Prayer 02-23-2025

Introduction

Today, we are going to be looking into the topic of Prayer. Prayer is a necessary spiritual discipline for those who follow Christ. It is not an optional thing we are to do, but rather a required part of a Christian’s life. Yet for some, it can be hard to know what to pray. In College, all of those who were studying to be in Pastoral ministry had a joke. “Always be ready to preach, pray or die.” Such was my upbringing that this seemed to be the very essence of all Christians. Any Christian at any time, should be ready to pray with and for someone. However, when I was in my mid-20’s I discovered this wasn’t the case for everyone. I was at a young adult bible study with about 30-40 other young adults. I had the privilege to teach the Bible lesson that night and at the end, I asked an outgoing guy who had been consistently coming to the group for longer than I had been to pray. In my mind, it was one of the simplest of responsibilities for a Christian, and he said “”I’d rather not.” For the first time in my life I had met a Christian who said no to prayer. This was when I first realized that not everyone knows how to pray. You see, for some, once they get saved, it is like God gifts them with a natural ability to pray. While for others, they struggle with prayer. Last week in Hebrews God challenged us to boldly go to the Throne of Grace. That sounds wonderful, but for some we don’t know what that looks like and so when we try to pray we feel like we are fumbling our way through and thus we give up. Dear one, if this is you, I want to encourage you with the truth that even Jesus’ disciples asked Him “Lord Teach us to Pray” (Lk 11:1) So, Jesus gave His disciples, and us, the most well known example prayer in Matthew 6:9–13 “Pray then like this: “Our Father 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 lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” So Jesus gives us a model/example for how to pray, but we are getting ahead of ourselves, let us first go to the basics: what is prayer?

Prayer Defined

Talking To God: The most basic definition of prayer is “talking to God.” However, this definition is a little like saying Niagara Falls is water running over some rocks, because it is such a vast understatement of what it is. Prayer is not meditation where we empty our minds or some type of passive reflection, but rather it is us directly communicating with the God of the Universe. It is the communication of a human with the One who created him. So yes, “talking to God” is a good definition, but let us not lose sight of the tremendous privilege we have to talk with the One who created us. Which brings us to our first point.

Who Are We Praying To?

As I already said, prayer is talking to God. Yet, as I have already stated, sometimes the understatement of that phrase can cause us to fail to understand the One we are talking to. So who is God? Genesis 1:1–2 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” In the beginning, God already existed. He is eternal. He simply IS. But not only is He eternal, which alone is a bigger concept than any human can fully grasp, He spoke and everything came into existence. Genesis 1:3 “And God said, “Let there be light,” and what happened? there was light.” By the power of His Word, nothing became something. In fact, Colossians 1:16–17 says “For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” The reason everything exists, the reason all the Laws of the Universe exist and the reason they continue to do what they are supposed to do, in other words, the reason 1+1 continues to =2 is because God. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” Philosophers refer to Him as the Un-caused First Cause. Everything that came into existence had a cause. Yet not so with God. He NEVER came into existence, rather all of existence came into existence because of HIM and it all continues to function because of Him. Not only that but Scripture speaks of God as reigning from His throne. Psalm 103:19 “The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom rules over all.” For us as Americans, we aren’t too keen on Monarchs, for a true Monarch has absolute authority over everything in their kingdom. When a Monarch speaks it is Law. God is the Absolute Monarch. He spoke and Creation happened. He Rules over everything. He sustains everything. You and I live because He says we can. Job 12:10 “In His hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.” He is the LORD. There is none greater, higher, or more powerful than Him and He sits on the throne of Heaven in utter and complete control of ALL things. Everything that occurs is because He permits it for His purposes. Now we could go on for days describing the incomprehensible nature of the grandeur of God. Yet the greatness of God sometimes causes us to ask why. Why would this King upon His throne who is so great care about me? Psalm 8:4 asks the same question “what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You care for him?” There is no logical reason that One as great as the LORD God should care. There is no good reason. King David asked a similar question in 2 Samuel 7:18 “Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that You have brought me thus far?” Yet, the truth is that God does care. Jesus said in Luke 12:6–7 “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.” and then later in the same chapter Jesus says Luke 12:24–28 “Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, (as if adding an hour to the God appointed end of your life was a simple thing) why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith!” God cares for you because He is perfectly loving, perfectly kind, and perfectly good. He is the authority over all creation and He cares for you. So when we go to talk to God, when we go to Him and express our emotions, our desires, and sometimes to simply fellowship with God, He listens because He cares, and He is fully able to answer everything we bring to Him. This is simply who He is. wow.… BTW this is the reason Hebrews 4:16 is so mind-blowing! “Let us/human beings then with confidence/freedom and openness draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” This is the One we are going to and He doesn’t exasperatedly say “Oh come on, you again?” or “really you are asking me about that little thing?” NO! He says “Come.” Again, WOW! Now one might say, “That sounds good, but I struggle to pray. I try to and then my mind wanders and I’m not even sure what to say.” (Ill. Ask how many?) And this may lead the heart of a Christian to despair from even attempting to pray. So just as Jesus gave His disciples a model to structure their prayer after, which is a glorious model. So for the Christian who is asking for help in structuring their prayers, here is an acronym to help us pray.

