Staying Connected to God

Do you like modern technology?

Well, it's wonderful when it works, right?

Watching television, playing video games, using our computers, talking with friends and family on the phone. The way we used to do it now as a kid, it's a whole lot different the way we do it now, and I think a lot of you agree with me. Thanks are so much easier now. Easier due to, what, cable and wireless communication. We had three channels when I grew up at home. Now I guess you can have hundreds or more. I don't know. I don't subscribe to that package. It's a little expensive for me, but it's possible. In staying connected to various providers, various utilities make these services available to us, and it's very important to us to have these things like our cell phone service, our internet, our, let's see, dish network, satellite dish, or something like that. In fact, we do pay a good amount of money for these things, don't we? It's very important to us. We're willing to put the money out. But as they say, modern technology is a wonderful thing until we lose our connections.

Been fighting with that a lot over the past month or two in our house. Lots of connections to our services, our service providers happen for various reasons. Of course, around here in East Texas, leaving out in the rural area, bad weather has a big impact. Sometimes bad storms, if you got satellite dish, that's what we have at home. A thick cloud cover can suddenly ruin your nice program here watching everybody screams, and then we go find other things to do. There can be poor maintenance. Maybe we don't keep our cables clean and equipment correct. There could be corrosion. Things cause us to lose connection that way. And of course, if you travel anywhere around East Texas, you're inevitably going to hit the dead zones, right? Suddenly, there's nothing there, and you feel isolated and cut off. How do you feel when the connection with your TV provider is lost? How about when the internet goes down, then up, and then down, and then up, and so on? How do you feel when you have zero bars on your cell phones? Yeah. What words would we use? Angry, perhaps frustrated would get us started. We'll stop with that. And should that state of disconnection last any length of time, and I know for some people a minute is too long disconnected before they start pulling out hair. Let's say if we're disconnected for an hour for a couple hours. How would you feel if you're disconnected for a day? Weeks! It's quite possible. Some parents might enjoy that. I don't know. And of course, if it went that long, Lavas would be increasingly frustrated, distraught, and I'm quite certain some of us would get very depressed. For some of us, our whole lives are, seemingly, our whole lives are into that connection we maintain. Being disconnected from our favorite sources, communication, would be a true hardship. I'm aware of that, and I would agree with you. However, there is a far more important connection we always need to maintain.

That connection is our connection to God through prayer.

What's necessary for us to stay connected to God through prayer? Have you thought about that lately?

Well, that's the subject of today's message, and the title of the sermon is, Staying Connected to God.

Staying connected to God.

Now, when I look at this group, I realize we all are very familiar with the subject of prayer.

We know, for example, that prayer is vital to our relationship with God. We sometimes refer to prayer as speaking to or having a conversation with God, and that is true. We can do that silently as we drive, as we're peeling potatoes. We can have those little conversations. I like to sing songs in my head and think about God.

Of course, God wants us to come to Him as to a dearly loved parent, and I'm quite confident that God loves those conversations we have with Him. In prayer, it also includes going to God, at times a little more formally, perhaps, to make certain requests for our needs. The assemble requests are often called—not applications, but supplications—sorry, wrong job— supplications, and sometimes are called petitions.

Of course, we know, on the other hand, it would be very unwise for us to make demands of God, and I encourage us never to make ultimatums to God. We know that we need to speak to God very respectfully, very reverently in our prayer, with true sincerity and complete honesty.

Now, we do know how to pray, I believe. We follow the model outline that Jesus taught His disciples in the Gospel of Matthew 8-13. I think most of us probably know it by heart.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Thy kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

And so with that model outline, we understand that we address our prayers to God the Father. We begin and conclude our prayer with a humble recognition of God's absolute sovereignty.

And then, you might say, sandwiched in between that, beginning in conclusion, we have our humble and contract requests for our physical needs, those daily bread.

