0:00 [Music] Let's begin with the word of prayer. Our heavenly father, we praise and thank you for this time you have given us when we can gather together from different 0:17 places but we are with you Lord and you are close by and you can hear us, you can see us and we ask you to speak to us Lord. We don't want to come with any um idea that we know everything or we can 0:33 teach others but we come to you with so much need in our heart. Lord, we pray that you speak to each one of us and give us a grace to obey you and to be true and faithful to you in these last days. We ask this these things in Jesus 0:51 precious name. Amen. You know there are some things which I like about River of Life Christian Fellowship RLCF and I keep thinking of that whenever I'm away and I enjoy every moment when I'm there. One of the things many things but one of 1:10 the things is when we all meet together for prayer in that little room in that prayer room just before the service begins. And in many churches we just come we sit around and talk and get distracted. But 1:27 this way I find that we focus our attention on the Lord and we come to him and we ask him to speak to us. That's something that always blesses me and has been an encouragement to me. And another 1:44 thing which I love is when and including at the time of prayer and the other times when the children pray and their children recite their verses. I just look forward to that time and and if somebody is not clear or if the video is 2:02 not focused on them I feel really sad that I missed something. So, and last week's uh memory verse was so meaningful for me and I thought that's what I want to speak about. I'll read to you that verse where 2:21 children were saying in Colossians 4:2 that's the memory verse that we learned for that. Colossians 4:2 it says devote yourselves to prayer but in my Bible I read it like continue steadfastly in prayer being watchful in it with 2:39 thanksgiving continue steadfastly in prayer and I thought these children these little children they are such a blessing to me they speak to me and encourage me to continue not just don't give up praying just continue steadfastly in prayer 2:58 with thanksgiving. And Philippians 4:6 is another verse on the same line uh which I want to read. Philippians 4 6 and 7. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer, supplication with thanksgiving, 3:18 let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which passes all understanding will guard your hearts in uh guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. And another promise which comes to me in 3:34 the same uh line is in Isaiah 65:4 it says before they call I will answer while they yet speaking I will hear. All of us in especially in these last days we we've heard messages and we are 3:52 impressed with this thought that we need to pray more and and there are verses which says pray without ceasing continually pray continually continue in prayer so that I thought that's the thing which I want to 4:10 talk about you know when we send our children to school and they come back from school. Those of you who send your children to regular school when they come back there are two types of children. Some children don't want to 4:26 talk anything. They just they want to just come home and relax and are quiet. And another group of children they talk they talk and talk and they want to tell everything that happened in in school that day. The friends, the teachers, the 4:44 playtime. If and somebody was mean to them, all those things they like to talk. When I was going to college uh and I came back for the vacations, I saw how my parents were so eager to hear me talk about college life, about 5:01 my friends. Every little thing meant so much to them. And I would tell them and they would just listen and they'd laugh about it or they feel like com comforting me about something. And I thought I realized God is a father. He's 5:19 like that. He just wants to hear us talk. If we have given our lives to him and we belong to him and he's our loving father, he just wants to hear us talk to him and tell him every little thing which bothers us or which makes us 5:36 happy. Want to talk to him and he loves to hear us. He'll never say no. I have no time for you. I have other people to talk to. He's always there ready to hear our prayer. It's such a comfort when we think of that. And I thought when we get 5:53 to heaven we won't have anything to ask him for. Jesus said in that day you'll ask nothing because we'll have received everything that we ever wanted when we are with him. It's only on earth that we need to talk and talk to him and ask him 6:10 and spend more time in his presence individual. When I think when we in heaven we in heaven we'll all be in a group. He'll have time for us, but it'll be a different atmosphere. We'll be so full of his uh joy and we'll be so 6:27 satisfied that there's nothing to talk about. We'll just be worshiping him. So I was thinking uh when my children went to college that's the time I thought when they left home that's the time I realized I need to pray and I had 6:44 more time as all of there was a day when all four of them have left home and then I thought this is the time when I need to pray for them and remember them and uphold them in prayer. I thought of Moses mother. Her name is Joabet. 