What do I say? A.C.T.S. a Structure for Prayer

A. doration: Adoration is the deep love and respect we pay to someone we revere. It is extremely similar to worship & for our purposes I am using them as synonyms. The idea of adoration is to bow before or “to kiss the ground in reverence before someone.” This is the reason we bow our heads and close our eyes. This is the reason we kneel in prayer. This is the reason we lift our hands palm upward. These are all outward demonstrations of what should be happening in our hearts. “Adoration gets to the heart of who we are. To truly worship/adore God, we must let go of our self-worship. We must be willing to humble ourselves before God, surrender every part of our lives to His control, and adore Him for who He is, not just what He has done.” (What is adoration in the Bible? | GotQuestions.org) And we see this is the Lord’s Prayer. Our Father in heaven, hallowed/Holy/set apart be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” In short, adoration is all about worshiping God for who He Is and the simplest way to do that is by reflecting upon His attributes. So begin your prayer with adoration. “Dear God, You are mighty, holy, wonderful...” Adoration

C.onfession: In scripture we are commanded to confess our sins to the Lord and we see many examples of that in scripture. Psalm 38:18 “I confess my iniquity; I am sorry for my sin.” Proverbs 28:13 tells us “Whoever conceals his transgressions/sin will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.” And 1 John 1:9 tells us “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” So we are to confess our sins and ask God to forgive us. As the Lord’s Model prayer says, and forgive us our debts/sins,

T.hanksgiving: This is pretty easy to define. Thanksgiving is all about giving thanks for everything God has done in your life. These are things we would consider both great and small. Ask yourself what has God done for me. James 1:17 says “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” Everything we have is from the hand of God orchestrated for us to have at the proper moment for the proper amount of time He would have us hold on to it. Now it is easy and right to thank the Lord for the things we perceive as good, but I would contend we should also thank the Lord for the hard. As Job stated after he lost everything Job 1:21 “And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Consider that it may be appropriate that while we ask for help, we also express thankfulness for whatever good God will bring about because of the trial. Even as I preach this, it scares me to live it. But even in this Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”

S.upplication: This means to humbly ask. Philippians 4:6–7 “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Dear one, we are to with bold humility ask. In fact, a foundational part of the definition of prayer means to Ask. According to the 1828 edition of Webster’s dictionary, to pray means “to ask with earnestness or zeal, as for a favor, or for something desirable; to entreat; to supplicate.” (Websters Dictionary, 1828) And we see this definition demonstrated so many times throughout the pages of scripture and even in our text last week. Hebrews 4:16 “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” In this text we are going to the throne of grace requesting aid from the King of All Creation. So dear one, with bold humility ask the Sovereign of the Universe to fill whatever need you have. Again this is found in the Lord’s Model Prayer And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Oh if we were to pray for that more often.

How Should You Pray

So we have looked at a definition, we have looked at who we are praying to, and we have looked at a structure to aid us in structuring our prayer. Yet let us move now from head knowledge to the doing of prayer that comes from the heart and is expressed through words and actions.

In Faith: We go to the King of Creation trusting that He cares and He is ABLE to give us our request, yet always according to His Will. For Christ prayed with such an earnest zeal in the Garden of Gethsemane that He sweated drops of blood. Luke 22:44 “And being in agony He prayed more earnestly; and His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” Yet God did not allow the cup of His suffering to pass from Him. Rather Jesus said Luke 22:42 “saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from Me. Nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.” So we are to pray in Faith that God can, but trusting that if God says no His will is better. We pray in Faith.

In moments of stress. Sometimes we do not have time for long prayer, so our prayer of faith may be short. In Nehemiah chapter 2 we find Nehemiah the prophet serving as cupbearer to King Artaxerxes. Now Nehemiah 1:3 we read of the great heartache that Nehemiah was under. “And they said to me/Nehemiah, “The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.” Nehemiah is devastated by this news and he mourns and prays over this situation. Yet he must continue to go about his duties as cupbearer to the King. Then we read in Nehemiah 2:1–4 “In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence. And the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of the heart.” Then I was very much afraid. I said to the king, “Let the king live forever! Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ graves, lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?” Then the king said to me, “What are you requesting?” Get this So I prayed to the God of heaven.” Nehemiah had just been put into a spot. He did not have time for a long prayer. The King asked a question, Nehemiah prayed in the moment, most likely internally, and then spoke to the King. There are moments of stress in our lives, we pray. It may be short, but we pray.

With Persistence- In Luke 18, Jesus tells the parable of the Persistent Widow and the Unjust Judge. Luke 18:1–8 “And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’ ” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” Dear one, pray with persistence.

With Consistence- Specific times of prayer ought to be a part of the Christians daily routine. An example of this would be Daniel. Even when prayer became a punishable offense, it did not stop Daniel from his normal routine of prayer with God. Daniel 6:10 “When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. Daniel went to his normal place of prayer, He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously.” Even the threat of punishment did not deter him from his habitual/planned times of prayer. We need to pray with consistence.

About Everything- Finally, we need to pray about everything. Philippians 4:6–7 “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” There is no matter too small nor a matter too large that we cannot pray about. In closing, 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”