Prayer
Do you believe in prayer? Why or why not?
If you do believe in prayer, have you ever had a prayer answered? If so, what was it?
Today, we are looking at prayer. How do we do it? Why do we do it? More importantly what does God say about it.
Read Matthew 6:5-14
5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Mathew 6:5 - God hates when we try to appear better than others through our spiritual service. It's like groupies feeling like they're special because they've met the band. Groupies are never in the inner circle of really knowing the band.
Matthew 6:6 - Who we are with God behind closed doors, when no one is watching, is who we really are. And also the person that God responds to.
Matthew 6:7-8 - Babbling, repetitive words. This type of prayer emphasizes our work to make God move. Rituals and formulas. They don't have any Spirit in them. God is not ignorant of your problems.
Matthew 6:9 - Hallowed means sacred, Holy, revered. We acknowledge who He is-- "Our Father".
We acknowledge where He is "In Heaven"… not only that but this is where His perspective is coming from. God's perspective is not our perspective. And since His perspective is different than ours, praying helps us align with how God sees our situation.
We acknowledge His glory... "Hallowed be thy name."
Matthew 6:10 - We acknowledge that what He wants and desires is much more important than what we desire. Earth should line up with heaven. Heaven should not cater to what we want here on earth. Interesting that He wants us to ask of Him, but He lets us know that ultimately what God wants is what He wants.
Read James 4:1-3
4 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
We submit our desires and our wants to His desires and wants. Sometimes we don't receive because what we want is asked out of the wrong heart.
Matthew 6:11 - Daily bread. this infers that God longs not only to meet our needs everyday, but to talk to us every day. Also it infers, perhaps, that we should talk to God at the beginning of every day. Not only that, but Jesus is also talking about reading His Word daily.
Matthew 4:4
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’
Matthew 6:12,14 - I love how this verse is joined not only with how we have failed, but on our response to those who have failed us. Our failures are relational-- to God and man-- We ask for forgiveness, we must in turn forgive.
This is a perfect verse that shows the connection between the relationship we have with God and with each other. Also this is some harsh stuff. If we don't forgive others, God won't forgive us. Think about that for a second.
Read Mark 11:24-25
24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”
Do you ever ask anyone questions knowing ahead of time that the person wasn't going to answer you? So why ask the questions?
Our last series was about Faith. And here is why it's so important to have Faith. If you don't really believe God hears you or wants to talk to you, why bother praying? God wants us to approach Him with Faith. We need to believe that we have already received what we're praying for. That's difficult, but Faith is what activates our prayers.
Matthew 6:13 - I love how the evil one is not capitalized. God is greater. Pray for protection from his schemes.
Questions:
Have you ever given to someone, not because you were their friend, but because you wanted them to go away?
When you ask God for something… do you ask boldly and expecting Him to answer or do you not ask God for things because you don't feel like you deserve it?
Read Luke 11:5-13
5 Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ 7 And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity[e] he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.
9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for[f] a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Asking sets things in motion, even from circumstances and people who do not want to help us. How much more does God want to help us?
Do you ask God with shameless audacity?
Read Luke 18:1-8
The Parable of the Persistent Widow
18 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”
6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
Be persistent. Don't give up. Do not be discouraged.
Prayer in Community
Exodus 17:9-13 - We need each other.
9 Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.”
10 So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. 11 As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. 12 When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. 13 So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.
Matthew 18:19-20
19 “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
Job 42:10
10 After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before.
Write down one prayer request you feel is impossible. Bring it before God. Regardless of whether or not, God comes through the way you want, it's important to approach God with Faith. Without it, you can't hope that anything will change. But by approaching God with Faith, your prayer is guaranteed to, at the very least, change you.
