James 4:1-3, What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

“I see that prayerlessness is one of my great sins of omission.” - Andrew Bonar

Attitudes that cause prayerlessness:
- Lack of priority
- Self-trust
- Lack of confidence
- Discouragement
- Apathy
- Stubbornness
- Unbelief

James 4:2, You do not have, because you do not ask.

James 4:3, You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

Consequences of prayerlessness:

- Easily tempted: Matthew 26:41, “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

- Anxiety grows: I Peter 5:7, …Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

- Power subsides: James 4:2, You do not have, because you do not ask.

Proverbs 3:5,6, Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

“A prayerless Christian is a powerless Christian.”

1. Identify your obstacles.

- Iniquity: Psalm 66:18, If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.

- Motives: James 4:3, You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

- Unforgiveness: Mark 11:25, “And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”

- Stinginess: Proverbs 21:13, Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered.

- Treatment of others: Luke 6:38, “…Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

2. Make a plan to pray.

I Thessalonians 5:17, …Pray without ceasing…

3. Find a prayer partner.

James 5:16, The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

Matthew 18:19, Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.

4. Use an outline.

Praise
Repent
Ask
Yield

Praise - “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.”

Repent - “…Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

Ask - Physical needs = “Give us this day our daily bread…”
- Spiritual needs = “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

Yield - Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

5. Pray with confidence.

Hebrews 4:16, Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

James 5:17,18, Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

What is God saying to you?

What are you going to do about it?