Of course, that might also include our spiritual needs. We understand this. And along with it, the spiritual needs. We might especially see that in the statement to forgive our debts. We're asking God to forgive us our sins. And then the caveat, including our need for His help and forgiving others, or His help in helping us, loving others. His model prayer reminds us that our existence, both now and yet future, as firstfruits in the kingdom of God, depends upon our Father providing for us everything we need for salvation, which He has done and which He is doing through Jesus Christ. We also want to understand that we pray to the Father because He is the source of every good thing. Every good thing we have, every good thing we need, every good thing we hope to receive. And through prayer, we worship Him and praise Him. Prayer helps us stay closely connected to God. Prayer helps us stay strong with the strength of His Holy Spirit. We know a lot about prayer. There's much more we could talk about, but I'm going to take a little more narrow track today. So if we know so much about prayer, why is it? Why is it, then, that at times we can feel that our prayer life has gone flat? Kind of like a soda that's set out, opened up for a week. There's no effervescence there. There's no life there. Why is it that we sometimes feel that God, we really feel sometimes God's not listening.

Or sometimes we feel that we're unable to pray. Sometimes we might even worry that we've forgotten how to pray. Now, some of you might think, well, that could never happen. Well, any such fears about the ineffectiveness of our prayers or our inability to pray, well, those worries and fears, those sort of problems, those don't lie with God, but they would be related to something we must be doing wrong. There's something we must be doing wrong. There must be something wrong with our connection to God. Well, what could be the cause of that?

Well, if you allow me to make an analogy, just as a terrible storm and thick cloud cover can knock out our cable or satellite TV connection, frankly, so can the storms of life discourage us and deeply oppress us. There's difficult times caused by prolonged illness, things that we just can't get over in a weekend. Perhaps difficult times caused by the loss of loved ones or even the very tough challenges of old age. It can all become so discouraging at times, and we're only human. And so we might not maintain our prayer life like we should.

And just as poor maintenance of equipment can disrupt our connection to the internet, so can the busyness of our lives. We'll be so busy that we neglect our connection to God. You know the demands. The demands of work and school and college, demands of all the household chores. And of course, we heard a lot about gardening today and weeding. That's a chore. That takes up a lot of time. And there's appointments and entertaining. And yes, even serving can be a lot. It can fill up our daily lives with all these activities. So much so that the busyness of life can begin to dictate the few minutes we have left over for prayer time with God. And so in that way, our connection to God can also deteriorate.

And just as we can lose the connection with the cell phone service when we're out of sight of a cell tower, so might we feel when we have turned from God and sinned. Because of our sin, and oftentimes our sense of guilt, we might feel as if we're in a dead zone spiritually. That somehow we've lost sight of God and we cannot reconnect with God.

That would be a true dead zone, wouldn't it?

Now, there's so very much we said about prayers and praying, much more than I can even try to cover today. But what I want to review with these things in mind, I'd like to review with us some things we should be doing. Things we should be doing to strengthen our prayer life and to strengthen our sense of confidence that God does indeed hear our prayers. He does hear our prayers.

So what should we be doing then to know that God hears our prayers? And scripture does reveal to us a number of things that we really should be doing. Then we know without a doubt that God hears our prayers. So I have a number of things. To begin, we need to obey God. Sounds very simple, very simple and foundational. And yet, we know the challenge. The fact is, if we expect God to keep hearing our prayers, then we must be obeying the Ten Commandments. And we must be doing those things that please God. If you turn with me to 1 John 3.22, this point is clearly stated here. 1 John 3.22.

Perhaps you haven't looked at this lately. 1 John 3.22. Notice what it says.

And whatever we ask, speaking of our prayers to God, our requests, our supplications, and whatever we ask, we receive from Him. Sounds like a pretty bold statement. You're going to get it. And why? Because we keep His commandments and we do those things that are pleasing in His sight.

Clear connection. Keep God's commandments. Do things that please Him. And He will hear our prayers. Ask and we receive. While we're in the neighborhood, let's look at 1 Peter 3.12. A few pages over. 1 Peter 3.12. It's also very clear on this point. In here, I might point out that Peter is actually quoting several scriptures here from Psalm 34, 12, 16. It may be in your footnotes in your Bible. Here Peter is quoting from Psalms. 1 Peter 3.12. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. Obviously, that would include those that just refuse to do His commandments and try to please God. So, the first thing we should be doing is obeying God. 2. We need to confess our sins to God. Confess our sins to God. It goes hand in hand with obedience to God. 3. To obey God and do what pleases Him means that we must turn from sin, which I'm sure we know is lawlessness against God. 4. Sin separates us from God so that God will not hear us. Let's look at Isaiah 59, verse 1-2. Isaiah 59, 1-2. Sin separates us from God. 5. Unrepentant of sin. Isaiah 59, 1-2. Behold, Isaiah writes, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, nor his ear heavy, that it cannot hear. So, the problem's not with God. But your iniquities, your sins, have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear us, if we allow sin to get in our way between us and God. And so, when we experience times when it seems that God is not listening, He's not hearing, sin may well be the cause. We need to check that out. When we confess our sins to God, He will forgive us, and sin will no longer block our connection to God. Let's look. I should have had you keep your finger there. Back in 1 John 1 and 9. Sorry about that. It helps if you have fingers in the right places at times in the Bible. In 1 John 1 verse 9, here again, John is speaking to us about, in this case, about sin. He says, 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all right unrighteousness.

