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 - 6 August 2015

Jesus Misplaced?

When you need Jesus, can you find Him? Often, despite learning more bible knowledge, we find ourselves a spiritual handicap when we're being put on the spot - when trials come, when inconveniences arise and things become not smooth-sailing, we lose the peace and joy we had a moment ago, as if Jesus has left us. The truths we heard seem to become irrelevant to the reality we're living in, and Jesus is no where to be found. However, Jesus is not found in any other place but in your heart, when your heart solely want to seek Him for who He is, not what you want Him to be and do in your circumstances. A lot of times, we cannot find Jesus because we fit Jesus into our humanistic ideals, only to find ourselves disappointed and frustrated toward God. Jesus is not our ideal but the ideal, perfect God, originally and principally the way He is. However, a lot of times, we cannot seem to reconcile His perfection in our imperfections, His spirituality into our earthly human roles, causing us great distress because we can only feel ourselves to be so distant from Him. God said, "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know." The spiritual distance we feel from God is to drive us into prayers. As we seek Him, willing to be taught by Him and hear His voice, Holy Spirit will work through the truths we know and drive us into deeper reliance on Him. God can soften our wilfulness in prayers, He can also restore a fighting heart against the forces of darkness within us.. Pray as we live, live as we pray. In the things we cannot completely understand right now because of our limitations, let's restore a humble heart before God first, profess that He is the true and living God, and let Him work through the truth stored in our hearts. Our faithful God will work through the Holy Spirit within us to shape us into His likeness, increasingly and progressively in His grace and love.

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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