Thursday
Evening Bible Study
February
25, 2021
This evening’s topic is about prayer.
Defining Prayer
I think sometimes we can over complicate prayer, especially if we grew up
in a “religious”
tradition that was filled with outward rituals, priests, and incense.
You might think that prayer involves secret formulas, long robes, and fancy language.
Prayer is
simply talking to God.
All relationships
are built on communication,
and since we’ve entered into a relationship with God,
prayer is a vital component of our communication with God.
We talk to God.
We listen to
Him.
We allow Him to
speak through His Word.
And so the conversation starts.
The psalmist wrote,
(Psalm 116:1–2 NKJV) —1 I love the Lord,
because He has heard My voice and my supplications. 2 Because He
has inclined His ear to me, Therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.
God actually wants to hear from you. He loves your prayers.
Prayer requirements
There are some requirements when it comes to effective prayer.
Faith
(Matthew 21:22 NKJV) And whatever
things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”
Our
relationship with God is built on faith.
(Hebrews 11:6 NKJV) But without faith it is impossible to please Him,
for he who comes to God must believe
that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
But be careful about over emphasizing this point.
Faith is not
some magic ingredient where you can get the “genie” to do whatever you want
because you have enough “faith”.
Illustration
There
once was this guy that got a dirty old lamp for his birthday. He cleaned
it up and POOF!--out
popped a genie! “I shall give you three wishes. You may have anything you
like.” So the guys thinks for
a minute and says, “I would like a billion dollars.” “You shall have it,” and
the genie grants
him the wish. “Anything else?” The guy thinks for a while. “I would like a VW
Bug with A/C, power locks, power windows, you know the works.” “Your wish is my command.
What is your last wish?” “Hmmm. I think I’ll save it for a rainy day.” “OK,
suit yourself,” says the genie. So the guy gets in his
new VW and goes for a drive to show all his friends. He turns on the radio.
There’s a very familiar commercial on. The guy starts singing to it: “I wish I
was an Oscar Meyer Wiener.”
If God is just a “genie” that obeys your every wish, we are in trouble.
Abiding
Jesus said,
(John 15:7 NKJV) If you abide in Me, and My
words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
Here’s a wonderful promise. But pay
attention.
“Abiding” means to simply “remain” or “stay put”.
When you opened your heart to Jesus, you entered into a relationship with Him. Stay in that relationship. Don’t wander away.
If you don’t have a relationship with Jesus, then don’t
expect God to answer your prayers. Come
to know Jesus. Give your life to Jesus.
Jesus also said
we need His “words” abiding in us.
That hints
at the importance of you and I staying in God’s Word. Keep reading it. Learn it.
Meditate on it.
We talked about this last week.
When we do
this, we see God influencing how we pray.
His will
(1 John 5:14–15 NKJV) —14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask
anything according to His
will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us,
whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
Here’s one of the biggest keys to prayer.
We need to pray for the things that God is wanting to do.
We don’t always know what God’s will is.
Sometimes we only find out when we covenant to pray faithfully for
something.
When I learn to
pray for the same thing day after day, something happens:
I may
get the answer immediately.
I may
come to realize that this is the wrong thing to pray for.
I may
come to find that I need to stay persistent in prayer. Some things take time.
No matter how my request is answered, I find that prayer is one of the
tools where I grow closer to God, learn His ways, and learn to participate in
what He is wanting to do in this world by partnering in prayer.
But mostly, just pray
A.C.T.S.
So
what do I pray about? What does prayer
look like?
There are lots of good “patterns” we can follow when it comes to prayer.
We could follow
an example that Jesus gave – the
Lord’s Prayer.
But keep in mind, it is just an example, a pattern (a good one) to follow.
Jesus said, “In
this manner, therefore, pray …” (Mat. 6:9)
Another pattern that can be helpful is to use the acrostic A.C.T.S.
Adoration
Before you get into asking God for your requests, take time to acknowledge
Him for who He is.
Take time to
honor Him and worship Him.
Sometimes I get so focused on the problems I’m bringing to God that I forget that He’s the
Creator – the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving Lord of the Universe.
You will find this in some of the key prayers in the Bible. Look at how King Hezekiah prayed when He was
under siege by the Assyrians,
(2 Kings 19:15–16 NKJV) —15 Then Hezekiah prayed before the Lord,
and said: “O Lord God of Israel, the
One who dwells between the cherubim, You
are God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and
earth. 16 Incline Your ear, O Lord,
and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord,
and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the
living God.
