"What About Prayer"- by Brad Johannessen

What about prayer? SLIDE #1

There are many good questions about prayer that come up in the church, and with many outside the church. We hear questions in the church like:

What is intercessory prayer?

What is a prayer of petition?

Why pray if God already knows what is going to happen?

Why pray because God never answers my prayers anyway?

These are all good questions and I am positive if you have specific questions like these, Pastor Rick would be pleased to help guide to find the answers you seek.

There are also many good books at the local Christian bookstore.

Today I will be focusing on a model for prayer. I believe in the coming weeks Pastor Rick will be speaking more on prayer but I would encourage you, as this is such an important topic, if your questions are not answered, let Pastor Rick know.

SLIDE #2 Let’s begin with some basics about prayer.

1) Prayer is relational. Between us and God.

2) Prayer is how God planned for us to communicate to Him.

3) Prayer is how we invite God’s will and plan into our lives.
Let’s begin by reading from Matthew 6: 5-8.

Review. Jesus is referring in verses 5 and 6 to a certain type of Jewish praying where there was intent to be seen and noticed. Some would pray hoping others would see them as spiritual or godly. The bible really teaches us to pray either on our own or with others. But not for the purpose of being seen.

Whether by ourselves or with others, Jesus is telling us we need to go to God with heartfelt communion. With the sole intent to seek God and have relationship with him. And to seek His will.

Verse 8 is one place where we get one of those earlier questions.

Read v. 8. It is important what this is saying and we need to also recognize what it is not saying.

Jesus is not saying God knows what you need so don’t pray. Clearly he is not saying this because these verses are all about prayer.

SLIDE 3# Discuss.
What God wants of us is really simple. He wants to hear our needs but so many do JUST that. God also wants to often hear us ask Him, “Lord God, what do you want for me?” Or, “Lord, you know what I need, reveal to me what I need to serve you”. Yes, we can ask God what to pray for. He knows our needs but sometimes with life stresses, we cannot sense what God wants or were God wants us.

Prayer is mostly not about us. It is not about what we believe we need. Prayer is about asking God to use us to fulfill his plan and what we need to do that.

If you have prayed in the past for something and you didn’t get it, you need to ask, “Did God want this or did I”?

Maybe you wanted that new car to do God’s work, but maybe God had another work planned for you that didn’t require that car. So, you didn’t get the car so you didn’t serve how you wanted.

It’s not about us. It’s about seeking God’s will and doing what he has planned. Not making our own plans and then asking God for help.

Let’s continue.

Read Matt 6:9-13. The Lord prayer.

Let me break this down.

Firstly Jesus gives this prayer in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount. The focus is the kingdom of God has come and His will be done, now and in the future.

SLIDE #4 Second, it is God that will sustain us and this includes providing our physical needs.

Third, forgiveness from God means we too must forgive. How can we judge others when we are also sinners. As well, how can we hold grudges and say we love everyone?

Fourth. Although God saves us from His wrath and judgment, we can succumb to temptation, and we can only resist with God’s help. We are not strong enough. We all know it.

Lastly, deliver us from evil when tempted so we can serve God. Without freedom from evil, we cannot effectively serve God.

There is much we can learn about prayer.

I trust I have given you some thoughts, some ideas, a few things to think about this coming week.

I cannot stress enough; prayer is more about asking God what he wants than what we want.

Don’t wait for a need and pray. Pray daily asking God to provide for you, your family and ask him to guide you.

As we can see from this model of pray in Matthew, Prayer is about many things.

SLIDE #5
God’s will
God’s providing our needs. Although, not everyone is the same. All according to His purpose.
Forgiveness
Helping us avoid temptation

All to enable us to be all He wants us to be, and far more than we can imagine.