Fathers Day
Prayer-Communication with the Father
When Jesus taught the disciples to pray He said do it like this….
“Our Father”
Call to fathers to be men of prayer. Fathers who are full of Faith. Men who Move mountains
Call to fathers to communicate with the Father-
Our father who is in Heaven!
Why
To focus on the prize of winning our race and seeing our kids grow up and remain in the House of God.
Calling fathers-To grow, deepen and enrich this river of prayer.
To stand in their lives against Di-versions and Distractions
What are your diversions?
If the River can be diverted it will flow away from the source and eventually dry up.
If we can be diverted away from prayer our faith can also dry up!
It takes blockages, di-versions in the River to cause it to divert.
As a kid I loved going to the beach and there would be little streams of storm water flowing out of pipes and carving little rivulets down the sandy beach to the surf.
The idea was to try and dam the water if possible or divert it to form another river in the direction I wanted it to go.
Slowly but surly, handful after handful I would start to build a wall of sand to divert the water and slowly the stream would change direction and start to carve a course in the opposite sand bank to now go in a new direction.
When it comes to prayer and our connection to the Father the devil and or we will do the same thing. Slowly but surly place or allow hindrances, blockages, walls into our lives to divert us away from our true course and the intended path for our lives.
-to be in a close and loving relationship with our Father in Heaven
And that happens, is fostered, grows in a prayer connection.
So how do we lose our direction, our focus, our flow of prayer.
Its not like I’m walking down the street and a big dump truck comes along and dumps a huge load of sand on the footpath causing us to cross to the other side.
No it’s more subtle than that!
It’s the oldest trick in the book. Goes back to Adam and Eve.
They should have been tending the garden but allowed themselves to stop and be distracted by the serpent.
Distraction!
The Devil will feed us anything if he can keep us distracted.
I can feed Jordan if I can keep him distracted.
Satan distracted Eve (got her thinking something else) with
- Doubt-“Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the Garden?”
- Lie-“you will not die”
Doubt and lies turn our direction off course and change the plan for our lives. We become Distracted and then we are Di-verted.
God says He has plans for our lives, plans for good, to prosper us.
Satan says I’ve got plans for your life too. If I can distract you I can change Gods plan and divert you to my plan.
Eves plan was to help Adam work the garden but she got distracted and diverted.
So, What distracts us from Prayer?
Busyness is a rock of distraction from prayer.
- Busyness says I will pray when I’ve got a few spare minutes
- Busyness says ill pray before I hit the hay
- Busyness says there must be someone else in the church praying about stuff.
- I’m just to busy keeping my head above water juggling life to stop and pray.
Bill Hybels
“From birth we have been learning the rules of self-reliance as we strain and struggle to achieve self-sufficiency. Prayer flies in the face of those deep-seated values. It is an assault on human autonomy, an indictment of independent living. To people in the fast lane, determined to make it on their own, prayer is an embarrassing interruption. Prayer is alien to our proud human nature.”
So many of us are just too busy to pray! Instead we worry…
The Bible says…..
Matt 6:33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. NIV
Same verse from the Message Bible
What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.
34“Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.
2 Chronicles 7:14
If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray then I will hear from heaven and heal their land
Does “People” included Fathers???
What if Fathers would humble themselves and pray?
God would have to hear from heaven and heal their…..
- land.
- Family’s
- Marriages
- Business’s
- Finances
If you want things to go well, to go right….PRAY FIRST
If you’re a Father who’s to busy to pray for your kids, family….
Your to busy!!
Don’t allow busyness to DISTRACT you from doing business!
Prayer is the Priority!
There’s no business like prayer business.
Nothing greater we need to do in our day than connect with Jesus.
Busyness-Martha was to busy to spend time at Jesus feet.
- Jesus comes to visit
- Martha was “Distracted” by all the preparations.
- Mary is at Jesus feet and Martha complains
- Jesus rebukes her and tells her that Mary has chosen the better thing.
There is no better thing that you and I can be doing than to be at Jesus feet in an attitude of prayer
When we are on our knees at the feet of Jesus we can only look up!
What I love about church is that church and coming into the presence of God is a supernatural dam buster.