And so, what we need to recall is that we don't need to agonize about whether God is angry with us, or whether or not He hears our prayers. If we're repenting of our sins, if we're doing all we can to stay right with God and asking for His help to reveal more sins, we're probably okay. We're probably okay. God does and will hear our prayers. But here's that big little letter, a big little word in English. God does and will hear our prayers if we are being diligent to confess our sins to Him, diligent to repent, and diligent to seek His forgiveness. However, we must also remember Jesus Christ's admonition in Matthew 6, verse 12. That's right back where I was trying to repeat verbatim, what we traditionally call the Lord's Prayer, the model prayer. Matthew 6, 12, it's part of the model prayer. It says, forgive us our debts again as we forgive our debtors. That's part of the model. That's what we should be living and doing every day. Forgiving is that aspect of loving our neighbor that we must be doing. But then if you look down a few verses to verse 14, Jesus elaborates a little bit more the meaning of those words in Matthew 6, 14. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. So again, if we want God to hear and answer our prayers, forgive our sins, and I'm sure we do, then we need to be repenting of sin and forgiving those who sin against us. Next point, we need to believe God. They're all very fundamental, and they all tie together. They're very intricate. Believe God. When we pray to God, we must have full faith in His love and mercy towards us. We must believe and trust in His promises. Let's be turning to Hebrews 11.6. You hear it, but you need to have it in your eyes to get it embedded into our hearts and minds. We must believe and trust in God's promises, especially about salvation and His forgiveness of our sins. In Hebrews 11.6 speaks directly to this point. It reads, But without faith, without faith is impossible, impossible to please Him. For He who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Of course, prayer is one of the ways we seek God. Let's also remember what Jesus said back in Mark 11.24. Mark 11.24.

Jesus teaching the disciples, Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. We must have that conviction.

It takes belief in God. It takes faith, that substance of things not seen, that that's what faith is about, the substance of things not seen, Hebrews 11.1. To stay close to God in prayer. Belief is something we must continue to grow in. It's something we must continue to develop. It comes through believing what God says. As we've often heard, it comes from believing what God says and doing or obeying what God says.

I'm sure a lot of you like me, when I'm suddenly afflicted with a trial or illness and it's not easy to get out of, I ask God to help me have the belief I need to be strong, to trust in Him. God is always exercising us to help us grow and develop in our faith.

The next point, to know what we should be asking in our prayer, we need to study the Bible. We need to study the Bible. To know what we should pray for requires that we study and really know God's Word. Perhaps you've noticed that God is not like Google.

Thank you. He's not. God is not like Google, where we can just quickly key in, type in a question, and get an answer in a split second. It doesn't give us one answer. It gives us more than we can even begin to grasp with. God is also not like Amazon.

You know Amazon.com? Yeah. God is not like Amazon, where we can order whatever we want, have it speedily delivered just like that. No questions asked. It's not that way, we pray to God. We need to know the Bible so we know what God can and what He will provide.

We need to be studying God's Scriptures to know and to pray according to God's mind and will.

Matthew 4.4. You probably don't need to turn there, but Jesus made very clear in His temptation with Satan, He rebuked Satan and said, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. The Bible contains that word. We need to know it. We need to live by it. We need to pray to God by it. We need to truly understand that our request to God in prayer will be for things that we truly need both physically and spiritually.

