Entering God’s

C.H.A.T.
ROOM

By Remy Diederich

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 Cedarbrook Church

Entering God’s C.H.A.T. Room…a practical guide to prayer

By Remy Diederich
Cedarbrook Church

This document contains:

• Part One: Overcoming the Obstacles to Prayer
• Part Two: Simple Steps to Pray, page eight
• Part Three: A Pattern for Prayer, page fifteen

Part One: Overcoming the Obstacles to Prayer

I want you to think back to your first school dance. For some of you that’s decades and for others
it’s probably just days! Do you remember what it was like? You were all excited that maybe
you’d get to talk to that special person that you had a big crush on.

When you got to the dance you saw her or him and you spent the whole night scheming of ways
to talk to them or casually bump into them and hopefully even dance with them. You fantasized
having this witty conversation with them that would impress them and want to be with you.
Surely, if you were ever going to meet them it would be at the dance!

But the night came and went and you went home disappointed because you never got up the
courage to make that first contact. We call these people wallflowers, just standing along the wall,
scheming and dreaming but too nervous to talk to anyone.

Well, that’s how I think it is for a lot of us with God. You come here every week because you
are serious about getting to know God. And you think that surely if you come here enough that
you will automatically get close to God.

But here it is now…months, maybe even years have gone by and you still don’t have the close
connection that you want with God. You’ve become a spiritual wallflower…scheming and
dreaming about being close to God…fantasizing about a great prayer life - but still unsure how to
talk to God. Does that sound familiar?

Well, if it does, I’m glad you are here because I want to help you take the next step with God.
Over the next three weeks I’ll be giving you some practical advice about how to pray and make
the connection with God that you’ve always wanted. And then you don’t have to be a spiritual
wallflower anymore.

Now, you may not know this but research shows that most people pray but they aren’t very
happy with their prayer life. Even pastors. When pastors are asked about their prayer life most
of them say that prayer is the weakest link in their spiritual life. So, if you struggle with prayer,

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you are not alone. In fact, you are in good company. Let’s see what we can do to improve things
for you.

But before I talk about how to pray, I want to first look at what keeps us from prayer in the first
place. I came up with five obstacles to prayer so let’s take a look at each one as well as how we
can overcome them.

1. Fear
The first obstacle to prayer is fear. Prayer is riddled with fear. We fear that we are doing it
wrong…that God isn’t listening or even if he is…that he doesn’t care. We fear that we are
wasting our time…that we are playing the fool. And if we are totally honest we might even
admit that we fear God doesn’t exist to hear our prayer.

Now, just to give you a picture of someone experiencing the fear of prayer I want to show you a
clip from the movie: Meet the Parents. [Ben Stiller is asked to say the dinner prayer at the home
of his fiancé after just meeting her parents. He is very self-conscious, wandering through his
prayer…searching for the right words…sounding as pious as he can. He happens to say “day by
day” which obviously reminds him of the song from the musical “Jesus Christ Superstar”.
Happy to have something spiritual to say from memory, he ends up quoting part of the song to
finish his prayer.]

Some of us have prayed prayers like, haven’t we! Did you see his fear? The fear of what to do
with his hands. The fear of saying the right words…having the right posture. He didn’t really
care what he said. He just wanted to get through it. And that’s why some of us don’t pray. We
are afraid that we are doing it wrong and God won’t be happy with us.

You know, my kids had the same problem. When they were learning how to talk they made all
kinds of mistakes. Lisa and I got so upset with them that we told them that if they couldn’t speak
in complete sentences and with proper grammar that we didn’t want them to say anything…that
if they couldn’t do it right they shouldn’t speak at all.

I’m just kidding! But if that was true, you’d call child protection services. You’d have us locked
up. No parent should ever say that to their kids. Good parents should accept their children just
the way they are. But that’s how a lot of us think about God and prayer. We think that God is
sitting there with some kind of a pray-o-meter judging the quality of our prayers and rejecting
those that don’t measure up.

Level one: That’s pathetic! Don’t even bother.

Level two: Get serious. You are talking to God.
Level three: That’s better but still a long way off.
Level four: You’re close. A little longer, louder and earlier.
Level five: You’re a winner! God will now hear your prayer.

When I write it out like this it looks foolish. We know God isn’t like this. Then why do we act
like he is? What do we know to be true about God? We know that he loves us unconditionally.
And because of that the Bible tells us…

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 You should not be like cowering, fearful slaves. You should behave instead like God's
very own children, adopted into his family – calling him "Father, dear Father”. Romans
8:15 (NLT)

And the Bible also tells us the attitude we should have when we approach God in prayer…
Let us...approach the throne of grace with confidence...Hebrews 4:16
...we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus...Hebrews 10:19
When Jesus died he gave us the right to come before God as our Father. Jesus restored us to our
status as children of God and because we are children we have ready access to our father. We
don’t have to worry that we are approaching him wrong because our Father wants to hear from
his children.

2. Fate
The second obstacle to prayer is a belief in fate. Fate is the belief that life is fixed and there is
nothing you can do about it. Don’t waste your time in prayer because it won’t change anything.
We are all just actors playing out our roles on the stage of life.

Fate is actually an ancient Greek religion that believed in three goddesses that ruled the destinies
of both humans and the gods. The thought was that we have no choice because these three
goddesses decided everything for us in advance.

