are so busy with our work. We have to take care of
our families.

Our husbands are at home. We have to spend so much time cooking and
taking care of things which we didn't normally have to do, extra things.
And then our children are there running around.

We have to see that they are comfortable and they are not getting
themselves into trouble or troubling us. With all that, we need to pray.
But how can we pray? And that's the question which comes to many
sisters, many young people.

And I thought when I came here, I'll have more time to pray. But it
doesn't work out like that. I thank God for bringing me here so that I
can discipline myself to spend more time.

And so because I have more time, I'm accountable to God. How do I spend
that time? And how can I help others in the time which God has given me?
And that's what I want to talk about, a great needy topic that is our
prayer life. You know, in the heathen country, many of us grew up in
India.

We know how people, heathen people, keep on chanting things or repeating
things or repeat the name of their gods. And we know that's wrong. Then
we read in the Old Testament how God taught the children of Israel how
they could come to Him.

It was not easy for them in those days. They could not come so freely,
straight to God's presence. Even Moses couldn't enter the tabernacle in
the beginning.

They had to wait for the priest, and they had to offer sacrifices. They
had to come on specific days, and they had to dress the way God had
prescribed. They had to sacrifice an animal which God had prescribed.

They should be sure that they eat the type of food which God had
recommended and prescribed. If they eat other type of food, there'd be
some punishment. With all those fears, and that is the same God we are
worshipping.

But those days, they couldn't come so freely to God. But how much easier
it is for us. We are so thankful to God that we could come straight into
God's presence.

And not only that, we can call Him Father. In the Old Covenant, people
couldn't call Him Father. They had to call Him by other names, Jehovah.

And they could not even use that word at wrong times. They should not
take it in a wrong way. And we can go straight to God's presence.

That's all because of Jesus. Jesus died for our sins, and He shed His
precious blood, and we can become His children. And then only we can
call Him Father.

And when we come to Him and we call Him Father, what do you think He'll
tell us? No, I'm busy now. We go to our dad who's sitting in the next
room, and we say, Dad, can I talk to you? Can I tell you something? I
have this problem. Can I share with you? Suppose we go to God like that,
and He says, no, come on Sunday, or come in the evening, or come at
night.

He never sends us away like that. He's always waiting for us. He's
longing that we come to Him.

It's only the difficulties on our side. We are not ready to go to Him.
We are so taken up with our own things, and we delay.

Even when we have some problem, we take our own time and we try other
methods, and then we say, OK, now let me go to God. But God is there
waiting for us, and we can go to Him and we can say, Father, I have this
problem. And when we go to Him, He says, Here I am, daughter.

Here I am, my child. I'm here waiting for you. You can come.

Anytime you want, you can come and you can tell me. Don't worry about
it. I'll take care of your problem.

It's so comforting when we hear, when we know that's the Father we have.
And Jesus longs to have that fellowship with us. And God wants to always
have that fellowship with us.

And when we think of spending time with the Lord in prayer, there are so
many distractions that can come to us. Like, for instance, when we want
to sit down to pray. As soon as we sit down, multitude of thoughts come
to our mind.

Oh, I have to set this right. I have to start the lunch. I have to do
this.

I have to do that. I wonder if I switched off this cooking. Did I switch
off the oven or did I turn it on? Or some other, or just then the child
may cry.

Or something else. Some distraction comes. And, but we have to make a
choice.

We have to say, Lord, I want to spend this time. I long to spend this
time with you. I want to make that top priority in my life.

So, in these days, how do we do that? For me, I can say, as soon as I
wake up, I discipline myself. I want to discipline myself to think of
God and say, Lord, thank you for waking me up. Thank you for giving me
health and strength.

Thank you that I can move my hands and legs and my mind is working. Or I
can function without anybody's help except your help. I can take care of
myself and take care of my family.

Just a short time of prayer like that to begin the day makes the day so
much easier. It's not that we stop with that. You know, in our younger
days when we were, we didn't have family responsibilities and we were
students, we couldn't discipline ourselves to having a quiet time.

Now that concept of quiet time is so difficult. But those days, we've
set apart as soon as we wake up and we are ready, we open our Bible and
we spend our time, maybe half an hour reading the Word and then praying.
And praying for ourselves and for our family and our immediate needs.

That was good. But now we can't have that quiet time. We can never have
a time of quietness except when maybe at night.

