Okay, we talked about Bible reading, let's talk about prayer.
Go to Daniel chapter 6, Daniel chapter 6, and as you're turning there, 1 Samuel 12.23
says this, Moreover, as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing
to pray for you, but I will teach you the good and the right way.
You know, the Bible teaches that it is a sin not to pray.
First of all, the Bible commands us, pray without ceasing.
Here he says, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you.
And so we see over and over again God commanding us to pray.
God telling us that men are not always to pray and not to faint.
And over and over again the Bible tells us to pray.
But do we pray?
Do we spend time praying?
Do we pray on a daily basis?
Do we pray more than just a few words?
Do we actually spend time talking to God and praying?
Or do we pray like the Pharisee where we just pray thus with ourselves?
You know, where we basically just, you know, sit down at the table, oh, dear Jesus, thank
you for the food, amen.
You know, we're not even talking to God.
We're not even thinking about God.
We're not even really thankful in our heart.
We're just going through the motions.
Okay, how are we going to effectively change this in our lives if we look at ourselves
and say, you know what, the Bible keeps talking about prayer.
The Bible's telling me it's a sin to cease from praying.
The Bible's commanding me to pray without ceasing.
This is something that I need to change.
I'm looking in the mirror of God's Word saying, hey, I need to pray.
I need to start praying every day.
I need to make a change here.
I need to follow Jesus' example, the apostle's example, of being someone who prays.
How are you going to make that change?
Well, you know, one thing you could do is to have a specific time that you set aside
to pray, okay?
And maybe that's on your walk to work, or your drive to work, or maybe that's first
thing in the morning, or maybe that's right before you go to bed at night, or maybe that's
on your lunch break, whatever.
But look what the Bible says in Daniel chapter 6 verse 10.
It says, now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house and his
windows being opened in his chamber toward Jerusalem.
He kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God,
as he did a four time, showing that this was a habit that Daniel had in his life of three
times a day praying, getting on his knees.
And you say, well, when I pray I get distracted.
You know, sometimes I'll start praying and then I become distracted.
Well here's how you pray without getting distracted.
You get on your knees, or you get on your face.
Then it's a lot harder to be distracted.
Here's another way not to get distracted.
Pray out loud.
Open your mouth and pray.
Because you know, sometimes, and obviously we know that when we pray within our heart,
God hears us.
We just saw this morning that Jesus was talking to that Pharisee and everything that Pharisee
said within himself, Jesus answered him and knew what he was saying.
So yes, when we pray within ourselves as Nehemiah, as he stood before the king, when
Nehemiah prayed in his heart and God heard him and answered his prayer, he didn't open
his mouth and speak any audible words.
We know God hears us, but let me tell you something.
If you struggle with being distracted while you pray, then pray out loud.
Pray out loud.
Get on your knees and pray.
Yeah, you can pray behind the wheel of a car, you can pray walking, but you know what?
If it helps to pray on your knees, to get on your face, to bow down yourself before
the Lord, then you know what?
That's something you could do to say, you know what, my prayer is not what it should
be, I'm going to start getting on my knees when I pray.
My prayer is not what it should be, I'm going to pray out loud.
I'm going to set aside a prayer time.
I'm going to have a place where I go to pray because the Bible says, but thou when thy
prayers enter into thy closet and when thou has shut thy door, pray to thy father in secret.
So the Bible there is teaching having a private place to go and do prayer.
Why?
Because if you have a time and a place and a habit and it's three times a day, it's going
to happen.
And you know the great thing about praying three times a day is that when you miss one,
you haven't just not prayed at all.
You know, if you have a few, you know, the threefold cord, as the proverb says, is not
quickly broken.
The threefold cord of morning, noon, and night prayer, you know, we're all going to
make mistakes.
We're all going to mess up and miss prayer time.
But you know what, if we have three prayer times, it's probably going to get done.
It's probably going to happen.