How to Pray When There's A Lot Going On

Life does not always slow down so you can connect with God. Sometimes life is full of challenges and yet you find yourself giving to others. How can you continue to give to others when you have so many challenges yourself? You PRESS because prayer reaches every single situation.

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Transcript

Press means to apply force. When God said press, prayer reaches every single situation. He gave us permission to apply force to every situation that we will go through.

And in this podcast, we are going to learn to apply force to what's applying pressure to us. Welcome to the Press Podcast and to 2024 as we are continuing our journey through the Bible, through every prayer in the Bible, no matter where you're joining us in this journey. Hopefully you'll go back to the beginning because all of these prayers really do help you build upon each other, give insight into the mind and will of God.

And you know what? It's just fun. It is really fun and interesting to see how people prayed, why they prayed and how God responded to them. So hopefully you've listened to the other podcast, but if not hop on board, let's do that.

Today we are meeting in the book of first Samuel chapter 23. I'm going to open today by reading this prayer and then I want to tell you the background behind it. We're in chapter 23 and we're going to start with verse one.

Then they told David saying, behold, the Philistines fight against Keilah and they robbed the threshing floors. Therefore, David inquired of the Lord saying, shall I go and smite these Philistines? The Lord said unto David, go and smite the Philistines and save Keilah. And David's men said unto him, behold, we'd be afraid here in Judah.

How much more then if we come to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines? Then David inquired of the Lord yet again, and the Lord answered him and said, arise, go down to Keilah for I will deliver the Philistines into thine hand. So David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines and brought away their cattle and smote them with a great slaughter. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.

And it came to pass when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David to Keilah, that he came down with an ephod in his hand. And it was told Saul that David was come to Keilah. And Saul said, God hath delivered him into mine hand, for he is shut in by entering into a town that hath gates and bars.

This is our first prayer encountering David. David is one of the most famous people in the Bible. He wrote so many of the Psalms.

The Bible refers to him as a man after God's own heart. He is one of the people of the Bible that we get to see a lot of his story. So you get to learn how David reacts and thinks, because we see him in so many different scenarios, especially scenarios under pressure.

And today is one of those. The background to this story is that in 1st Samuel 22, you already see that Saul is trying to kill David. If you listened to the previous podcast, then you know that Samuel had come to Saul already saying that you're not going to keep the throne in your family.

God has taken it away from you because of your disobedience in offering a sacrifice in 1st Samuel 12. The Bible lets us know that Samuel does anoint David to be the next king. And Saul learns of this.

I'm summarizing a very long story here that you need to read between 1st Samuel 12 and 1st Samuel 22 to really completely understand. But basically, Saul sees his successor and he doesn't like it. He doesn't want David to be on the throne.

David is not his son. He's not related to him. David is a young man who was a shepherd boy, who all of a sudden has come to the scene and has proved to be this mighty warrior defeating Goliath.

And people love him and celebrate him. Saul is not happy. Saul goes through ups and downs with David.

Sometimes he loves him. Sometimes he hates him. But at the end of the day, Saul wants to kill him because he's going to take his place.

So in 1st Samuel 22, Saul is trying to kill David. He knows that his son Jonathan has betrayed him and taken David's side in the fight. And he also is now on the lookout for other people who have betrayed him.

And so there's a man named Doeg who sees that the priest Ahimelech had helped David recently by giving him food and helping his men. Saul begins inquiring of who has been helping David. In chapter 22, Doeg rats out Ahimelech because Doeg tells Saul that Ahimelech, the priest's family, has been helping David.

Saul calls for all of them. His whole family. Saul tells his soldiers kill them.

They refuse to kill him because they're not going to touch a priest or his family. But Saul tells Doeg to do it and he does it. He kills them all.

The Bible says he slew 85 persons that day that did wear a linen ephod in 1st Samuel 22, 18. He killed them all except Abiathar. Abiathar is the son of Ahimelech and he escapes.

He escapes to David to tell David what happened. And he tells David, everybody in my father's house is dead. My whole family is dead.

David tells him, abide thou with me. Stay with me. Fear not.

For he that seeketh my life, seeketh thy life. But with me, thou shalt be in a safeguard. In other words, the same one looking for you is looking for me, but you're going to be safe with me.