Hezekiah started his prayer by focusing on how great God was.
Confession
We need to realize that for our prayers to be effective, we need to have a
healthy relationship with God.
Sin blocks prayer
We aren’t going
to get far in our prayers when we are living in unrepentant sin.
David wrote,
(Psalm 66:18 NKJV) If I regard iniquity in my
heart, The Lord
will not hear.
The ESV translates this, “If I cherished iniquity in my heart…”
The problem comes when I love my sin more than I love God.
Sin in our heart limits our connection with God.
Illustration
A newly
promoted colonel had moved into a makeshift office during the Gulf War. He was just getting
unpacked when out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a private with a toolbox
coming his way. Wanting to seem important, he grabbed the phone: “Yes, General Schwarzkopf. Of
course, I think that’s an excellent plan.” He continued: “You’ve got my support
on it. Thanks for checking with me. Let’s touch base again soon, Norm.
Good-bye.” “And what can I do for you?” he asked the private. “Uhhh,
I’m just here to hook up your phone.”
Sometimes that’s us when we’re walking in disobedience. We want people thinking we’re talking to God,
when the line isn’t
even connected.
As important as
our requests are to God, He is more concerned about us. He is more concerned about the state of our
heart.
He longs for us to admit our sin, our weakness, and ask for His help.
(1 John 1:9 NKJV) If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Confession
restores the connection with God.
Thanksgiving
This is a little like “adoration”.
Yet if we learn to say “thank you” after we’ve confessed our sins, we are acknowledging that
we have received God’s forgiveness.
I think “thanksgiving” is a key to receiving much from the Lord. It’s our way of expressing “faith” in
Him. It means that we believe He is
going to answer our prayers.
Listen to this –
(Philippians 4:6–7 NKJV) —6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and
supplication, with thanksgiving,
let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the
peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and
minds through Christ Jesus.
I often wondered why I didn’t receive God’s peace after praying for
something.
Then it hit me that I wasn’t praying “with thanksgiving”.
If
I’m having lunch with someone in a restaurant, they offer to pick up my
tab, and I actually agree to it, then I will usually
respond by saying “thanks”.
I’ll say that even before they’ve actually paid the
bill. I trust that they will keep their word.
Supplication
These are the
specific requests that we bring to God.
It is important that we learn to bring our cares and concerns to God.
(1 Peter 5:7 NKJV) casting all
your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
Sometimes we aren’t seeing the help we need simply because we haven’t asked
God.
James writes,
(James 4:2 NKJV) …Yet you do not have because you do
not ask.
Here are some areas of concern when it comes to our requests.
Get to
the point
Some people seem to wander in their praying and I wonder, “If I were God, I
might be thinking, when are you going to get to the point?”
Solomon writes,
(Ecclesiastes 5:2 NKJV) Do not be
rash with your mouth, And let not your heart utter anything
hastily before God. For God is in heaven, and you on earth; Therefore let your
words be few.
Don’t take this too far and think that God doesn’t have
time for you. He certainly does. He wants to hear from you.
But simply get to the point.
You don’t
have to get too detailed
Sometimes I feel like people think they need to be telling God which muscle
needs to be healed, how it needs to be healed, and all the details needed for
recovery.
I hope you do know that God knows much more about what is
needed than you do.
Sometimes in prayer groups we feel like we really need to
be informing everyone else about the background to the problem, but prayer is
to God, not your group. God already
knows.
Make your point and put it in God’s hands.
Prayer List
I would encourage you to consider making a prayer list – things that you will pray
for every day.
I have my list broken into sections.
Under each section I have the people I pray for, and I list a few things
that either they want me to pray for, or that I think needs to happen in their
life.
Family
Ministry
Friends
Myself
Don’t forget to pray for yourself.
My prayers for myself have settled into areas of personal character, areas
I need help in.
My prayer list
is on my phone – in an app called “OneNote”.
It’s simply a place for writing notes.
My wife uses little slips of paper she keeps in her Bible. Just make a list.
I revise it regularly, usually daily, tweaking a little here and there as I
am sensing God’s leading.
Because it’s on my phone, I have it with me all the time.
My daily prayer
time is in the morning while I am walking.
People I pass on my walk probably think I’m texting or listening to music,
but I’m praying.
Just like the daily discipline of reading your Bible, it’s more important
that you start a daily habit of praying than that you pray for every single
person you’ve ever known in your life.
Work the long game.
Hope that helps