7:02 When Moses was a baby and she could keep him at at home for a few months after that it was risky to keep him home. She knew she had to do something to save him. So we know what she did. She put him in this basket and uh made it 7:21 waterproof and put it in the river. Let it float in the river Nile. And the river Nile is such a dangerous river full of crocodiles waiting to devour any baby which is thrown there. But she had faith and she sent her daughter to keep a 7:40 watch on the little baby in the basket. And we know what happened. How God protected that baby and took care of him and he was brought up in the palace. That used to speak to me. I said, "Lord, I put my my children like that across the oceans and I'm 8:00 sending them away to college. But I have faith, the same faith that that Moses mother had. I have faith that you will keep me. You'll keep them safe. You'll keep them from making uh wrong decisions. you protect them from people 8:19 who are jealous of them or who might harm them or mock them and they they're in a new culture but I have faith that you'll take care of them. Those were the days when the Lord taught me to pray to trust in him and you know when there 8:35 were days when even my husband had to travel and I was alone at home and I thought this is the time when I need to spend more time in prayer. I used to keep a a list of what I had to do, a to-do list, and I thought like some 8:52 cleaning up, some spring cleaning, some tidying up. But first and foremost, I thought I don't want to let lose this opportunity praying. I want to spend time with the Lord, come closer to him, get to know him. I'm not saying that to 9:07 boast that I have found a secret to pray about prayer. Some people ask me, "How many hours do you pray? How do you pray? I said, "No, I have no agenda like that. I just come to the Lord and I say, Lord, I want to talk to you and if something 9:24 I'm if there's something I'm feeling sad about, I want to tell you about it. Even if it's so trivial and so silly, I know that you have time to listen to me. And if there's something I'm worried about or I feel weak and not able to handle, I 9:40 can tell you and you can take care of me. If there's something I'm sick, if I'm sick, I can tell you first, Lord, what should I do about this and tell me if I should take some medicine for it or whether I should take care of it in some 9:57 other way like that I started asking the Lord more and more and that has been a real precious experience for me. That's why when I hear the children say continue in prayer, pray without ceasing, I feel so happy. I said, "Lord, 10:15 I am I'm not praying enough. I need I want to pray more. I want to talk to you more. I want to tell you everything that's happening in my life. I don't want to put it put prayer my prayer life to a corner. That's the like the last 10:28 thing I do or the thing when I'm bored, I'm going to sit down and pray. That's the most important thing for me. And that's how I want to share that thought. I want to have a hunger for the Lord more and more more than I have now to spend time with 10:47 him. I want to share um a precious experience I had um in this context. You know we were in a in a remote small town quite far away from Bangalore. We had gone for 11:06 some special meetings we call them conference and there must have been about four to 6,000 people in different levels of that building and somewhere outside sitting and that particular group of churches 11:24 they have a system of prayer. First they have a small message and then everybody anyone who wants to pray can worship the Lord. There's a time of worship and after that there's a breaking of bread and those who are ready can take part in the breaking of 11:42 bread. Can you imagine how much time it'll take for about 4 6,000 people? They had many many centers where they would pass the cup around and then there would be at last time for the exhortations. So during the time of worship 11:59 um it's a big hall and sometimes somebody at the back might be worshiing uh praying everybody is allowed like 2 minutes or 3 minutes not long prayers then just time to worship the lord so the people are praising the lord in this 12:16 corner and that corner and sometimes very faint and sometimes in language which I couldn't understand. So it was going on and and that I knew that that's going to happen. It'll take about an hour for this whole thing to be 12:30 over this time of worship. So in the earlier days I used to think ah this is the time for me to just relax and you know sit down and let my thoughts wander. Then I thought everybody is worshiping the lord. Let me take this opportunity to worship the 12:49 Lord and even if I don't understand I can say at least Lord I praise you I worship you a couple of words like that. So while that was going on and I felt the presence of the Lord very close to me because everybody