You may not realize it but whenever you say things like,
“Oh well, that’s just my fate in life”
“There’s no use trying. God’s going to do what God’s going to do”
“I guess it was just meant to be”
…you are expressing statements rooted in the belief of Fate. You are thinking the very opposite
of what the Bible teaches. The Bible presents God as someone who is in relationship with his
people and because he is in relationship with us, he is willing to discuss the outcome of situations
and even alter the outcome based on our prayer. That sounds crazy…that God would consider
what we have to say. But you find it throughout the Bible.

In fact, one of the earliest stories in the Bible is about Abraham negotiating with God about the
destruction of the city of Sodom. I’m not going to take the time to turn there but you can read
about it in Genesis 18 when you get home. God says that he’s thinking of destroying Sodom
because of its wickedness and Abraham asks, “Would you save it if you find 50 righteous
people?” And God says, “Sure, I’ll do that”.

Abraham must feel pretty good that he got God to agree with him so he says, “Would you save
Sodom if you could find 45 righteous people? And God says he will. Abraham works God
down from 45 to 40 to 30 to 20 and finally to 10 people and God agrees that he will save Sodom
if he can find 10 righteous people.

Now, there’s much more to this story but what does it tell us so far? It tells us that Fate is a false
concept. Our destinies are not fixed. They are negotiable and that’s why we need to be talking to
God about our lives and the lives of others…asking God to change us and our situations for
good.

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You know, a lot of people have complained to me over the years that God never answers their
prayer. They say, “I prayed and nothing happened”. But as I find out more of the story, what
happened is that they prayed a ten second prayer once and when it wasn’t immediately answered
in the way they thought it should be answered they went and did what they wanted to do
anyways. Then they blamed God for not answering their prayer. Have you ever done that?

But the typical model for prayer in the Bible is where someone prays to God and patiently waits
for him to answer…sometimes months, sometimes years. It might seem like God doesn’t answer
prayer but that’s only if you don’t wait for the answer.

I recently joined the North Menomonie small group for a Bible study and we talked about Psalm
40. King David was facing death and not willing to accept that as his fate. And look what David
says about his situation…
I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the
slimy pit... Psalm 40:1-3

You see, David prayed. And then after he prayed he waited for God and God finally answered
and rescued him. That’s the biblical pattern. So if you want God to answer your prayers, don’t
believe the lie of fate. Your destiny is not fixed. God is willing to factor in your thoughts and
desires. First pray and then wait for God’s answer.

3. Ritual
The third obstacle to prayer is meaningless ritual… where we see prayer as more ritual than
relationship. We see it as more performance than personal and over time ritual and performance
just get old. They lose their appeal and so we quit praying.

When I was just a kid my mom put me to bed by praying the Lord’s prayer with me. That’s the
prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray… “Our Father, who art in heaven…” I never
questioned it. We just did it. The prayer didn’t mean anything to me but I liked my mom
spending a little extra time with me before I fell asleep.

But one night I asked her what the prayer meant. Isn’t that funny? We had been praying that
prayer for months and I had no idea what it meant. And my mom looked back at me and said,
Well, I’m not really sure. I suppose it means… and then she went on to give me her best guess at
what it meant. Her answer didn’t make any sense and it wasn’t too long after that that we quit
praying altogether.

You see, I think that a lot of people pray the Lord’s Prayer, not for what it says but because it
gives them something to say to God when they don’t know what else to say. My mom didn’t
know how to pray with me so she prayed the Lord’s Prayer. That’s not a bad thing – she was
doing her best – but the ritual of it turned us both off to prayer. Prayer was just an empty spiritual
experience for us.

Think about it like this. Ladies…how would you like it if, in those special moments with your
boyfriend or husband – that moment when you hope he will say something special…something
meaningful…something from the heart, he automatically recites a paragraph that he memorized
from some book ? And he doesn’t do this just occasionally but all the time! It would kind of kill
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the moment, wouldn’t it? He may have said the right words but you could tell he didn’t mean
them.

I can’t be sure, but my guess is that God feels the same way whenever we default to mindlessly
praying the Lord’s Prayer or something like it. I think he would much prefer us eking out a few
heartfelt words rather than a paragraph that means nothing to us. You see, we don’t want to just
pray something…we want to pray something meaningful. If the Lord’s Prayer is meaningful,
then that’s great. Go for it! But you don’t want to just be filling time with God. You want your
prayers to be building relationship with God. That’s why Jesus said…
When you pray, don't be like those people who don't know God. They continue saying
things that mean nothing, thinking that God will hear them because of their many words.
Matthew 6:7

Or listen to what David tells God in Psalm 51…

Going through the motions doesn't please you, a flawless performance is nothing to you.
True worship for you is a broken spirit; a humble and sincere heart, O God, you will not
despise. Psalm 51:16-17

My point here is, don’t let meaningless ritual discourage you from praying. Pray prayers from
the heart even if they seem simple and feeble.

4. The devil
The fourth obstacle to prayer is the devil. Someone said to me lately, “You know Remy, you
never talk about the devil. Do you believe in the devil?” And I said, Yes…I do. I just think
Christians can get obsessed with the devil and then it’s counterproductive.

But when it comes to prayer you should know that the devil wants to shut you down. He’ll do
whatever he can to rob you of prayer because he knows that God answers prayer. In fact, Jesus
called the devil a thief and said …
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy...John 10:101
And so, it’s important that you understand that there is an evil force out there doing all he can to
discourage you and sidetrack you and confuse you so you won’t pray. So don’t let him win!

