Prayer

Prayer

Prayer defined: personal communication with God

* Why does God want us to pray? God is all-knowing and all-powerful; therefore (logically speaking), our prayers would be unnecessary. Yes, God is omniscient and omnipotent, but He is also a God of love and mercy. Here are a few of the many reasons that answer this question.

           

            1. God delights in being trusted by us.

- Prayer, in its most basic form, is having faith/trust in God to answer.

- God doesn’t need our prayers to know our needs. He wants our

prayers to see our trust. 

- Matthew 6:8 - So do not be like them; for your Father knows what

you need before you ask Him.

            ** Do not be prideful (as the Pharisees were) in our prayers.

            We’re not “enlightening” God about what’s going on – He

            already knows!! In humility we are to put our trust in God

            recognizing He is the only One who can bring about any

            true change.

            2. Prayer brings us to a deeper fellowship with God.

                        - It is impossible to be in close fellowship with someone if we are not

                        in communication with them.

            3. God allows us to be involved in things of eternal importance through

 prayer.

            - We are able to be involved in the work of the kingdom in a

            significant way through prayer.

            - This shows the fact that we are made in God’s image.

            - Prayer changes the path of how things will turn out.

4. Prayer gives glory to God.

            - Praying in humble dependence on God indicates that we are

            convinced of His wisdom, love, goodness, and power.

* The effectiveness of prayer:

            - God responds to prayer

                        - Ex. 32:9-14 - The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and

                        behold, they are an obstinate people. ¹⁰ Now then let Me alone, that

                        My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I

                        will make of you a great nation.” ¹¹ Then Moses entreated the Lord his

                        God, and said, “O Lord, why does Your anger burn against Your people

whom You have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? ¹² Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, ‘With evil intent He brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your burning anger and change Your mind about doing harm to Your people. ¹³ Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants to whom You swore by Yourself, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, and all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’” ¹⁴ So the Lord changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people.

           * God, because of Moses’ prayer, changed His mind.

           * Jerry Falwell used to say, “Let’s changed God’s mind!” Let’s

           get down on our knees and use this tool God has given us to

           actually change things!

            - “If we were really convinced that prayer often changes the way God acts,

            and that God does bring about remarkable changes in response to prayer (as

            Scripture repeatedly teaches), then we would pray much more than we do. If

            we pray little, it is probably because we do not really believe that prayer

            accomplishes much at all.”

            - Effective prayer is made possible through our Mediator, Jesus Christ.

                        - I Tim. 2:5 - For there is one God, and one mediator also between God

                        and men, the man Christ Jesus.

* Can God hear the prayers of the unbelievers?

            - God is omniscient, and He “hears” everything. So yes, He does hear the prayers of 

             unbelievers. He may even respond to them in His mercy and desire to bring them to salvation.    

             But nowhere in Scripture does God promise to respond to the prayers of unbelievers.

                        - James 5:16 - Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray

                        for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a

                        righteous man can accomplish much.

* What about Old Testament saints (saved people)?

            - Through the sacrificial system, God accepted believers only on the basis of

            the future work of Christ which was foreshadowed by the act of sacrifice.

                        - Rom. 3:23-26 - For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of

God, ²⁴ being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; ²⁵ whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; ²⁶ for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

*Why do we pray “In Jesus name?”

            - John 14:13-14 - Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the

            Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ If you ask Me anything in My name, I

 will do it.

- John 15:16 -  You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that

you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.

- Adding “in Jesus name” to a prayer is not a magical formula that makes prayer more effective.

- “To come in the name of someone means that another person has authorized us to come on his authority, not our own.

- No prayers in the Bible end “in Jesus name.”

* Praise and Thanksgiving

            - Praise and thanksgiving to God are an essential part of prayer.

            - Phil. 4:6 - Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and

            supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

            - Col. 4:2 - Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude

            of thanksgiving

                        *Express thankfulness in your heart! We should be thankful in all

                        circumstances!

Model Prayer: Matthew 6:9-13 –

                        Pray, then, in this way:

‘Our Father who is in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
¹⁰ ‘Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹ ‘Give us this day our daily bread.
¹² ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
¹³ ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’

ACTS of Prayer:

            A – Adoration

            C – Confession

            T– Thanksgiving

            S – Supplication

Notes for this lesson were taken from Grudem’s Bible Doctrines pages 158-166.