Just Two Things: The Prayer That Covers Everything

Sermon Title: Just Two Things: The Prayer That Covers Everything

Understand the Practice of Prayer The “How” of prayer

Scripture: Proverbs 30:7-9

Occasion: The Lord’s Day

Date: January 18, 2025

Introduction

For two weeks now, we’ve been positioning ourselves at the threshold of a new year with our 21 Days of Prayer emphasis, “It Happens After Prayer.” Brother Brian opened our eyes to *Why We Pray*—the motivation. Last week, from Philippians 4, we explored *What Prayer Is*—the nature of prayer as grateful, specific petition that guards our hearts with God’s peace.

But this morning, church, we move from the “why” and the “what” to the “how.” We’re moving from the theory to the practice. From the classroom to the closet. How do you *actually* pray? Not in a general, “God bless everybody” sense, but in a specific, strategic, scripture-saturated way?

Because let me tell you something: the enemy isn’t afraid of prayer that is vague. He trembles at prayer that is precise. He laughs at wish lists, but he flees from the Word-based, God-centered, Spirit-empowered petitions of a righteous person.

This morning, the Holy Spirit takes us to the prayer journal of a man named Agur. We don’t know much about him. He’s not a king like Solomon. He’s not a prophet like Isaiah. He’s a humble, weary, honest seeker of God who is tired of his own foolishness and the world’s pretense. And in his exhaustion, he boils down all of prayer—everything you could ever need—into just two requests. *Just two things.*

He shows us that powerful prayer is not about covering all the bases. It’s about targeting the heart of the matter. And if you get these two things right, by God’s grace, everything else falls into its proper place.

So let’s listen in. This is not Agur’s casual suggestion. This is his desperate, dying plea: **“Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die.”** This is “How to Pray: The Practice of Prayer.”

Transition: So let’s open up that prayer journal. Let’s lean in close and listen to the first of these two all-covering requests. Because if we get this one wrong, every prayer that follows will be built on a cracked foundation. Agur, with the wisdom of a seasoned saint, doesn’t start with what’s in his hand. He starts with what’s in his heart. His very first petition is a cry for authenticity. He prays, “Remove far from me falsehood and lying.” Before he asks God to change his circumstances, he asks God to change his character.