"Sweet hour of prayer!" I felt like a hypocrite every time I hummed that song. Prayer time was never "sweet" to me nor "an hour." To read the Bible was exciting indeed. I could read for hours together. But my struggle was with prayer. Can I become a prayer warrior? Why was I so discouraged in my personal prayer life? - were questions that racked me for years. My salvation experience ignited in me a deep desire to pray. But as days rolled by I slipped into a decadence. Prayer seemed vague and I felt I was speaking into the air. My mind wandered. I slumbered on my knees and slumped on my face. Pressing duties called for attention. Finally I came to the conclusion that it was not for me. Prayer was a gift for a chosen few, I better did something useful than waste precious moments on knees. As for people like me it was enough to murmur the routine prayer morning and night. I did not yet understand that I was not wrestling against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers.
Friend, is this your story too? Don't get discouraged. You CAN become a prayer warrior. Satan obscures from your eyes the prosperous citadel of prayer and keeps whispering in your ears all lies. If Satan has told you that prayer is a ministry of a chosen few, If he has told you that you cannot just get through to real intercession, if he has told you, you are talking to the wall, if he has told you to do something better, then tell him he is a liar and the father of all lies.
The Spirit of the Lord was striving with me, never to let me go. It was a long path of struggle, of trials and errors, of failures and frustrations but all the while going forward inch by inch.
My greatest enemy was sleep. The two things I prayed for most in my life were (1) to overcome sleep and (2) to overcome gluttony. I cannot say that I have mastered them today, but I know for sure that they cannot master me. In the beginning my standard
prayer was, "Oh Lord, help me to pray. Let me not sleep off. Please dear Lord, Let me not, help me to overcome sleep. Oh Lord, I should not sleep ...p...z...z...z!" I would wake up after half an hour, eyes blood-shot, arms and knees numb. This went on till I could take it no more.
I was able to keep awake for my studies. Then if I was unable to be alert in prayer it must be the trick of the devil. When I started to rebuke the spirit of slumber my continuous yawnings in prayer suddenly disappeared. I could visualise the giggling imps around me cringe and creep away on being discovered.
One verse particularly was encouraging me never to give up. "Train yourself to be godly" (1 Tim 4:7). Physical exercise does not transform one into a strong man overnight. It is a slow but steady process. So must we exercise ourselves spiritually. I decided to use my fresh hours for prayer. I no more fell on my face but knelt straight as much as I could. I washed my face and treated myself with a hot coffee and started with a song.
We must recognise two kinds of sleep. One is a sleep due to exhaustion and tiredness. The other is due to laziness. If you are tired and exhausted, please sleep off. On the other hand, if after a good night's rest you still feel sleepy, fight against it. Do not succumb to it.
Don't bang the alarm clock when it dutifully wakes you up. Jump out of bed. The alarm clock was only a school-master to discipline me. Now the Lord wakes me up, day by day, in the small hours of the morning. I pray for an hour or two, alert and unhindered, then sleep off. "Do not love sleep" (Prov 20:13). It is number one enemy to prayer life. Fight against it. People at the heights of glory have slept and crash-landed like Eutychus. Beware!
The next big problem was wandering thoughts. It was like straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel. Now wide awake, I went on a merry- go-round on my knees. I would pray for half an hour but just for a point or two, and that in short sentences when I came back to the planet earth intermittently! Certain things helped me very much to overcome this. One was a simple suggestion from the book: Prayer That Moves Mountains, by Gordon Lindsay, to pray aloud. It helped me to keep my mind on what I was praying about and avoid using vain words. Suddenly I would remember something very important to do. I would be gripped with an anxiety of forgetting it. So I always kept a paper and pencil by my side to note them down.
It is good to develop a habit of noting down the prayer points before you begin to pray. Better to pray for a few points specifically than be beating about the bush for half an hour. Do not worship the Lord vaguely. Your mind will fly off. Open the first page of your Bible and worship God as the Creator, Trinitarian God and the Prince of Life. Next day, turn to the second page and worship Him as the Blesser, Giver, Communicator, One who finds out sin, punishes but forgives. In the next page He is the Seed of the Woman, He who crushes the head of Satan, He who respects man and his offering, He who cannot tolerate sin but gives grace to the sinner, and He who walks with man. This way turn a leaf daily and worship Him in a new way everyday. See how much it revolutionises your worship. Also write one name of your relative, friend, neighbour or enemy on the top of each page and pray for that person that day. Do not go to pray without the Bible by your side. The Lord may remind you of a promise or a commandment. Feel free to refer to them and then pray. It will serve as a kick.