But we can, it doesn't mean that we have to shut off God from our life
at all. We have to grab the time whenever we can. I find that after I
start the breakfast and breakfast is done, and while I'm doing the
breakfast also I can pray.

I can sing a song and lift up my heart. Even say, my Jesus, I love you.
You're the best person for me.

I long to be with you. Even that one sentence brings tears to my eyes
and I say, Lord, you're everything to me. You're the greatest person for
me.

I love you, Lord. When we love somebody, just to say, I love you, means
so much to that person. It means so much to us and to God when we tell
him, Lord, I love you.

Even that is a prayer. And then while we are cooking our breakfast,
singing a song of praise, repeating some Bible verse, or even whispering
a prayer, Lord, help me today to be true and faithful to you. You know I
have so much need, but help me.

Just grab those little moments that we get, that attitude of prayer.
That's why when the Lord said, pray without ceasing, it's not that we
have to be on our knees all the time praying, but little bits of time
which we can grab. Prayer is like breathing.

We are not conscious of it, but when we are in God's presence, prayer
can be like that. Just like we breathe in and out, we can say, Lord, I
want to spend this time with you. Even if I'm conscious or not conscious
of you, let me be always available and be in your presence throughout
the day.

But that's not enough. You know, when we are so busy and we don't have
time to sit down and eat a meal, what do we do? We grab an energy bar
and we eat it. Or we gulp down.

We have a sip of our drink and we keep sipping it. Not that we are
addicted to it, but we feel that we need that energy. It's like that.

In between, while we are doing our work, we grab the time which we get.
But that's not enough. We need to spend some time alone with the Lord
when we take our Bible, open it, and have a disciplined time, maybe a
short time, read a short passage and spend the time in the Lord's
presence.

Pray for our immediate need, and later on we'll meditate on the Lord's
prayer, the prayer which Jesus taught us to pray, and see how we can
pattern our prayer according to the prayer that he taught. There are
three main prayers that Jesus prayed which are recorded. Of course, he
prayed short prayers.

Like he said, Father, I know that you always hear me, and prayers like
that. And also we know that he spent many hours in prayer when he used
to go to the wilderness or to some lonely place or to the mountains in
between to spend maybe a whole night in God's presence. So there were
longer periods which Jesus spent in prayer.

But the three main prayers which Jesus prayed are recorded, and they are
so meaningful. I mentioned about the Lord's prayer. I will come to that.

The second prayer which I often like to meditate is in John chapter 17,
where Jesus prayed for his disciples just before he left, before he left
the earth and he knew that he was going to leave the disciples and he
was going to the Father. That reminds me of a time when my mom was going
to have surgery, big surgery for cancer. And the day before that, I was
with her in the ward and my youngest brother hadn't started going to
school.

But she got some paper and she wrote to each of the children because she
thought she might not come through the surgery. So she wrote to each of
them. Out of her heart, she wrote how much she loves them and how they
should do this and should do that.

And each one, what they need was, she said, remember that you should do
this and remember to do this and remember you don't like vegetables but
make sure you eat your vegetables. And things like that for each of the
children she wrote. And she wrote one to me and she said, this is for
the youngest one.

He can't read but you must read it out to him when the time comes. I
felt very sad because I thought maybe she won't come out of the surgery
and how will I feel when I look at all these papers and I have to give
them. But thank God she came through the surgery and she lived for many
years.

But at that time I told mom, mom, don't worry. I'll take care of you.
Even if anything, I know nothing will happen to you, but if anything
happens, I'll take care of the younger ones.

Don't worry about it. That was a small, but there was so much sorrow in
my heart when I thought of what my mom was going through. That's a small
fraction of what Jesus must have felt when he prayed that prayer in John
chapter 17.

When you get time you must go through that prayer and repeat it and read
it not just once, as many times as possible. You read that prayer and
say, Father, I'm coming to you. Take care of these children, these ones
whom you have given me.

Make them united. Make them love each other. Let them be one as you and
I are one.

The Father and I are one in such a close way and he wants us to be one
with him and one with each other. And he said, Father, keep them from
the evil one. Sanctify them in thy truth.

Thy word is truth. Things like that mean so much. Jesus prayed from the
depth of his heart for us and that's a prayer that I like to meditate
on.