Back in 1 John 5, 14 through 15. I didn't realize to now how many times I have us go back to 1 John. But we must always make our request to God according to His will. Sometimes we may forget that part. And it's good to ask things according to God's will, because only God knows what's truly best for us. In 1 John 5, in this case, verses 14 through 15, now this is the confidence, the confidence or trust that we have in Him, in God, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions, the requests that we have asked for. We can have that. It goes back to that faith and belief. We can trust that He does indeed hear. And He does need answer. Now, it may not always be the answer we might be praying for, but we know that too is an answer. So again, if at times it seems that God is not answering our prayers, if you feel like maybe there's a disconnection to immune God, we may need to consider whether we're asking for things that God would approve of. He may not initially want us to have the latest PlayStation, whatever it might be, I don't know. He may not necessarily want us to have a Ferrari. I would never want one myself, but anyway, you get the point. We need to be asking for things that God would approve of. Not that those things... no, not any other. But we need to be asking according to His will. Remember, God knows what's best for us as a response for our prayers, indeed, for our best. I think this is number five. When we pray, we must make sure we have no wrong motives. No wrong motives. In harmony with knowing God and praying according to His will, we must not pray from wrong motives, such as selfishness or greed or pride. James 4, verses 2 through 3, kind of in the neighborhood there, James 4, verses 2 through 3.

James makes this very poignant statement, reveals where a lot of the turmoil we have in our own lives, and sometimes in our families, and the world at large. James 4, verses 2 through 3, we're given a reason why God does not answer certain prayers. James 4, verses 2 through 3, he says, You lust and do not have. You murder, you might throw in hate. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war, in other words, to be battle. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. I guess our tendency as human beings is just to take. You do not ask. Verse 3. And then he continues, James does, and yet you ask, you do not receive because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures. Of course, a suggestion here that we're, sometimes it's normal for people to pray about the wrong things and for the wrong things, even with the wrong attitudes. It becomes clear we should avoid prayers for selfish reasons.

If we remember Matthew 6, verses 5 through 6, again, I should have asked you to mark your books there, your Bibles there. Matthew 6, 5 through 6, Jesus made very clear that vanity and pride should have no place in our prayers. We must not allow that in our prayers to God. Matthew 6, verses 5 through 6, oh, there it is. I lost the number. Jesus said, And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets. They love making a big to-do, public affair about this. They do it so that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, or in private, pray to your Father who is in the secret place, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And of course, we don't need to turn there because I think we've referred to this parable quite a bit through the years, but Jesus emphasized the same point with the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. And you can jot down that reference. It's Luke 18 verses 9 through 14. I think we remember how the Pharisee exalted himself. He bragged in his very public prayer about being more righteous than other men. He actually says that if you go back and read it. In fact, he said he was better than that despicable tax collector. You know, every time I read that and think about it, I still cringe. I cringe within myself thinking, how could you do that? How could you be that way?

And what was the tax collector doing while this Pharisee was saying how much better he was than the tax collector? He was praying. He was praying to God. He was praying to God with a broken heart, asking that God would forgive him. He knew he was a sinner.

And then Jesus says that only a tax collector went to his house, justified of God. Well, the tax collector was right with God because of his prayer. He was forgiven. And so our attitude in prayer needs to be like that of the humble and contrite tax collector, doesn't it? If it is, then we can be assured that God hears and answers our prayers. Pride and what we might call cocky self-righteousness.

That does not make for a good connection with God. You will not get connected with that sort of attitude with God. Next, we should also be extremely grateful. Be extremely grateful along with the right prayer and attitudes and approaches we should have to God, towards God, is that of thanksgiving and praise. Paul encourages us to pray with this attitude in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verses 16 through 18.

Here in 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 through 18, Paul writes, Rejoice, rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything, everything give thanks. How are we doing on that? That could be a challenge sometimes. In everything, give thanks. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. You notice part of what is being said here. It is God's will that we give him praise. It's God's will that we let him know that we appreciate him. We thank him. And do we remember to pray that way? Do we remember to pray that way? Now, I suspect many of your older ones know this, that maybe not so much are younger ones. But I was taught many years ago, probably after I came to Ambassador College, and I found it to be true that when you find yourself grouchy, anybody here can ever get grouchy. You're such pleasant people. I never see grouchy people on the Sabbath. Wow! We're blessed, aren't we? Well, if we ever would happen to get grouchy or glom, if we'd ever happen to feel so sorry for ourselves that you want to kick the cat, please don't kick cats. I'm absolutely opposed to cruelty to animals, and God is too. Instead of doing that, I was taught, and it works, start praying to God instead of giving into your crankiness. Start praying to God instead, and thank him for everything you could think of. Have any of you ever done that? Any of you ever done that? You don't want to commit, huh? Okay. Start thanking God for everything you can think of when you feel like your attitude needs an adjustment. And what you find is it's as if our carnal nature, that old self, and I definitely think Satan's little wavelengths too, it's as if they just cannot stand such positive thinking. It's as if it dispels such positive thoughts when we're actually thinking about God and then thanking God for what he has done for us. Even the things that on the surface we might not want to be thankful for.

