Introduction.

1. Listen to an extract from the Diary of Charles Wesley dated Thursday April 4^th 1745. ‘I rode to Coleford, a place of colliers, lately discovered; and preached in the church-yard, on a tomb-stone. The church would not have contained a quarter of the congregation. I pointed them to "the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world." The poor people followed me to Mr. Flower's, where we wrestled two or three hours in prayer, and would not let Him go, except He blessed us. What Charles Wesley recorded here about prayer was not unusual but very common among believers at that time. Have you ever been to a prayer meeting that lasted for two or three hours? Have you ever attended a prayer meeting that involved wrestling in prayer? Have you ever prayed with the commitment that you would not get up from your knees unless the Lord blessed you? John Wesley expected those whom he sent out to preach the Gospel to spend about four hours a day in prayer so that they would preach with the presence of God upon them.
   
   
2. Reflecting on the week that has past, how much time did you actually give to the Lord in prayer? How much time should you spend in prayer each day? You should spend enough time each day to ensure that your relationship with the Lord is growing in love and appreciation of his great grace towards you. Using John Bunyan's definition we understand prayer to be: ‘The loving pouring out of your heart to God in true sincerity and appropriate emotions through the merits of Christ, by the enabling of the Holy Spirit, seeking from the Father things that he has promised in his word for the good of the church and with joyous submission to the will of God.' Prayer is a vital aspect of your fellowship with God and therefore you need to give heart and soul into the work of prayer. Prayer is work as it requires time, effort, discipline and great commitment.
   
   
3. One of the most damaging things done by those who sought to modernise Christianity was the  stripping away of the sense of dignity, reverence and respect which once dominated the attitude of believers towards God. The God of modern Christianity is ‘user-friendly' and is counted as a friend or a good mate who is uncritical of sinners. The old fashioned term for prayer was to get down on your knees. Whether we take it literally or metaphorically does not change the concept of one who is unworthy and who begs blessings from a superior. When we get on our knees before God we demonstrate our submission to him; we who are unworthy come before him who is worthy and full of glory and honour. By making God user-friendly not only has reverence for God disappeared, but his blessings are taken for granted. When God in his sovereignty withholds blessings modern Christianity often demands that God explain himself. An analysis of modern prayers reveals that the two most frequent aspects in prayer are (i) What we want God to do or give us -the shopping list approach and (ii) Calling on God to explain his lack of action or unwelcome action that has caused us a problem - God exists to serve us approach. We need to fight against these modern day errors and recognise that God is God and that we are created beings made detestable by sin. God is our Lord, Master and King and we are servants or slaves at best. God is superior to us and we must always remember we are inferior. God is our Father and he gives us the right to call him Father, but even when we call him Father it is with a sense of dignity and awe. Calling God Father is a privilege and we must never take it for granted.
   
   
4. Having a servant's-heart is one of the prerequisites for a rich prayer life. We see this aspect in Jesus the suffering servant when he prays, ‘Not my will, but your will be done.' A servant is one who denies himself in order to do the will of his master. In the Lord's Prayer we ask, ‘Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.' You cannot seriously mean that request if you do not deny yourself in order to do the will of the Lord. Your attitude in prayer ought to be ‘Lord I am your servant what do you want me to do?' You are God's servant in every aspect of your life therefore all you do must be done God's way.
   
   
5. We find it very difficult to pray for an hour because prayer requires sustained self-denial. You deny self in being single minded in communing with God, in focussing your mind on him, in bringing your heart to embrace him who is your God, Lord, Prophet, Priest, King, Father, Creator and Saviour. In prayer we are to give God our undivided attention. Jesus who must be our first and foremost love must be given our total attention. When I pray I must deny myself everything in order to have fellowship with the Lord. The self denial that is needed is a great and demanding struggle.