Then the prayer in Gethsemane. There's another prayer which is recorded.
He said he prayed for an hour, but only one sentence or two is recorded.

Father, if it be possible, take this cup away from me, but yet not my
way but thine be done. How much agony was there for him. And I remember
reading and listening to a tape, I think in Santosh's house, where the
scripture was read aloud and the children could listen to it.

And there it says, when Jesus prayed that, he said, Father, where are
you? I can't see you. It's all dark. Where are you, Father? It was like
that for Jesus at that time.

When the whole sin of the whole world, our sin, your sin, and my sin,
and the sin of the whole world was on him and God had forsaken him
because God can't stand sin. And for those brief moments, Jesus said,
Father, don't forsake me. I can't see you, but please don't leave me
alone, Father.

That is the prayer. And when we, when the Lord says, Jesus prayed, Lord,
not my will, Father, but yours. And he asked us also.

And we prayed the same prayer. Father, I want to do your will. I don't
want to do my will anymore.

Whatever you show me in your word, I want to do that. Just like you did
the Father's will, give me the strength to do your will. That gives us
courage because Jesus himself went through that path.

Much more painful than we ever have to do. But he said, Lord, I choose
to do your will, Father. And same way, we too can say, Lord, I choose to
do your will.

I don't want to think it's hard for me to submit to your will. Whatever
you say, Lord, I want to do it. That should be the prayer.

And that's the prayer of my heart. And in our life, we can say that we
face many challenges when we say, why should I do that? I really don't
want to do this. I want to do this other thing.

And then we think of the Lord Jesus when he took such a painful decision
and he said, not my will. In every small and big thing, I want this to
be my prayer. Lord, not my will, but your will.

Just the way that Jesus took, that's the way I want to take. I want to
consecrate myself again to do your will. So, that's the prayer in
Gethsemane.

And Jesus, when he prayed, his sweat was like blood. How much of agony
he went through because he was going to take that big step on dying for
our sins and separation from the Father was so much agony that sweat was
like blood. Blood was coming out of his pores of his skin.

We don't have to take such a painful step. For us, it's so much easier,
but let's make that choice every day of our life. Father, not my will,
not my comfort, not my pleasure, but let yours be done.

I want to please you. So, when we think of prayer, it's a warfare that
we have to, just like we read in Ephesians chapter 6. It's a spiritual
warfare. We have to fight against our will, fight against evil forces.

A brother in Tamil Nadu, in India, Brother Vincent who translates, he
put it in such a clear way. In India, we have poisonous snakes. One of
the most poisonous snakes is cobra.

And if you see a cobra in the house, and very often they creep through
some little crevice or hole, and they come into the house and they lie
in wait. And then you see the cobra with its head up like that, ready to
strike. And what does the father of the house do? He knows his whole
family is in danger if he lets that cobra escape.

So he's prepared for it. He takes a big stick and hits it straight, hits
straight on the cobra's head and smashes it. And that's what Jesus has
done for us.

He hit the devil one smashing blow on the cross and crushed the
serpent's head. The devil has lost his power. But then the body of the
snake is wiggling and the tail is wiggling.

And what does the father do? He gives sticks to all the little children
and says, come on, beat it, beat it. And the children, each one take a
stick and beat it and beat it and beat it till the snake is lifeless.
And he said, it's just like that.

The warfare that we face is just like the children having the little
sticks. The snake is wiggling and we think that snake is going to harm
us. But Jesus has done the biggest part.

He has crushed the serpent's head and all the venom and the power of
Satan has been destroyed. All his armor has gone. It's only his tail
that is wagging and he gives us the privilege of smashing it and hitting
it so that we can have a part in that spiritual warfare.

So prayer is that warfare but it's not that difficult as it was for
Jesus. We can have the privilege of joining him in that warfare and
winning the battle. But we can do our part.

Praise God. So don't think of prayer as a big burden or as a warfare
that you have to fight and you have to be on your knees and you have to
cry and you have to work up your feelings and you have to be so
emotional. All that part, the hardest part, Jesus has taken care of.

We do our part and say Lord, I claim your victory. You asked me to, you
told me to pray, it's for my good so that I can get the benefit of
getting victory and help in my time of need. And you said men, we should
always pray and not give up.

