For Starters: Why Men Don’t Pray

Why are many business men and leaders languishing in their prayer lives?

The first major reason is this: they have seen such meager results in the past. So, they have been conditioned to expect little and as a result their prayer life has withered away to a useless ritual that simply wastes time, time that could be spent on working or selling.

The second key reason is because they don’t know what to say or do during prayer time. As a result prayer is boring, so of course they have a hard time making time for prayer.

Thirdly, and here’s the biggest reason, because they see no real, practical connection between prayer and outcome (what they get in real life), they have little motivation to pray.

The Truth About Prayer

First of all, to become powerful in prayer you must renew your understanding of what prayer can do for you and through you. To see the powerful results of prayer in your life, family and business, you must have a vision of what the power of God released will do for you, for every area of your life. Without a vision of what is at stake, without knowledge of what could be lost, or gained, you and I will not pursue an effective prayer life.

3 John verse 2 says it all, “Loved ones, I pray that in every area of your life you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.” No real, lasting, fulfilling prosperity, comes to you without a connection to God, who created and understands all there is.

Ecclesiastes 7:12 says, both wisdom and money provide protection, but the very best thing you can realize is that only wisdom gives life to those who pursue it like they do money. (SLB version)

It is so easy to sit on the outside of large success, look in, and think that’s what you want. But, the worse thing that can happen to you, even worse than pain of loss, is to spend your life, your one life, your valuable life time, perhaps even sacrificing your marriage and children to achieve that large success, only to find out how empty the pleasure of success is, and realize how much you need God, after the fact. How many million does it take to to learn this? One, five, ten? How many times do you need to be on national TV to realize that one second after the lights go out, so does the glitter of success.

The Big If

If God is not there, if He is boring, if prayer is just a religious ritual, then I’m with you. We only live life once, lets chuck the dry, empty religion and get on with life and grab all we can because we only go around once, let’s get what’s ours and as much of it as we can! But, if on the off chance He is there, and He really cares and loves you, and if He is the Creator, and as such, knows how everything you want really works, then you and I need to take another look before we throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Empty Ritual or Exciting Journey? 

What if God is exciting? What if you hop on the wave of His Holy Spirit and can hardly keep up with it? What if He can grant you all of the success you can handle, and along with it happiness, fulfillment and an awesome, fun, fulfilling time with your spouse, family and community. No one, absolutely no one lived as full and productive as Jesus Christ. No one ever before or since has achieved success like He did. What He did two thousand years ago is still changing lives today. How would you like success on that level? Will anyone remember your success a moment after you’re in the grave? Who will remind them how big you are if you aren’t there to do it? What kind of legacy will you leave?  How big is big to you? Perhaps you need to spend some time with this Universe Creator who will blow you out of the water with a new definition of BIG! Empty ritual or exciting journey? Its what you make it. So let’s connect with an exciting God and learn to make it exciting.

A New Vision

A vision of what God can and will do in you and through you comes only through direct connection with God. In every area of business you are constantly learning so you will be more efficient and get more out of your investment of time, money and effort, right? So why not do the same with your prayer life?

As Jesus prayed and saw the withered hand restored, I am praying for the withered prayer life of leaders to grow back and become functioning, strong and effective. Just like it revolutionized the life of the man with the restored arm, so it will for you!

So You Want Powerful and Successful, so . . .

The Circle of Seven is an intensified effort to help you become powerful and effective in your exchange with the Almighty I AM, so you might be more like Jesus, the most powerful, successful, fruitful leader who ever lived.

To see the powerful results of prayer in your family and business you must have the courage to pursue the vision God gives  you. This courage comes only through direct, consistent communication with our awesome God who will download the hope, faith and courage that will see you through the resistance that always comes between great praying and great answers.

In a correctly defined and structured life of prayer you are immersed in a culture of prayer that empowers every area of your life so the Holy Spirit can pour into you. As a result of this process you yourself will ultimately become the best answer for you, for your family and for this world, because you have been transformed by His presence to be what He is; a knowledgeable, discerning, wisdom and power filled, creative being. This comes only by knowing what prayer really is, how it really works and what the process from request to answer really looks like.

Commit

Join us in the circle of seven on this journey to living in the constant powerful presence of God, in an ongoing moment by moment exchange with Him trading your lack for His abundance, your failure for His success, your incomplete knowledge for His full wisdom, in short, who you are for who He is.  Living here is the way to powerful prayer and powerful, fruitful, abundant living.

Downloadable, printable pdf of this post: why-study-prayer-by-samuel-lee-bowman