Prayer- Part II
WE’VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT PRAYER. Specifically, we’ve been asking the question, “Just what is prayer?” In last week’s blog, Part I, we determined that essentially Prayer was talking to God. But from the several Greek words translated in the New Testament as “prayer” we found that what is in view is a certain kind of talking: asking. To pray is basically to ask God for something, either in our behalf or on behalf of others. Prayer is mainly asking God for things that are in accordance with His will. There is no shame is asking God, so long as we ask in the right way and for the right things…
KJV Matthew 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
NAS James 1:5-6 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.
NAS James 4:2 You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. And you are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.
BIBLICAL PRAYER IS ESSENTIALLY ASKING.
“SOMETIMES GOD’S ANSWERS TO PRAYER ARE DIRECT. Sometimes God’s answers to prayer are different. Sometimes God’s answers to prayer are delayed. Sometimes God’s answers to prayer are denied.” – Jack Taylor
PRAYER – PART II… Prayer is a big subject that easily requires a series of blogs to cover. In this week’s I would like to present you with a collection of Bible verses and wise words about prayer intended to build upon what we said last week and give you a broadening understanding of what the Bible has to say about prayer.
WHY DO WE PRAY? Because Jesus told us to…
NAS Matthew 6:9 “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name.
“PRAYER IS AN ACT OF OBEDIENCE by which I line up with the purposes of God and through which He works those purposes to fulfillment.” – John MacArthur
WHY DO WE PRAY? Because it is a sin not to. Directly and indirectly, Scripture repeatedly commands people of God to pray…
NAS Ephesians 6:18 With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit,
WHY DO WE PRAY? Because we need things. If prayer is essentially asking, then to pray is to expect answers. When we ask in life we expect a reply; it can be the same on a spiritual level.
GOD ALMIGHTY, THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE, WANTS TO ANSWER your prayers and mine. Consider that! We should always remember this and always pray confidently…
I SAID, IT CAN BE THE SAME ON A SPIRITUAL LEVEL. We must ask for our needs not our greeds, and our prayers. in order to be answered, must be in accordance with God’s will. If we are not asking rightly we should not expect God to answer our prayers. God is our heavenly Father who loves us. He wants to answer our prayers…
KJV Matthew 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; (ask rightly)
GOD WANTS TO ANSWER OUR PRAYERS not really for our benefit. That may sound at first strange. The primary reason God wants to answer our prayers is because that will bring Him glory. God answers prayers so that he will be glorified. When God answers the prayers of believers His goodness and His power are on display. Our answered prayers bring glory to God…
NAS John 14:13 “And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
“PRAYER DELIGHTS GOD’S EAR, it melts His heart, it opens His hand: God will not deny a praying soul.” – Robert Law
NAS Proverbs 15:8 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, But the prayer of the upright is His delight.
SOMEONE ONCE WROTE, “GOD’S FOUR ANSWERS TO OUR PRAYERS: (1) If the request is wrong, God says, No. (2) If the timing is wrong, God says, Slow. (3) If you are wrong, God says, Grow. (4) But if the request is right, the timing is right, and you are right, God says, Go!”
LISTEN TO THIS OLD BUT GOOD POEM BY FANNY CROSBY, focusing on unanswered prayer:
“For What His Love Denies”…
God does not give me all I ask, Nor answer as I pray;
But, O my cup is briming o’er With blessings day by day.
How oft the joy I thought withheld Delights my longing eyes,
And so I thank Him from my heart For what His love denies…
Sometimes I miss a treasured link In friendship’s hallowed chain,
And yet His smile is my reward For every throb of pain.
I look beyond, where purer joys Delight my longing eyes;
And so I thank Him from my heart For what His love denies…
How tenderly He leadeth me When earthly hopes are dim;
And when I falter by the way, He bids me lean on Him.
He lifts my soul above the clouds Where friendship never dies;
And so I thank Him from my heart For what His love denies…
WHETHER HE ANSWERS OR DENIES, PRAISE HIS HOLY NAME!
“PRAYER IS GOD’S WAY OF BONDING US TO HIMSELF” – Adrian Rogers. If we are honest, this bonding is more intensely strengthened during times of unanswered prayer. When God does not seem to hear our prayers, we must keep praying.
