Donald Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines: Chapter 4 Prayer

Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life Donald S. Whitney

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PRAYER... FOR THE PURPOSE OF GODLINESS Chapter 4











A surve sur veyy of 17,000 evangelical Christians found that on average they prayed for less than 5 minutes each day A survey of 2,000 pastors and their wives found they prayed for less than 7 minutes per day. Whitney says that prayer is second in importance only to











“The New Testament church c hurch built two other disciplines upon prayer and Bible study, the Lord’s Supper and small cell groups. John Wesley emphasized emphasized five works of piety by by adding fasting. The medieval mystics wrote w rote about abo ut nine n ine disciplines clustered around three experiences: purgation of sin, enlightenment of the spirit and union with God. Later the Keswick Convention approach to practical holiness revolved around five different religious religiou s exercises. exercises . Today Richard Richard Foster’s book, Celebration of Discipline, lists twelve disciplines – all of them relevant relevant to the contempor y Christian. But











PRAYER IS EXPECTED Jesus expects expects us to pray pray , go Matt 6:6-9 But when you pray into your room, close the door and pray to your Father,who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And And when you pray , do not keep keep on babbling like like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words...











GOD’S WORD MAKES IT CLEAR














Col 4:2 Devote yourselves to prayer, prayer, being being watchfu watchful l and thankful.















































GOD’S WORD MAKES IT CLEAR Col 4:2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. How devoted are you to prayer compare this devotion to your devotion devotion to other things in your life.













Martin Martin Luther, Luther,













What excuses do you use for not

























Prayer Prayer is important in spiritual













- the problem problem of often not “seeing” the



















































































































Andrew Murray comments on Christ’s pledge. “Ask and you shall receive, everyone that asks receives.” Therefore, if you ask and receive not it must be because there is something wanting in our prayers. Maybe God answered in a way that is not obvious to us. Maybe we are asking for things that are outside the will of God or will not glorify Him. Maybe we are praying











C.H. Spurgeon said “I can’t imagine anyone of you tantalizing your child by exciting in him a desire that you did not intend to gratify.When God leads you to pray, He means for you to receive.” receive.” We need to discipline ourselves to pray and pray











MORE APPLICATION Since prayer is expected will you pray? You need to develop a specific plan about your prayer life. At what time of the day will you faithfully go before the Father? How long will you pray each day? Will you read the th e Bible? Bib le? Will you read books about prayer written by











John Piper says, says, “Unless I’m badly mistaken, one of the main reasons so many of God’s God’s children don’t have a significant life of prayer is not so much that we don’t want to, but that we don’t plan to. If you want to take a four-week vacation, you don’t just get up one summer summer morning and say, say, ‘Hey, let’s let’s go today!’ You You won’t have anything anythin g ready.You won’t know where wh ere to go. Nothing has been planned. “But that is how how many of us us treat treat prayer.We get up day day after after day and realize that significant times of prayer prayer should be a part par t of our life, but nothing’s ever ready. We don’t know where to go.











“The opposite of planning is the rut. If you don’t plan a vacation, vacatio n, you will probably stay home and watch TV TV.. The natural, unplanned flow of spiritual life sinks to the lowest ebb of vitality. There is a race to be run and a fight to be fought. If you want renewal in your life of prayer, you must plan to see it. “Therefore, my simple exhortation is this: Let us take time this very day to rethink our priorities and how prayer fits in. Make some new resolve reso lve.. Tr y some some new venture with God. Set a time. time . Set a place. Choose a portion of Scripture to guide you. Don’t be













Since prayer is learned, will you learn to pray? Will you learn about how others have have pray prayed? ed? Will you meet others to pray? pray? Will you











Since prayer is answered will you persistently pray? Matt 7:7-8 is in the present, continuous continuou s tense. tense . That means we must pray persistently before answers come. If we fail to persist it may mean that at the heart h eart of our prayer prayer











Spuregon said, “Even as the moon influences the tides of the sea, even so does prayer influence the tides of godliness.” godliness.” JC Ryle, "What is the reason that

Donald Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines: Chapter 4 Prayer

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