5. Lack of Training
The final obstacle to prayer is lack of training. It’s interesting that we take lessons in so many
things in life like how to drive a car or how to play a sport or instrument… but when it comes to
one of the most important things in life – talking to God - we don’t seek training. Isn’t that odd?
But I think it’s often our lack of training in prayer that keeps us from praying.

For example, we have a piano in our house. In fact it’s in my office. Every day I sit about five
feet away from a nice piano. But I never play it. I love to hear a piano being played but I don’t
like playing the piano. Do you know why? Because I don’t know how to play the piano. Oh, I
can play the basics. Row, row, row your boat and chopsticks. But that gets old real fast. So I
don’t play.

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And when Jesus taught his disciples to pray he told them to ask God to “deliver us from evil” or as
some translations say, “deliver us from the Evil One”, meaning the devil.

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Now, if I could sit down and play a variety of songs with skill that sound nice, I’d probably play.
But I never learned how. I was never trained and - I don’t know about you but- I don’t like to
spend time doing things that I do poorly. In fact, I avoid them.

I think the same thing is true with prayer. If you don’t know what you are doing, if you think you
do it poorly, you will tend to avoid prayer. It’s only natural. And so, if you want to enjoy prayer
you should take lessons. The disciples saw this need and asked Jesus to teach them to pray.
That’s when he gave them what we call The Lord’s Prayer.

Now, I plan on offering some training over the next few weeks but here are a few other things
you can do to help you learn how to pray:

1. Read the Psalms in the Bible. The book of psalms is a book of prayer and you’ll be
amazed at how you will see your life in those pages. Just read a psalm a day and you will
learn how to talk to God about real life events.
2. Read the Lord’s Prayer. But don’t recite it mindlessly. Jesus gave it to us as a template
of how to pray. So read through it to see what kind of things you should be praying
about. I preached a sermon on that once. You can find it on the website.
3. Pick up the book “Prayer Coach”. I’ve read a number of books on prayer which were
very inspiring but they didn’t help me to pray. This book gives you nitty gritty ideas how
to make prayer a reality in your life.
4. Start talking to God…every chance you get…whether that’s kneeling by your bed,
sitting in a chair, jogging on a treadmill or walking the dog…get in the habit of talking to
God.

Okay, well, if you are still looking for a New Year’s resolution I think growing your prayer life
is a good one for you. And I hope you’ll work at overcoming these obstacles.

Prayer: Father, I want to ask you to do the same thing that Jesus did for his disciples…teach us
to pray. Help us to overcome these five obstacles as well as all of the other obstacles that I
failed to mention and help us to start entering into a daily conversation with you. We listen to a
lot of people every day. We need to start listening to you. Please forgive us for our apathy or
our lame excuses when it comes to prayer. And thank you that because of Jesus we are children
that have ready access to you no matter how simplistic our prayers might be. Might 2009 be a
year of prayer for us as individuals and for us as a church. Amen.

Going Deeper
1. Use these questions for personal reflection or to discuss with your small group or family.
2. Which of the following fears are true for you? Be as honest as you can be.
a. I’m afraid that I don’t pray the right way to be heard by God.
b. I’m afraid that I don’t deserve to have my prayers answered.
c. I’m afraid that I know too little about God to pray.
d. I’m afraid that God doesn’t answer prayer at all.
e. I’m afraid that God doesn’t even exist to hear my prayers.
f. I’m afraid of what others will think of my praying out loud.

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 3. How have these fears impacted your prayer life?
4. What does it mean to believe in Fate? How is that different from what the Bible teaches?
5. Of the following “Fateful” statements, which ones do believe?
a. World events are set in motion and there is nothing I can do about it.
b. My life events are predetermined and I’m just living out my “script”.
c. Prayer has no power to change my life or the world around me.
d. Certain things are just “meant to be” and I just have to live with it.
6. How has your theology (view of God) affected your prayer life?
7. What role has The Lord’s Prayer had in your life (if any). Has it served to help build
relationship with God or has it merely been a ritual to perform?
8. What kind of training have you received in life (sports, music, job skills, etc.)? How did
it benefit you?
9. How do you feel about receiving training for prayer?
10. What’s one thing you can do this week to improve your prayer life?

Entering God's C.H.A.T. Room - a practical guide to prayer

Part Two: Simple Steps
By Remy Diederich
Cedarbrook Church

Last week I started a three week series on prayer…specifically, on how to pray. But I wonder
what comes to your mind when I say the word “prayer”. Is prayer a meaningless religious ritual
to you – something that people do just to keep God happy?

Or, maybe prayer is something that seems complicated and mysterious to you…something so
confusing that you don’t want to even bother. You know, I’m amazed at all of the superstitions
that I hear about prayer…things you can and can’t do. For example…you shouldn’t pray out
loud so the devil won’t hear your prayer or you shouldn’t repeat a prayer if you really believe, or
there are certain times of the day that God is more apt to hear your prayer or you should never
pray for yourself because that’s selfish.

But to some people, when they hear the word “prayer” they simply think of a conversation with
their heavenly father. You see, that’s what the Bible says that prayer is. It’s as simple as a
parent speaking to their child, talking to them about the plan he has for their life and how they
can fulfill that plan.

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I think not talking to God in prayer is like launching off in a rocket to the moon and turning off
your communication with Mission Control. I mean, how can you complete your mission if you
are out of touch with the people that have the plan? You can’t, right? You are just out there
floating in space.

Pray as You Go
So today I want to give you some very simple steps that you can take to become a praying
person. The simplest kind of prayer is what I call…Pray as you go…simple one sentence prayers
that include God in your life.

