Steve Durand - March 17, 2019
Why Bother? - 1 Samuel 1:1-20
We all go through seasons in which our passion for certain activities decreases. Maybe we simply lose interest over time. Or we get busy doing other things. We encounter some crisis or resistance that shakes our confidence. We begin to question if it’s worth the time and energy we’re investing. We lose heart.
The same can happen in our prayer lives. If we’re not careful, we can lose our motivation and, before we know it, either stop praying altogether or fall into patterns of puny, formulaic prayers in which we hastily come before God and mindlessly and superficially run through a list of things we’d like Him to do in our lives.
God doesn’t ever want you to forget who you’re talking to in prayer. Nor does He want you to be satisfied with a half-hearted prayer life. He wants you to earnestly and boldly seek Him with your whole heart (Jeremiah 29:12-13) and to trust that He is able to move mountains.
Never underestimate the influence of an ordinary person who comes before an extraordinary God in prayer.
From Series: "Only by Prayer"
Visit the Only by Prayer webpage for videos, PDF's and meeting locations
This Week's Sermon: "Great Expectations"
It’s been said that “if you expect nothing, you’ll never be disappointed.” As much as we’d like to think differently, the same applies to prayer.
In our times of prayer with God, great expectations precede great results. Even beyond what you could have thought or wished for.
Sure, your day-to-day life may be a lot easier if you lower your expectations, but it will also be a lot less than it could be. And with prayer, you may never see what God could and would do if your expectations were equivalent to the Lord’s. This week, through the life of Elijah, we’ll see what God-sized expectations entailed in his life, and the practical impact similar expectations could have in ours.
