Intro: Johnny had been misbehaving and was sent to his room. After a while he emerged and informed his mother that he had thought it over and then said a prayer.
"Fine", said the pleased mother. "If you ask God to help you not misbehave, He will help you."
"Oh, I didn't ask Him to help me not misbehave," said Johnny. "I asked Him to help you put up with me."
Jesus is still trying to tear down our assumptions and ideas about who should and how should we worship. Prayer is one of the ultimate ways we bow before God. This bowing down is not supposed to be an interruption of our regular life it is our life.
I. Prayer is recognition that God is (Hebrews 11:6) (Psalm 78:32)
This is not the simple belief that the demons have according to James 2:19. It is the recognition of all that God is that will move us to trust Him in prayer. We will never be shamed into prayer, encouraged into prayer or forced into prayer.
True prayer is worship, bowing our life before the person of God revealed in Jesus and the Bible.
At this point you may stumble. You may have faced a struggle, a hurt or a loss. You have become convinced that a loving God doesn’t allow struggles, hurts or losses. Look directly and squarely at the cross and realize that God has dealt with every struggle, every hurt and every loss. If He did this we can recognize Him as God!!
Prayer begins with believing God is as He is. The God of the universe is not easy to describe or understand. He cannot be completely explained by a single verse of scripture or expressed by a single encounter with a believer. He is completely revealed by Jesus.
The writer of the letter to the Hebrews wants us to understand that we must believe that God is exactly who He reveals Himself to be. There is a caution that you must hear. If we conceive of God as we want Him to be,” He is only a god of our making and imagination no better than an idol. We must accept all that He is revealed to be. He is a god of love, but also of judgment because He revealed Himself that way! His is not only a God of mercy and kindness, but also of holiness and wrath. So we must “Believe in the God who reveals Himself in His Word.”
Do you see that the basis for worshiping God in prayer is not simply saying, “Yep I believe in God.” Then living your life completely opposite of what He is revealed to be in His character.
He is revealed in His work, in His word and in Jesus! If we are not allowing His revelation to shape and form our recognition and reception of Him then we are merely forming a God, an idol in our own making and possibly in our image.
Please pray with me. “Father we want our belief to go beyond simple information. We want the knowledge we have about you to change our lives forever. Please continue to show us your character through Jesus, your Word through your Spirit. Father give us a hunger for your word that continually reveals who you are and how we are to respond to you. Father we want our image of you to be in line with your revelation of yourself.”
II. Prayer is conversation with God as Father
From His solitude in the mountains to His all night prayer vigils. Raising Lazarus from the dead to submitting to God’s will instead of His own desires in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Jesus spoke to God as Father. Jesus revealed that God wants to walk with us and talk with us. When we read about Moses, Elijah, Jesus we find that we can have a conversation with God. When Jesus tore down the dividing wall between us and God he opened the way for a relationship with us and God the father through Jesus.
A) Prayer is personal
Moses, Elijah and David all spoke to God directly. They shared their fears, complaints, problems.
We can talk to Him in confession. Even though God knows how we sin He longs for us to come to Him as Sons and Daughters and be honest about our need for repentance and forgiveness.
We can talk to Him about how thankful we are.
We can talk to Him and share our struggles.
We can talk to Him and share our complaints, misunderstandings, desires, why? Because if we have confessed Jesus as savior and Lord, He longs to walk with us and talk with us.
B) Prayer is practical
John 15:7 “If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you.”
When we pray for God’s people and God’s name it is effective. There are so many prayers that we pray for selfish reasons. The examples we often see of effective prayer are for the good of God’s name or reputation and the good of His people.
In the Lord’s Prayer in Luke 11 and Matthew 6 Jesus teaches us to pray for practical things. He teaches us to pray for our daily bread. He wants us to learn to depend on Him for our daily needs. He teaches us to pray to receive God’s forgiveness and offer forgiveness. This why we pray when we don’t feel like it. Prayer works!
C) Prayer is powerful
Exodus 17:8-13 Great example of the power of prayer.
James 5:16 “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The urgent request of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect.” The context of this is Elijah praying from OT and it not raining for 3 years.
The words "pray" and "prayer" are used at least twenty-five times in connection with our Lord in the brief record of His life in the four Gospels, and His praying is mentioned in places where the words are not used. Evidently prayer took much of the time and strength of Jesus, and a man or woman who does not spend much time in prayer, cannot properly be called a follower of Jesus Christ.
Pray with me: God we want to speak to you with confidence and boldness as the Father you are. Teach us to talk to you as Jesus did, with confidence and trust. Father as we speak to you continue to take our eyes off this world and keep focused completely on Jesus.
III. Prayer is anticipation that God answers our requests (That is his a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him)
God is ready and willing to be a loving, gracious and providing Father. The greatest reward we can ever get is God’s presence. With His presence comes provision, protection, peace, power, purpose. I could go on with the P’s but I hope you get the point. The reward to the believing child of God is not a car, a job, a house, a retirement. The reward is God Himself.
Jesus said that He came so that we might have life and have it to the full. He also said He is the way and the life!! Do you see the connection? A full life is one filled with God, His Spirit, His presence, His character!!
Faith is the necessary power to abandon and deny our character and fully lean on God’s character through prayer!
If we have an expectation that He rewards us we will diligently seek Him.
How do we diligently seek Him?
1) His word
2) Our prayer
F. B. Meyer wrote,
To have God is to have all, though bereft of everything. To be destitute of God is to be bereft of everything, though having all (Abraham [Christian Literature Crusade], p. 63).
Donald Barnhouse observed,
God’s method of supplying our need is to give us fresh knowledge of Himself, for every need can be met by seeing Him (Genesis [Zondervan], 1:105).
James 1:6, 7 If we expect nothing from God we shouldn’t expect Him to do anything. When we ask God to provide for our church for ministry, money, buildings, help etc. George Mueller.
Pray with me: Father teach us to look to you for all that we need. The devil works on fear and you work in us by faith. Father help us to take steps of faith a little at a time so that we can see that you are big enough to meet every need we have, physically, personally, mentally, emotionally, financially and relationally. Father help us to see you as provider. We trust you to give us daily the things we really need.
IV. Pray is submission to God’s will
Hebrews 5:7 “During His earthly life,[d] He offered prayers and appeals with loud cries and tears to the One who was able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence. (Humble submission to God’s will)
There may not always be immediate payoffs to submitting to God’s will. There will always be a payoff.
A) When we submit He directs
Proverbs 3:5-6
B) When we submit the devil flees
James 4:7
C) When we submit it is a proof of our love for God
1 John 5:2-3
D) When we submit we open avenues of blessing for ourselves
John 13:17 “If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.”
Psalm 128:1 “Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in obedience to Him”
Praying is absolutely essential to walking with God. No one can do your walking for you. No one can do your praying for you.
Pray with me: Father show me the ways I am not submitting to you. You know that failing to submit to you hurts you and harms me. Please teach me to pray and submit so that you will be honored, glorified and I can grow in my trust and reflection of you.