was in a spirit of 13:06 prayer. I felt the presence of the Lord and and I felt like somebody it was like a thought not the audible voice but a thought came to me that one of my sons and his family had met with a serious road accident 13:26 that thought came to me then I thought maybe it's a dream I mean it's something which happened in the past or something it was back of it was in the back of my mind but since that thought came I said Lord Lord, thank you that my children 13:38 are safe. Thank you that you're taking care of them and everything is okay. I worship you and praise you. I praise the Lord for other things. And again came back that thank you Lord my children are safe. I commit them in your hands. Then 13:52 at the end of the whole u that whole set of meeting that whole morning meetings my husband came to me and he looked very grave and serious and he said you know I have to tell you some terrible news so he said well so and so one of our sons 14:12 has met with a serious car accident but they okay I said yeah I know about it he said how did you know about it cuz you didn't I didn't have my phone with me or there was no and it's a place where the coverage is very poor. He got it somehow 14:29 some distorted way he got it that this accident happened and that was night for them. There was no way to contact them or anything. But my my mind was full of peace. I said yeah the Lord told me I heard that they met with an accident and 14:45 they okay then I thought how good God is in the time of prayer when others are praying he poured out his peace into my heart and comfort into my heart while this uh accident had happened he had already spoken to me in such a soothing 15:04 and comforting way if my husband had told me about the accident and I I was not prepared for it. I would have panicked. I may have even collapsed and said, "I want to call him. I want to do this. I want to do that. How are they?" 15:19 And things like that. But I praise and thank God. That's how it is when we spend time with the Lord. It we can't describe it. is something some precious communion with the with our Lord and us and he whispers some things to us and he 15:37 lets us know his heart his will some secret communication between God and us and I still remember that I said Lord how good you are I'm a person who panics for every little thing even if I see a 15:54 cockroach in the house I'll be screaming but in this terrible time when I hear these news. You have given me peace that I'm not shaken. That proved to me that God is real and his comfort is real. There's power in prayer. I think all of us 16:14 looking back, we can think of so many instances when God has miraculously helped us. When I see your faces here, some of you I know you went through deep trials and God has brought you to this place. 16:31 Praise the Lord. We uh when we reach the Lord's presence, we can tell each other the miracles that the Lord has done, the answers to prayer, the wonderful way he has led us. There'll be endless stories to hear and to talk about. Praise and 16:48 thank God. Jesus said um in another context Jesus said my house shall be called a house of prayer. That was in a different way when he was chasing the money changers out. But that word always comes to me when I 17:06 said Lord you said about the temple is the house of prayer. Please make my heart a house of prayer. Let me have that desire to pray whenever I get the opportunity or whenever I think about it. Let me think more and more about you and take the 17:23 opportunity to pray. Prayer is not something that we have to chant or learn or use a special language. You know, I've heard people pray and they use words like magnificent, awesome. And I said, "Lord, you're not waiting to hear 17:41 my beautiful language. You just want to hear my broken, stammering words, and that brings pleasure to you. That's what I want to tell you. I find no words. Words are not enough to tell you how much you mean to me, father." Like that 17:58 the Lord wants us to pray and wants me to continue in prayer like that. And it's such a comfort that the Holy Spirit helps us to pray. In Romans 8, it says uh we don't know how to pray but the Holy Spirit helps us and comes and in 18:16 our infirmities he tells us and he groans with groanings which cannot be uttered. He groans with us. You know sometimes we think like that the things we face in life are so severe. They're so serious that we have no words to 18:32 express. Remember that in Exodus 2 when the children of Israel were were suffering as slaves and their sigh came out to God. God heard their groaning and their cry and 18:49 he decided to send Moses to deliver them. It's like that the Lord doesn't want to hear our not waiting to hear our language or words or anything. a thought, a sigh, a cry, whatever comes from our heart, the depth of our heart, 19:08 he understands. Sometimes we get we just pray in our mind. Often I pray in my mind only because there's no chance to to pray aloud and um I can pray but sometimes in the shower I can pray aloud but I prefer to pray in my mind because 19:25 I feel that that time