So I want to do my part in praying but it's not the struggle which you
went through. I just stand on victory ground and I claim your promises.
So we can think of prayer like that and say Lord, I just want to take
part in prayer and do my part and claim the victory which you want me to
have.

So there are some things which we should remember when we pray. Some
do's and don'ts. First I'll talk about the don'ts.

In order that our prayer should be heard and answered. You know Jesus
when he prayed, he said Lord, Father I know that you always hear me.
That means you will always give me the answer.

But in our case there are some times when the answer doesn't come. And
the Lord will not hear us. Unfortunately.

There's a verse in Psalm 66 verse 18 where it says, if I regard iniquity
in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. That's the verse we have to
remember. If there's any evil in my heart towards anybody or bad things
which I have not confessed to the Lord and any sin which I am indulging
in, only the Lord and we know what it is.

I do not know what somebody else is. But I know what's in my heart.
Which is iniquity which the Lord doesn't like.

And if the Lord shows it to us, the Lord will show it to us. We say
Lord, I want to get rid of it because as long as I have that in my
heart, you won't hear my prayer. If you want God to hear our prayer,
then we say Lord I want to confess it.

First of all we have to be sure that we are his children. I mean God
answers the prayer of heathen people who are righteous because he sends
his reign on just good people and evil people. So he blesses all people.

But for us who have become his children, who have accepted Jesus as our
saviour and repented of our sins, if we have any evil in our heart, the
Lord will not hear us. It's hard sometimes to give up some things which
have become a habit to us. But we say Lord, help me to get rid of this
evil thing from my heart.

This bad habit that I have. This addiction, maybe addiction to some
movies or addiction to something which you are not happy about. A love
of earthly things or something which I can't give, which God you are
trying to show me, help me to get rid of it.

Then don't use vain repetitions. We had neighbors in our home in India
where they would just keep on repeating the same syllables again and
again in some other language and they thought their prayer was heard. In
Christianity also people can use the same repetitions which are you
know, people can use Hallelujah or praise thee, praise thee whatever
repetition Jesus said.

Don't use vain repetitions. Whatever you say, mean it and say Lord, I
praise you. I thank you.

And then from the depth of our heart we can say whatever comes to our
mind. And here I want to say a word about meditation. Lord, we hear a
lot about meditation these days.

Even Christians think that it's good to have meditation and we hear
that's a new concept so we want to indulge in that. Now meditation in
the Hindu concept is definitely opening ourselves to something evil and
we can never know what will happen to us. And some people even over here
they say that you should use some Sanskrit words like Om or something.

They don't know the meaning of it but actually it's a Hindu word. So
when you go you think that it's a way of relaxing. It's not just
relaxing.

There's a lot of heathenism involved in meditation. So in schools
especially in India they start meditation. We have to warn our children
and say don't keep your mind blank when you do meditation.

Think of Jesus. Think of some words of Jesus or some scripture. Don't
keep your mind blank and don't use the heathen words for which there's
no meaning even if your instructor says use that but don't use that.

Then Jesus said in Luke 18. The main repetition is in Matthew 6-7. In
Luke 18 verse 9 it says we read about the publican and the pharisee when
they went to pray.

The pharisee prayed and said I thank you that I'm not like this
publican. So a spirit of boasting can come when we pray. Oh I came to
know the Lord when I was a child or I accepted Jesus or I didn't do all
these bad things which other people did and and unconsciously we can say
I deserve this Lord.

I've been a Christian. I've been so faithful to you. I don't do this.

I don't do that and I'm wearing simple clothes. I'm not like the other
people. So I deserve the answer to my prayer.

You know we deserve nothing. All that we deserve is help and Jesus took
the punishment for us and set us free. Freely he has given us salvation.

So never we should never think that we deserve an answer to this prayer.
Unconsciously we think oh my child because I'm a Christian my child
deserves this. I should have this healing because I deserve it.

No. It's God's grace all right from the beginning of our life till the
end of our life it should be his only grace. Then in Isaiah 58 verse 9
there's a verse which says I will hear your prayer if you stop pointing
the finger at others.

That means judging others. And if we have that we all have the tendency
to judge others and say oh she's like that she's like that her child is
like that her son does like this but my child doesn't do that. As long
as we have that attitude of judging then God will not hear our prayer.

I'm saying this for all of us who want to go deeper into the prayer life
of prayer don't judge. And then that same verse it says if you consider
the poor then I will bless you. So we should we should think of others
consider the we should not think that oh I need this I need that.