It starts before you leave your bed in the morning. When I wake up in the morning I’m not quick
to jump out of bed. So as I wake up I typically pray. I might reflect on what happened the day
before or talk to God about my agenda for the day. In fact, just this morning as I prayed my mind
immediately went to some sarcastic things I said to one of my daughters’ this weekend. I’m a
very sarcastic person and I normally do a good job of keeping it from hurting anyone but I teased
my daughter a little too much. She didn’t say anything to me but God did. I felt that he wanted
me to apologize to her and so as soon as she got up and before she left to go back home I was
able to tell her that I was sorry. That probably wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t started my
day in prayer.

One pastor told me that when he slips out of bed he goes right to his knees as a simple way to
start the day in prayer. Even in his posture he is telling God, “I want to honor you with my life
today.” I’m not a “kneeler” but you might want to try that.

The next place you might want to pray is at the closet when you are picking out your clothes for
the day. Some of you might be tempted to dress immodestly, so it’s good to ask God to help you
pick out clothes that honor him (and maybe even throw away clothes that don’t!). Modesty isn’t
my problem. I have to pray for a sense of fashion!

Then on your way to work or school or church you might want to ask God to be with you in a
special way. I teach at Arbor Place treatment center three mornings a week and I don’t always
remember to pray but when I do, I often see God do something special in my class that day.

You can also pray before you eat…just a simple word of thanks. You can bow your head and
fold your hands if you want to but I just thank God in my mind unless I’m eating with someone.
And if they are comfortable with it, I’ll offer to pray.

If you know that you are going to be meeting with someone that day…especially if it’s someone
that you don’t get along with very well… it’s good to pray about that in advance. Ask God to
give you wisdom and grace to handle the meeting well.

If you face a problem during the day that’s a great time to talk to God. Why is it that we turn to
friends or Google search before we turn to God to solve our problems? A number of years ago I
had a friend that was very handy. I always like him being around because whenever anything
broke he could fix it. One time he was out of town and my car starting acting up. My first

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thought was to wish my friend was there to help me and this thought popped into my mind,
“Why don’t you ask Me for help?” At the time I didn’t think you could ask God to help with
mundane things like a stalling car. So I asked God if he could help me.

Now, you have to understand that I know nothing about cars except where to put the gas. But
after I prayed I just thought about what might be wrong. The car was running really rough and
the thought occurred to me that maybe the gas was bad and that made me think that maybe it
needed a new fuel filter. I had no idea where the fuel filter was but I thought it didn’t hurt to
look. I found this little thing in the fuel line that looked like it could be a filter. So I went to a
parts store and bought a fuel filter for $5.00. I changed the part and that was it. The car ran fine.
This might seem like a really lame example but it changed the way I pray. I realized that I could
ask God to help me with any problem, even car problems. So the next time you have a problem,
turn to God first.

You can also turn to God to help you with temptation. It’s amazing how prayer takes the wind
out of the sails of temptation. Ask God to show you a way out of the temptation and then watch
for it. Sometimes we are so fixated on our temptation that we don’t even think to ask God for
help. But just stopping to talk to God alone often breaks the power of temptation.

So you can pray for your problems. You can pray for your temptations. And you can prayer for
your emotions. When I get angry I like to step back and ask God – God what’s this all about?
Why is this person or this situation making me so mad? And do you know what? God often
shows me in those moments that it’s not the person I’m dealing with or the situation but it’s often
my fear that’s making me angry. I’m afraid that I’m losing control. And I’m afraid that when I
lose control I won’t be able to solve the problem. Or I might even be afraid that God won’t help
me. And so simply by taking a minute to pray I get insight into not only my anger but what’s
behind it. And that turns everything around for me.

When you get home at night I think it’s good to pray while you are watching whatever
entertainment you’ve picked out. Sometimes I’ll get a few minutes into a show and just ask God,
what do you think? And usually if I have to ask that question I know the answer…turn it off.

And finally you can pray when you go to bed. Again, not a long prayer. Just review your day,
thanking God for what went right and noting the things that you did poorly so you can do better
the next time.

The point in praying “as you go” is that you are actively including God in your daily life. You
want to develop an ongoing dialogue – which means not just speaking but listening to what he
has to say.

Now, a lot of people pray as they go and think it’s enough. But I think it’s important to set time
aside to be more purposeful….more intentional about my time with God. I know that with Lisa I
talk to her every day “as we go” about our business. But that’s not good enough to build our
relationship. We take time to just spend together…talking to each other with no distractions at
dinner time and especially on Friday mornings. That’s our time to talk and read a book together
and pray. That’s when we really get to know each other. And I think we need to do the same

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thing with God. We need to set aside time on a regular basis to sit down with God. If you can
do it every day, that’s the best.

Pray As You Stay

So the second simple step is to pray as you stay. And what I mean by that is a regular time of
reflection. First, pick a place you like. That’s what Jesus did. He liked the mountains, especially
the Mount of Olives as his place to talk to God.
Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. Luke
22:39

One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying
to God. Luke 6:12

You don’t need a mountain. But you need to find a place that you enjoy and there aren’t any
distractions. Don’t pray where you’ll be distracted my work or a television or a computer. My
special place is a rocking chair where I sit in front of a patio door looking into my back yard.

Second, pick a time you like. We already saw how Jesus prayed at night. David preferred the
morning.
In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you
and wait in expectation. Psalm 5:3

But David knew that anytime is the right time to pray…

Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice. Psalm 55:17

Jesus prayed at night. David prayed before sunrise. But the point is to pray at a time that works
for you…a time that you won’t fall asleep! I found that a good time for me is during my lunch
hour.

