Philippians 4:6-7
How does your prayer life reflect your understanding of your dependence on God and your love and thankfulness to Him?
Jesus prayed often. If He thought of prayer as important, how can we (who need so much more help than He did) afford to think of prayer as any less important? Mark 1:35, Luke 5:16, 6:12.
We learn to be humble, thankful servants of God. We have the peace of knowing that we have committed our problems to a trustworthy God and Father. Philippians 4:4-7.
The best, most comprehensive book on prayer is the Bible. It is full of examples of prayers, encouragement to pray and examples of answered prayers. Some examples are: Daniel 9,
1 Samuel 2, 2 Samuel 7:18-29, 1 Kings 8:22-53, Psalms, John 17.
Matthew 6:9-13, Luke 11:1-4 - Jesus, in these passages, teaches us the elements of proper prayer. This prayer is not meant to be memorized and repeated to God, as shown by the differences of wording between the two accounts. Jesus teaches us the kind of prayers we should pray.
"Our Father" - We need to become children of God (John 1:12) to come to God in prayer. When we come as one of a body of God's children, we acknowledge our relationship to Him and to other Christians as well. Wednesday night prayer meetings especially foster family ties within the local church, with brothers and sisters calling together on a common Father. Matthew 18:19, 20.
"Hallowed be Your name" - We come to a Holy God in reverence. As we pray we want to see God's name held in high esteem. Ecclesiastes 5:1-2.
"Your kingdom come" - We want God's kingdom to grow and advance. We want to pray for things that will help bring this about. Colossians 4:2-4.
Remember to pray for those in authority - 1 Timothy 2:1-3.
"Your will be done" - We want to obey God and see others obey Him as well. Matthew 26:39, 1 John 5:14, James 4:15.
"give us today our daily bread" - All good things are gift from God. We want to ask Him for things that seem to be within our grasp, realizing that their continuing to be within our
grasp depends on His continuing to bless us with their availability and the means to get them.
"forgive us" - Confession of our sins and our need of cleansing are important elements of prayer which restore fellowship with God. 1 John 1:7-10, James 5:16, Luke 17:3-4.
"lead us not into temptation" - We need God's protection every day, we do not stand by our own strength, but we do struggle against sin with the strength God gives to us. We need to ask for help in our struggles.
Unconfessed sin - Psalm 66:18-19, Isaiah 59:1-2. Solution? 1 John 1:9, Proverbs 15:8, 28:13.
Being guilty of unresolved sin against another Christian - Matthew 5:21-24, Ephesians 4:26- 27, 1 Peter 3:7.
Praying for things with wrong motives, selfishly - James 4:3,
Praying ostentatiously to impress other people - Matthew 6:5-6.
Hebrews 4:14-16, 9:15 - We are invited by God to come to Him for help, despite our sinfulness.
Romans 8:26 - The Holy Spirit helps us when all we can do is groan.
James 1:5-8 - We are told to ask God for wisdom when we need it. Wisdom is the ability to place proper priority on the many factors that affect our decisions in life.
Hebrews 10:19-23, Cf. Matthew 27:50f - This access to God is through Christ onlyy. We do not approach God because of our own worthiness, but only because we come in Jesus' name, in His merit, in His righteousness.
John 14:13-14, 1 Timothy 2:5-8 - We pray in Jesus name meaningfully, not merely as a formula slapped on at the end of a prayer.
It is helpful if you keep your own answer to prayer notebook.
1 Peter 5:6-7 - Peter who knew the fall of the proud when he denied the Lord multiple times, and who knew by experience the forgiveness of the Lord for his sin, tells us, as believers, this truth:
Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.
1. Memory verses.
2. Why can we pray about little things as well as big things?
3. When we pray, should we expect God to talk back to us verbally or by our feelings? Why?
4. Why should we pray?