It was when I started to pray aloud that I started to seek for a separate room for prayer. Now the Lord has blessed us with a "Gethesemane" where we can go and shut ourselves up. The Lord fulfills the desires of our heart,. Every home should have a prayer room or if that is not possible atleast a prayer corner. Let those in the household know they cannot disturb you if you are there.
Certain rigid decisions helped me discipline my prayer life. Paul was his own master to control his body (1 Cor 9:27) I decided to shirk off my slackness and kneel down when the clock struck my prayer time. A decision to pray half an hour in the afternoon revolutionised my life. How can I spare another hour was my fear. But today I find I do more work than I did two years ago. Praise God! Give God and He will give you, shaken, pressed down and in full measure. Fix prayer times thrice a day and stick to it.
Just to encourage myself I started jotting down in my diary the times I prayed in the morning, afternoon and night. If I did not pray I didn't get a tick. In the beginning it wavered; but by the end of the year the number of ticks grew steady. There was always a slump after a tour. But I would get it restarted overcoming the temptation to discontinue.
But what to pray for half an hour? I would have prayed for what seemed a half hour but the clock would have ticked past just ten minutes. So I started collecting points for prayer. It brought me into an arena of prayer. Many things came into focus which I never prayed for but just kept crying over. One day it suddenly struck me that I never prayed over the prayer circular of our own ministry. As I prayed for each point I ticked it off to keep track. Now I was able to rejoice in my spirit as letters came announcing the answers. They were no more "mere" letters but answers to my prayer. I was able to feel the pulsating thrill of prayer life. I happened one day to listen to George Verwer's cassette where he mentioned he prayed for more than 25 prayer circulars. I was astounded! Why not try? I started writing to ministries asking for their prayer circulars — FMPB, IEM, OM, EHC, etc. It was like moving into another world. I was falling in love with prayer, head over heels! It was interesting mathematics to align one month's prayer points to the next month's praise points. Oh, to think of receiving a reward in eternity for serving in all these ministries as a secret agent! Beloved, do not narrow down your ministry. Enlarge the place of your tent. Stretch forth the curtains; spare not, lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes.
Do you wonder if God will answer short prayers? I used to wonder too. You travel through a prayer circular - "Lord save Ayyavu, please heal Muthu's eyes, yes Lord, touch Mari, O Lord..." and on and on—praying for points the details of which you do not know. I believe the Lord is delighted to hear such prayers. For He said, "When you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him" (Mt 6:7,8). When I travel I pray for the villages I pass through and those who travel with me. "Lord, send some Christian to this village. Father, please save the old lady in the front seat. She may die soon..." Next to testifying this is the best we can do for the unfortunate. Learn the habit of talking to the Father continously. Pray (or talk to Him) without ceasing.
Will small prayers be of any use? How often the devil lies to us that we cannot pray in 5 minutes. As a trial just say 'Praise The Lord' slowly, meaningfully, for 5 minutes and count it. You will be surprised at the count. Mine was 500! untilise even brief moments available for short prayers.
It is good to maintain a prayer diary. When people request prayer I used to assure them, and in my mind then and there transfer it to the Lord dutifully to avoid guilt. So also for letters. But now I have a prayer diary handy to note down requests and take it to the Lord in intercession. It is not just a passing word of prayer but labouring in prayer. The most wonderful thing is that now people thank me for the prayers. Who told them I never prayed before and who told them I pray now? The Lord who sees in secret answers openly! It is like an interesting game, telling the Lord and receiving answers. Now I have learnt to take even seemingly silly things in prayer. Do you often drop things and break them? Have you corrected your husband for biting his nail for over 10 years to no avail? Do you have difficulty remembering faces? List out some such small things and try prayer.
