July 26 2015 The Work Of Prayer In Renewal

THE WORK OF PRAYER IN RENEWAL

2 Chronicles 14 & 15

INTRODUCTION:

“Whenever God determines to do a great work, He first sets His people to pray.”  (C.H. Spurgeon)

Asa teaches us about life.

2 Chronicles 14: 1-10

1. A time when things are easy.

2 Chronicles 14: 1-8

2. Times when living becomes difficult.

2 Chronicles 14: 9-10

When God is going to do something wonderful, He begins with a difficulty.  When God is going to something very wonderful, He begins with an impossibility.

Asa teaches us about prayer when things got bad.

2 Chronicles 14:11

Successful prayer means you:

1. Recognize God as your only source of strength.

2. Understand our own personal weakness.

3. Total trust in God.

4. Make God’s cause your own.

If you make God’s cause yours, He will make your cause His.

Asa teaches us about renewal.

2 Chronicles 15

1. Renewal hands us a challenge.

2 Chronicles 15: 1-7

2. Renewal gives us a choice.

2 Chronicles 15:8

3. Prayer causes us to change.

To pray is to change. Prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform us. If we are unwilling to change, we will abandon prayer as a noticeable characteristic of our lives. The more we pray, the more we come to the heartbeat of God. Prayer starts the communication process between ourselves and God. All the options of life fall before us. At that point we will either forsake our prayer life and cease to grow, or we will pursue our prayer life and let Him change us. Either option is painful. To not grow in His likeness is to not enjoy His fullness. When this happens a haunting voice continues to ask us, what could I have become in Him if I would have been a man of prayer? When this happens the priorities of this world begin to fade away. Some of our friends do not understand the change in our life.