I can't tell you how many times my car is broken down. Well, not in recent years I was able to not drive the things I had to drive when I was a poor college student, of course, but I can't tell how many times the car would break down and I'd start getting agitated about it. But then I realized, I never broke down right between towns out in the middle of nowhere. You just drive a lot between here and Waco years ago and there's a long stretch of road before you get to Corsicana and then after Corsicana there's nothing there. I broke down in Corsicana, so I found, hey, I'm going to be thankful about that. And the grumpiness, I admit I was grumpy, it went away. It works. Gratitude and prayer to God works. Let's look at Psalm 34. I think you'd agree with me that King David definitely was faced with many difficult challenges and terrible trials in his life. Of course, many of them, like us, he brought upon himself. He had much to lament about and he took his problems to God, though. And we know that. We remember in Psalms 51, he took his repentance to God, he sought forgiveness. However, David also took his happiness and joy to God. And I want to look at that a little bit here. He took his happiness and joy to God. In Psalm 34, we find an example of this sincerely exuberant attitude of gratitude. The attitude of gratitude David had towards God. And I really think it's one we should try to emulate in our own prayers. You know, we do it our own way, but it's the attitude we want to emulate. Psalm 34, verse 1, it reads, I will bless the Lord at all times. Pretty much what we just read. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the Lord. The humble—and here another synonym here from the Hebrew—can be afflicted. The afflicted—you ever feel afflicted? The afflicted shall hear of it and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together.

It's even better than we praise God with other people, not just alone always. And then as David continues, notice how he explains why he is so joyful. That's what we should do in our prayers, make sure we explain to God why we're so joyful and happy and thankful to him. Verse 4, continuing, I sought the Lord and he heard me. Here's why he's joyful. And he delivered me from all my fears. He says, They or others looked to God and were radiant, and their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried out, and it seems that he's referring to himself. And I think perhaps a better word than poor, this wretched, oppressed man, speaking of himself, is that this poor, wretched man cried out, and the Lord heard him and saved him, and of all his troubles the angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear him and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in him. There we go back to belief and faith. O fear or revere the Lord, you his saints. Kind of tingles when I read that, back to my neck.

That should be us, right? His saints. There is no one to those who fear God. Now the young lions lack and suffer hunger, but those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.

Now can you feel—I'm trying here—can you feel David's joy for God? Sometimes we need to read to ourselves, probably, but read it with the enthusiasm. Try to imagine how this would sound in a joyful way. I believe that when we include sincere praise and exuberant joy to God in our prayers, I think then we need not wonder whether God hears and answers our prayers. I think he hears us.

Next point is to be sincere and honest. Be sincere and honest in our prayers. We're here. Let's look at Psalm 62, verse 7-8. Psalm 627-8. Now we just read this exuberant, pumped up psalm by David, his exuberant joy towards God. But David now tells us in this other psalm, Psalm 62, 7-8, David tells us there are also times to pour out our hearts to God. What he's talking about is to pour out our sorrow. We have sorrows. He says, pour out our sorrows to God. Psalm 62, verse 7, In God is my salvation and my glory. All his hope is in God. The rock of my strength and my refuge is in God. Trust in him at all times, you people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us. And so David's saying, go to God with your troubles. Confess them to him. Let him know what you're going through. And he is your refuge. He'll encircle us. He'll help us. And so what we're finding here is that God wants to hear our troubles. He knows what they are, but he wants us to hear us explain it, describe it to him. He wants to hear of our distress and our despair. And we should express ourselves honestly to God, honest thoughts or feelings. But as we could see in Scripture, the example is we must do so carefully. We must explain our despair and our troubles to God, but reverently and respectfully, he is God. And we can do that with a contrite heart. And yes, we should pour out our hearts to God, especially when guilt due to sin or perhaps its extreme weariness we're experiencing, or maybe we have about a dark depression that makes us feel that when there's times when life gets so rough, we almost feel that we can't pray to God. Those moments when we feel that we're so overburdened by sorrow, that's the time we need to pray to God, and not feel like I can't go to God, I feel guilty, I can't talk to him. No, that's exactly when we need to go to God in prayer. Let's look at Psalm 88. I want to spend a little more time on this point.

