Prayers: Don’t Trust The Heart, Yet You Need The Heart

04 Nov Prayers: Don’t Trust The Heart, Yet You Need The Heart

Posted at 11:22h in English Service by

Preacher Huijun - 23 July 2015

Be Wise, Choose Christ

All English Service

Mt 2:1-23 In our christian faith, do we often find ourselves sitting on the fence? While we do not reject Christ, do we truly accept Him? Do we truly seek Him for who He is instead of how we want Him to be? Do we truly yearn to have fellowship with Him in our spirit, and delight in knowing His heart for us today? If we’re to introspect our hearts today, we will often realise that our relationship with God is often contaminated by hypocrisy and selfish motives - sometimes, we subconsciously come to God for certain personal gains, not genuinely convinced that God has already prepared the best for His children, all He really want is our inner joy in Him first. There’re also many moments in our lives when we’re just contended with our outward worshipping of God (going to many church meetings, serving fervently out of our self-will) that our hearts start to turn numb towards the truth of God. We have grown to know the truth of God on the outside, without connecting it with our hearts and let it becomes the substance of our thinking, speech and living. We sometimes run into the danger of thinking the truth is not something we can do at this point of time, and want to test the threshold and wait a little more before we want to submit to God, and be led by Him. Familiarity breeds contempt. As time goes by, the indifferent spirit deepens and takes roots, giving the devil increasing foothold to work in our hearts to doubt the love of God, to belittle the promise of God, to give up on the fellowship with God and His people. Through the message shared today, may the truth once again shines upon our hearts and expose the indifferent spirit within us. When God exposes us this hidden channel of Satan’s work, it’s because He wants to protect us from turning to a King-Herod-like man who rejected Christ and became the slave to sin. He’s always working in our lives to carry His perfect will to completion, and He delights in us being in partnership with Him and enjoy the glory together with Him. Choose life by choosing to fight the indifferent spirit in our life, so that we can grow in genuine fellowship with God. When our strength seems to be running out in the fight, God being God He is, will add on strength and grace to continue fighting, for He is always on our side.

Related Topics: Knowing Jesus | More Messages from Preacher Huijun

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Prayers: Don’t Trust The Heart, Yet You Need The Heart


We no doubt know the importance of prayer. Yet in reality, prayer could be the hardest thing to do in our Christian life. And the reason is probably because our hearts doesn’t seem to draw close to God in prayer. We felt more like engaging in a ritual than prayer often times. So the problem at heart is THE HEART. How do we overcome the problem of the heart then?

 Verses to read:
<Jeremiah 17:9> <Mark 7:20-21><James 4:7-10><James 4:1-2,4>

Introduction:

“Pray in the spirit with all kinds of prayers in all occasion” <Eph 6:18>.

  • Yet, prayer is by far one of the most difficult spiritual exercise in most Christian lives. Few enjoyed prayer becoz they could not draw near to God.
  • In prayer, our heart lies at the center of the problem.
  • Should we trust our heart? Yet without the heart, how to pray?
  • The Lord is near to the broken-hearted, and HE saves the contrite in spirit <Ps 34:18>.

1. The Gospel reveals the nature of the Heart.

1) Its deceitful above all else <Jer 17:9>.

  • It creates its own truth, even about God.
  • People who believes in the wrong gospel are NOT praying, even though they are.
  • What is the fundamental gospel truths?
    – SIN (against God)
    – Salvation (through Faith in Christ alone)
    – To live in pursuit of God and the Kingdom

2) So there must first be a renewal of the heart

  • heart of stone to a heart of flesh <Eze 36:26>.

3) Yet, the heart is always prone to spiritual attacks.

  • Prone to the enemies lies (temptations, accusations, worries of life, feel abandoned by God, etc)

2. How to draw near to God, despite spiritual attacks?

1) Know our spiritual enemy – The Devil

  • He works through:
    (1) Our sinful desires
    (2) The World
    (3) Haughtiness, proudness

2) Yet God showed us MORE GRACE! <v6>

  • My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. <1 John 2:1>
  • If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. <1 John 1:9>

3) Act of True Confession <v8>

  • (1) Wash your hands, you sinners
  • (2) Purify your hearts, you double-minded

4) Grieve, mourn and wail… <v9>

5) Humble yourself before the Lord and he will lift you up. <v10>

Reflection:

1) What is the greatest obstacle in your prayer life?

2) How do you usually deal with a “no heart to pray” situation?

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Pastor Vincent Choo
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Vincent serves as the President of The Blessed Run Church. He is also the Senior Pastor of The Life Church and Missions (Singapore) and is an ardent missionary to the Chinese World. He currently lives in Singapore with his wife, Qiufen, and has three kids, Mary, David, and Caleb.

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