1.  The reason self-denial is so difficult in prayer.

1. During the Second World War the sound of the air-raid siren sent men and women scurrying for safety in a shelter. The sound of the siren made finding bomb-shelter the first priority and the matter of greatest importance. I would suggest to you that the moment you decide to come to the Lord in prayer the Devil sets off the siren and all his forces are deployed in harassing you while you pray. Every remnant of sin that continues to abide in your heart responds to the siren by making your prayer time as difficult and unsatisfactory as possible. I am sure, even though the Bible does not tell us so, that Satan has given his forces the standing order to attack any and every believer who comes before the Lord in prayer. No matter what time you select to pray the forces of the Devil will seek to disrupt, disorganise and hi-jack your prayer time if possible. When you go to prayer many external distractions will harass you; the phone will ring, the post will arrive, the neighbour's dog will bark or the Jehovah's Witnesses will knock at the door. When you go to pray your memory will suddenly remind you of all the things you have put off doing and your feelings will tell you that the things you have put off are now urgent and you need to do them immediately. Do not be surprised if your memory suddenly puts all sorts of doubts in your mind, is the stove off, is the door locked, did your take your medication? In all probability you will find your mind seeking to run off in every direction except in prayer. You will not feel like praying, and your will, will not really want you to pray and your heart will protest against praying. On the night that Jesus was betrayed he told his disciples, ‘Pray that you may not enter into temptation' (Luke 20:40.) Rather than pray the disciples fell asleep. Jesus woke them up and said, ‘Why do you sleep? Rise and pray lest you enter into temptation' (Luke 20:46). Peter knew that Satan had desired to sift him as wheat, yet he was too tired to draw near to God in prayer.
   
   
2. Be sure and certain that the moment you take the decision to spend time in fellowship with the Lord - you enter into the frontline of the spiritual war that all God's children are fighting in. The battlefield of prayer has more casualties than any other sector of the fight. Paul in Ephesians 6:10-13 says, ‘Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.' When we go to prayer we should have the soldier's attitude and expect a fight, be prepared for the fight, and put on your God given armour. Failure to recognise that prayer time is time spent on the battlefield will more often than not leave you a casualty. Failure to go to prayer as a soldier goes to a battle will keep your prayer time superficial and unsatisfying. Any soldier who goes into battle knows that he has to deny himself and focus on accomplishing his mission. When we go to prayer our mission is to enjoy fellowship with God and that must be our focus no matter how much opposition we get externally or internally.
   
   
3. The reason self-denial is so difficult in prayer is simply because the activity of prayer alarms every remnant of sin in you and every demonic force near you. Sin makes prayer the most unnatural thing for any human being to do. Listen to Samuel Chadwick, ‘The one concern of the devil is to keep the saints from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, he mocks at our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray.' There is a faithful and diligent army at work to keep you from going on your knees before the Lord in prayer. Selfishness and self-centredness are focus points of sin and as prayer stirs these up self-denial is very difficult.

2. Concepts of prayer that do not make self denial vital are not biblical.

1. Oswald Chambers asks this important question, When you come to prayer, what concept is uppermost in your mind - your needs or omnipotence of Jesus? The way we answer this question will reveal how ready you are to go onto the battlefield of prayer. If your needs are upper most in your mind then the devil will look forward to a victory for it means that you regard what you want above the One to whom you come. If your motive in coming to prayer is needs based and not love based, it shows an inclination to use the Lord rather than fellowship with him. When your needs are uppermost in your mind self-denial is almost impossible. If your love for Christ is not your chief motivation in going to prayer then your relationship with the Lord is not in a healthy state.
   
   
2. Why did God in his wisdom give us this wonderful privilege of prayer? Remember that prayer is only possible if you come to the Father through the Son by the Spirit. Jesus made it very clear no man comes to the Father except through me. What is the purpose of having the privilege of prayer? Oswald Chambers says, ‘According to the New Testament, prayer is God's answer to our poverty, not a power we exercise to obtain our desired answers to our desired requests. Chambers challenges two errors in his answer:
   
   
   1. It is wrong to think of prayer as the means we use to get Almighty God, the King of Kings our Lord and Master to do things for us. This error asks God to deny himself and do what we want which is extreme arrogance and almost blasphemous.
       