even the devil can't hear what I'm praying and speaking to the Lord. So I pray and I tell the Lord how much you mean to me. Lord you mean so much to me. Just one sentence like that I pray and I feel such a 19:43 relief and comfort and enriched. Lord, you're so good to me. What what have I done to receive all these mercies in my life? Your goodness. You taken care of me. In the morning when I wake up, I see Lord, I'm still around on this earth. I 20:03 can move my limb limbs. I can speak. I can do my work. My mind is clear. How can I praise you enough for all that your goodness to me? Like that prayer becomes and um sometimes I use the Lord's prayer as 20:21 a skeleton like a framework. We all know the Lord's prayer. I'm not going to go into details but I use that as a way to pray. I say Lord our father my father Lord you're not just my father 20:40 you're the father of all these dear children of yours I belong we all belong to you and I say some words of thankfulness and speak to him thank you that you I can call you father and then worship hallowed be your name I worship 20:56 you lord your god almighty and your god in heaven you're sovereign you're in control in From heaven, you can control everything. You're like the CEO of the whole universe. You can control the whole universe more than any human being can. 21:14 And you can run my life and you can orchestrate everything for our good. You can take care and then your kingdom come. It means Lord, I want your kingdom to come soon on this earth. Not only that, Lord, I want you your kingdom to 21:31 be in my life. I want you to be the king of my life. I crown you as king. Like that. And then your will be done. That's like what the Lord says, take up the cross. Not my will, Lord, but your will be done. There I'm reminded, Lord, today 21:49 let me take up the cross and follow you. And then the request, Lord, give us this day our daily bread. Every day the Lord has given us food, more food than we can eat. But our individual needs, Lord, my sickness, can you take heal me? My 22:07 children's illness, can you heal me? My weakness, whatever my daily needs, I can say ask the Lord to help and then forgive our sins. Lord, I confess to you. All these things which I have done knowingly, unknowingly, I confess to 22:26 you. Forgive me. And Lord, I want to forgive everybody. Anybody who I have something against, I want to forgive. I come to that little later. Then Lord, don't let me get into temptation which is too much for me. I know that you'll 22:44 give me the grace, but help me not to go into places where I'll be tempted. Like if I'm tempted to turn off the TV or watch something which you don't want me to watch, please give me the strength to keep away from it. If I'm tempted to 22:58 think of some um uncristlike thought, unforgiving thought or bad things about other people, help me to get rid of that temptation. Help me to overcome. I'd like that. Help me to keep me away from 23:15 temptation and deliver me from evil. Lord, anything harm which I'm going on the road, accidents, my children when they drive, other sisters in the family in the church family who are sick, all of them I can pray for. And then 23:33 finally, Lord, yours is the kingdom, the power, all power belongs to you. All glory for whatever you ask, you've given me. I want you to take all the glory. So I use that sometimes as a pray frame framework. That's why sometimes when I'm 23:50 alone and I feel like I have some extra time before I begin doing other things. I mean essential things like breakfast and cleaning and all that. After that I try to use this as a framework and I say Lord teach me to pray just like you 24:07 taught the disciples. teach me pray from from my heart. And then we must remember that God always answers prayer. It's not like we are just speaking to somebody and nothing is going to happen. He says um George Müller says God answer. God 24:25 always answers prayer. Either he'll answer immediately or he'll delay or he might say no, but all there's always an answer. So we wait for him. Lord, I wait for your answer. This this verse I think I wrote um 24:45 let's see it says there um pray and wait for the answer. Don't forget to thank the Lord when you get the answer. So sometimes we wait we pray and we wait for the answer and when the answer comes 25:04 we forget to thank the Lord. Say Lord this you answered my prayer. You gave me more than what I deserved. We forget to give thanks to the Lord. So and there are these promises which we can hold on whatever you ask in prayer. 