Life Capsule for Today Date: 24th October, 2023
Theme: Basic Elements of Effective Prayer (3)
Topic: The enemy called Lust
Memory Verse: Matt 7:7-8
7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. NKJV
Text: James 4:2-3
2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. NKJV
Words of the Ministry
Effective praying is the dream of every believer, nothing excites a Christian better that when he/she receives an answer to prayers but that isn’t the case with many of us as the ratio of answered prayers in the life of many believers is nothing to write home about. To become effective in prayers, we must consider another enemy of prayers which is our lust.
Our lust is another dangerous enemy to effective prayers, it could be lust of the eyes, flesh or pride of life. Lust make us have several desires and ambitions that are not necessarily God’s will. Our today’s reading in a nut shell says we ask and we don’t receive and our asking is ineffective because it is motivated by lust. Check with your experience, how often do you pray and with what intensity? A quick check to know if your prayers is borne out of lust is to ask yourself, why, why do I need this prayer answered.
Many believers thinks prayers is primarily to meet their need and boost their ego, to show their neighbors they have arrived and that they can get whatever they want whenever, that is contrary to the prayer pattern Jesus taught, he said thy will (God) be done on earth as it is in heaven (Mat 6.10), Prayer is not primarily for us but for the will of God to be done, Revelation 4.11” Thou are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created.”NKJV.
We can therefore see that one of the arch enemies to conquer to have power in prayers is our lust, we must be sure of our motives, all forms of lust makes us an enemy of God (1Jhn 2.16-17), atimes it appears religious but in reality it is from the flesh. The story of Peter is a typical example, he rebuked Jesus concerning the revelation of his death but Jesus sharply rebuked him calling him Satan because his desires were of Men and not of God (Mat 16.21-23). Dear saints, whenever our desire is sourced from the flesh, we are like adulterers and adulteresses (Jam 4.4), our prayers become as sin before God, may God grant us light. Shalom, please keep in mind our October Peniel encounter which comes up on Sunday the 29th, by 4pm.
Bible in One Year: Luke 8-9
For further fellowship send us an email on godmanvideos@gmail.com or visit our youtube channel: @godmanmedia. You can also interact with us by dropping your comments on our facebook page. Our physical meeting, Word feast comes up every Wednesday by 5pm and Prayer Gym every Saturday by 7am while PENIEL comes up once a month, every last Sunday of the month from 4pm to 6.30pm at Suite A10, Ahser Office Complex, beside Living Faith Church, Opposite Hassan Stores, Arab Road, Kubwa Abuja.