Sunday's Message
In Sunday's message we asked the question Why Pray?
James
4:1-2 4 What
causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your
passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder.
You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because
you do not ask.
What James is saying is, you do not have because you
do not ask God. We pray and God responds. Jesus also says in Luke 11:9-10 9 And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. If you do not ask, you do not receive.We see this in the OT in 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 as well with Moses in Exodus 32:7-14
If we were really convinced that prayer changes the
way God acts, and that God does bring about change in the world in response to
prayer, as scripture repeatedly teaches it does, then shouldn’t we pray?
Shouldn’t we pray much more than we do. If we just pray a little, it is because
we probably do not really believe that prayer accomplishes much?
2.
Prayer
changes us
1
John 1:9 9 If we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness.
John say's to pray by confessing our sin because God forgives and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. This cleansing changes us by making us righteous.
Paul believes prayer changes us as we can see in his prayer in Ephesians 3:14. He prays for the church to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being.John say's to pray by confessing our sin because God forgives and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. This cleansing changes us by making us righteous.
3. Prayer is our best demonstration of faith
Biblical faith is dependence upon or trust in God.
It is not wishy washy. Hebrews 11:1
says 11 Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not
see.
A key element in understanding faith and being sure our faith is correct is the object of our faith. God is the object of our faith. Our faith is in God, so we pray to God for discernment, for wisdom, for anything and everything in this life, and for His glory. Romans 4:18-21 says, 20 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.”
When we pray we are saying, “God, we need your wisdom, because our wisdom is not enough.” We are saying, “God, I need your love in this life, for my love is not good.” We are saying, “God, I need your goodness, because I have no goodness in myself.” We are saying, “God I need your power, because when I am weak, then I am strong.” We are saying, “God, I depend on you for all things, because there is nothing good in me apart from you. I am a jar of clay, you are the treasure.” Just as Jesus said to the rich young ruler, “Why do you call me good, there is no one good except God.”
We don’t pray much because we think we have
something good in us, apart from the knowledge of God. We don’t pray much because we think we can do what God wants
us to do on our own.A key element in understanding faith and being sure our faith is correct is the object of our faith. God is the object of our faith. Our faith is in God, so we pray to God for discernment, for wisdom, for anything and everything in this life, and for His glory. Romans 4:18-21 says, 20 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.”
When we pray we are saying, “God, we need your wisdom, because our wisdom is not enough.” We are saying, “God, I need your love in this life, for my love is not good.” We are saying, “God, I need your goodness, because I have no goodness in myself.” We are saying, “God I need your power, because when I am weak, then I am strong.” We are saying, “God, I depend on you for all things, because there is nothing good in me apart from you. I am a jar of clay, you are the treasure.” Just as Jesus said to the rich young ruler, “Why do you call me good, there is no one good except God.”
If this were so, why did Jesus pray? He had to depend on the Father for all things. For even though He was fully God and fully man, He recognized His need for God while in this flesh. We too must recognize our need. So we pray!
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