BE STILL AND KNOW I AM GOD - BIBLE STUDY
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Seven specific simple, yet powerful prayers in Scripture to help start experiencing God.
Prayer Defined:It is talking to God with intention and purpose; as His own child, according to His word.
Prayer Purposed:God allows prayer to be the method of causing things.
Why We Need To Hear This? One of the essential ingredients to a blessed life is spending time with God in prayer. - Our best life is found in His presence.
Prayer is a necessary component to accessing everything that God has made available to us in Christ.
Starts with a hunger for God
Psalm 43:4 - Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.
Psalm 73:25-26 - Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Why should we pray?
To seek God with a purpose and a reason in mind: To Get to know God.
Why should we care about being still with God to know Him better?
Knowing God better makes our lives better.
4 Beautiful Truths
1. God Is Everything We Are Created For And Everything We’re Looking For
2. Your Best And Fullest Life Is Experienced Through Knowing God
3. God’s Blessings Are Experienced Through Knowing Him
4. God’s Love Is Better Than Life And We Exist To Know That Love Better
7 simple, but powerful prayers to add to your prayers.
I. The Infinite God Has Invited Us To Come and Know Him | “Show me who you are”
Proverbs 8:17 - I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.
Proverbs 8:17 (KJV )
I love them that love me; And those that seek me early shall find me.
What does it mean to seek and find Him?
Exodus 33:13a - Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know youin order to find favor in your sight.
Knowing God is obviously about knowing His ways and character but it’s also about just soaking in His absolute awesomeness and glory.
Exodus 33:18 - Moses said, “Please show me your glory.
And, we long to know God in order to reflect those ways and live a life that’s honorable
Psalm 25:4 - Show me your ways, LORD, teach me your paths.
II. God Is Everything We Are Created For & Everything We’re Looking For | “Satisfy me”
We are created for God. His love is what we’re made for. He ALONE satisfies. He ALONE fulfills us. You will never be satisfied until you come to God for salvation.
Psalm 107:9 - For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things
Matthew 11:28 - Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
John 6:35 - Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
A Psalm of David.
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;
Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
III. Our Best And Fullest Life Is Experienced Through Knowing God | “Give me full life”
Knowing God is eternal life so knowing God allows us to live the fullest life.
John 17:3 - And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
(For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
IV. God’s Blessings Are Experienced Through Knowing Him | “Lead me Into your blessing”
As you know God better through His word and prayer, you access more of His blessings in Christ. All of God’s blessings like peace, hope, joy, power, strength, security and all of the fruits of the Spirit are attached to the knowledge of God.
2 Peter 1:2-3 - May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence
V. God’s Love Is Better Than Life And NEED To Know It Better | “Help me know your love”
His love is better than life and satisfies us abundantly. Knowing God’s love better and deeper everyday is the best thing we can do and fundamentally changes our lives forever
Being with God includes just basking in, soaking in, and reminding ourselves of HIS great love for us by meditating on that love expressed and revealed in Scripture and in our own life.
Psalm 63:3 - Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.
Part of God revealing Himself is that God reveals His great love and Paul prays in Ephesians that we would know the love of God deeper.
Romans 5:8 - but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
VI. God Is Our Hiding Place Where We Are Most Secure And Safe | “Shelter me God”
God is our refuge and He is the place we run to in order to be refreshed, renewed and to find security in order to process and re-center ourselves around what is actually true of life.
Psalm 73:28 - But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.
Psalm 46:1-3 - God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.
The Application: Everyone has a safe place (your room, friend’s house, your phone, drugs, your boyfriend, with your parents, under the sheets at night etc.) but not every safe place actually makes me more secure. Most hiding places we have provide us a sense of false security and fake safety. It’s an illusion but God isn’t.
VII. God Gives Us An Eternal Perspective Of Our Problems | “Give me your vision”
Psalm 73:16-17 - But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
15 And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do? 16 And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. 17 And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.