3/15/16: Prayer-Part 1

Posted on Mar 11, 2016 in General |

Prayer- Part 1

What is prayer?

 

Prayer is loving communication with God.  Prayer is the expression of our spiritual needs through prayer we have a relationship with God.  We will find strength, guidance, wisdom, joy, and inner peace.

 Psalms 118: 5-6

 Psalms 138:3

 Isaiah 58:9-11

 Philippians 4:6-7

 1 Peter 5:7

Prayer may be short or long, alone or in a group, silent or aloud, but it should be a true communication with God and not done for public recognition.  (Matthew 6:5-8)

Important aspects of prayer include:

 Expressions of faith and trust in God

 Confession of our sins

 Praise of God’s Mighty Deeds

 Thanks giving for all the good things we have received

 Dedication to serve God and other people

 Request for our needs and the needs of others

 

The Lord’s Prayer

Jesus spent a lot of time praying.  He often went to a solitary place and prayed for hours at a time, at different times in His ministry.

 Matthew 14: 23; 26:36-41

 Mark 1:35

 Luke 5:16;6:12

The famous “Lord’s Prayer” is Jesus’ model of the perfect prayer.

 Matthew 6:9

-We call God by the affectionate term” Father” and praise His Holy name. 

-We ask that God’s will be done on Earth and in our lives.  (Matthew 6:10)

-We ask to be given the things we need, but we don’t ask things we merely desire.  (Matthew 6:11)

-We ask for forgiveness of our sins and acknowledge that we must also forgive others who sin against us. 

(Matthew 5:44; 6:14-15; Mark 11:12; Luke 6:28 and Matthew 6:12)

-We ask for the strength to resist temptation and evil.  (Luke 22:40)

God will answer our prayers but Jesus said this: (Matthew 7:7-11)

God will answer our prayers and give us everything we need and more (Mark 11:24; John 15:7) But a wise parent will not give a child everything that he or she wants.  Prayer is not a magical trick to get anything we want or a “quick fix” for problems that we should be solving ourselves.  God answers prayer request in His own way, in His own time.  (Psalms 40:1-3)  He will not grant request that are against His holy and wise purposes.  (1 John 5:14-15)  Our selfish nature is not in our long-term interest or those request made with impure motives.  (Psalms 66:18, Proverbs 28:9; Isaiah 29:13; Isaiah 59:2; Hebrews 11:6; James 4:3)

We must be persistent in prayer (Luke 11:5-13; Luke 18: 1-8) the answer may come in a form different from what we had in mind.  We should be ready for the possibility (Deuteronomy 3:23-27; 2 Corinthians 12:7-9) God may use other people or means to supply the answer.  (Daniel 10:10-12, Acts 9:10-17)  When we pray persistent, our prayers come from within.  We need to have a new mind set of seeing things (Matthew 5:8; Romans 2:1-5; John 4:7-8) or we might have to ask someone to forgive you of something that you may have done.  (Matthew 6:14-15)
 
Minister Sue Reynolds