Howard Hendricks
February 8, 2001
7:15 pm
The Master's Model
Message Summary
If you are like me," Howard Hendricks began, "one area of your spiritual life that is constantly shot down in flames is your prayer life." Hendricks explained that prayer is as vital to one's spiritual health as breathing is to the body. Yet it's one of the things we struggle with the most. Why is that? Hendricks posited that it is a product of Satan as he realizes its vital importance in the spiritual health of a believer, even more important than purely information-gaining Bible study. A prayer life is about transformation.
In order to improve one's prayer life, Hendricks recommended a personal study of the prayer life of Christ, asking two important questions. The first question is: how did Jesus Christ spend His life on earth? The answer is that he spent a good part of it in prayer, in fact His private life was spent predominantly in prayer and this affected His public life. Some of the most critical decisions Christ ever made were done only after he spent the whole night before praying about it.
The second question is: what is Jesus doing now in heaven? Christ is now praying constantly for us as Hebrews 7:22-25 indicates. Hendricks explained, "Every time we pray we need to remember that we are entering a prayer meeting that is going on 24 hours a day." If Christ's life was and is so about prayer, how can He take up His residence in our life and we not pray?
In response to this, Hendricks challenged the audience with three lessons. First of all, he explained that wherever prayer focuses, power falls. Prayer individually and in groups is extremely powerful. Secondly we need to utilize the time we have available to pray. The issue is not how many hours you spend in prayer, but how you use your time. Lastly, we need to learn to believe that God can accomplish the impossible.
Hendricks left his audience with one though-provoking question, "Is what we are doing really worth doing, if we can do it without prayer?"
Student Response
Hendricks captivated my attention in a way that few others have. I almost found myself disappointed when he was finished; I could have listened for another half an hour at least. But the information he presented was enough to chew on for weeks. His insightfulness and straightforward manner made him easy to listen to yet he was also challenging. His stories and illustrations made his points come alive to me. He's a very real, very wise man with a very challenging message from God.
—Susanne Eadelman, Junior, Communications/Print Media emphasis