And so he takes Ahimelech with him. So Ahimelech is the son of a priest and that's why it's important that he brought down the ephod in verse 6 of chapter 23. He is essentially recognizing the anointing that is upon David as king.

But when they come to David in 1 Samuel 23 and they tell him there's a battle going on in Keilah and they need help. It's so ironic to me that David has so much going on. How can he fight somebody else's fight? Think about it.

The king is trying to kill him. The people who have helped him are being killed. He's dealing with an army.

When he goes to pray, he tells the Lord they're already afraid. And yet here he is willing to risk exposing himself, losing his secure position in order to save these people. He has the heart of God's king that always cares for the people first.

Even before he has the actual position. Some people seek position and authority because they think that will make them something. But the best leaders, best people to follow are those people who have the character, the integrity of the position before they have the actual position or authority.

David demonstrates that here because as much as he has going on, his own life is on the line. But he'll risk it for somebody else. We don't know much about Keilah because it's only mentioned in Joshua 15 22 prior to seeing it here.

The Bible doesn't tell us much about their story or who they were. We do know it was part of Judah. But outside of that, there's really no special characters or special people or anything that would draw our attention to Keilah.

However, it didn't matter. What mattered was they're his brothers, they're his sisters, they're in the kingdom and they need help. And even though he had a lot going on, his own life was being fought.

His own heart was being fought. His people were being fought. It didn't matter.

It was time to go to battle because somebody needed him. And the Lord said, go up and save them. The Lord said he's going to use him to do it.

I pray for leaders, especially in those who carry households and families and loved ones, because sometimes we have a lot going on and we are still called upon to have to fight for somebody else, to pray for somebody else. You may not be a leader with the title or anything like that today, but perhaps God has laid upon you some people to pray for. And you're thinking, God, I have a lot going on myself.

How? This is the answer to how. This prayer shows us how we are to pray, even in the middle of our own drama. And you know how you do that? One thing at a time.

You do that trusting God, just like you did it before. You do that trusting him to handle his business and take the fight that's in front of you to him and trust him with it. Trust him to respond.

Trust him that when he says go up and fight, he's not forgot about what's fighting you. And the irony of the story is what's fighting him thought it was going to use how he was exposed to actually get him. That's the key to verse seven.

He exposed himself to Saul by going to fight for Keilah. He backed himself into a corner, entering into a town that had gates and bars. He's now in a barred city fighting for people he didn't have to fight for.

And the enemy, Saul, thinks this is the opportunity to get David. I want to admonish you today because I'm not going to finish this story. I want you to go read it.

What did God do for David? How did this go in Keilah? But I admonish you today, the safest place in the whole wide world is really in the will of God. For even in being exposed, you are safe. Even in fighting, you can win.

You don't have to worry about the enemy waiting for you. When God has sent you to the battle, when God has sent you to the battle, he already knows what's waiting. He already considered what's already fighting you.

He knows the condition of the ones you're going to fight with. But when God says, I'm going to use you to say, he means just that. When God has given an assignment on your life, he means just that.

He knows who he's talking to. And I love what I see in David here because he didn't shake in the face of this fight. He wasn't worried about how hard it would be or the people being too scared.

He just said, Lord, one more time. And he said, arise, go down to Keilah, for I will deliver the Philistines into thine hand. So David, God has been up and went one fight at a time.

Today, we trust God to handle the battles that are coming after us. And we trust him to win the ones he told us to fight. And we're just going to pray one thing at a time.

And we're going to trust him and walk with him. And remember that prayer reaches every single situation. Join the movement.

Join the community. Like, share, and subscribe to this podcast. Visit us at PressToPray.com or find us on Instagram or Facebook.

Did you know that when you are quiet, your voice is missing to God's ears? I know some of us have prayed and were wondering, how long should I pray about this? Why should I pray if God already knows? How will I know God is answering? And what do I do when I feel like God's not listening? But God is listening for your voice. It's too quiet in this world for the troubles we have. You have to raise your voice and God wants to hear from you.

It's Too Quiet, a book about prayer, is designed to answer your prayer questions and build your faith. Visit PressToPray.com

Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.