25:21 Matthew 7:7 believe and you will answer. You'll God will answer. And then Isaiah 65 verse4 it says before you call I will answer. And when we pray together is you know the words of Jesus in Matthew 18 19 and 25:39 20. He says if you agree together and pray I'm in your midst and I'll answer. These are the promises we can hold on to and and we can claim those promises. And I I thought of prayer in in two 25:59 categories. I mean just for easy to remember first when we pray for ourselves we pray for ourselves there are some things we can uh remember and keep in mind we it's in um Luke 18:1 it 26:16 says we should pray always don't lose heart don't be weary don't give up praying that's a command which the Lord says Lord just because I prayed about this yesterday. I'm not going to stop praying. I want to tell you again that I 26:33 need your grace and your strength for this matter for this child who's weak. Maybe weak in her his or her um maybe healthwise she's having or he's having health problems or she's not not able to understand the lessons which are taught 26:51 in school or she has some other other problem. I asked you about it yesterday, but Lord, I don't want to stop praying. I want you to answer and I bring this request into your on your table. Lord, please take care of it. You know, in in 27:10 Jerusalem, that wall uh they call it the praying wall. People who have some requests, they write it on a piece of paper and put it into that crack. We don't have to do that. We say, "Lord, I come straight to you. Here's my request. I keep it on 27:28 you, on your table, in your hands. You take care of it. And I am I'm satisfied that you're almighty and you will take care of it." And as I said, the Holy Spirit helps us when we pray. In James 1 verse 6, it says, "Ask in 27:46 faith." That's something we must ask. We must believe. Lord, I believe that you will answer. It's not an impossible thing for you. If it's your will, I'm asking according to your will, you will answer. 28:02 But in uh 1 John 5:15, there is this verse. This is the confidence we have before him that if we ask according to his will, he hears us. If we know he hears us, we know he will answer us. 28:21 1 John 5:15. That's the confidence and faith we have. Lord, whatever I've said is not going into the air. It's not going into space. It's coming straight to into your hands. This request and I believe that you will answer it. 28:40 Then um another thing when we pray we we can remind ourselves is not to give up praying. We we should persist in prayer even after the answer comes thank him but persist. You know about the story the parable which Jesus said about the 28:57 widow who kept on asking going to the unjust judge and said give me give me justice give me justice give me justice. kept on and not bothering the judge till she got what she asked for. And the Lord Jesus said pray like that. Persist in 29:15 prayer. Then uh don't have any unconfessed sin when we pray. If we regard iniquity in our heart, the Lord will not hear us. You know that verse Psalm 66:E18 if there's any unconfessed sin the Lord 29:35 going to say stop I don't want to hear you set this right go ask forgiveness or you forgive from your heart then only I'll hear so there should be no unconfessed sin and set right whenever possible 29:53 if there's any disharmony in the whole it says about um especially to the husbands but for us also sometimes we wives may be the cause of disharmony in the home or if we are a child the child may be the cause of disharmony in the 30:09 home and so that if that if there's a disharmony then the lord won't hear that's in 1 Peter 3:7 the lord won't hear a a man's prayer if he's um having a uh unsettled build a 30:27 quarrel in his home. So we as wives and mothers, we should make sure we should not be the cause of disharmony in the home because then our prayer will be hindered. It says it'll be hindered. And then another thing we can pray 30:45 especially when we are praying in public or in private we should not think Lord I'm better than somebody else. I'm not as bad as that other person. You know the parable of the publican and the sinner and the Pharisee who went to pray 31:01 in the temple. You know that um where the Lord said two people went to pray. One was the Pharisee and he said uh Lord I thank you. I'm like this. I lie fast. I do this. I do that. And the publican said Lord have mercy on me a sinner. And 31:20 his prayer was heard and answered. So when we ask the Lord for spend time with the Lord, we should be careful that we don't have that spirit of pride comparing ourselves that we are not as bad as other people 31:38 and we are a little better or we are uh more spiritual. So many thoughts can come to our mind. So we should put away all that and ask Lord give me a sense of my of need. Give me true humility in my heart so that I'll my prayer will be 31:57 heard by you and not pray for getting honor for others like people I remember when we were in college there were some girls who would like kneel down and pray in their room so that uh and then I thought everybody knows she's praying of 32:14 course it's a good idea I don't want to judge her but I thought if I do that people will think oh she's praying she's praying for so long. I want to pray in secret. Even if I'm in bed and my eyes are closed, let them not know I'm 32:30 praying, but I'm praying to you. So, a prayer, a secret prayer is what God is looking for. We know how Jesus when he was on earth, he went to often spent hours in prayer. He went to desolate 32:46 places. We read that in um Luke 5:16 and in many other places. Um Jesus spent hours in prayer and he's our example to go private to some private place where nobody sees us when we are in the bathroom when we are by ourselves. 