Psalm 88. This is not a joyful psalm. I don't know if you've read this one lately. This psalm has been called the gloomiest psalm of all the psalms.

Now, I think we know that not all psalms or praises are happy. Most of the psalms are laments. Most of the psalms are laments. This one is the gloomiest of laments, some scholars say. And why is it that? Well, it's because this psalm expresses no praise or thanksgiving to God.

Can you imagine that's in the Bible?

It has two parts. Verses 1 through 3. It's primarily, verse 1 through 3, is the psalmist's call to God for help. So he's opening this psalm. We can read it like a prayer. He's opening up his psalm to God, his song to God, by asking for help, verses 1 through 3. And then what follows in the rest of the psalm, verses 4 through 18, is this long description of his severe distress and even his complaint to God about God.

He's complaining and he's suffering to God about God.

Let's read the first part here, verses 1 through 3. We're just going to read parts of this, not the whole psalm, and it might be worth your read later. Here's what he says, verses 1 through 3. The psalmist writes, "'I, O Lord,' excuse me, that was a 1, "'O Lord, O Lord, God of my salvation, I have cried out day and night before you. Let my prayer come before you. Incline your ear to my cry, for my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to the grave.'" Now, as we read, we learn that the psalmist has suffered from lifelong pain, apparently since he was born, possibly since he is very little. It seems he has suffered from lifelong pain, grievous hurt. Perhaps it's from lingering illness. It's very obscure, we don't know exactly what, but it's very clear he knows a lot about suffering. And now he reveals that he's fearful because of the nearness of death.

He fears death is just a breath away. Continuing now in verse 4, we see this. He says, I am counted with those who go down to the pit, to the grave. I am like a man who has no strength, adrift among the dead, like the sling who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more, and who are cut off from your hand. He feels isolated, perhaps. Let's look at verse 9. He's seeing his suffering. His complaint now starts turning a little bit more against God, it seems. He says, my eye wastes, verse 9, my eye wastes away because of affliction, Lord. Lord, I have called daily upon you, I have stretched out my hands to you. Will you work wonders for the dead? Saying, I'm going to be dead soon. Shall the dead arise and praise you? No, the dead are asleep. Nothing. Verse 11, shall your loving kindness be declared in the grave? It can't. Your faithfulness in the place of destruction? In the grave. Shall your wonders be known in the dark, in your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? But to you I have cried, O Lord, and in the morning my comes to you. Lord, why do you cast off my soul? Why do you hide your face from me?

It's painful. He's in pain, and he feels that God has turned his face away from you.

Now, as I said, the psalm includes no praise or thanks to God, certainly not overtly. But do we notice what it does include?

I'm looking at this because sometimes our prayers may be like this to God, too. We're so overwhelmed by life. But do you recognize what the psalmist here does do? He begins by recognizing God as what? As his refuge. He recognizes God as his source of salvation. He knows who he's talking to. He knows exactly who he's talking to. And though he himself is downcast, despairing, and miserable in seemingly every way possible, even though he recognizes that God has allowed to him this life of terrible suffering, the psalmist still turns to God in prayer and in supplication for answers and relief.

In doing so, it's quite clear to me, and I think to you, that this person expresses his trust in God. He believes in God. And perhaps if we ever find ourselves in this man's plight, I've never been in a plight like this.

Perhaps if we're ever in this man's plight, perhaps you and I, we will gain even more sights about this mindset, about his faithfulness to God. But a point for us to remember here is that we can and should continue to go to God in prayer, even when hope elsewhere is all lost, especially when hope elsewhere is all lost. We just should. We really should express our deepest burdens to God sincerely and respectfully, and we should never cease praying to God, even as the psalmist says. And this point leads straight to the next point. Be persistent. Be persistent.

Back in Luke 11, Jesus Christ taught the value of persistence in our prayers. Psalmist in Psalm 88 was doing that.

