Do we fit prayer around our busy life, or is life fitted around the priority of prayer?

Prioritise Prayer

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00:00:01.930]
I think what I’m sharing today is quite challenging, it certainly challenges me and I want to talk about the priority of prayer and prioritising prayer in our lives. You know, our daily routines really do reveal our priorities in a very tangible way with regard to the place that prayer ranks in our reasoning. What we choose to do each day is somewhat telling. Do we fit prayer around a busy life or is life fitted around the priority of prayer? What comes first?

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What takes first place? What is the most important thing? What is the one thing? If all else is stripped away and I’m not saying this to compare, to convict or condemn, just to kind of give us a handle on how we might measure our present priorities, because I’m very much like everyone else. And I suspect that you are. You are too. Yeah. And it’s very easy to allow the responsibilities and the activities of everyday life to push eternal things to the edges of our of our day.

00:01:27.610]
You know, our days are so crowded with temporal activities that deepening our dependence and desire for God is dampened by the multitude of to dos that we pile upon ourselves. And to add to that the fact that prayer is really not a favourite pastime for the flesh, your flesh is going to fight you all the way. And by that I just mean your natural inclinations. You know, honest TV is far more appealing than time in the tabernacle of God’s presence for your flesh.

00:02:02.850]
You know, let’s face it, prayer can be a frustrating, boring, confusing, dreary chore ish. I don’t even know if that’s a word, but Chaurasia and unexciting excursion that leaves you unfulfilled and scratching your head and wondering why you even tried. You know, why is why is this thing called prayer so difficult to do? Yeah, why is this one thing that seemingly promises this ultimate fulfilment? Why is it so difficult? It’s because we live in an environment and a culture that is infused with unbelief.

00:02:51.330]
The world and the culture that we inhabit is really not given to the things of the spirit. It’s designed by contrary powers. You have powers that are not really for you. Yeah, it’s designed to keep you as far away from reality as is possible. You know, the devil wants to crowd you with activities that have no eternal consequence, certainly not in the short term, and wants to keep you cowered by natural needs, desires and the pursuit of anything and everything.

00:03:26.850]
But God, he knows that once a man breaks this mould and finally finds pleasure in prayer, he may as well just sign off the deeds. Yeah, he’s got the deeds on so much of your time and so much of your life. But once we begin to recognise the endless pleasures that prayer can distil into our spirit, he is his cause is a lost one. You know, a life is not just lost to him in terms of eternal destiny, but when we’re not, every day is on track.

00:04:11.010]
Yeah. When when our every day becomes consumed with the one who saved us, the one who called us. And his purpose is we just become vinegar in his wounds and pricks in his eye. You know, the man or woman who is broken and who has broken through is dangerous to the devil’s kingdom. And because of that, it’s no wonder that the God of this world, as the scriptures call him, does everything he can to keep our eyes covid from this reality.

00:04:46.050]
The Bible says in two Corinthians, four of us, for the God of this world, has blinded the unbelievers minds that they should not discern the truth, preventing them from seeing the illuminating light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. Who is the image and the likeness of God. And I dare say that, you know, this is talking about the hearts and minds and eyes of unbelievers being blinded. But I dare say that there are many believers on an everyday level in their everyday practises and priorities who live like blind men and women and whose priorities really do not reflect their station in life and their place in the affections of God and their position in the world of the spirit.

00:05:45.030]
You know, and and it really is it’s an intentional thing, carving out time for prayer so it becomes a delight rather than a drudgery really demands a long season of discipline. Yeah. To break the addiction that we have to the just the way that we’ve always done things and to our natural way of being moving into a place where we are more engaged with our spirit than we are with our natural man takes work, sometimes much work. Sometimes we need to add fasting to our prayers in order to break through into that next level.

00:06:28.440]
And so, you know, and we want to really and I personally have found no other way to incapacitate and destroy the agreements that my flesh is inadvertently made with the devil’s way of thinking and doing. We have to come in with our guns blazing and we have to make it known in that realm as much to the to our self as to the spirit world, as much to our self that we are no longer go. We are no longer willing to live or think the way that we always have and that we are going from this point on to make a priority of addressing ourselves from our inner man and to the world that we’ve been called to operate in, both in the spirit and in the natural.

00:07:26.760]
But the flow comes from the spirit. We live from the spirit. We’re not trying to get to God, we are coming from him. He has already called us to himself and, you know, as a yeah, and if we’re not intentional in defining these priorities, it is inevitable that the fate that that like the prevailing defaults that pervade the culture that we’re that we are immersed in, they will become ours. We default to what we are surrounded by.

00:08:02.200]
And it does take a level of rebellion. If you like to stand aside from that and say, I’m no longer going to live under that state, I’m no longer going to live according to that kind of thinking. We need to claim our freedom and just not allow our lives to be swirled away like water down a plug hole. Yeah, in kind of activities that carry no eternal. Significance. You know, when we stand before Jesus on the day of judgement and the day of reward, do you honestly think that he’s going to measure success by the totem poles of this present age?

00:08:51.280]
I really don’t think so. You know, the riches of a life well spent and not counted in dollars, they are defined by how many days we live dedicated and devoted to a bigger cause, something bigger than ourselves, the cause of his kingdom. And, you know, having said that, the scriptures make it clear if we seek first his kingdom, he will add much that the world is looking for to our account. It will simply be added to us.

00:09:24.550]
It’s not that we in in in dedicating our lives to God. We are not depriving ourselves of anything. We are simply positioning ourselves for him to deliver those things into our hand in a way that will befuddle the world in a way, you know, as the scriptures say elsewhere, you know, he makes a man rich and adds no sorrow with it. And so the promises of prosperity that we find throughout all the scripture. Yeah, this this holistic life that God wants to give us begins with prosperity of our soul.

00:10:09.850]
With three John verse one at three, John, one verse to only one chapter in their says beloved. I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers. And I do believe that the the place of soul prosperity begins in the prayer closet because that’s where we draw. We draw close to the giver of every good gift. Well, thanks for listening. Hopefully it’s been an encouragement to you today. If you want to connect any further, you can do so through my website at DavidLeemartin.Com.

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Have a great day.