Prayer
Notes
Transcript
Have you ever been on a phone call and realized that the person you were talking to is no longer responding? I have. For me, it usually occurs at the most inconvenient times. Like I am trying to tell my wife something important and we can’t get through the conversation without one of us not being able to hear the other. There have been times where it has become so frustrating that I end up becoming frustrated with her, even though she has done nothing wrong.
When I think about this it reminds of another area of my life where I can talk and talk and feel like I’m not being heard. That area is prayer have any of you ever felt the same? If you have you know that you are not alone. You can pray all day and then something happens that just makes you look up and ask “are you even listening?” I know that God can hear me when I pray, but when His voice feels silent in my life, I sometimes wonder if the connection only works one-way. This leaves me frustrated and I wonder if there is any purpose to prayer.
I can’t help but think that part of the problem is our understanding of prayer. You see I am convinced that many of us treat prayer like the genie from Aladdin. Like we can just rub a lamp and anything we desire will become ours. I know I have treated prayer this way before. There is even a certain way that I start my prayers when I feel like I really need God to listen. I usually say “Dear Lord” except when I feel like something is really important, I then switch to “Heavenly Father”. It’s like I think those words will make God listen to me more. If that type of thinking sounds familiar to you, I have some news for you.
THAT IS NOT HOW PRAYER WORKS!
We can try and try all we like there is no way to trick God in to giving us what we want. There is no secret prayer trick. There is no book that is going to be able to tell you the perfect way to pray. I think God was aware that we would have confusion regarding prayer though. Because he included many passages to address it throughout the Bible. With that we will go to our scripture for the day.
Read 1 John 5:13-15 (CSB)
“13 I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.14 This is the confidence we have before him: If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked of him”
There is a lot to unpack in these verses. First thing first though I would like to point out that in verse 13 those “who believe in the name of the Son of God.” He is speaking to Christians in this passage. So, if you have placed your faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ this applies to you. I have had people question me before on the existence of God and they will tell a story where they prayed for something and it didn’t happen so that must mean God doesn’t exist. While that might sound convincing to some it doesn’t hold up against the Bible. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that God will answer the prayers of unbelievers.
In this passage I see 3 different things Christians should know when they approach God in prayer.
1. Confidence We Have Before Him. V.14
1. Confidence We Have Before Him. V.14
Verse 14 says “This is the confidence we have before him”
There is a confidence that we can and should have in prayer. Confidence doesn’t really sound like a good thing when it comes to having an effective prayer life. Your mind might take you to an image of a professional athlete who is described as confident but often shows up his opponents. This is not the confidence that we need when we approach God. We need a confidence that is focused on God. This is not how we generally approach God in prayer. The two ways that we generally approach God are:
a. With doubting
a. With doubting
b. With arrogance
b. With arrogance
These are not proper ways to approach God. They display either a lack of faith or an unhealthy view of yourself. There is another verse in the Bible that communicates a similar thought as this. It is from the beginning of the book of James and he is speaking about how we should ask for wisdom.
Read James 1:6 (CSB)
“But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind”
This verse directly confronts the first way we approach God. Have you ever approached God while at the same time doubting? I know I have. Where you are praying and the whole time you are thinking “this is pointless.” Usually we don’t start off praying with doubts but after having a few prayers go either unanswered or we didn’t like the answer we start to doubt whether prayer makes any difference at all. It is an easy trap to fall into and I would say that almost all Christians at one point or another would be guilty of it.
This is not how we should approach God in prayer we should have confidence that God is able to accomplish whatever it is that we ask of him. To doubt God while at the same time praying that he will answer a prayer, is showing that you lack faith. The verse in James does describes the one who doubts as being tossed around by the wind. Showing that you have no control, you are allowing the circumstances of life to determine your mentality.
We need to be careful though that we don’t go from doubting to arrogance. When talking about having confidence people often have a hard time distinguishing between arrogance and confidence. Arrogance is praying to God and expecting him to answer how you want him to, because of who you are or what you have done. This is someone who thinks that they have such a strong faith that God would never not answer their prayer. They may even expect God to answer their prayer according to their timeline. Going back to the earlier illustration of treating prayer like a wish from a genie. This person treats God like the genie who is confined to do only as they please.
In contrast to both doubting and arrogance is confidence. This, however, is different from what we usually think of when we hear the word “confidence.” Instead, of being an earthly confidence that is primarily focused on our own abilities. This is a confidence that has nothing to do with ourselves and is solely focused on God. Specifically, his power and his goodness.