   2. The second error he counters is the idea that prayer is a right which God cannot deny. Prayer is a blessed privilege which we ought to cherish. Our poverty lies in not understanding or perceiving the ways and wisdom of God. We have an example of this poverty in Matthew 16:21-23, ^‘From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, "Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!" But He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offence to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men." Even though it is clear that Peter rebuked the Lord in ignorance the Lord gives him an extremely stern rebuke for his folly. We need to remember that we are very impoverished when it comes to knowing God's unrevealed will and undisclosed purpose. Self-denial sets aside what I want and embraces what Jesus wants and that is the very essence of true prayer. As A W Pink says, ‘To ask in the name of Christ is to set aside our own will and bow to God's perfect will.'
      
      
3. Even our intercessory prayer also needs to be offered with a deep sense of self-denial. In prayer we seek the will of God not to contest it, but to submit to it. God's will always focus' firstly upon his glory, secondly our eternal good and thirdly on the witness of the church. We need to put a lot of thought into our intercessory prayer seeking to see things through the eyes of faith and not through the desires of our hearts. Our sense of self-importance has no place before the throne of God. When we intercede for others we represent them before the throne of grace and ask that the Almighty would bless them with his loving-kindness and goodness. Our intercessory prayers bring great blessings and benefits to others. As Thomas Boston says, ‘It is not that my prayers are important, that is not the point. God has so made it that by means of intercession certain types of blessings come upon men and women.' God is gracious, merciful and generous, but he expects us to ask him to bless others.
   
   
4. The other error often made in prayer is the idea that answers to prayer often depend upon the eloquence of the asking. Our Lord is not a man that he should be moved by eloquence of the human tongue. It has been said that ‘God looks not at the pomp of words and the variety of expression, but at the sincerity and devotion of the heart. The key opens the door, not because it is gilt but because it fits the lock.' The condition of your heart is more important than the eloquence of your tongue. Listen to Thomas Boston, ‘God hears no more than the heart speaks, and if the heart be dumb God will certainly be deaf.' John Bunyan says much the same thing when he says, ‘When thou prayest, rather be thy heart without words than thy words without heart.'  Your prayer life depends on the state of your heart and not upon the eloquence of your tongue. We need to work hard at making our tongues and hearts put God first. The tongue may be full of self-denial, but if self-denial is not the song of the heart then all the tongue utters is meaningless.

3. Self denial in prayer delights in giving God all the glory.

1. How do you measure a good manager? A manager in any sector of the economy is measured more by the way he handles his privileges than by the way does his duty. Offer a manager the right financial incentives and he will make sure that he does his duty well. The use of intimidation often compels a manager to make sure his work is done satisfactorily. If a manager uses his privileges for self-indulgence it reveals a poor character, however if a manager uses his privileges to motivate other employees and to provide better service it reveals great wisdom and understanding. God gave us the privilege of prayer to enhance our ability to glorify him, not to enhance the sin of self-promotion. From time to time we all need to examine our prayers and determine whether God's glory or self-promotion is at the heart of our prayers. What gives you more delight, men praising your success or God receiving all the glory?
   


2. King Asa was one of the few godly kings to rule over the Lord's people. In 2 Chronicles 14:11 we hear king Asa using the great privilege of prayer during a time of great need and danger. Listen to his prayer, "LORD, it is nothing for You to help, whether with many or with those who have no power; help us, O Lord our God, for we rest on You, and in Your name we go against this multitude. O Lord, You are our God; do not let man prevail against You!" Asa does not bring his schemes and strategies of war to the Lord, but simply calls upon the Lord to glorify himself. You and I need to make glorifying God our chief concern in life. The key to glorifying God in everything you think, do or say is to vigorously deny yourself. If denying yourself in order to glorify God has not become the habit of your life it will be absent from your prayers.

Conclusion.

Your prayer life is as vital to your spiritual life as your heart beat is to your physical life. How much time, effort and care do you give to keeping the heart beat of your prayer life strong? As a weak heart hampers your physical life, so an impoverished prayer life weakens your spiritual vitality. Take time this week to examine your prayer life and determine your spiritual health. May the Lord grant us the wisdom to give priority to prayer so that we may enjoy fellowship with him. Amen.