The leftover question from yesterday is this: why don't our prayers always 'work?' In The Prayer of the Lord R.C. Sproul warns against even asking such questions:"We have to guard against taking a fatalistic view of this matter of prayer. We cannot allow ourselves to dismiss prayer from our lives simply because it might not seem to have pragmatic value. Whether or not prayer works, we must engage in it, simply because God Himself commands us to do it. Even a cursory reading of the Bible, particularly the New Testament, reveals a deep emphasis on prayer, supplication, and intercession. It is inescapable that prayer is an expected activity for the people of God. Furthermore, our Lord Himself is the supreme model for us in all things, and He clearly made prayer a huge priority in His life. We can do no less."
Whether or not we get what we ask for from God is not the reason we pray in the first place. We pray because this is Christ's command, and because communication with our Heavenly Father is so very good for us.
My prayer for all of us is that God would gives us a greater sense of the blessing and privilege of talking to Him.
Jesus teaches us to pray in "spirit and in truth", this, in my humble opinion, means we are not bringing to God a list of to do prayer requests. We are to read God's word and pray God's word which means, if we are in the Pslams, a big part of our comunication with God is praise and adoration. We were made by God Himself to bring Him glory, so when we pray we shouldn't go immediately to a list of needs and requests. We should start off by bringing our praises to the throne, in doing so communication is opened up and confession is next. Psalm 51 is a wonderful passage to memorize so confession can be made anytime, any place. God want us to have a broken and contrite heart to repent of our sin and ask forgiveness which, by His grace He freely gives us. Next we should spend some time thanking the Lord for His providences. And finally it is the time for us to bring before Him our supplications (petitions). An easy way to remember this is called "ACTS" (adoration, confession, thanksgiving & supplication.)
ReplyDeleteOf course this is the way prayer should be I am guilty as most of us are in making prayer quick, but in that there is no heart, no communion with our Heavenly Father and and no chance to pray in the spirit.
Candy maybe some time you could elaberate on what your thoughts are of what it means to "pray in spirit and in truth?" I for one have always been curious about what Jesus is really saying there. Thanks for all your great insights and quotes that keep us thinking about the things of God! DS