SCRIPTURE LEAVES NO DOUBT THAT PERSISTENCE IS A REQUIREMENT of a successful prayer life. Here are three of many examples from the Bible…
NAS 1 Samuel 1:10 And she (Hannah), greatly distressed, prayed to the LORD and wept bitterly.… Now it came about, as she continued praying before the LORD,
NAS Daniel 6:10 Now when Daniel knew that the document was signed, he entered his house (now in his roof chamber he had windows open toward Jerusalem); and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously.
NAS Luke 6:12 And it was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God.
THE FERVENCY AND EFFECTIVENESS OF OUR PRAYERS are, I believe, directly related to our levels of pride and humility. Prayer is closely connected to the pride and humility each of us possesses. Let me read you some quotes from others and some thoughts I’ve come up with in my week of studying prayer…
“PRAYER IS THE EVIDENCE OF OUR DEPENDENCY ON GOD” – David Jeremiah. Proud people are independent; humble people are dependent.
“PRAYER IS THE RECOGNITION that our need is not partial but total” – Howard Hendriks. Proud people believe they can fulfill their own needs; humble people realize that only God can supply their needs…
NAS James 1:17 Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow.
PRAYER, BY ITS VERY NATURE, IMPLIES TRUST.
“PRAYER WITHOUT FAITH IS LIKE A BOAT WITHOUT AN OAR.” – Song
“AS SOON AS WE SAY THE WORD ‘FATHER,’ we’ve taken our proper position for whatever may lie ahead.” – Charles Stanley
PRAYER DEMONSTRATES OUR HUMILITY TO GOD. Prayer is to put God in His sovereign, majestic place, and ourselves in our rightful position of dependency. When we pray we should always make God big in our minds and ourselves little. One of the major words for prayer in the N.T., αἰτέω (eye-tay-o) means the asking of an inferior to a superior. Humility surrounds our prayers in sweet-smelling incense as they rise to God; pride is like static on our connection. Proud people do not pray as much as humble people.
PRIDE – “Some of you have been Christians for so long that you’ve forgotten what you were like before Christ. That’s why you’re so proud. That’s why the Lord has to spend so much extra time getting your attention. You’ve forgotten how undeserving you are of His grace and His mercy.” – Chuck Swindoll
“MY HEART IS STIRRED, WHEN’ER I THINK OF JESUS… That blessed name which sets the captives free; the only name through which I find salvation.” – Hymn
“THERE’S NOTHING AS PRECIOUS AS YOU, LORD, nothing as precious as You. No one else is so dear to my heart, nothing as precious as You. There’s nothing as precious as You.” – Hymn
YOU CAN DO MORE THAN PRAY AFTER YOU PRAY (prayer is not a substitute for commitment) but you can’t do more than pray until you pray…
PRAYER CHANGES THINGS. That is a major truth we should always have firmly fixed in our minds. No matter how bleak the situation may appear to us, prayer has the supernatural power to change things. The power of prayer is supernatural because when we are sincerely praying we are directly connected to God Himself.
AND PRAYER CHANGES US. Perhaps more important than prayer changing circumstances is the fact that prayer changes us. My family will tell you – and I’m sure I have at least alluded to this before in past blogs – that my favorite place is the ocean. I love to go to the ocean, mostly in months other than the busy summer months: the sights and smells, the calm, spiritual feeling that comes over me when I’m there. I don’t do anything special really when I go to the ocean. I mainly just hang out there. I feel very close to God there. And when I leave I always think how nice it was that I went. I can honestly say that I have never gone to the ocean and felt worse having been there. I always feel better about myself and the things in my life and even my relationship with God when I go to the ocean. The ocean straightens my priorities, like the refresh command on my computer straightens the documents on my desktop. I am changed for the better. Prayer is like going to the oceans; it changes you for the better…every time. If things are wrong, pray; ask God to change them. If you yourself are wrong, pray; ask God to change you.
PRAYER CHANGES US SPIRITUALLY, MENTALLY, AND EVEN PHYSICALLY. It has been medically proven that prayer calms a person, blood pressure drops, stress is reduced. Maybe that’s one of the reasons God put 1 Thessalonians 5:17 in the Bible…
KJV 1 Thessalonians 5:17 Pray without ceasing.
