Written by Pastor Mark Driskill
September 7, 2011

Read Ephesians 1:15-16

“For this reason…remembering you in my prayers.”

Are you growing weary of prayer? Seems like you’ve been praying for so long it now feels like a dead exercise? It’s easy to begin but hard to keep going over the long haul. How many times have you resolved to be more prayerful? At first you were motivated, maybe even excited. You had a place of prayer, a new plan for praying effectively, and visions of grandeur as you set out to change the world from your prayer closet. But after awhile things became difficult. Prayer became a duty, an obligation, or worse, a commitment! Few things are more burdensome than a commitment to prayer. Nothing saps the joy out of prayer more quickly than a sense of duty. Ugh! And yet your heart yearns for that wonderful connection to God through the Holy Spirit that comes through prayer and the word. Maybe if we looked at prayer a little differently it might help restore the joy that prayer was meant to bring.

When I read Jesus words about prayer and see his life of prayer, and then I read how joyfully Paul entered into communion with God, I wonder where we got most of our ideas about prayer to today. To make my point more clearly let me suggest that you imagine your prayer life as if it were like drawing from a well. If you draw water from a good well you get good water, and likewise bad water comes from a bad well. I would like to suggest that many of us in Christian circles are spiritually sick and thirsty because we have been drawing from the wrong Well of prayer. Not that we are praying to the wrong person, but rather we are praying out of wrong motives. As Paul wrote, “For this reason…” so we also come to God four our own reasons. We draw from a well of motivation that either nourishes and strengthens our prayer life or makes us spiritually ill. What kind of well are you drawing from?

James tells us that we ask and don’t receive because we ask with wrong motives. We’re drawing from a bad well. Some examples of bad wells may be:

1. The well of duty- I only pray because that is what good Christians do. Jesus often chided the Pharisees for turning prayer into a religious duty. Duty will only carry you so far in prayer. Eventually you will fall into a rut, which, as one preacher described, is “a grave with both ends knocked out.”
2. The well of fear- I pray because I am afraid not to. Praying in times of fear is a good thing. But the well of fear is shallow and dries up quickly when the crisis is gone.
3. The well of greed - I pray because of what I can get from God. Certainly we are called to make requests and tell God our desires and needs. But if this is your only motivation you will stop praying the first time God says “no”.

So what is a lasting well of prayer? What well goes deeper than our circumstances and desires? Which well abounds with the living water that never runs dry?

When Paul wrote “For this reason…” as he was beginning to pray, he uncovered the source of his prayers. He had already said much about the greatness of God and his awesome plan for the world. Look once again at Ephesians 1. I think you will agree that Paul’s well of prayer was the worthiness of God himself and all he had done through Christ. Most of us pray in order to see what God will do. But Paul prayed in light of who God is and what he has already done.

Are you praying for what God will do, or because of what God has already done? In your mind has God become worthy yet? Or are you still holding out judgment of his worth until you see what he will do for you? Paul needed no special favors to know that God was already worthy. He prayed simply because God has already shown his great love and power through the cross and resurrection of our blessed Lord Jesus.

Once God becomes worthy in your heart and mind and you no longer need him to prove himself you will pray out of a well of awe and wonder and gratitude that will never run dry. You see the well of God’s worthiness is in endless supply. We pray simply because God is worthy of being sought. When that happens the center of gravity shifts in our prayer life and it ceases to be all about us and becomes all about God. Then, and only then, is prayer sustainable and satisfying.

Pastor Mark Driskill
Web Minister of Begotten By the Word web ministry
See our website at http://ourchurch.com/member/b/bbtw
and
www.facebook.com (to group “begotten by the word”)
Begotten By the Word is a ministry of Helping Hands Christian resources-Evangelism Outreach
www.hhcr05.org
(Feel free to copy in any way that will bring glory to God and further his kingdom.)