A New Beginning

Greg Laurie: Why don't we pray more often? Maybe we don't pray more because we think we don't have the time.

Dave: We're all pressed for time, right? Never can get it all done. But coming up today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie says that's no excuse for prayerlessness.

Greg Laurie: Let me ask you this, how much time do you spend on social media every day? So don't say you don't have time to pray. The fact is you will make time for what matters to you.

Dave: Imagine if the richest man in the world slipped you a piece of paper and said, "Here's my cell number. Call me if I can ever do something for you." And then you hear a sound. Oh, it was your jaw hitting the floor.

Imagine what an invitation. Today on A New Beginning, we'll see we have an invitation from God Himself to come to Him anytime in prayer. No cell phone required. Pastor Greg Laurie is offering insights to help encourage us straight from the truths in God's Word.

Greg Laurie: We're starting a brand new series and I'm simply calling it Refresh: Things we must not forget as Christians. And in this message, I want to talk to you about the refreshing power of prayer.

Am I talking to somebody right now who really doesn't know how to pray at all? When we are with our little children before they go to bed, sometimes we'll say, "Kids, say your prayers. Remember: Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take."

Is this a good prayer to teach to a child? Are you not saying to the child, "Now listen, you may die in your sleep tonight and I just pray that God takes your soul." Really?

So we'll say, "Remember to pray that prayer. Sleep tight and don't let the bedbugs bite." Oh, you're going to traumatize your child. We don't need to teach our kids prayers. We need to learn how to pray.

Do you remember the first time you ever prayed? It's kind of awkward. It's a little scary to pray out loud, especially in front of other people. But let me ask you this, do you remember the first time your prayer was answered? How wonderful that was.

In light of this, why don't we pray more often? Why do we put off prayer? Why do we avoid praying? Let me offer some observations about that. Maybe we don't pray more because we think we don't have the time. But is that really true? Let me ask you this, how much time do you spend on social media every day? The latest research says people in the US check their Facebook, Twitter, and other social media accounts 17 times per day. That's once every waking hour.

Teenagers spend nine hours every day consuming media. And you see people doing it constantly. They're walking across crosswalks with traffic on both sides looking at their phone, not even looking up.

They go to a restaurant where apparently we're there to have a nice meal and socialize, and a whole family will be looking at their phones the entire time. This is missing the whole point. We can waste so much time doing it.

Imagine if you prayed 17 times a day instead of checking your phone. Someone put it this way, and I quote, "One of the great uses of Twitter and Facebook will be to prove at the last day that prayerlessness was not from lack of time." End quote. How true is that?

Then you factor in all the time that we spend binge-watching television shows on Netflix or Amazon Prime or some other outlet. We can waste so much time. So don't say you don't have time to pray. The fact is you will make time for what matters to you.

Number two, maybe we don't pray because we don't think prayer is all that important. Now we would never admit that outright, but do we really think it's important? I'm telling you, it's very important. In the book of Joshua is the story of the Israelites leaving Egypt and going into this Promised Land flowing with milk and honey. And do you remember there was an obstacle in their path? It was the mighty city of Jericho, a huge fortress.

There was no way they could bring that down militarily. But the Lord said, "I'll give you that city." So they prayed and they called on God, and He gave them the battle plan, which I have to admit was pretty unorthodox.

They march around the cities, yell, and blow trumpets. But it worked and the walls of this fortress crashed and they took control. After that, there was another little city called Ai, much smaller than Jericho, not nearly as difficult to conquer.

They didn't pray about that. They just said, "Hey, we took down Jericho, Ai will be a piece of cake." And they went in and were soundly defeated because they didn't pray about it. We need to pray about everything.

The Bible says in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. It doesn't say in some things or only in the big scary things. It says in everything by prayer and supplication, we should pray.

Maybe another reason we don't pray more is because we don't think prayer really works. But we have to understand what the objective of prayer is. It's not like God is a genie and He'll grant whatever wish we have.

The objective of prayer is not to align God with my will, it's to align me with His will. Speaking of genies, I heard about a lady that was walking down the beach and she saw something embedded in the sand.

She reached down to pick it up and it was a lamp. And as she rubbed it, a genie appeared. This is a true story, of course. And the genie said, "Oh, master, I will grant to you one wish. Whatever you want, it will be yours."