“PRAYER IS HARD WORK”? Pastors and teachers who teach on prayer almost invariably will make that statement – and, of course, there is truth in it. I think, particularly at first, prayer is difficult. We can struggle – as I confessed to you last week that I did when I first started to regularly pray. The words sometimes don’t come easy. It certainly takes a measurably amount of discipline to pray. There are times when we are tired from the day and we must struggle to stay awake when we are praying. It can be difficult to arrange your schedule so you can be alone with God in prayer. So “pray is hard work” is a valid statement…
AND YET… PRAYER IS NOT HARD WORK at all for me today. Prayer has become as natural to me as thinking and as easy and spontaneous as breathing. I truly do go throughout each day in a continuous attitude of prayer, talking to God…
PRAYER IS THE MOST WONDERFUL PRIVILEGE GOD HAS GIVEN US…
“LISTEN TO YOUR OWN PRAYERS; they will give you a good view of your spirituality, your relationship with God. What are your concerns? Where is your focus? Can you say with honesty your prayers are biblical? Can you honestly say that they are pleasing to God?” – Tony Crisp
PRAYER IS NOT PRAISE. Last week I made that statement and I wondered how many of you were surprised to hear that. If we are seeking to be accurate on what the Bible teaches about prayer we must define our words carefully. While the two terms are closely related, they are not the same…
PRAYER IS ASKING; PRAISE IS NOT ASKING BUT STATING. Praise is simply saying nice things about God, speaking well of God. When we say, “Lord, You are a wonderful God,” we are not praying (though statements like that might be uttered during our prayer time), we are praising…
NAS James 5:13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praises.
NEXT WEEK THE MESSAGE WILL AGAIN BE PRAYER, “PRAYER – PART III.” In next week’s blog we will be looking into the distinctive, individual components of prayer, including praise. I still have much more to say about prayer.
LET ME READ YOU A VERSE FROM SCRIPTURE that enumerates these various component parts of prayer, in addition to praise…
KJV 1 Timothy 2:1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
IN THAT VERSE WE SEE FOUR DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS OF PRAYER, not counting praise. Next week we will look into these different terms…
“PRAY THROUGH THE DAY!” – Robert Cook. I do not think 1 Thessalonians 5:17 is intended to be interpreted that we are to be praying every second of the day, of course. But I do believe we can pray about every circumstance of importance throughout the day. Understood this or a similar way, If each one of us were asked, do you pray through the day? what would be your response? Do you pray through the day? If not, why? I do not think there is a good answer to that question…
- Prayer is the key to the morning and the bolt of the evening. – Anonymous
- A day hemmed in prayer is less likely to come unraveled. – Anonymous
- The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray. – Samuel Chadwick
- When life knocks you to your knees – well, that’s the best position in which to pray, isn’t – Ethel Barrymore
BUT SOME BELIEVERS, SADLY, ARE NOT REGULAR PRAYERS… Even though praying should come as naturally to the believer as breathing, many Christians experience unnecessary defeat in their lives because they do not pray regularly…
“CITY OF EVERYWHERE”… In Hugh Price Hughes’ story, the “City of Everywhere,” a man arrived in a city one cold morning. As he got off the train, the station was like any other station with the crowds and redcaps, except that everybody was barefooted. They wore no shoes. The man noticed the cab driver was barefooted. “Pardon me,” he asked the driver, “I was just wondering why you don’t wear shoes. Don’t you believe in shoes?” “Sure we do,” said the driver. “Why don’t you wear them?” the man asked. “Ah, that’s the question,” came the reply. “Why don’t wee wear shoes? Why don’t we?” At the hotel it was the same. The clerk, bell-boys, everybody was barefooted. In the coffee shop he noticed a nice-looking fellow at a table opposite him who was also barefooted. He said, “I notice you aren’t wearing my shoes. I wonder why? Don’t you know about shoes?” The man replied, “Of course, I know about shoes.” “Then why don’t you wear them?” “Ah, that’s the question. Why don’t we? Why don’t we?” After breakfast he walked out on the street in the snow but every person he saw was barefooted. He asked another man about it, and pointed out how shoes protect the feet from cold. The man said, “We know about shoes. See that building yonder? That is a shoe factory. We are proud of that plant and every week we gather there to hear a man in charge tell about shoes and how wonderful they are.” “Then why don’t you wear shoes?’ “Ah, that’s the question.”… After hearing that story, the obvious question: Don’t we believe in prayer? Don’t we know what it could mean in our lives? Then the even more obvious question: why don’t we pray more? Ah, that’s the ultimate question. Why don’t we? Why don’t we?…
– Professor Thomas A. Rohm
