The nuts and bolts of prayer James 4:3

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Dig Text James 4:3 From Richard Foster: To ask “rightly” involves transformed passions. In prayer, real prayer, we begin to think God’s thought after him: to desire the things he desires, to love the things he loves, to will the things he wills.

How do we pray? To begin with, wait on God, i.e. remain silence before God. Richard Foster: Though silence sometimes involves the absence of speech, it always involves the act of listening. A day filled with noise and voices can be a day of silence, if the noises become for us the echo of the presence of God. When we speak of ourselves and are filled with ourselves, we leave silence behind. When we repeat the intimate words of God that he has left within us, our silence remains intact.

Continued.. So, silence means to contemplate His presence as if we imagine ourselves in front of the creator. Suggestion: Go through the scriptures and find out the image of God like Exodus 33:7-11. Go outside and find a place in the backyard and enjoy the nature. Close your eyes and listen, thinking you are there to wait for Him. Just sit in one place yourself without attraction and pretend you and Christ are sitting together and eye to eye with Him.

Continued.. Go to a splendid church building with not many people or noise. Sit down in rain. My experience in Museum of Art in San Jose.

Continued.. Confession Read Daniel 9:1-19 Augustine of Hippo: The confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works. Richard Foster: At the heart of God is the desire to give and to forgive. Because of this, he set into motion the entire redemptive process that culminated in the cross and was confirmed in the resurrection. The moment Christ prayed in Matthew 15:34 was not a sign of weakness shown in Him, but the triumph, for now he could identify with us when he was actually in the embodiment of sin. So, you can see our sins wait us down.

Continued.. Why do we make confession? Sins grieve the Lord, these include our actions, attitude, misplacing value, etc. Allow us to see how He sees, i.e. He sees the impact of sins in a long term impact. He also sees the sins of the whole world and so we can connect with Him in this manner. We should do it in detail. Talk out loud.

Continued.. Personal prayer It is a moment of praying for ourselves. Pray for what is occupying our minds, fear, dreams and things deep inside our hearts. Put God in and have a dialog. Pray for both things at presence and in the future. Pray for persons, who are dearest to us or we care about. Do them in detail. Why do so? We can only deal with ourselves first before we can do to others.

Continued.. Strategic prayer for others. Not just the list before us. Not just for the needs. It is not reactive. It is a proactive and preventive. Pray for the spiritual character built to others. Pray for God’s dreams into others. Pray for engaging in spiritual battle. Pray with a plan in mind. It is an intercessory prayer.

Continued.. Pray as if we’re going to a battle field. Pray as if it is an indispensible prayer (Sine qua non) as in Acts 6. Pray not just for the surface but below it, for God’s desire, desire to change. (Those may be the prayers the people involved may not like to hear.) Pray for changing others – a deeper and penetrated level of prayers.

Conclusion The four phases of prayer.

If times permits, we can.. Practice the phases.