Approaching Prayer

Approaching Prayer

Prairie Baptist Church – 9/20/09

P.M. Service

Text: Psalm 5

Key verse: Psalms 5:1 - Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation.

Premise: We need to consider the right attitudes God is looking for that are essential to Him responding to and guiding us.

The Introduction

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of Attitude on life. Attitude to me is more important: than facts, than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do, than appearances, than giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company…a church…a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the Attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one thing we have, and that is our Attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you…We are in charge of our attitudes.” Charles Swindoll

In life, we learn that the key to getting results is most often based on how we approach it:

• Our teachers in school

• Our bosses at work

• Our spouses

• Etc.

The Bible has much to say about the right and wrongs of approaching certain issues and situations in life.

It could be that, if we don’t experience good results to our prayers, maybe it is the approach we take with God.

• Sometimes we’re demanding

• Sometimes we’re afraid (to ask, don’t like “no” for an answer)

• Sometimes we’re casual (whatever attitude, no passion or fire)

• Sometimes we approach with unconfessed sin in our lives

Whatever the reason, we need to approach God with some attitudes that can help alleviate any confusion and please Him as well.

1. A Significant Plea - 5:1-3

2. A Sacred Perspective - 5:4-6

3. A Submissive Priority - 5:7-8

4. A Severe Pronouncement - 5:9-10

5. A Satisfied Position - 5:11-12

Body

1. My Attitude of Prayer: Serious – 5:1-3

A. A woman took her husband to the doctor’s office. After his checkup, the doctor said, "Your husband is suffering from a very serious infection." The husband, who was hard of hearing said, "What did he say?" His wife said, "He says your sick". The doctor went on. "But there is hope. You just need to reduce his stress. Each morning, give him a healthy breakfast. Be pleasant, nice, and kind. For lunch and dinner make him his favorite meal. Don’t discuss your problems with him, it will only make his stress worse. Don’t yell at him or argue with him. And most importantly...just cater to your husband’s every whim. If you can do this for your husband for the next 6 months to a year, I think your husband will have a complete recovery." The husband said, "What did he say?" His wife said, "He says, You’re going to die".

B. Prayer should never be taken lightly or superficially:

i. It is a personal conversation with our Father and King (2my king and my God)

a. give ear = to have the normal faculty of hearing, with a focus that understanding is the result

b. 1st Peter 3:12 - For the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers; but the face of the LORD is against those who do evil.”

c. We are His children (1st Jn. 3:1)

ii. It is asking God to hear what is on our hearts and what is important to us (1my words, my meditation, 2heed to my cry, 3in the morning)

a. What we have to say matters to God – Psalm 116:2 - Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.

b. We are His children and He loves and listens to us.

iii. It is done with expectant faith (3I will look up)

a. 1st John 5:14-15 - 14Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

b. God wants us to believe in His ability to answer any request

c. God wants us to submit ourselves to His will in the answer.

2. My Attitude of God: Sacred – 5:4-6

A. The story is told of a woman in northern England who hung out her washing and was so proud of its whiteness. She thought it glistened! Then snow came making a beautiful blanket of white. Seeing her clothes and the snow side by side, she exclaimed, "What can a poor woman do against God’s almighty snow?" "So, in the white radiance of God’s holiness, we are led to exclaim, ’What can any man or woman do against the purity of God Almighty?"