Prayer And Formal Requests

For the last few weeks we’ve been sharing with you a series of messages on one of the most crucial practices of every Christian – that of prayer. And we said from the beginning, that the action of prayer ought not be viewed as an option for the Christian, but as an obligation.

And prayer, as it were, is an action which was never designed to move the very heart or mind of God, as the late Dr. E. K. Bailey said, but prayer will change the mind and heart of the one doing the praying.

Our jumping off point for this series was taken from Matthew 6: 9-13. This familiar text stems from Jesus answering his disciple’s requests as asked in Luke 11:1, “Lord, teach us to pray…”

The very response Jesus gave his disciples in answering their request is what we’ve come to know as “The Lord’s Prayer.” But when you look at the context in which the prayer was given, we recognized that it was not actually the prayer of Jesus, but rather it was a model prayer – a prayer to pattern after - for his disciples. Therefore using the model prayer as our guide, we introduced the acrostic A-C-T-S, in order to help us fellowship with God in prayer.

In our first installment, Prayer and Fellowship, we suggested to you that the first thing Jesus advised his disciples to do, when fellowshipping with God in prayer, is to set forth Adoration.

And in order to obtain the mindset of adoration, all we need to do is recognize (first and foremost) we are speaking to God - the sustainer of life; the controller of all; the Great I Am – God!

And we are to adore Him because of His,

a)Person

Because of who He is

b)Parenthood

“Our Father who art in heaven…” He is our heavenly Father.

c)Perfect

“Hallowed be thy name.” His name is perfect!

d)His will should be our Pursuit

“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Prayer and Fellowship, A- Stands for adoration.

In our next installment, Prayer and Forgiveness, we discovered that the second letter of our acrostic C stands for confession. Confession is deemed the act of inner cleansing and it’s also the qualifier for forgiveness.

The word “confess” in the original language means to ‘say the same words’ as God says or in essence ‘to see it the same way as God sees it’.

So in further discovery of the Matthew 6 text, we suggested to you that confession of sin is an essential principle for the Christian. And hopefully we brought to light that confession is essential in order to continue our,

a)Heavenly Relationship

Based on Psalms 66:18 which says, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.”

b)Human Reconciliation

Because of Matthew 5: 23-24, Jesus clearly gives us his stance as to the importance of human/heavenly reconciliation.

So confession is an essential principle. But also confession carries with it a conditional promise.

Verse 12 reads, “And forgives us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” Forgive us as we forgive others – that’s conditional! The outline of this fact is this; in order to,

a)Receive forgiveness

b)Reciprocate forgiveness

Prayer and Forgiveness, C- Stands for confession.

Our third installment, Prayer and Favorable Notice, we brought to light that the third letter of our acrostic T stands for thanksgiving. And because we have learned to adore God for who He is; confess to Him what we’ve done, let’s began to thank Him for what He has done.

So in this matter of thanksgiving, it is merely the creation giving favorable notice to the Creator for all He has done. With that in mind, we suggested to you that giving God thanks in our prayers shows our, acknowledgement of God.

We acknowledge God with a prayer of thanksgiving that it is because of Him we are the recipients of,

a)Blessings

He is the source of our blessings.

b)through Burdens

Somewhere in the midst of our burdens, God gave us peace. We need to say, thank you.

Thanksgiving not only shows our acknowledgment of God, but it also shows our, appreciation to God. Because God delights in specifics, be specific when you thank God for,

a)Redemption

“For by grace are you saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, where we cannot boast about it.” Father, thank you for redemption.

b)Renovation

‘Lord, I know I’m not all you want me to be right now, but I thank you that I’m not what I used to be!’ Father, thank you for internal renovation.

c)Resurrection

Because of the death of Jesus; his suffering, his sacrifice on the cross and his subsequent resurrection from the dead; we now have insight to look forward to that, “…that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ;” Father, thank you for my future resurrection.