33:05 Sometimes when we are traveling going somewhere and we are not driving it's a beautiful time precious time to pray and say Lord thank you. I don't want to look around and see what's happening outside. Yes, it's beautiful outside, but in my 33:20 heart, I want to spend time with you and thank you and you've been so good to me. I cannot thank you enough, Lord. Like that the Lord, he's not looking for long prayers. Just one sentence prayer from our heart, it makes us so happy and 33:37 makes the Lord so happy, I'm sure. Then and we should pray when we have any trouble or suffering in our life. We know that that nobody need to tell us. Think of Paul and Silas when they were 33:57 put in prison and that time they were all beaten and uh bleeding. Their backs were so and they could have been crying and complaining to each other. Look what they done to us. Look at this. And my bone is broken and this is that and my 34:15 face is all smashed up. No, they both sang praises to the Lord. They sang. I thought just they prayed and they sang praises to the Lord. That's an example. Lord, in my time of suffering, let me pray. Let me not complain. This is 34:34 happening. This terrible thing has happened and I shouldn't have done like that. I should have been more careful. I should have been careful when I not cut my finger when I was cutting the veggie or things like that. But say, Lord, I 34:47 thank you that it's not worse. I thank you that something good will come out of it. And then another person I think of was Jonah. He he was running away from God, backsliden, running away from God. You know what happened? Um there was a 35:05 storm and they threw him overboard and the fish swallowed him. And right in the belly of the fish, he must have thought, "I'm finished. This is the end of me." But there in the belly of the fish, he prayed to God and he confessed his sins 35:20 and confessed and confessed. And in the end, he thanked God. He said, "I thank you, Lord, that you're a merciful God." If you read the last chapter of Jonah, you can see as soon as he started thanking the Lord, the Lord God told the 35:35 fish, "Now you spit out Jonah, he's ready to come out." And God used him to. And that's how it is. Instead of complaining, we thank God and we pray in our time of suffering. Suffering will come to all of us in different degrees 35:52 through our um challenges in our home, through sickness, challenges in our children, whatever it is. Don't be surprised it's going to happen to all of us. Maybe it'll come more in our in this world and the Lord is preparing us. Are 36:09 you ready to give thanks? Are you ready to start praying about everything? Not complaining. Ask me for strength. I'll take care of this situation. So the Lord wants us to pray in the and then he says don't use meaningless 36:25 repetitions like uh the Pharisees and you know the Pharisees as I said earlier they kept on and on repeating things and he people do that they just keep on with their beads or whatever we don't want to judge them but the Lord is not waiting 36:40 for long meaningless repetitions we say Lord I have time but I want to spend time meaningfully pray with meaning And sometimes not just a prayer reading a song or singing a song can be a prayer like we sang you know we sang Fanny 36:58 Crosby song my eyes will see you one day just that is one of the songs we sang I'll see you with my eyes do you know that she was a blind lady she was somebody put wrong medicine in her wrong eye drops in her eye and she 37:16 became blind from her childhood And for her to make this song, Lord, my eyes will see you one day. What faith she had. And what comfort it is to us. Lord, I I have good eyesight. But a 37:33 blind lady could look forward to the time when she'll see you with her own eyes. How much I will be thrilled. I should be thrilled that I will see you with my eyes. like that reading some hymns of praise and worship or commitment all 37:53 those can be a prayer which we can pray even if we don't have word our own words we can use those as a prayer then when we that's one part of prayer then uh the lord doesn't want us to just think of our own selves me and my family and my 38:11 needs he wants us to pray for other things as Just like we said, he taught us your kingdom come. Lord, there are what's happening in your kingdom. Lord, there are so many people working in your kingdom. Think of all the 38:29 servants of God, the missionaries, those who are working in difficult places, in remote places, in villages who are standing true to the Lord. Just yesterday I read that persecution is intense in places like China, in 38:46 India, other uh rel where people of other religions persecute Christians. So we say Lord there is so many of your children suffering in prisons who are preaching the word of God. In India, I 39:04 read of many instances like in some village where there are other religions, the somebody comes to the pastor and says, "Please can you come and pray for my relative at home who's sick and the pastor goes and that's