Next, have some kind of input to help you focus. Without input to guide you it’s easy to let your
mind wander. I know some people like to start by listening to worship music to get their mind
on God. Some people like to play music the whole time because music really helps them
connect with God. I personally like to use devotional books focus my thinking and challenge
me. One popular devotional that I’ve used is called “My Utmost for His Highest” by Oswald
Chambers. I’ve read this a couple of times when I was a younger Christian. It really helped me
to understand what it meant to be serious about following Jesus.

Some people say that they only read the Bible but I think it’s important to hear what other people
say. It’s easy to read the Bible in a way that makes God out to look just like you. So when you
read books or hear sermons you often get a bigger picture of who God is. I know that reading
“My Utmost for His Highest” did that for me.

In his book, Prayer Coach, James L. Nicodem talks about “prayer launchers” to help you keep
your prayers on track. The point is, You don’t have to be original. You don’t have to be
eloquent. Just use meaningful Bible passages to lead you in prayer. For example he
mentions The Love Prayer:

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 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not
rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love
does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts,
always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

A section like this can last me a week. I can easily spend fifteen minutes just thinking about
“Love is patient”. I am not a patient man. Every few years it seems that God takes me deeper
and deeper in regard to my need for patience. When I read this verse I start to ask God all kinds
of questions; God, why am I so impatient? What is it about me that wants what I want now?
Then I sit back and listen. This is some of what has come into my mind after this question:
Impatience has many roots. It comes from pride, thinking that I’m so important that I deserve
quicker results and I shouldn’t have to wait. But impatience also comes from fear…fear that if I
don’t get what I want when I want it that the opportunity will “pass me by” and I’ll be left out.
And when you back that fear up even farther I think the fear really is that God won’t be there for
me. God is here for me NOW and if I don’t get what I want God won’t be here for me later. It’s
a trust issue.

Well, that’s pretty deep. But my point is that by simply reading a rich Bible passage I get
direction for my prayer life. As long as I have a Bible I’ve got plenty of material to pray about.
And prayer isn’t just about me telling God what I want. It’s about listening to him about what he
wants from me.

Here’s another prayer launcher…The Fruit of the Spirit Prayer.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Galatians 5:22,23

You can pray about a different fruit every day. Or you can pray about them all on the same day.
This is something you can pray with kids too. Whether you are driving to school or sitting
around the dinner table you can say, “Let’s pray the fruit prayer!” and pray simple one sentence
prayers like: God help us to love each other even when it’s hard. Help us to feel your joy even in
hard times. Help us to experience your peace, even when I’m scared. Help us to be patient even
when we want something now! And on and on…Before you know it, they will have memorized
the verse too!

Then there’ the The Body Parts prayer:

Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer
yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts
of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. Romans 6:13

This is a visual prayer where you can hold your hands up to God and tell him that you want to
use your body parts to honor him. You want to use your hands to serve others. You want to use
your feet to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. You want to use your eyes to see what God sees.
You want to use your ears to listen to people who feel unheard. You want to use your mouth to
speak words of kindness and blessing and so forth. This is also a great prayer for children too.

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The next launcher is The Church prayer. Do you ever wonder what to pray for the church? At
Cedarbrook we have five values and they create an easy outline to launch prayer.
• Know God- Father help us to grow in our knowledge of you and help others come to
know you too.
• Experience lifechange- help us to be open to change. Might we listen to the voice of the
Spirit and allow him to transform us into the image of Jesus.
• Develop relationships- help us as a church not to isolate but to come out of our shells and
get to know each other and care for each other.
• Serve others – Help us not to be selfish. Show us the needs of people in this community
and even around the world. Help us to be creative in how we meet people’s basic needs.
• Include others – It’s so easy to keep the circle of our relationships closed. Help us as a
church to get out of our comfort zones and invite others to join us, not just on Sunday but
join us as we do life together.

The more you pray about these things the more you will see them not only in the church but in
your life as well.

The last prayer launcher I’ll give you is to simply list your family and friends. Now, this could
be a long list, maybe 50-100 people! Have you ever broken them into lists of 7-10 a day and
promised yourself that you’d pray for ever person once a week? I have…a few times. It usually
lasts about a week or two before I quit. But the book Prayer Coach gave me a good idea. It says
to just pray for your friends and then mark where you left off. When you return to pray just pick
up at that point. That way if you miss a day or two of prayer you don’t get a huge backlog of
names that makes you not want to pray!

Now, for some people, prayer is a great way to get some sleep. So what can you do to stop
sleeping? The easiest thing is to pray when you aren’t sleepy! Pick a better time. You can also
journal your thoughts to help you focus. Or you can stand up when you pray or walk or jog. I
know a few people who can sleep and walk but not too many that sleep and jog. Praying out
loud is also a good way to stay awake.

Pray with Others

The final step for prayer is to pray with others. If you have a few people in your life that you
naturally pray with it will encourage you to pray. Now, praying with others is often very
intimidating to people, especially men. They are afraid that they will look stupid. But here’s
what you want to do…keep it simple and short. I read about a 65 year old man who had run 29
marathons and someone asked him his secret. He said, “I start slow and then slow down from
there.” Ha! Great answer. I tried that with my jogging and it works. I can run much farther that
way. The trap for joggers is that we tend to wear ourselves out too fast by pushing ourselves.

