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LESSON 15 3/29/03 THEME SCRIPTURE: Luke. 11: 1-4, Matt.6: 9-13
YOU’RE THOUGHTS: How do you prepare your heart before prayer? What kind of praying habits have you developed? Do you believe that God answers prayer?
MY THOUGHTS: Since the tragedy of September 11th 2001, the subject of prayer has been the center of conversation, both in the privacy of people’s homes and in the media. When people see how vulnerable and defenseless they can be, they are most apt to call on a higher power for strength. That is all well and good if they are praying with all their heart to the living God that’s mentioned in the Bible. Let’s see what the Bible has to say about this important subject. . The preparation of the heart for praying isn’t something that can be taught. I believe that there has to be a yearning or a deep desire inside you that motivates you to want to pray. There are many examples of that type of motivation throughout the books of the Old Testament. God allowed many tough situations to occur in peoples lives that would incite that necessary yearning to pray. All throughout the book of Job you see a lot of activity of a man yearning for answers to many questions to why he was a victim to so many trials. Another example of a man extremely motivated was David, and that is evident in Psalm 51. David always loved and respected God, but being in the flesh like all of us he showed his weakness by succumbing to temptation on the rooftop of the Kings house( 2 Sam.11:2-4). I’m not saying that we need to be motivated by such extreme measures that these men experienced. I believe having a clear understanding of God’s unconditional love for us is enough to get us praying, but to keep us praying, needless to say, we might have to experience different levels of trials (1Cor.10: 13). Ok, we are now motivated to pray. We need to find a closet or a quiet place alone with the Lord (Matt.6: 6). What do we do now? Jesus gives us a very helpful model of how we should pray which is in the midst of the longest and most complete sermon that was recorded in all the Gospels, known as the Sermon on the Mount (Matt.5-7). This model or guide in helping us to pray is the well-known, Lords Prayer. During my earlier years as a Christian, I used to quote The Lords Prayer without any thought on what it was really saying and unfortunately I think that is what is happening in many churches today. To help us understand why this prayer was given to us as a guide, let’s break it down into four segments. The first segment of this prayer is recognizing whom we are praying to, Our Father who’s art in heaven and then recognize a wonderful description of one of His unique attributes, Hollowed be Thy name. Allowing our minds to ponder on the holiness of our God and that He is our pure and perfect Father makes it easier for us to surrender our will to Him and allow His will to be done.. In the second segment of this prayer, all that is being suggested is that we need to ask God everyday to be our Provider. We need to remember that He created us, which means that He knows what we need more then we think we know what we need. The third segment is very important to follow, because confession is what it’s all about if we are to be in God’s favor. God did send His Son to die for us so that the forgiveness of sins can be possible. I learned that when we ask the Lord to forgive us of our sins, we need to be specific in what sins they are that are plaguing us. When we except Jesus as Lord of our life, He has forgiven all our sins and forgets about them. We don’t forget, so I think its important that we make sure that we lift those specific problems to Him. This will keep us honest before God and may even help us from repeating our mistakes again. The final segment of this great outline that Jesus set up for us is that we must rest fully on the Lord to protect us from temptation that seems to bombard us almost everyday. The flesh is weak, but the Spirit is strong (Matt.26: 41). Evil cannot hurt us because God is all-powerful, all mighty, and if God is for us who can be against us, certainly not evil. So get on your knees or sit in your chair or lie in your bed and enjoy yet another wonderful lesson Jesus taught while on earth and pray to Him. Find a place where it is quiet and you will have no distractions. He is in heaven sitting at the right hand of the Father. Amen Jesus’ Prayers: Luke.22: 41-42, , John.11: 41-42, Luke.23: 34, Matt.26: 39-42 Scripture Ref: Matt. 6: 1-8, Luke.22: 40, Luke.18: 1-5, Mark.9:23 Just for fun: Who, because he had a certain burden was motivated to pray three times on one particular day? God is for us who can be against us (See if you can find this in the Bible)
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