Jim Moss - September 10, 2023
Prayer of Faith
Book of James Prayer of Faith Sept. 10th James 4:1-3 1What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? 2You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. 3And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure. Why is it so hard to ask for things from God? James 5:13 Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Prayer needs to be planned Adopt practical ways to impede mental drift In different times and in different seasons, seek out people to pray with Get around people who pray Develop a system for your prayer lists Mix praise, confession, and intercession and tie as much of it as you can back to the Scriptures. Pray until you pray James 5:16 Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. Psalm 32:3-4 When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long. Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy upon me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. David Eagleman You have competing populations in your brain – one part that wants to tell something and one part that doesn’t. There is a real physiological battle going on in the brain. So keeping certain behaviors secret, especially behaviors that is seen or understood to be “wrong” means continual struggle with yourself. The internal dissonance and lack of sense of personal integrity is draining. The struggle involved in keeping a secret is stressful. This means that your brain will register the fact that there are increased levels of stress hormones going through your bloodstream as a result of this struggle to keep your secret. Your brain does not enjoy this stress. Those living duplicitous lives live with the stress of keeping a whole section of their life secret from the people they see every day and care about. The fact that their brains are marinated in stress hormones due to keeping the secret, over and above the effects of the wrongdoing themselves, can cause an impairment in the person’s ability to stay healthy and function well. The only way to kill darkness is to drag it into the light. You will not win on your own. Francis Posada What do I do to you in prayer? Do I not listen to you? Do I not give you delight? Do I not give you light? Do I not give you tenderness? Do I not forgive you? Do I not stir your wills to fervour? Do I not delight your minds? Do I not give sweetness to your souls? Do I not purify your consciousness? Why, then, do you flee? Why do you not stay in my presence? Yes, stay in my presence, for I am like the flower which gives out more fragrance, the more it is touched and handled. If you want to breathe my perfumes, stay in my presence, do not let go of my hand, and you will see how you will walk in the odour of these perfumes, as spouses do… Pray, for if you are sinful, I will make you good; if lukewarm, I will make you fervent; if you are imperfect, you will find perfection. Pray and you will come to know what I am for you.