As a Christian, there is nothing more despairing and hopeless that repetitive sin. How easy it is for doubts and confusion regarding our own salvation to begin to creep into our minds when we continue to sin over and over again. Overwhelming feelings of God’s anger and disappointment with our repeated rebellious behavior can crush us so completely we eventually do not want to come to him at all.
Martin Loyd Jones said, “Sanctification proceeds as we are led by the Holy Spirit to draw deductions from the doctrine of justification. Do you long to be holy? Do you long to have victory over sin in your mortal body? How can you do so? First, understand the doctrine. You cannot ‘work out your salvation with fear and trembling’ (Philippians 2:12-13) if we are unclear about the doctrine of salvation.”
Is it ever possible to pray too much? This question is both easy and hard to answer. The short answer is “No, you cannot pray too much.”
However, when we start talking about praying for specific people, places, and things over defined periods of time, we will need to apply wisdom and walk with the Spirit to answer this question in each personal situation people will encounter.
In other words, while you cannot pray too much, I believe it is possible to pray too much about certain things or certain desires, especially when the Holy Spirit is trying to move you forward but for some reason you won’t let a certain prayer request go.
So what does the Bible say about praying too much?
It’s my belief that the amount of real spiritual power someone has is equal to how much credit they are willing to give God in their hearts and actions. God greatly uses those who are finally ready to give him all the glory. If you still desire the praise, then God isn’t going to curse you with the power.
This trait of possessing power and yet knowing it comes from God is always present in those God uses the most. Joseph is a perfect example of this.
In the Bible, “The heart” is a phrase used in many ways. But to boil it down really quick, according to the Bible, your heart is the deepest, truest you. Therefore when Jesus said that out of the heart comes evil actions (Matthew 15:18-19), he was saying who we are determines what we do.
The Bible says we must put ourselves last if we hope to be a servant to all and reflect Christ (Mark 9:35). What that does not mean, however, is that we must “put ourselves down.”
Negative self-talk, hatred of self, and putting yourself down are not commands found in the Bible. So what does the Bible say about putting yourself down?
A blind spot is not a phrase you will find in the Bible, but it is a principle mentioned often in Scripture. A blind spot is an area in our lives that is negatively impacting us but that we cannot see. Like a blind spot when you are driving a car, spiritual blind spot that goes ignored can also lead to massive wrecks in life.
You’re single, you’re walking with the Lord, you want to be married, and you start liking a guy or girl who also loves the Lord. The problem is, that person doesn’t seem to be showing the same interest.
When I was 19-years-old, a deep fear came over me that I might waste my life. I had just spent the last four years of high school goofing off, living wild, partying with friends, and basically ignoring God. In our senior class yearbook, I was voted with the best laugh. That was my legacy thus far. Thankfully, however, God was not laughing with me or ignoring me.
If you listened to the world, you’d come to the conclusion that the earth was made through a big, random explosions and through the course of time, organisms slowly evolved into all that we see before us. Random, dumb luck is the reason you and me are breathing oxygen this very moment. And if everything happened by luck, then there can’t really be any true meaning to life – only subjective meaning created in each individual rather than objective, global meaning applied to every human by a higher power.