In the Lord's prayer it says us forgive us our father. We should always
consider the need of others when we pray and on one hand we stop judging
on the other hand we should be mindful of the needs of others and that
need often comes to our mind. Sometimes in our dream many times I dream
about our sisters in India something which they're going to think of
some sick person in our midst or somebody who's struggling with their
children teenage children anybody's need comes to our mind.

Send a short prayer to the Lord and say Lord please help that sister in
her need please heal her give her comfort in this time of sorrow and her
husband has lost her job. Please help her. So when we are on one side we
stop judging on the other side we think of the others.

It's not just us. And then another important very very important thing
that we should remember is that we should not have any disagreement with
our husbands or anybody in the home you know sometimes we disagree on
small things but if we keep on arguing about it and want to stress our
point of view and then it leaves a bad feeling in our heart then we how
can we come to the Lord then itself our heart can convince us and say I
should not have argued like that I should have stopped way before that
argument. I should have said my point of view and left it and then maybe
talked about it in a more pleasant way.

So that's what we have as wives we have to strive. We should put away
this argument arguing nature completely and say it in a nice way and
fighting in the family should be completely gone in our families we
should look back and say when was the last time I had a fight with my
husband. We should we can come to that point.

I know I know many who have come to that point and we should begin with
that arguing spirit and disagreeing spirit. When the Lord said if two of
you agree on something and ask in my name it shall be granted so that
agreeing part should come more and more. That spirit of agreement with
the husband doesn't mean that we have to say yes to everything if we
don't see we don't see things the same way as our husbands do but we can
still say no but I feel that this thing is better and yeah he might say
yeah I see your point maybe we should do it differently.

He might change or we might come to some compromise and say ok we won't
we'll do it this way and that might be the best way but whatever it is
that spirit of arguing and fighting should completely go and there's
also a verse in 1st Peter which says for husbands live with your wives
in an understanding way so that your prayers won't be hindered. So not
only for husbands for wives also we can make our husbands upset and
their prayer can be hindered. So that's a very very important thing that
we should remember and Matthew 18 9 also says but when two of you agree
and ask I'll grant from heaven your prayer and then another don't is
having an unforgiving spirit and that also we know Jesus said in the
Lord's prayer if you have anything against your forgive us our sins as
we forgive and he says when you bring your gift and your brother has
something that you leave it there and go and set right with your brother
that spirit of forgiving asking forgiveness and forgiving others is very
very important when we come to the Lord in prayer and we know that
there's something we have not forgiven somebody that immediately comes
to your mind and say yes Lord that I haven't forgiven that person.