And I think the same is true for praying…we tend to wear ourselves out by trying to make it too
complex. So my recommendation is…start simply and simplify it from there. That means pray
short one or two sentence prayers.
Father, thank you for this food. Use it to strengthen our bodies. Amen.
Father, thank you for our marriage. Help us to respect and honor each other with our
words. Amen.

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 Father, thank you for my friend. Help him to find your strength in their weaknesses.
Amen.
Those are all good prayers. It’s better that you pray a little with others than not at all.

If you are married I hope you’ll learn to pray with your spouse. Meal times are a natural place to
get started. But other times are whenever one of you is struggling with something or maybe your
kids or other family members are struggling. Again, keep it short…Father, you know the
problem here. Thank you for your love for my wife. Help her to find the strength to meet this
challenge. Amen. As you gain comfort I hope you will pray on a more regular basis. Prayer is a
great unifier in marriage. It helps you to get to know each other better at a deeper level (and
because of that, research has shown that couples that pray together have better sex lives! I just
thought you should know that!)

As I said before, you can make praying with your kids fun. If you get all uptight and serious
they’ll learn that talking to God is something they shouldn’t do. And you can pray with your
friends. I will often offer to pray with friends or acquaintances that I run into or talk to on the
phone that express a need. I just say, “Hey, before we go, can I say a brief prayer for you?” I’ve
never had anyone turn me down but I’ve had many people give me a heartfelt thanks for taking
the time to pray.

Don’t be afraid to ask for prayer either. When times are hard I’ll often ask Lisa to pray for me.
I’ve even called her to pray for me right on the phone. And don’t be afraid to stop at “Point of
Grace” at Cedarbrook after the services to ask for prayer. People have been trained just to help
you by praying a simple prayer. The point here is that as followers of Jesus we should develop a
comfort level with praying with one another.

Well, I tried to give you some real practical advice about how you might jump start your prayer
life. Prayer is not complicated. It’s simply talking to God and listening to him, just like you
would with any friend.

Prayer; Father, help us to pray. We need to be in constant dialogue with you just like an
astronaut needs to be in constant touch with Mission Control. Thank you for being patient with
us. Amen.

Going Deeper
Use these questions for a time of personal reflection or to discuss with your small group or
family.

1. Luke 11:1 records the disciples asking Jesus to teach them to pray. What do you think they
observed about his prayer life that made them realize that they had something to learn from him?

2. Read Luke 11:2-4. What are some things that you learn about prayer from Jesus' example?

3. Read Philippians 4:5-9. In verse five it talks about the importance of meekness/gentleness in
prayer. Meekness means "power under control". Why do you think meekness is important to

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prayer?

4. What is the outcome when we turn to God to solve our problems instead of our power to solve
things?

5. Do you pray "as you go" or do you tend to forget about including God in your day-to-day
activities?

6. From the list Remy gave what are some practical situations you think you can "pray as you
go"?

7. What is the best time and place for you to pray uninterrupted for ten minutes or more?

8. What is the advantage to using some of the prayer "launchers"?

9. Who are some people that you can start to pray with?

Entering God’s C.H.A.T. Room

Part Three: A Pattern for Prayer
By Remy Diederich
Cedarbrook Church

I’ve got another lesson in prayer for you today but before I do that I want to ask Jim Walker to
come up here and tell us a little bit about his prayer life. Jim is on our leadership team here at
Cedarbrook and I thought it might interest you to see how he goes about prayer.

Jim’s prayer example.

(Jim laid out a daily plan that he follows to pray for a variety of people and ministries throughout
the week. He also showed how he prays for himself on a daily basis.)
• Sunday: churches
• Monday: Local, national and international outreach
• Tuesday: Children, grandchildren, /extended family, Luke 2:52
• Wednesday; Neighborhood
• Thursday: Friends, small group
• Friday: People to experience the life-changing love of God
• Saturday: Healing and Comfort
• Personal: Forgiveness
Psalm 19:12-13- Forgive my hidden faults and don't let controlling sins rule over me.
• Blessing- Jabez in 1 Chronicles 4:9-10
Bless me indeed,

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 Enlarge my territory,
Your hand will be with me,
Keep me from evil so I do not cause harm.

Now, just so you know, Jim is much more systematic than I am when it comes to prayer. I tried
praying lists like that…oh, probably about ten times in my life…and within a week or two I
always quit! It just didn’t work for me.

For me to stay engaged in daily prayer I have to mix it up. No two days are the same. I have a
variety of devotionals that I read from. I journal my thoughts and prayers. I read the Bible, of
course. And some days I just sit in silence and reflect on whatever God brings to my mind. So
the point here isn’t that you pray like Jim or me but you find what works for you to develop a
daily conversation with God.

Last week I talked about Prayer Launchers. Prayer launchers are tools that help give you some
direction to pray. Jim’s list is a prayer launcher for him as are the scriptures that he quoted. Last
week I gave you a number of Bible verses that will help you launch prayers. Today I want to
give you another prayer launcher but it’s not a Bible verse. It’s an acronym - C.H.A.T. Each
letter stands for a different aspect of prayer. So let me walk you through these four letters.

Confess
The “C” stands for Confess. I wonder what comes to mind when you hear that word? Confess or
confession aren’t the most positive words. They tend to bring up thoughts of guilt and shame.
But as uncomfortable as it might be, when you come to God I think it’s helpful to ask God to
show you the dark side of your heart and when he shows you - confess it. David said…
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if
there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139:23,24

That’s a dangerous prayer, isn’t it? Have you ever prayed a prayer like that? I mean, if you ask
God to show you if there is any offensive way in you, you just better hope he doesn’t do it all at
once. It would be overwhelming! You see, we are broken people. We’ve all got issues – we’ve
all got a dark side. And we don’t need just minor repairs or a touch up. Whether we want to
admit it or not we need a complete and total overhaul. That’s why we don’t need just a little
religion. We need Jesus to come into our lives and transform us from top to bottom by the power
of his Spirit.