There is an exasperating experience in prayer. You keep sincerely praying for a particular request. Let us say a disease or a compaign. The doctor treats the patient and he becomes well, or the preacher speaks wonderfully and the campaign is a success. But nobody bothers to thank you. The doctor and the preacher seem to get all the credit. Beloved, don't be anxious about your reward here on earth. Your credit is in the Lord's book of rememberance (Mt 6:5,6). Answers to prayer may come in the most natural way; but eternity alone will declare what miracle your prayer wrought.
Do not worry if you are not able to shed tears in prayer as some. Pray for tears and continue in your prayers and the Lord will bless you with that experience too.
Then the Lord burdened me to pray for the Nations. I have fixed a world map in our prayer room. It is good to follow a prayer programme to pray for all the countries in a year (such cards are available). Or keep an atlas and pray. Operation World by P.J. Johnstone is an excellent guide.
When I decided to try fasting, the results were disastrous. I would fix a fasting day, finish all work and lie down for a short rest only to wake up in the evening! Or feel awfully giddy (even before missing one meal) and when I knelt down, sweets and delicious dishes would dance before my eyes. Then I would plead the Lord and explain to Him the logic that it is better to eat and pray than fast and sleep. I would beg the Lord to forgive me and break the fast. This also is a trick of the devil. Learn to discipline yourself in fasting too. Fasting and sleeping is not sin. It is the first step. Now go on to fasting and praying!
To learn secular things we study and struggle and sweat. But when it comes to spiritual things we expect God to transform us in the twinkle of the eye. Dear one, trust in the grace of God but exercise yourself to godliness. Don't let your children or new believers struggle through prayer for years by trial and error. Teach them how to pray. May the good Lord pour out upon you the Spirit of grace and of supplications that you may pray and raise up prayer warriors!
Dr. Lilian Stanley
13 Church Colony
Vellore 632006, India
+91 9843511943
lilianstanley@gmail.com
Blessing Youth Mission
13 Church Colony
Vellore 632006, India
+91-416-2242943, +91-416-2248943
hq@bymonline.org
www.bymonline.org
Click here for more options
To buy books written by Dr. Lilian Stanley, kindly reach to us in the follwing address
Blessing Literature Centre
21/11 West Coovam River Road,
Chintadripet,
Chennai 600 002, India.
+91-44-28450411, 8806270699
blc@bymonline.org
"Sweet hour of prayer!" I felt like a hypocrite every time I hummed that song. Prayer time was never "sweet" to me nor "an hour." To read the Bible was exciting indeed. I could read for hours together. But my struggle was with prayer. Can I become a prayer warrior? Why was I so discouraged in my personal prayer life? - were questions that racked me for years. My salvation experience ignited in me a deep desire to pray. But as days rolled by I slipped into a decadence. Prayer seemed vague and I felt I was speaking into the air. My mind wandered. I slumbered on my knees and slumped on my face. Pressing duties called for attention. Finally I came to the conclusion that it was not for me. Prayer was a gift for a chosen few, I better did something useful than waste precious moments on knees. As for people like me it was enough to murmur the routine prayer morning and night. I did not yet understand that I was not wrestling against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers.
Friend, is this your story too? Don't get discouraged. You CAN become a prayer warrior. Satan obscures from your eyes the prosperous citadel of prayer and keeps whispering in your ears all lies. If Satan has told you that prayer is a ministry of a chosen few, If he has told you that you cannot just get through to real intercession, if he has told you, you are talking to the wall, if he has told you to do something better, then tell him he is a liar and the father of all lies.
The Spirit of the Lord was striving with me, never to let me go. It was a long path of struggle, of trials and errors, of failures and frustrations but all the while going forward inch by inch.
My greatest enemy was sleep. The two things I prayed for most in my life were (1) to overcome sleep and (2) to overcome gluttony. I cannot say that I have mastered them today, but I know for sure that they cannot master me. In the beginning my standard
prayer was, "Oh Lord, help me to pray. Let me not sleep off. Please dear Lord, Let me not, help me to overcome sleep. Oh Lord, I should not sleep ...p...z...z...z!" I would wake up after half an hour, eyes blood-shot, arms and knees numb. This went on till I could take it no more.
I was able to keep awake for my studies. Then if I was unable to be alert in prayer it must be the trick of the devil. When I started to rebuke the spirit of slumber my continuous yawnings in prayer suddenly disappeared. I could visualise the giggling imps around me cringe and creep away on being discovered.