Maybe it's somebody's years back maybe somebody who has done some harm
to you as a child in rare cases maybe someone who molested you or maybe
molested your child or some parent who didn't show love, mother who
didn't show some love to you when you were a child and deep down that
hurt feeling is there I know many girls who have said my mom loved my
brother more than me and that the very fact that she mentioned it shows
that she had not such a good attitude to her mother so whatever whoever
that is if somebody has done some harm and that comes to her mind
immediately say Lord help me to forgive, I want to forgive and each time
we pray the Lord rubs it out a little more and little more I found that
later on instead of the unforgiving hatred or bitterness God replaces it
and there's only love for that person even though that person hasn't
changed when we look deep in our heart there's a love towards that
person that unforgiving and bad attitude has completely gone that's very
very important and throughout our life we come across people who will do
harm to us whoever it is immediately say Lord I want to take it out of
my mind because I want you to forgive me a much greater debt then
another don't is don't be double minded and don't be unstable that's in
James chapter 1 it says don't be double minded and I suppose we say
whether I should have this or not you know whether I should have victory
over sin or not that's an important thing whether I should then if
you're not sure about it and you're double minded then we won't get the
answer to our prayer but whatever we're asking must be Lord I want this
to be done in my life I want this healing if it's your will you can heal
me and I ask you and the Lord says no I want to grant you healing but
wait a little bit or I want you to take care of this or I don't want you
to eat this then you will get healed but whatever we ask we should be
sure and say Lord I want to have that one mind and be fervent and strong
about that then Jesus said a few other things he said when you pray you
pray in secret don't be like the Pharisees who go in the street they
suddenly start and stop and then they pray or they lift up their hands
so everybody knows that they're praying he said when you pray go
secretly and what better secret place is there than in our own heart
nobody knows we're praying but in the depth of our heart we say Lord
please help me please help my children please help my husband or
whatever it is but we can take time to pray aloud sometimes you know
when you're praying privately we can get distracted so many thoughts
come but like when you're in the shower you can pray loud you can praise
God or when there's nobody else in the house we can say or we can
whisper that way we don't get distracted we can whisper and say Lord
answer this prayer I'm in such great need of this I don't want to
postpone answer that prayer for me and also says pray in faith when we
come in faith we must believe that God is able to answer that prayer
he's our creator he's our heavenly father he's able to take care of that
he says don't worry my child I'll take care of it we believe and we have
faith and then he takes care of it and we leave it in his hands and it
also says that we should pray without ceasing how can we pray without
ceasing because we have to do our work that means just like breathing as
I said earlier that attitude of prayers should be there and how can we
have that attitude of prayer if we allow sinful things or pleasures
other things keep coming in so get rid of all as soon as something comes
and be aware of it say Lord I don't want to indulge in that bad thought
take it away I want to be connected to you all the time then throughout
the day we can have that attitude of prayer I read a book by Madam Guion
she had written about prayer and I read there's one sentence which comes
out to me and it means much to us as mothers who breast feed our
children and we find that the baby keeps sucking and sucking milk and
then after sometime the baby doesn't suck anymore but just lies down
there in the same position and she says prayer is like that we keep
asking and asking but sometime we need to just wait in God's presence
that's also prayer just waiting in God's presence we ask a few things to
the Lord and just wait in God's presence that baby's content to be at
his mother's breast but even though she's not consciously drinking milk
but she's content to be there and I thought what a sweet illustration of
prayer that can be to be content in God's presence Lord I want to be
content in your presence whether I'm speaking to you or not I'm content
to be in your presence and then Jesus said pray without ceasing pray
like that we do keep on asking and asking the unjust judge give me
justice we keep on asking and asking and God wants us to ask at the same
time he says don't have vain repetitions but keep on asking Lord my
child is not yet healed but I'm asking you because you said keep on
asking give healing to my child this answer to my prayer hasn't come but
I know that you want me to keep on asking till you say no or yes or wait
I want to keep on asking and how much more you know our children can't
pray for themselves but we can pray on behalf of our children we can
pray and say Lord my child is in such great need he doesn't know how to
talk she doesn't know how to ask but I ask on her or his behalf that you
will heal and you will meet that need whatever it is that blank fill it
in with all the requests he said with prayer and supplication
supplication means individual request but it must be mixed with
thanksgiving Lord I thank you you have done things for me in the past I
thank you that you can still do this for me but I bring this request to
you please take that and I know that you will answer and faith I believe
that you will answer and Jesus also said watch and pray these last days
how do we watch be alert be alert Lord your coming is so near this virus
is just an indication to show how helpless we are so many things may
happen in the coming days maybe something else may happen Jesus God the
Lord said these perilous days will come so whatever happens Lord I want
to be on the alert I don't want to be sleepy and sluggish in my prayer
life I want to be alert and pray take every moment that I can that's why
I want to I am not speaking as if I have reached somewhere but I want to
challenge each one of us and myself especially when I say Lord I want to
be alert I want to have that prayerful attitude all the days of my life
even after this virus is gone and things are easier even then Lord I
want to keep praying I don't want to forget you who has done so much for
me and and then Jesus said you know in Proverbs there is a verse about