the last they hear of that 39:24 pastor. Somebody has finished him off on the weight and maybe they find his dead body corpse in some jungle area or on the side of the railway track. That's happened numeral numerous times. So the Lord says 39:42 don't just think of yourself, think of others who are suffering. There's a verse in Hebrews which says, "Pray for those who are in prison as if you are in prison with them." As if you are having the chains with them. Pray for those in 39:57 prison. Especially those who are imprisoned in for the Lord's sake. I'll find that verse in the end. Pray for those who are suffering. Pray for those who are preaching the gospel. And then the Lord, daughters, don't pray 40:13 for your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. What a wonderful thing people have. Did you hear that somebody said ill about you somewhere? Oh, she's doing like this. She's proud. She's a cult leader. She's in following a cult. 40:29 This that or about your children. Don't say Lord don't let me have any bitter thought about that person. I want to pray for that person because he said that you commanded me to pray and instead of prayer instead of hatred pour 40:48 your love in my heart and the lord will answer our prayer. We'll think like let him say what he wants or let her say but I don't hate her. I'm not going to harbor any uh hatred. That's how the lord gives us Christ his nature. The 41:05 Holy Spirit transforms us when we get close to him. He'll give us his virtues. Virtues of Christ. Longsuffering, patience, goodness, love, joy, peace, all the fruit of the spirit he'll start giving us. And that all comes when 41:22 people harm us. If everybody's nice to us, it's easy to love them. It's easy to not have we don't have anything to forgive. It's only when people are mean to us or trouble us, that's when the Lord works in our hearts and gives us 41:39 ability and strength by the power of the Holy Spirit to love them, to forgive them, to be patient with them, not to be annoyed with them. So uh and uh pray for enemies. Pray for those who hurt us. Pray for those who 41:56 are serving the Lord. Pray in James 5:16 it says pray for one another. Pray for all the sisters in the church. Lord, especially when I see all these people who are in our church. So and so is having a difficult child. So and so is 42:13 struggling financially. So and so husband has lost his job. so and so is having some other problem and all those things come to my mind and our mind if we are open to it and the Lord says pray for him pray for her this is the time 42:28 when you can and there's an endless list of people whom we can pray for if somebody has said that shared some need to us and they say this this is what I'm facing at home immediately in your mind say Lord pray for that dear sister help 42:43 her in this what she has shared with me take care of that you don't have to pray at night, wait for everything to be over. Then and there we can say a short prayer in our mind for that person. So pray for all that and uh that's called 43:00 intercession. So sometimes when you're awake at night and uh for some time and we think like oh I can't get sleep you know especially as we grow older we awake for longer periods of night then I think Lord you work allowed me to wake 43:18 up at this time let me not sit and dream about other things or waste my time thinking of wrong things this is the time I want to pray and the lord will bring to our mind pray for so and So pray for so and so in the elders in our 43:34 churches. There are different churches in India, the different churches in other places, those who are translating, those who are putting this word for the week every day. the team of people who are working, those who are doing the 43:48 audios, those who are doing translation, whatever, whoever is doing, if we know about them, I know there are many brothers in Bangalore and sisters who are working hard to putting all these um daily devotions. This just the uh 10 minutes, 15 minutes 44:06 daily devotion, there's a team working at it. pray for them and pray that the Lord will keep them and their family safe like that. The Lord will bring so many people to our mind. We can pray and remember that he'll give us more than 44:23 what we ask or even imagine. If you ask Lord please give me a teaspoon of this. The Lord will say why are you asking for a teaspoon? I'll give you a barrel full of it. Here's your blessing. I'll press it and give it to you. Just be sure to 44:39 share with others. Share with others. Don't be stingy. Uh by grace I give you, you help others. Use it to help others. So that's uh those are some of the things. And then there are some promises which the Lord uh gives here. It says in James 5 verse 6, it 45:03 says the fervent prayer of a righteous man has great power as it is working. That means if we are righteous and we fervent pray fervently, God will take into take into account and he will answer 45:24 that prayer. So make sure that we are righteous and make sure that we are fervent then uh we are fervent in our prayer. Then another verse which often speaks to