I don’t think I knew that when I was younger. But the older I get the easier it is for me to see my
dark side. It’s those attitudes of the heart that I talked about last week if you were here. I talked
about my tendency to be sarcastic, my fear, my anger, the impatience that comes with daily
situations. You might not even notice these things on the outside but they are there.

Many of us are afraid to confess our faults to God. But do you know why that is? I think it’s
because we don’t think we can change. And because of that we are afraid that God will get sick
of us going to him day after day with the same confession.

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But if that’s what you think…there’s something you need to understand. Confession is the first
step to being changed. The Bible tells us …
If we claim we have not sinned, we make God out to be a liar and his word has no place
in our lives. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and
purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:10,9

The “and” here is very important. God is able to forgive us of our sin but he’s also able to rid us
of that sin. You’ve got to believe that! That’s what it means to purify us. It means to remove the
sin altogether. So what I want you to see here is that confession isn’t some kind of verbal
flogging that you subject yourself to…
Oh God, I confess what a failure I am again! I’m such a worm. I don’t deserve your
forgiveness.

No. That’s not what confession is about. Don’t pray like that! Pray something like…
God, I failed you again. But thank you for not giving up on me. Thank you for forgiving
me. And thank you that your Spirit in me gives me the power to change.

Confession shouldn’t leave you feeling defeated and guilty. Jesus died to set you free from
condemnation. Confession should leave you feeling forgiven and hopeful about becoming a new
person. So make confession a regular part of your prayer life.

Honor
The second letter in C.H.A.T. is H for Honor. Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church starts off
with a good example of this. He says…
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and
the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those
in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 2 Corinthians 1:3,4

And when Jesus taught his disciples how to pray he starts by saying…
Our Father, who is in heaven, holy is your name. Matthew 6:9

So, when you approach God, think of ways that you can honor him by praising him. Honoring
God not only gives God the credit that he deserves but it also reminds you who you are talking to
and that builds your faith. You are talking to the God of the universe. The God who can move
mountains. The God who is holy and the father of all comfort. Praising God helps you get your
eyes off of your weakness and look at his strength. And that will help you to pray.

But one problem we have when it comes to honoring God is that most of us don’t have a very
good vocabulary of praise. After telling God that he is great and awesome and loving we tend to
start “shooting blanks”. We run out of words. We might have all kinds of words to describe
our favorite running back or movie star or rock star but when it comes to God we draw a blank.
We don’t know what else to say.

I’ve mentioned the book Prayer Coach the last two weeks. The author talks about this lack of
vocabulary and he pokes fun at how some people pray and say… God, I just want to thank you
for who you are!

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And he says, What’s that supposed to mean? I just thank you for who you are! And then he
says, How would you feel if someone came up to you and said that? Remy, I just want to thank
you for who you are! And he’s right. My question would be…who do you think I am? I’m not
so sure that’s a compliment! I wonder if God feels that way some times.

Well, I want you to listen to a preacher by the name of S.M. Lockridge who has developed an
extensive vocabulary for praise. (see video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX_7j32zgNw)

Now, compare that to the the statement…I just want to praise you for who you are! There’s no
comparison, is there?

Did you notice when you heard all those words of praise and honor how something welled up
inside of you and blessed you just hearing them? Did you sense faith rising in you as you heard
God’s name lifted up? Isn’t that interesting what happens to YOU when you honor God? God
gets the credit but you get the blessing. I don’t understand that but it’s true and that’s why you
need to incorporate praising God into your prayer life. You need to honor God even more than
God needs to hear the praise.

If you want to develop your vocabulary of praise pick up the book Prayer Coach. He’s got an
appendix in the back of his book that is worth the price of the book alone. It lists out all of the
attributes of God from the bible (250) alphabetically and gives the corresponding scripture verse.
So for the letter M he has…
Magnificent, majestic, Maker of all things, Maker of heaven and earth, Man of Sorrows ,
Master, mediator, merciful, Messiah , Mighty God and Morning Star

Ask
Now, the “A” in C.H.A.T. is for Ask. I think a lot of us are missing out by not asking God for
things. And others are missing out because we ask but we ask for the wrong things. It’s just like
the Bible says…
…the reason you don't have what you want is that you don't ask God for it. And even
when you do ask, you don't get it because your whole motive is wrong – you want only
what will give you pleasure. James 4:2,3

When Jesus taught his disciples to pray he told them to ask for four things. The first request is
“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” We are to ask God to send
his kingdom to earth through us; that is his love, his justice, his righteousness…everything that
speaks of God and his goodness.

Next we are to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” so we are to ask for daily provision for
food and clothing and housing. And then “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors”, so we
are to ask for forgiveness for sin. And finally we are told to pray, “Lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.” And so we are to ask God for deliverance from sin and temptation. So,
Jesus clearly expects us to ask for things when we pray. The majority of the prayer is about
asking.

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But when you ask for something I think it’s important to follow up your request by asking God
what he wants you to do to in order to see the prayer come true. For example, you might ask God
to give you a better job. That’s fair but then I think you should also ask God how you can
prepare yourself for a better job. Maybe you need to get more education or training. Maybe God
wants to show you something about your character that is lacking and that’s why you never get
promoted. Maybe you need more courage and drive to seek out a new job and more perseverance
to keep applying even though you keep getting rejected.