Jesus taught the value of persistence in our prayers. Let's look at Luke 11 and then verses 5 through 10.

We tend to be very familiar with the importuning widow.

She gets a lot of discussion. She gets a lot of airtime.

I'd like for us to consider this other example of persistence that Jesus taught. Here we understand the point we draw from this parable is that God is patient, and God will give us exactly what we need and according to his will. But sometimes he wants us to know how persistent and patient we'll be. Luke 11 verse 5. Luke 11 verse 5, And he said to them, Which of you have a friend, or go to him at midnight, and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves. For a friend of mine has come on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him. And he will answer from within and say, Don't bother me. Don't trouble me. The door is shut. It's locked up. And the kids are in bed with me. We're all in bed now. I cannot rise and give to you. Well, I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, he keeps knocking and hammering on the door, perhaps, yet because of his persistence he will rise, and he will give him as many loaves of bread as he needs.

Persistence pays off. I think Galavas know that. And then Jesus continues verse 9, So I say to you, ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it will be open to you. Do you notice how those three words, verbs, ask, seek, and knock, the first three letters spell what word?

Ask. It's interesting. I don't know if you maybe remembered that. God is compassionate, and he will answer our prayers, and especially as we've been reading, especially if we ask according to our knowledge of God and his word, and if we truly seek his will. Now, even Psalm 88 maintained his faith in God, even though he's miserable. He maintained his faith. And in due time, we would assume that he will be resurrected, God's will and time, and he will come to better understand God's love and mercy and why, perhaps. God may let him know why he allowed him that suffering. But, of course, we didn't understand it was for the best.

We must never give up on God. Perhaps his answer to our prayer will not be what we expect or what we truly want or think we want or what we think we need. But when we believe God have full faith in his love and mercy and all the promises, then we find a way and he will help us to live life faithfully with the answer he gives us.

The final point should be nine. Ask God for the help of his Holy Spirit. We should always ask God to guide us through his word, scriptures, and by his Holy Spirit. Our prayers to God for his guidance and inspiration, our prayers for his additional strength, for courage should be included in our daily prayers. Without God's help, we are simply too weak.

We don't have what it takes to live life as fully committed as we need to be. We need God's help. We lack the spiritual strength that only God provides and that we need to persevere in life's trials and in battling our stupid old self, our carnal human nature, or to fight society's temptations. And of course, we certainly need God's strength to fight against the the wiles of the devil of Satan. John 14, 26, revealed here Jesus revealed that God's Holy Spirit, which comes from our loving Father, gives us just what we need to stay connected to him.

John 14, 26, Jesus said, but the Helper, sometimes called the Comforter, but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, which the Father will send in my name, he or it will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. And so it's important that we do study God's Word. Again, we need to know what he says. We need to remember. God's Spirit helps us to remember, then helps us to believe and helps us to do.

It's all interconnected. Let's also read Romans 8, 26, 27. Romans 8, 26, 27. God's Spirit is especially helpful in our expressing to God those things of our heart and mind that we just can't quite express. I've studied our English language a lot, and even knowing what I know, there are just some concepts, some feelings, some things we all go through. We just can't talk about. It's impossible. Paul is comforting us with the knowledge of how God's Holy Spirit works with us. Let's read that, verse 26 here, Romans 8. Likewise, the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses.

For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought. That's true. But the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. The interaction of God's Spirit in our hearts and minds.

Christ is our Savior, our hope of salvation, trust in our Father. We find a way to express to God. We find a way to obey God. We find a way to meet each new thing that comes along in our life. So if we had ever experienced joy or sorrow beyond the ability to express it in prayer to God, don't worry about whether you can pray about it or talk about it, because we're told here that we can be confident and comforted in knowing that God's Spirit will help us express to God what it is we're going through, what it is we're trying to say, what we mean to say.

And it's also good to know that God knows what's truly in our hearts because of that same Spirit that dwells in us. And of course, the Father and his Son, Christ, live in us through his Holy Spirit. Now, that's been nine things. Yes, nine things we should be doing. These are things we can be doing in order to strengthen our understanding, yes, but also give us confidence that we need not worry about whether God is hearing our prayers, whether God is answering our prayers.