me is uh pray for uh if you see a brother who has fallen 45:41 in in any sin that's in 1 John 5:16. If you think of someone who has backsliden or gone away from the Lord, maybe someone in our family or someone in the church who's left als 16. I keep that in mind when I think oh 46:15 so and so is not coming for the meetings regularly say Lord let me there's some reason why he or she is not coming please have mercy on them help them to come back or if they are not praying or they are going through some backsliding 46:31 in their life it's our privilege and our duty to pray for them sometimes it may be a very close loved one maybe a brother or sister or even uncon converted husband, anyone, parent, anybody whom we know is not the time to 46:50 hate them is the time for us to pray for them. Then another verse which often comes to me is in Isaiah 62 6 and 7. Let me read that verse to you. Let me not rest or give God rest. 47:12 You who put the Lord in remembrance take no rest. Give God no rest until he establishes Jerusalem. Jerusalem or I can say in my case establishes my home and make it appraised in the world. 47:31 till he establishes my home, my my children and till I hear see the answer to that prayer. I'm not going to rest. I'm not going to give God any rest till I see the answer to that prayer. 47:50 So we can pray with thirst in our heart. We can pray with thirst for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We can't pray by ourselves. It's like a heathen person trying to count his beads and pray. Prayer is not like that. Only the Lord 48:09 can teach us to pray and the Holy Spirit should is the one who can help us with groanings that cannot be uttered. That's why he said Jesus said only one sin will not be forgiven if we speak against the Holy Spirit because we need the Holy 48:25 Spirit every day and don't despise the power of the Holy Spirit. If we uh don't think like oh this is Pentecostal stuff. No Lord I don't want the Pentecostal stuff but I want the Holy Spirit in my life, Holy Spirit's power in my life. 48:41 the real thing whatever it is the real thing Lord the real person I want in my life the Lord said he'll be with you he'll be your helper when I'm going away the Holy Spirit will be with you he'll guide you in all tr truth he'll teach 48:59 everything about me you don't need to ask anyone the Holy Spirit will teach you he'll reveal scripture to you so don't have any negative feeling attitude about the Holy Spirit and say Lord fill me with the Holy Spirit and don't 49:14 look for some outward sign like oh I must be like this if I get filled with the spirit I should speak in tonesues I should do this Paul says do all speak in tonesues no all don't have to have but the lord will give us the assurance I 49:28 filled you with the holy spirit because when the holy spirit comes you will have power the lord said in acts one you'll have power to be my witnesses you'll have power to overcome sin you'll have power to be my witness. People who look 49:43 at you will say yes she belongs to Christ and that only the Holy Spirit can make us. So let's be open and open our hearts to the Holy Spirit and say Lord fill me with your spirit every day just because I had asked you yesterday that's 50:01 not enough. Today I need your Holy Spirit's power to take up the cross, to deny myself, to be a good wife, to be a good daughter, to be a good mother. I need your power, Holy Spirit. Like that we can ask. So our prayer life can be 50:18 such a grand and awesome and enrich life for us. And the Lord wants us to spend more and more time for this. I have to thank the RLCF children who said that verse continue in prayer and uh what's that verse they used? 50:43 Um devote yourselves to prayer. That's the verse they used. Devote yourself to prayer. The children said, "I praise and thank God for every child who's our teacher. Even little Elijah in the church blesses me so much. Praise and 51:03 thank God for our children who are our teachers. May the Lord name be glorified and may he teach us to pray pray with meaning and bring us closer to himself." Uh time is up. We'll close in prayer. Our heavenly father, we praise and thank 51:22 you for all that you are to us. All that you mean to us. You're so near us. Lord, we don't have to go any distance. Where wherever we are, you're there with us. You said if two or three are gathered in my name, I'm in your midst. And so, 51:40 Lord, you're in our midst and you never leave us alone. Teach us to pray. Lord, help us to see answers to our prayer and to have faith that you hear us and you will answer and you want to give us more than what we have ever asked or imagined 51:58 or thought. Please help us Lord. We have so much need in our life but the greatest need we have is to be like you Lord Jesus and to be ready for your coming. And so we come to you. All our earthly needs, you can take care 52:15 of our children, our families, everything. Lord, we even before we speak, you know it. You said before they call, I will answer. So we trust in you. We surrender our lives to you, Lord Jesus. In Jesus precious name. Amen. 52:34 [Music]