One verse particularly was encouraging me never to give up. "Train yourself to be godly" (1 Tim 4:7). Physical exercise does not transform one into a strong man overnight. It is a slow but steady process. So must we exercise ourselves spiritually. I decided to use my fresh hours for prayer. I no more fell on my face but knelt straight as much as I could. I washed my face and treated myself with a hot coffee and started with a song.
We must recognise two kinds of sleep. One is a sleep due to exhaustion and tiredness. The other is due to laziness. If you are tired and exhausted, please sleep off. On the other hand, if after a good night's rest you still feel sleepy, fight against it. Do not succumb to it.
Don't bang the alarm clock when it dutifully wakes you up. Jump out of bed. The alarm clock was only a school-master to discipline me. Now the Lord wakes me up, day by day, in the small hours of the morning. I pray for an hour or two, alert and unhindered, then sleep off. "Do not love sleep" (Prov 20:13). It is number one enemy to prayer life. Fight against it. People at the heights of glory have slept and crash-landed like Eutychus. Beware!
The next big problem was wandering thoughts. It was like straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel. Now wide awake, I went on a merry- go-round on my knees. I would pray for half an hour but just for a point or two, and that in short sentences when I came back to the planet earth intermittently! Certain things helped me very much to overcome this. One was a simple suggestion from the book: Prayer That Moves Mountains, by Gordon Lindsay, to pray aloud. It helped me to keep my mind on what I was praying about and avoid using vain words. Suddenly I would remember something very important to do. I would be gripped with an anxiety of forgetting it. So I always kept a paper and pencil by my side to note them down.
It is good to develop a habit of noting down the prayer points before you begin to pray. Better to pray for a few points specifically than be beating about the bush for half an hour. Do not worship the Lord vaguely. Your mind will fly off. Open the first page of your Bible and worship God as the Creator, Trinitarian God and the Prince of Life. Next day, turn to the second page and worship Him as the Blesser, Giver, Communicator, One who finds out sin, punishes but forgives. In the next page He is the Seed of the Woman, He who crushes the head of Satan, He who respects man and his offering, He who cannot tolerate sin but gives grace to the sinner, and He who walks with man. This way turn a leaf daily and worship Him in a new way everyday. See how much it revolutionises your worship. Also write one name of your relative, friend, neighbour or enemy on the top of each page and pray for that person that day. Do not go to pray without the Bible by your side. The Lord may remind you of a promise or a commandment. Feel free to refer to them and then pray. It will serve as a kick.
It was when I started to pray aloud that I started to seek for a separate room for prayer. Now the Lord has blessed us with a "Gethesemane" where we can go and shut ourselves up. The Lord fulfills the desires of our heart,. Every home should have a prayer room or if that is not possible atleast a prayer corner. Let those in the household know they cannot disturb you if you are there.
Certain rigid decisions helped me discipline my prayer life. Paul was his own master to control his body (1 Cor 9:27) I decided to shirk off my slackness and kneel down when the clock struck my prayer time. A decision to pray half an hour in the afternoon revolutionised my life. How can I spare another hour was my fear. But today I find I do more work than I did two years ago. Praise God! Give God and He will give you, shaken, pressed down and in full measure. Fix prayer times thrice a day and stick to it.
Just to encourage myself I started jotting down in my diary the times I prayed in the morning, afternoon and night. If I did not pray I didn't get a tick. In the beginning it wavered; but by the end of the year the number of ticks grew steady. There was always a slump after a tour. But I would get it restarted overcoming the temptation to discontinue.
But what to pray for half an hour? I would have prayed for what seemed a half hour but the clock would have ticked past just ten minutes. So I started collecting points for prayer. It brought me into an arena of prayer. Many things came into focus which I never prayed for but just kept crying over. One day it suddenly struck me that I never prayed over the prayer circular of our own ministry. As I prayed for each point I ticked it off to keep track. Now I was able to rejoice in my spirit as letters came announcing the answers. They were no more "mere" letters but answers to my prayer. I was able to feel the pulsating thrill of prayer life. I happened one day to listen to George Verwer's cassette where he mentioned he prayed for more than 25 prayer circulars. I was astounded! Why not try? I started writing to ministries asking for their prayer circulars — FMPB, IEM, OM, EHC, etc. It was like moving into another world. I was falling in love with prayer, head over heels! It was interesting mathematics to align one month's prayer points to the next month's praise points. Oh, to think of receiving a reward in eternity for serving in all these ministries as a secret agent! Beloved, do not narrow down your ministry. Enlarge the place of your tent. Stretch forth the curtains; spare not, lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes.
