Sermon Notes: Obstacles in Praying Part II
Fire up your prayer’s life series (IV)

This is a sermon note translated from my church’s Sunday sermon about Prayer life some time ago. This is the fourth series of the “Fire up your prayer’s life”.

OBSTACLES IN PRAYING (part II):

(1) NO PERSISTENCE

Read Luke 11:5-9
Motivation: Luke 11:13.
God wants to teach us to keep praying continually and depends solely upon Him. It’s wrong if you pray continually because you want God to “give up” and just give you what you want! The point is that He knows what’s best for us, but we have to keep on knocking at His door and seeking Him.

Persistence: continuous, determined.

Luke 22:44 - And being in an agony He prayed more earnestly. And His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground (NKJV).
“”..more earnestly”" is to extend (make longer, lengthen)
Jesus was praying in Gethsemane for hours (note: “midnight” until “dawn”, when the soliders came)

Hebrews 5:7 - “”For Jesus , in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong cryings and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared..”"

Acts 1:10-14, Acts:12:5, James 5:17-18 (1King 18 - notice how Elijah prayed)

Persistence in Prayer means committed to pray and wait for His perfect timing. And waiting is not easy!

In Hebrews:
a) Dumyah (Psalms 62:2)
b) Chakah  (Psalms 33:20)
c) Qayah (Isaiah 40:31)

How long should we pray?
(a) Until you know it is not God’s Will (example: David prayed until his son died)
(b) Until God answers your prayer
(c) Until God releases you (when we have a huge burden, that means until God takes out that burden from us). Example: Nehemia.

(2) UNREPENTED HEART

Psalms 66:18, Isaiah 59:1-3.

Sinning is a choice that we do in our life to fight the standard morality of God.

In Psalms 66:18, RA’AH, to enjoy, to approve, to have experience, respect.
There is no way you can live continually in sin and respect God at the same time!

Symptoms of unrepented heart:
- Keep sinning
- Ignore God’s convicting Spirit about the sin
- Turns into a hard heart
- Is more interested in learning how to manage sin effectively than learning how to overcome sin or bad habits victorously
- Have a tendency to be self righteous & blame people