wisdom says wisdom watches daily at his gate at the gate of God now that
reminds me of some of the offices in India we go to to get something
done we go in the morning thinking that we can get this thing done for
us and we go and it's lunch time but we are still waiting there and then
maybe evening and we still haven't got our answer so we go the next day
it's like that I go everyday at God's gate but God won't send me empty
everyday I wait at his gate and he answers my prayer he gives me wisdom
for that day whatever you need Jesus said the Lord said if you lack
wisdom ask me and I will give you lack wisdom in bringing up your
children lack wisdom in dealing with some or lack wisdom in your job
whatever it is I lack Lord I am a person with so much lack please give
me that which I need but there are two comforting things which we can
have one is that Jesus is praying for us and praying everyday and night
day and night he is making intercession it's not that we are praying to
God and we are powerless but Jesus is at the right hand of the father he
is praying and he says the father this child of mine she is in so much
need she is crying because of this need she has I am praying on her
behalf thank God that we have an advocate a person who is praying even
when we stop praying and we have given up praying he is praying for us
and he will get the answer for us and the other person who is praying is
the Holy Spirit in Romans 8 verse 29 it says the spirit groans groans
you know groaning is when you have such a pain such pain that you cannot
say anything in words the spirit groans with that groaning on our behalf
thank God we have the Holy Spirit working for us and sometimes when we
are groaning under heavy burden we can say there is one more person who
is groaning with me and that is the Holy Spirit you know the word
groaning comes in another part in the Old Testament in Exodus where it
says the children of Israel were groaning Exodus chapter 2 verse 23 it
says the children of Israel were groaning under heavy burden because
they were slaves and the slave taskmasters were getting harder becoming
harder and harder things were getting more and more difficult for them
and they were groaning and the Lord heard their groaning and he sent
Moses to deliver them it took some time but he delivered them so the
Holy Spirit is groaning with us Jesus is praying for us and we ourselves
can pray we are not alone and we can get answers to our prayer and
that's the challenge we have our time is running out I was thinking of
meditating on the Lord's prayer and using that as a pattern but you can
do that you know we don't have to be scattered in our prayer we can have
a discipline we can say our father you are my father more than my
earthly father you are in heaven you have all authority I worship you
let your name be hallowed let your kingdom come in my life let your
kingdom come on this earth let your will be done I said about your God's
will and I submit to your will let your will be done in my children's
life let your will be done through every circumstance give us this day
our daily bread give me healing give me food and clothing the right type
of food everything I need give it to me not for the whole year but for
this day Lord give me strength that I need help me to forgive others
then lead me not into temptation it's not that God is going to lead us
into temptation but Lord when I'm coming so close to temptation just
pull me away don't let me go in the path of temptation if I know that
I'm going to be tempted in this way help me to avoid that if looking at
that picture or looking at that movie is going to make me tempted or
going talking in this way is going to make me fall and get angry Lord
pull me away give me the strength to overcome that temptation but you
keep me deliver me from evil that means deliver me from this virus if
I'm getting so close Lord you please keep me I may wear the mask and I
may wear the all the things which is required but ultimately it's you
who can keep me from sickness and from harm and from evil because yours
is the kingdom Lord I belong to you every part of me belongs to you
yours is the power only you can keep me and when the prayer is answered
I give all the glory to you there is just a few things but when you
meditate on the Lord's prayer God will give you much much more much more
like from each syllable you can get much more in closing I wanted to
just read a Psalm 84 which is one of my favorite Psalms it says and when
you get time you can read through it says about it says about a
prayerful life and living with the Lord Psalm 84 how lovely are your
dwelling places O Lord of hosts my soul longs even yearns for the courts
of the Lord my heart and my flesh that means my body and my heart sing
for joy to the living God the bird also has found a house the swallow a
nest for herself where she may lay her young even your altars O Lord of
hosts my King and my God this verse tells me reminds me Lord where the
bird can find a place to lay her young that is your altars I also lay my
young ones my little children on your altars Lord and they are safe on
your altar and you are my King and my Lord how blessed are those who
dwell in your house they are ever praising you how blessed is the man
whose strength is in you in whose heart are the highways to Zion passing
through the valley of Baca Baca is weeping when I go through the valley
of weeping you know there are times when there are we go through weeping
such bad such severe strong weeping that we cannot tell anybody about it
but deep down there is weeping in our heart when I go through that
valley Lord when I pass through that valley there is a spring it's not a
muddy water that is there but there is a fresh spring the early rain
also covers it with blessing they go from strength to strength every one
of them appears before God verse 10 a day in your courts is better than
a thousand outside I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of
my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness for the Lord God is a sun
and shield the Lord gives grace and glory no good thing does he withhold
from those who walk uprightly O Lord of course how blessed is the woman
who trusts in you so praise God that we can get so much from the Lord
more than what we can ever imagine he has so much in store for us let's
go to him not once or twice but many times during the day and say Lord
I'm waiting at your gates you won't send me empty Amen God bless you

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/NCjUUJE9dsg.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/annie-poonen/spending-time-with-our-heavenly-father/
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