Why Pray
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Last few weeks
We have covered,
Why Join the church - God never designed or intended for you to walk through this life alone, you need to be joining the local Body of Christ
Why Read your Bible - we are to be reading our Bibles so we know what God is saying to us
Why Tithe - we are to be giving not only our income but also our time, engery, skill, service
This week we will wrap up the Why series
This week we will look at why we are to be praying
Grandmother, mother are both prayer warriors, learned a lot of about praying from them
What is Prayer
Prayer Defined - The addressing and petitioning of God.
“Yet have regard to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which Your servant prays before You today;
that Your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, toward the place of which You have said, ‘My name shall be there,’ to listen to the prayer which Your servant shall pray toward this place.
“Listen to the supplication of Your servant and of Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place; hear in heaven Your dwelling place; hear and forgive.
Prayer is simple, prayer is communicating with God, that seems simple
we see that Prayer is communication with God, and part of that communication with God is bringing requests before the Lord remember that is only part of it, other times we praise God, we confess all of that together is communication with God!
We all attempt to communicate every day, some of us our better than others, some of us are good at communicating and it shows in our life, some of us need to work on communication with others prayer is no different,
The complicated part of that is when you communicate with God you are to also listen to God and to what He has to say!
How we are to Pray
2 important things about how to pray is we are to talk and listen, those are the basics, however Scripture calls for more than just talk and listen
In fact he gives us some very good exampls of how to go about and pray
the first is the Lords Prayer
“Pray, then, in this way:
‘Our Father who is in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
‘Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
‘Give us this day our daily bread.
‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’
vs 9 - Praise to God
vs 10 - God’s will above all else
vs 11- Give us what we need, you know God
vs 12 - Forgiveness
vs 13- Keep us safe, guidence and direction
All of this is just an outline
Along with that Christ would also remind us to ask with right movitives,
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
“For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
however
You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
the reason we are not getting what we are asking for is maybe we are not asking with right motives,
when we pray to God we must understand that we are entering the throne of God and in the presence of God himself!
we need to ensure our hearts are in the right first
Right movtives, leads us to the net question
Why we Don’t Pray
Maybe you don’t know how to pray, I hope we have covered that so we can cross that off
We are a lazy people, we can see through out the entire Bible the people God is after are often lazy
Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to His disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.”
And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed.
Then He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.”
And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.”
And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour?
“Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, “My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done.”
Again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy.
And He left them again, and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more.
Then He came to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.
This group of Guys had walked with Jesus for about 3 years, they knew first hand what Jesus was about, but still could not keep praying,
excuses, tired, busy, not the place
Jesus went off by himself and spent time with the lord, I wonder why we don’t
If Jesus is our example to live then he should be an example for us to pray like
After He had sent the crowds away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray; and when it was evening, He was there alone.
I hope that now we can begin to find places to go by ourselves and pray!
If we know the pro’s to praying then honestly why are we not praying, i belive we are being lazy, it has to be the easiest part of our relationship with Christ, but the most over looked
Why we Pray
to stay connected to Christ
one of the most important ways I am able to stay married is that Randi and I communicate, our relationship with Christ is no different, if we are to stay connected and grow with Christ, then we are to pray and communicate with Him
to bring our concerns, issues, and praises before God, and to keep us from fighting,
we are be in Constant prayer with jesus, always talking with him
pray without ceasing;
I want to leave you with this story about the power of prayer some of us have been talking about during our bible study last week!
Jim Cymbala Story - Pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle
“February came. One cold Tuesday night during the prayer meeting, I talked from Acts 4 about the church boldly calling on God in the face of persecution. We entered into a time of prayer,”
“everyone reaching out to the Lord simultaneously. An usher handed me a note. A young woman whom I felt to be spiritually sensitive had written: Pastor Cymbala, I feel impressed that we should stop the meeting and all pray for your daughter.
I hesitated. Was it right to change the flow of the service and focus on my personal need?”
“THIRTY-TWO HOURS LATER, ON Thursday morning, as I was shaving, Carol suddenly burst through the door, her eyes wide. “Go downstairs!” she blurted. “Chrissy’s here.”
“Chrissy’s here?”
“Yes! Go down!”
“But Carol—I—”
“Just go down,” she urged. “It’s you she wants to see.”
I wiped off the shaving foam and headed down the stairs, my heart pounding. As I came around the corner, I saw my daughter on the kitchen floor, rocking on her hands and knees, sobbing. Cautiously I spoke her name:
“Chrissy?”
She grabbed my pant leg and began pouring out her anguish. “Daddy—Daddy—I’ve sinned against God. I’ve sinned against myself. I’ve sinned against you and Mommy. Please forgive me—” My vision was as clouded by tears as hers. I pulled her up from the floor and held her close as we cried together. Suddenly she drew back. “Daddy,” she said with a start, “who was praying for me? Who was praying for me?” Her voice was like that of a cross-”
“examining attorney.“What do you mean, Chrissy?”
“On Tuesday night, Daddy—who was praying for me?” I didn’t say anything, so she continued:
“In the middle of the night, God woke me and showed me I was heading toward this abyss. There was no bottom to it—it scared me to death. I was so frightened. I realized how hard I’ve been, how wrong, how rebellious. “But at the same time, it was like God wrapped his arms around me and held me tight. He kept me from sliding any farther as he said, ‘I still love you.’
“Daddy, tell me the truth—who was praying for me Tuesday night?”
I looked into her bloodshot eyes, and once again I recognized the daughter we had raised.”
Closing- Invitation is simply this, to come and spend some time talking with God maybe you need to come down front, or maybe you need to sit in your seat and pray and experience that power we just read about, maybe you are here and do not know Christ, and I would love to invite you down front to talk with you about that