Or, you might pray for a better husband or a better wife…but I think you should then ask God
what you can do to help your husband or wife become the person you want them to be. What
kind of person can you be that will help your spouse to be the best they can be? Do you see that?
I don’t think it’s fair to just sit back and ask God to “fix” your spouse.

Next week we are going to start a month long journey asking God to help us get our own
building. I think that’s a good thing to ask for but beyond asking for a building the prayer that
we want everyone to pray is this, Lord, what would you do through me to accomplish your vision
for Cedarbrook Church?

My point here is that, if you want to get your prayer answered, you have to be willing to become
a part of the answer to your prayer. I think a lot of us miss out on answered prayer because we
don’t consider this.
Another thing that will help your prayers get answered is what Jesus said…
If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be
given you. John 15:7

What does it mean to “remain” or some translations say “abide”? It means to stay put. So to
paraphrase Jesus you might say,
If you stay put and stick with me and let my words stick to you…if you follow me
wherever I go and learn to think like I do…then ask what you want and I’ll give it to you.

Our problem often is that we don’t stick with Jesus. Our faith comes and goes. We might pray
for a day or two and then we drift off. We drop out of church…we fall back into old habits and
then we have a crisis so we come back to God and start to pray again.

And we live in that cycle wondering why God never answers our prayers. Well, Jesus says it’s
because we failed to remain in him and let his words remain in us. If you stay put and pray
prayers that promote God’s agenda and not your agenda you’ll start to see your prayers
answered.

Thank
The final letter in C.H.A.T. is “T” for Thanks. Paul wrote the Philippian church and told them…
Do not worry about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with
thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all
understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6,7
This tells me that prayer with thanksgiving is the antidote to worry. Do I have any worriers out
there today?

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A lot of us live in fear.
We live in fear of the economy.
We live in fear of not knowing what to do in life.
We live in fear of our health going bad.
We live in fear of the trouble that our kids might get into.
We live in fear of our marriage failing or in fear of never getting married.

We’ve got fear all around us and God knows that. So Paul tells us here to not only pray and ask
God to help you but make sure that you do it with thanksgiving.

What is it about thanksgiving that helps us to not worry? I’m reading the book “The Shack” right
now and it said something that really struck me. It said that fear is looking into the future and
assuming that God is not there. I read that and I thought, “Huh, I think he’s right! When I get
worried that’s exactly what’s going on inside of me”. I’m seeing the future without God. And
so, now, when I start to fear I just tell myself, Remy God will be with you in the future just like
he is with you now. And then I thank God for that. I say,
God, thank you that you are with me now and thank you that you will be with me in the
future. Thank you that I can count on you to show me the way out of any problem that
might come my way. Thank you that I can trust you to give me courage to do the right
thing and patience to endure hard things.

You see prayer, with thanksgiving, helps you to picture your future with God. Your ship is not
sinking. The sky is not falling. God is still in charge and because of that everything will be okay.
It might not be what you wanted or expected, but it’s going to be okay because God will be there
for you. And we have that kind of confidence when we pray with thanksgiving.

Well, I hope this little acronym, C.H.A.T., is helpful. Don’t feel like every time you pray you
have to confess, honor, ask and thank. C.H.A.T. is just a pattern to remind you of some things
that you might want to talk to God about.

Now, before I close, I just want to say one more thing. It might seem obvious but prayer is a
conversation and conversations involve speaking and, what else?...listening. So when you sit
down to talk to God don’t do all the talking! It’s in silence that God will speak to your heart and
give you the direction that you need.

I like what Henri Nouwen said about listening to God…

Many voices ask for our attention. There is a voice that says, "Prove that you are a good
person." Another voice says, "You'd better be ashamed of yourself." There also is a voice
that says, "Nobody really cares about you," and one that says, "Be sure to become
successful, popular, and powerful."

But underneath all these often very noisy voices is a still, small voice that says, "You are
my Beloved, my favor rests on you." That's the voice we need most of all to hear. To hear
that voice, however, requires special effort; it requires solitude, silence, and a strong
determination to listen.

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 That's what prayer is. It is listening to the voice that calls us "my Beloved." Henri
Nouwen

Prayer: Father, you are a God who listens to your people. I confess our prayerlessness to you.
Please teach us to pray. Specifically, teach us to confess our sin, honor you with praise, ask
according to your will and thank you for everything you’ve given us. Above all, help us to be
quiet and listen. Thank you for your patience with us. Amen.

Going Deeper
Use the following questions for reflection or to discuss with others in your small group or family.

1. Describe your times of prayer (if you have them). How do you spend your time?
2. What have you found effective in helping you connect with God in a meaningful way?
3. Is confession a part of your prayer? Why or why not?
4. What is hard about confession for you?
5. Recall a time when you felt God reveal a hidden sin to you and how you confessed it.
6. Do you have a vocabulary of praise that helps you worship God? Why or why not?
7. What are some topics that you like to talk about? Why is it that we often lack words to honor
God?
8. What kind of things do you ask God for? What kind of answers to pray have you received?
9. Why do you think some of our prayers are not answered?
10. Do you wait for God's answer to your prayer or do you tend to pray and then move on
without God?
11. What is it that you tend to worry about?
12. Read Philippians 4:6,7. How can thanksgiving be an antidote to worry?

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