"Oh wow, one wish," she said. She pulls out a map of the Middle East that she happened to be carrying with her and she said, "Genie, this is the Middle East and there's conflict in this part of the world all the time. My wish is for peace in the Middle East."

Then she said, "No, let me change that. I'm going to go big. If I only get one wish, I want worldwide peace, global peace. That's my wish, Genie. I want peace in the world." The genie said, "That's kind of a big one. I don't know if I can really do that. Do you have any other wishes?"

She said, "Well, I've always wanted to find one good man. A man that would love me, who would compliment me, who would not sit around on the couch and watch sports on TV, who would help me with the dishes and like the things that I like. Yes, that's it Genie, my wish is for one good man." The genie looks at her for a moment and says, "Get that map out again."

God's not like a genie. He's a Father in Heaven. And the objective of prayer is not to get God to do what I want Him to do, it's to align my will with God's will. Jesus said this in John 15, "If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you."

From the original Greek, it would come out something like this, Jesus speaking, "If you maintain a living communion with me and my word is at home in you, I command you to ask at once for yourself whatever your heart desires and it will be yours."

Now we immediately gravitate toward that latter part of the verse, whatever my heart desires. But don't forget the condition. Jesus says, "If you maintain a living communion with me and my word is at home in you."

Coming back to studying the Bible, if I'm studying scripture, memorizing scripture, understanding the message of the Bible, my desires are going to change and thus my prayers are going to change as well.

Dave: Good insight on prayer today from Pastor Greg Laurie here on A New Beginning, and he has more insight to come in his message called "The Refreshing Power of Prayer."

Prayer plays such an important part in our lives, in our times of crisis, in our times of loneliness or despair, in times of sorrow. But Pastor Greg, prayer is also the way we come to the Lord for His forgiveness, isn't it? Someone could pray for that reason right now, right?

Greg Laurie: That's right. The Bible says whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. So think of it this way, maybe you're out in a rip tide in the ocean and you can't get your footing and you're in trouble. And you see a lifeguard, call out for help and the lifeguard will rescue you.

The same is true spiritually. You're drowning in your sin, you need help. Jesus will save you, He will rescue you, but you must call out to Him. And you know how you do that? You do it in prayer.

So let me just lead you in a simple prayer and you can pray this prayer after me. You can pray it out loud if you'd like and this is where you are calling out to Jesus to save you. Just pray this: Lord Jesus, I know I'm a sinner and I know you are the Savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead.

Now Lord, I turn from my sin and I put my faith in you. Be my Savior, my Lord, be my God and my friend. I choose to follow you from this moment forward. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Hey, if you just prayed that prayer, I want you to know that Christ Himself has come to live inside of you.

And I have a resource I want to send you. It's called the New Believer's Bible. The New Believer's Bible is the New Testament in the New Living Translation with hundreds of notes that I wrote that will encourage you in this commitment you are making to follow Christ. There's some other materials included as well in what we call the New Believer's Growth Pack, but let me get this New Believer's Bible into your hands as quickly as possible. Here's Dave to tell you more.

Dave: Yeah, we'll be glad to send it all your way free of any charge if you prayed along with Pastor Greg today. Just ask for the New Believer's Bible when you call 1-800-821-3300. You can reach us anytime 24/7 at 1-800-821-3300 or go online to harvest.org and click "Know God."

You know, Pastor Greg, we hear from people all the time who tell us how these daily studies have impacted their lives. So many have found the Lord and been encouraged through this teaching.

Greg Laurie: That's right. And we hope our listeners might pray about making an investment so these studies can continue. It's really true, Dave. Even a little bit helps. People need to hear the gospel so badly, they need to hear the teaching of the Word of God. It changes everything because it changes us.

And I'm so passionate about it and I'm called to do it and I'm thankful for it, but I can't do it alone. So I'm going to ask folks that are listening if you think more people need to hear the gospel, if you believe more people need to hear the teaching of the Word of God, then prayerfully consider investing in Harvest Ministries and maybe even become a Harvest partner, which means you're someone who stands with us every month in your faithful giving and that opens up a lot of new opportunities for us. So thanks for that.

Dave: Yeah, that's right. And we really are thankful for your partnership. You can reach us anytime day or night at 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300 or just go online to harvest.org.

Next time, more insights from Pastor Greg's new series called Refresh. Practical pointers coming on making our prayer life more productive. Join us here on A New Beginning with Pastor and Bible teacher, Greg Laurie.