Do you wonder if God will answer short prayers? I used to wonder too. You travel through a prayer circular - "Lord save Ayyavu, please heal Muthu's eyes, yes Lord, touch Mari, O Lord..." and on and on—praying for points the details of which you do not know. I believe the Lord is delighted to hear such prayers. For He said, "When you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him" (Mt 6:7,8). When I travel I pray for the villages I pass through and those who travel with me. "Lord, send some Christian to this village. Father, please save the old lady in the front seat. She may die soon..." Next to testifying this is the best we can do for the unfortunate. Learn the habit of talking to the Father continously. Pray (or talk to Him) without ceasing.
Will small prayers be of any use? How often the devil lies to us that we cannot pray in 5 minutes. As a trial just say 'Praise The Lord' slowly, meaningfully, for 5 minutes and count it. You will be surprised at the count. Mine was 500! untilise even brief moments available for short prayers.
It is good to maintain a prayer diary. When people request prayer I used to assure them, and in my mind then and there transfer it to the Lord dutifully to avoid guilt. So also for letters. But now I have a prayer diary handy to note down requests and take it to the Lord in intercession. It is not just a passing word of prayer but labouring in prayer. The most wonderful thing is that now people thank me for the prayers. Who told them I never prayed before and who told them I pray now? The Lord who sees in secret answers openly! It is like an interesting game, telling the Lord and receiving answers. Now I have learnt to take even seemingly silly things in prayer. Do you often drop things and break them? Have you corrected your husband for biting his nail for over 10 years to no avail? Do you have difficulty remembering faces? List out some such small things and try prayer.
There is an exasperating experience in prayer. You keep sincerely praying for a particular request. Let us say a disease or a compaign. The doctor treats the patient and he becomes well, or the preacher speaks wonderfully and the campaign is a success. But nobody bothers to thank you. The doctor and the preacher seem to get all the credit. Beloved, don't be anxious about your reward here on earth. Your credit is in the Lord's book of rememberance (Mt 6:5,6). Answers to prayer may come in the most natural way; but eternity alone will declare what miracle your prayer wrought.
Do not worry if you are not able to shed tears in prayer as some. Pray for tears and continue in your prayers and the Lord will bless you with that experience too.
Then the Lord burdened me to pray for the Nations. I have fixed a world map in our prayer room. It is good to follow a prayer programme to pray for all the countries in a year (such cards are available). Or keep an atlas and pray. Operation World by P.J. Johnstone is an excellent guide.
When I decided to try fasting, the results were disastrous. I would fix a fasting day, finish all work and lie down for a short rest only to wake up in the evening! Or feel awfully giddy (even before missing one meal) and when I knelt down, sweets and delicious dishes would dance before my eyes. Then I would plead the Lord and explain to Him the logic that it is better to eat and pray than fast and sleep. I would beg the Lord to forgive me and break the fast. This also is a trick of the devil. Learn to discipline yourself in fasting too. Fasting and sleeping is not sin. It is the first step. Now go on to fasting and praying!
To learn secular things we study and struggle and sweat. But when it comes to spiritual things we expect God to transform us in the twinkle of the eye. Dear one, trust in the grace of God but exercise yourself to godliness. Don't let your children or new believers struggle through prayer for years by trial and error. Teach them how to pray. May the good Lord pour out upon you the Spirit of grace and of supplications that you may pray and raise up prayer warriors!
Dr. Lilian Stanley
13 Church Colony
Vellore 632006, India
+91 9843511943
lilianstanley@gmail.com
Blessing Youth Mission
13 Church Colony
Vellore 632006, India
+91-416-2242943, +91-416-2248943
hq@bymonline.org
www.bymonline.org
Click here for more options
To buy books written by Dr. Lilian Stanley, kindly reach to us in the follwing address
Blessing Literature Centre
21/11 West Coovam River Road,
Chintadripet,
Chennai 600 002, India.
+91-44-28450411, Mob:8806270699
blc@bymonline.org
