Prayer Power

Telos: The true power of prayer is a revelation of the One you’re praying to.

Matthew 6:6–9 NKJV

But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.

All True Prayer begins with identification!

Not just praying to the Creator, but my Father through adoption.

Facts:

You were chosen, you didn’t pick God, He picked you.

In adoption, you have no guarantees of outcome. He already knew what you were, are, and could be (good and bad).

Talit: Prayer Shawl

“The Place of No Distraction”

Susanna Wesley and her apron.

And in their rosary, they have rosaries containing thirty-three, s ixty-six or ninety-nine beeds, which they use for reciting the ninety-nine titles of god, creator, provider, protector, sustainer and so on, ninety-nine of them, but not one of the ninety-nine is father, some Arabs, Muslim Arabs with a delightful witticism say that God actually has a hundred names, but we only know ninety-nine of them. And the only creature who knows the hundredth is the camel, which is why the camel’s expression is always one of ineffable superiority. But actually, it isn’t the camel who knows the hundredth name of God, it’s the Christian. Jesus told us to call God, “Father,” and that is the very essence of prayer.

“To a Jewish mind, it would have been irreverent and therefore unthinkable to call God by this familiar word.” It was something new, something unique, unheard of, that Jesus dared to take this step and to speak with God as a child speaks with his father simply, intimately, securely. “When we hear this word, Abba Father,” says Jeremias, “we are hearing the ipsissima vox, the very voice of Jesus.

And Dr. Packer ends the quotation, “Father is the Christian name of God.” So, if when we pray, we come to God as our Father and see ourselves as His children who have the privilege of access into our furthest presence, what will our prayers be like? That question, Jesus goes on to answer in the Lord’s Prayer. I’m going to suggest just two things. He is speaking, a) If we come like little children to our Father, our prayers will be God-centered. The Lord’s Prayer doesn’t begin, as you know, with us, doesn’t begin with our needs, doesn’t begin, as we nearly always begin, our own prayers, which is that with a whole string of petitions.

 “The essence of fatherhood is found in God, not in human beings.”

The pictures we have available to understand God are limited by our inherent inability to recognize the depth of His glory and goodness. The image of an earthly father, as a way of understanding God, is a good picture if…

Matthew 7:9 NKJV

Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?

Matthew 7:10 NKJV

Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?

Matthew 7:11 NKJV

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

1 John 3:1–2 NKJV

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

John 15:7 NKJV

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.