Prayer Essential Doctrine

What is Prayer? How did you learn how to pray? 1 Thess 5:17; Matt 26:41; Is 56:7 Prayer is important and is something we need to do We MUST pray but how do we pray? What does prayer look like? Prayer is not being pious, better than others, or to be full of pride when we speak to God

The First Prayer Gen 20 talks about praying but does not convey the significance of prayer Gen 3:8 – God wants intimacy with His people Adam and Eve did not have to pray because they started off with intimacy. Sin created the divide, and prayer was the only way to communicate with God

Why Pray? God knows our needs God is aware of what He can do and what He will or won’t do God is not automatic, God is not a service. God wants INTIMACY with us. Having an interaction with people is meaningful, personal, purposeful, and valuable Jesus wants us to ask for things, part of prayer is meeting needs, but prayer is also more than meeting needs He wants us to be a friend, to relate, to ask as a friend would ask

Prayer Misconceptions Prayer isn’t to get the attention of God or the attention of others We don’t need loud, bold, eloquent, repetitive words God doesn’t respond to us trying to get His attention People don’t need to hear you loudly for your prayer to be effective Jesus tells us not to pray in a way that seeks a reward Praying louder or longer doesn’t mean that God hears us more

The Lord’s Prayer We shouldn’t be reciting the Lord’s prayer (Jesus told us not to use repetition when we pray) The Lord’s Prayer helps us understand a pattern of prayer – what to pray for and how to approach God We can learn from the Lord’s prayer so that we have a form that we can use, a template, to pray powerful, purposeful, and effective prayers

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name Our Father = Abba = Daddy Jesus wants us to have a close relationship with God FIRST. We start off with God as our loving Father before anything else. There is an intimacy and closeness, we should never feel distant when we pray Hallowed = worthy We then approach God with honour and respect and worship. We are intimate, but we are different, we revere Him as God We are close, but we are not disrespectful and we don’t treat God like a human We are never flippant or dishonouring to God

Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. God is God, He will always have His way Whatever He wants is what we will pray for God is the King and the boss and we submit to Him. Our relationship with him is more important than our own personal desires If Jesus would die on a cross for our eternity, we can trust Him with our lives on earth His will is the best thing for earth and also the best thing for us Rom 8:32

Give us this day our daily bread God wants us to ask for things God wants us to rely on Him as the source of our needs We can present our requests to Him Daily bread = not to be selfish or greedy, but for God to meet our needs every single day When we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, everything else is added to us

And forgive our debts, as we forgive our debtors Unforgiveness is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die Unforgiveness causes bitterness that consumes only us God is willing to forgive us but we need to confess our sins to Him. He’s the One who everyone has wronged. We need to get right with Him We need help to forgive others It is difficult but God wants to help us to do it When we understand how much God has forgiven us, it helps us forgive others

And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one God does not lead us into temptation, but we ask Him to lead us away from temptation, away from the wrong things We live in a sinful world and we need God’s help to live lives free from sin Never become proud or arrogant to think that we can rely on our own efforts to stay away from sin

For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. End with giving God glory and worship When you say ‘bye’ to someone, you thank them for their time, you greet them appropriately, with honour and respect God is worthy of our worship We ascribe to God the glory that He’s due because He is in control, He will do it Ultimately, we worship God in every circumstance We sometimes pray in a hopeless situation, which is fine, but always worship Him in and through the circumstance

How should we pray? Luke 18:10 Pray with honesty and humility Come as you are, present yourself to God Lay down your burdens and circumstances Communicate openly and humbly with God Jesus taught us to have humility when we pray

God Answers Prayer 1 Pet 3:12 We can pray anywhere No restrictions when we pray Be intimate with God God hears our prayers, He listens We don’t pray in vain and without impact When God answers prayer, things change Prayer is a weapon but it also creates intimacy