Dear BPCWA worshipper, I will recapture the first 3 thematic messages here. My great burden for each worshipper in BPCWA is that we have a life of prayer that is real and consistent. Many of you are studying the Word consistently. But that is only half of what is needed for our walk with the Lord. From now onwards, each of us needs to have the same emphasis, effort, and endurance in prayer as we are already putting in the study of the Word. Only then will we be safe and not fail God. I pray that this summary will stir afresh in us the importance of prayer, the prerequisites of prayer, and a desire to develop a life of habitual prayer.

The Importance of Prayer. Only when we see the importance of prayer will we desire to be praying always. Our theme verse is the close of the passage on the spiritual armour in Eph 6:10-18. “Stand” is repeated 3 times, meaning that we can fall, and the urgency is that we need the power of God because we wrestle a warfare against spiritual powers (v12). The moment you are saved, you are drafted into the army of God. The Christian armour is not a ceremonial dress but a battle gear for fighting. Being dressed up means nothing until you fight. Even having the Word of God does not mean that you’re fighting. That is just gearing up for the fight. We can be dressed up but still fall if we don’t fight. Praying is where you fight. In Exo 17:8-13, although Israel was fighting with all their might in the war against Amalek, the battle prevailed only when Moses’ hands were lifted in prayer to God. God taught them that the real fight and victory in the battle are accomplished in prayer. We may do a lot of things in life but if we don’t pray, we will lose the everyday spiritual battle. Real forces are fighting against us and the engagement is on our knees in prayer. Is prayer to us merely an outward duty? Whether we live or fall prey on the spiritual battlefield depends on prayer. Prayer is literally do or die. When we don’t pray, we will be attacked and fall spiritually. We can do many good Christian things well and but whether this amounts to any spiritual good depends on whether we fight in prayer. The spiritual realm and fighting are real. Prayer is real fighting. The real spiritual accomplishment is attained in the place of prayer, not just in the performing. We can do many things, but it does not mean we are accomplishing any spiritual fruitfulness. Prayer makes the difference. We do well learning God’s Word, but we must be praying as we ought to gain spiritual benefits. In the garden of Gethsemane, our Lord knew that He needed God’s strength through prayer. He warned His disciples to “watch and pray”, but they did not believe Him. Though they loved the Lord, they fell. When Daniel was deeply burdened in Dan 10:1-5, he fasted and prayed. In answer to his 3 full weeks of prayer, an angel was sent to Daniel but the angel was resisted by an evil spirit that “withstood [him] one and twenty days” (Dan 10:13) but “Michael . . . came to help [him]”. God shows us through this account that prayer is really engaging in spiritual warfare. We can get tired of doing many things, but we must never get tired of prayer. Prayer is hard work because it is a battle. We can finish all the things, but if we don’t put the effort into prayer, all our doing will eventually fail. We must be so afraid of taking a step until we have prayed. If we fast forward to the Bema seat judgement, will we suffer loss for all the things that we’ve done in our lifetimes because much was done in the strength of our flesh and there was no prayer and no power in our lives? What a wasted life that would be! Without prayer, we will not have “the power of his might” (Eph 6:10). As we go through the day, we must be praying in our hearts to have the power of God’s might working through the things that we do for God and live for Him. That prayer brings spiritual results must be as real to us as doing things are real. Prayer is where spiritual things get accomplished.    

The Prerequisites of Prayer. We can be praying always but can be engaged in useless prayers. 1) What will help my prayer? a) Have genuine communion with God. In the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6, prayer is communion with our Father, a desire for God’s glory to be known, the concerns of God’s kingdom, submission to His will, and requesting for help for God’s kingdom’s work. Prayer includes confession of our sins and forgiving others, a concern for our spiritual growth, and is about the kingdom of God. Every part of prayer is a spiritual battle because it doesn’t come naturally to our flesh – we do not love communion with God and we do not care about God’s kingdom. b) Know the Word of God. Our prayer must be congruent with the Word of God. We can be praying a lot but are praying amiss and can instead upset God in our prayers. c) Have the right motives. We can ask things to “consume it upon your lusts” (Jas 4:3) and not for God’s purpose. We should pray, even about the daily things in life, with clear spiritual purposes of being able to increase in spiritual growth and be pleasing to God. Prayer is not just to get help to have fewer problems in life. We could confess our sins with a roll call of our sins just to avoid the consequence of sins, not to overcome the sin and restore fellowship with God. Adding a genuine “so that” to our prayers helps us to test our motives in prayer for what we ask of God. 2) What could hinder our praying to God?  I can be praying a lot, but “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” (Ps 66:18). Even if we pray according to the Word of God but regard iniquity, God will not hear us. Regarding iniquity is knowing that there are sins that plague our lives, but we do not deal with them. It includes knowing what is good but just not doing it, “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin” (Jas 4:17). So, knowing that you should be in God’s house to study His Word and to pray but ignoring it is regarding iniquity in your heart. Also, not regarding iniquity means dealing with every aspect of sin in our lives and not brushing them aside simply because our view of it is that it is not iniquity since many others do it too. God will hear those who live a holy life. Anything that I know is a sin, I will deal with it and repent. If I know what I need to do, I will do it. It is not because I want to avoid the consequence of sin. The bottom line of Ps 66:18 is a life of absolute obedience, given over, and dedicated to God in everything. Everything is about God.  Everything about our life, secular, church, or spiritual growth, is so that we will be as holy as we can be. The prerequisite of prayer is full consecration.  No consecration, no power in prayer.

The Habit of Prayer. Praying always is about having a life of habitual prayer. What does it look like? 1) Constantly engaging God in our hearts.  It is praying “night and day” (1Th 3:10) and without ceasing, a natural habit of wanting to engage God face to face, whatever you are doing, and wherever you are. When we have time on our hands and even if we are doing something else, we must consciously engage God. If prayer is normal to us, we will never feel lonely. 2) Set times of focused prayer. Christ expects Christians to have dedicated times of prayer. There are specific times of prayer, as expressed by the Psalmist in Ps 55:17 and practiced by Daniel who prayed “three times a day” (Dan 6:10). In the New Testament, Peter went to find a quiet place to pray in Ac 10:9, a shadow of Christ who found a solitary place in the morning to pray (Mk 1:35). We must have closet prayer no matter how busy we are, just like how our Saviour and Daniel prayed despite their busy schedules. We must set a place to pray where we will not be disturbed easily. At the same time, there must be no discomfort to pray to God in the home when family members are present. But do not be like the Pharisees wanting to be seen as spiritual. The disciples were accustomed to Christ kneeling in prayer in their presence, as He did in Gethsemane. There must be a spirit of prayer in our homes, in our families. If prayer is a habit, we will feel helpless, exposed, and uncomfortable if we don’t pray. It must be as habitual as brushing our teeth daily. Build a habit of prayer. What does it take for the habit to form? Reprioritise your time. Reorganise your life. Remove and give up some things. You are willing to make changes if it affects your health, even if you are busy or tired. There must be an urgency for the need to pray every day. You may need to sleep less or sacrifice leisure to start this habit of prayer. To fit in prayer, you may need to cut down on things that are not essential in your life. Do it now, or you will regret it later.         

Yours in our Lord’s service,
Pastor