To have confidence in His power means that we need to have a good understanding of His omnipotence. Omnipotence is a word that simply means all-powerful. So, God is all-powerful meaning that there is no one nor will there ever be anyone that is more powerful than God. So, he is capable of answering our prayers.
To have confidence in the goodness of God means you understand the omnibenevolence of God. This means that God is all-good or that there is nothing in God that is not good. Our God is a perfect and kind god. So, we do not need to be afraid that he doesn’t care or is unwilling to answer our prayers.
2. According to His will. V. 14
2. According to His will. V. 14
If we look a little later in verse 14 we see the words “If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” This means that you could have all the confidence in the world but if you are not praying according to the will of God he will not give you the answer you are looking for. Praying according to the will of God reminds of a certain prayer I had when I was a kid. Now, this might sound a little controversial but when I was a kid I was really into the show “Pokémon.” I was actually so into the show that one night, when I was about 7 or 8, as I was about to fall asleep, I prayed that God would make Pokémon become real. You see I had all the confidence in the world when I prayed this. In fact, I was convinced that when I woke up the next morning that I would see real Pokémon. So, I was incredibly disappointed when I awoke and there were no Pokémon.
Now we can look at that and understand that obviously that was a prayer that wasn’t going to come to fruition, but I think we often approach God in a similar way. Maybe we might be asking for something a little less ridiculous but is still against His will and we fully expect God to just do as we like. God is not going to contradict his will to fulfill your prayer request. However, if we know that we are praying according to his will we can be certain that he hears our prayers.
Now, you might be wondering “how do I know what God’s will is?” This is an excellent question, because we can’t always be certain. There are times you might know and other times that you don’t know. So, what are you to do? I suggest that in your prayers be asking for God to show you his will. I actually had a situation about a year ago where I was praying for something but throughout, I was asking for God to make his will know to my wife and I. See, we were living in Michigan at the time and we had started to have a desire to move back closer to where I grew up in Wisconsin.
We might’ve just moved but we had a lot of things going in Michigan. We both had good jobs, we had a lot of close friendships and family in Michigan, we had a church that we were very connected to, and a lot of ministries that we were involved with. So, we started praying about it and asking God to show us His will. We were also asking that if we weren’t aligned with His will that he would start to change our desires and align them with is will. Slowly God began to open multiple doors for us in Wisconsin and at the same time started to close doors back in Michigan. This allowed to move forward with the confidence that we were acting in obedience to God.
Jesus actually refers to praying for God’s will in the Lord’s Prayer.
Read Matthew 6:10 (CSB)
“10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
More and more throughout the church you hear people talking about the prosperity gospel. Where if we do certain things or pray certain ways God will always reward us with amazing physical blessings. This is not the way it works. It is all about God’s will, not ours. If what you are praying for conflicts with the will of God your prayer will go unanswered. I would urge you if your prayers are not aligned with the will of God that you should be desiring and praying that your will would be conformed to the will of God.
3. We can know that it will be answered. V. 15
3. We can know that it will be answered. V. 15
If we pray with confidence and according to the will of God verse 15 tells us that “we know that we have what we have asked of him.” Before we go any further, I must make it clear that this does not mean that that God is now going to answer your prayers the way you want. This is not some sort of trick to get your way. Nor is this the prosperity gospel where God rewards you with all of your desires in exchange for your faith. Instead, this will result in a vibrant and effective prayer life. You will see your relationship with Christ grow in ways that you have not yet experienced.
Some of you may say “then what is the point of prayer if it doesn’t get me what I want?” If you are asking this question then I need to inform you that you have misunderstood the purpose of prayer. It is not about you; it is not about getting what you want. Instead, it is us communicating with God to further his glory. The moment we think of it as some sort of ritual to get our own way it loses all of its power.
Allow yourself to be used by God to further His glory through your prayers. You will begin to see God work in ways you have not yet seen. Also pray for your brothers and sister in Christ that they would be awakened to the need for prayer throughout our country.
3 Practical Steps to Help Your Prayer Life
3 Practical Steps to Help Your Prayer Life
1. Practice the ACTS prayer method.
1. Practice the ACTS prayer method.
ACTS stands for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. Now there are a lot of big words there so I will break it down for us. First, we adore God or bring glory to him for who He is (e.g. His faithfulness). Second, we confess where we have fallen short. Third we thank God for what he has done. And fourth we ask God for something.
2. Keep a prayer journal
2. Keep a prayer journal
3. Download the Echo Prayer app
3. Download the Echo Prayer app