Praise: Recognize Who God Is Series

Praise: Recognize Who God Is

Series: Meeting with God in Prayer

May 10, 2020

NOTE: The following message was share during the season of the Covid-19 pandemic...and as such... one will note some references to this being streamed from home and to the challenges such a season of being unable to meet with others included.

Intro

It’s great to welcome you again from our home.

It’s such a privilege and pleasure to be able to share this time together.

Today we are continuing in a new series and focus... Meeting with God in Prayer.

During this time in which our lives are not as free to meet with those who are in our usual social circles and paths.... we have the opportunity to stop and recognize the significance of the one relationship that is always present.

God who is Spirit... is always present.

Whether during this time in which we may feel more isolated... or anytime we feel alone... the truth is that God is always present.

God is fully present... never divided by time and space.

As I noted last week.... bound by our sense of time and space...we may wonder if God is present...because we can’t see God like we see physical bodies...but in truth....God is actually more present than we are. God is waiting for us to show up.

And as those following Jesus began to see...Jesus was living life in relationship to his Father in heaven... something they saw forming in the time he spent by himself in prayer... and so they asked “Lord, teach US to pray.”

And it’s helpful to realize that prayer was a common part of their life. They all were raised having learned various religious prayers to recite... but they knew they didn’t have a personal relationship with God.

So they ask, “Lord, teach US to pray.”

Last week we heard how Jesus seemed glad to teach them...and to teach us...and he began sharing some principles. He spoke of the need to stop hiding... to get real... and to show up.

Prayer is the place we meet with God. It is where we bring our real selves in real time and real space to engage God.

And then he shared a pattern for prayer.... that which has come to be known as “The Lord’s Prayer.”

Jesus said essentially “pray like this” or “in this manner.” What he shared is a great prayer for us to pray together...but it was shared to be an example... a pattern for prayer. The prayer is a pattern for shaping the central matters of relating with God…matters of the soul.

What we find in could here reflected in the Lord’s prayer...as well as throughout everything the Scriptures teach... could be described as four elements in prayer. And I introduced an acrostic using the four letters of the word PRAY... to simply help us keep four elements in mind. These four elements are....

Praise (Recognize who God is)

Restore (Confess whatever is out of alignment with God’s heart)

Ask (Bring your needs to God)

Yield (Listen and respond to God’s leading)

Each week during this series we are going to develop one of these four qualities that help shape how we can meet with God in prayer.

The purpose of forming these into this acrostic isn’t to create some contrived formula that we have to follow.... but to provide a way of shaping how we learn to relate with God.

We might think of how we learn anything during our formative years... what are usually our school years. If we are learning to write, we begin with learning how to write sentences and paragraphs. If we are learning music we learn how to play the instrument and to recognize notes or chords. In athletics we learn the fundamentals of the movements involved.

When we first learn these fundamentals, they may seem like a form of discipline and structure and exercise that we don’t naturally relate to...but then it leads to an ability to naturally draw upon them...whether in writing or playing music or playing a sport.

That’s the nature of identifying and developing these four elements.

If you have never developed any regular way of praying... this is a GREAT opportunity. I believe that you will find these four elements can provide a great guide for your own personal experience.

But I also know that many of us can find great value... in going back to fundamentals ... to re-develop these four aspects. At times we can go back and let it serve us again.

I have used this acrostic at times when journaling my prayer time... using those four letters...as I form and even write prayers.

So while it’s not a formula....I do believe that these four elements are reflected in the pattern that Jesus gave us...as well as throughout the whole testimony of Scriptures. And as such we do well to become familiar with them.