If we find something here we need to do, well, then now we have something more we can work on. And of course, as I said, there's much more about prayer to be discussed here. But now, to help us hone our understanding of how to pray more effectively, I'd like for us to consider some sample prayers. These are sample prayers. And we're going to look at these. And I'd like for us to consider, as we look at them together, I'll read them to you, but what are these individuals doing right and how could they be doing better?

So what are they doing right? You can think. I don't want anybody shouting out answers. Okay, this is not a class. This is not Bible study. But I want you to think about it. And I'll give you my thoughts. What are these people doing right and how could they do better? Here's the first one. Sample prayer. This is Ernst. Our father in heaven, you know that I have the best reading in my company.

I'm now employee of the year. God, make my manager give me easy tasks. Make him give me a great evaluation. I deserve that big raise in promotion. So please, let me have it. In Jesus' name, amen. I hear chuckling.

What is Ernst doing right? He's going to God. He's praying to God. He knows to take his request to God.

Now, where he might improve things? Well, I think his example we could say is one where he needs to be praying for the right motivation. I wonder if maybe he thinks a little highly of himself. Maybe a little more humility would be good. And I'm really worried. Well, no, I know God's going to take care of her. It's because he did ask in his prayer and I think God will answer it. He said, please let me have it. God does hear our prayers and God does know it's best for us. Here's another one. This is Stacy. Dear Father, I know I keep bringing this problem to you, but nothing's changed. You're probably weary of me coming to you or tired of me coming to you. Please don't be angry with me. In the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, please help me. Amy is doing the right thing here, too. She's also going to God. She's very humble. She's very contrite. But what does Stacy need? She needs God's help and faith. She needs help and belief. She needs help in being more convicted of the promises. Perhaps she would look at my list.

Not my list, but look at the list of things that she could work on. She needs to have a little more faith and claim the promises that God says, come to me anytime and give me your quest. God does not weary. Be persistent, Stacy. Be persistent. Now, here's the next one.

This one will make you chuckle. I don't necessarily mean for it to make you chuckle.

This is Gavin. God, I stayed out way too late again. Did stuff I shouldn't have. I feel like crud. God, please make me feel better soon. Amen.

Gavin, too, is doing the right thing. He's going to God. Gavin has some things to work on. I think, no, I know, he really needs to work on step one. I think that's part of his problem. He needs to work on obedience. Sounds like he knows he's doing things he shouldn't do.

He's got the confession part. Working in that good direction, that's good. But he needs to do more. He needs to look at Gavin and see, maybe there's something I need to change in my life. But it is good to see that he does know that God can help him solve some problems. Finally, Monica.

Father, I hope you hear my prayer.

I want to do what's right, but I don't know if I can. I want to please you, but I keep doing the wrong things. Will I ever be the good person you want me to be? If you want to, please help me to obey you. In the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, amen.

Monica is going to God humbly. She knows God is the source of the answers she needs in her life, the source of comfort. But she doesn't quite have the confidence that God is really listening, that God wants to listen. Perhaps Monica is like some of us sometimes. Maybe sometimes we feel a little unsure if God is really listening to us. But again, perhaps if we go back and consider some of the things we've reviewed today, that would give us and Monica that sort of confidence we need. So that's the end of what I've called a review, because I've told you earlier that we know a lot about prayer. But perhaps bringing these things back up will help us to reevaluate our prayer life. These are nine things we should be doing through prayer to stay connected to God. Again, our connection to God. And I really do hope and pray that what we've reviewed today can be encouraging to us and can help us to draw closer into those loving arms of our Father and Jesus Christ, His Son. And here's something else I might suggest to us. The next time we lose our connection with our service providers, maybe this will come... maybe what I'm talking about today will come back to mind when you lose your connections out there, right? Maybe the next time we lose our connection with our service providers and we can't watch TV and uh-oh, we can't watch the internet or our cell phone service drops. And just when frustration is about to pop, maybe we'll stop and think and be grateful that God... be faithful that God is a faithful provider to us. God is the most faithful provider we could argue. You know, God will never leave us. He will never forsake us. Hebrews 13.5. God will never drop us. For you cell phone fanatics. God will never drop us. God will never disconnect from us unless... this is important... God will never disconnect from us unless we disconnect from Him. And that's something we must never do.

We must be just as committed and loyal to God as God is committed and loyal to us.

So let's do our part through prayer and stay connected to God.