Introduction:
A. Prayer is the spiritual heartbeat of the Christian.
1. There is nothing more vital and important to us than prayer.
a. For prayer is our fellowship and daily communion with our Father in heaven.
b. The Scripture tells us to pray without ceasing – I Thess. 5:17.
c. We are admonished to make all our needs known to God in prayer – Phil. 4:6.
2. It is inconceivable to live apart from prayer.
a. When this holy fellowship is interrupted for a while, there is something wrong.
b. It is good for us to seek God’s face!
1) We delight in prayer. We love to pray.
2) It is often difficult because it is a spiritual activity and the flesh stands in the way.
B. For its importance we ought to discuss it together.
1. Not a shame to ask how to pray – the disciples asked their Master, “Lord, teach us to pray.”
2. We might ask that question.
I. What is prayer?
A. Prayer is simply fellowship with God.
1. Flows out of God’s covenant with us in Christ.
a. God’s covenant in brief is the friendship which God has established with us in Christ.
1) James tells us that Abraham was the friend of God.
2) The essence of friendship is communication, fellowship, sharing of intimacies.
b. That brings us then to prayer!
1) Prayer is the means or vehicle of this intimate communion and fellowship.
a) That is why it must be without ceasing. To live apart from God is death.
b) It need not always be in the formal sense of the word (folding our hands and closing our eyes).
2) Even in our friendships here below there is a longing for fellowship. How much greater toward God?
c. Chief part of thankfulness. L.D. 45
2. Stands to reason then that prayer cannot be formalized.
a. There is no certain or one correct way to pray.
1) Consult the Scriptures and you find many different prayers.
2) Not the intent of Christ either in the Model Prayer.
b. Prayer is as varied as life itself. For all of our lives must be lived in God’s fellowship.
1) There is lofty praise and adoration. Many of the Psalms. Answers to the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer.
2) There are prayers of need, both spiritual and physical. Fourth and fifth petitions.
3) Prayers in which we simply express our sorrow or joy.
4) We may carry the feelings of our hearts to God in prayer.
B. We must be careful not to let the formalism of prayer or the perceived rightness or wrongness of method stand in the way of our heart’s desire for fellowship with our God!
1. We must be careful for nothing…Phil. 4:6 and 7.
2. Our prayer must be living fellowship. Covenant fellowship.
II. It is important that we say a few things re: our manner and attitude in prayer.
A. Significant that the Lord teaches us to address God as “our Father which art in heaven.”
1. We approach God in prayer in an attitude of childlike trust.
a. We are His children by adoption in Christ. He has loved us.
1) He is willing and able to give us our request!
2) A father will never turn away his children. That trust must be ours in prayer.
b. Such trust must be the “foundation” of our prayer the H.C. teaches us.
2. But at the same time our attitude must be one of respect.
a. Today this is often wanting. We have all come in contact with such disrespect.
1) That is part of the “you and your” terminology.
2) God is not “our good buddy.” God is God!
b. We approach Him in deep humility and trust.
B. Always “for Jesus sake.”
1. Jesus Christ is our High Priest Who can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities.
a. Jesus makes intercession for us.
1) It is always on the basis of His atonement that God listens to our requests.
2) In Christ’s blood we are the covenant friends of God.
b. Wonderful:
1) Jesus walked among us. He experienced everything that we have to deal with.
a) None of our problems are foreign to our Exalted Lord.
b) He can be touched! He can sympathize.
c) We need not hold back in prayer thinking that He will not understand.
2) We hide in Christ before the Holy God in the assurance that His wrath against us is completely averted.
III. Now, perhaps the most difficult question. What must we pray for?
A. Phil. 4:6 and 7 tells us that we must be careful for nothing; but in everything let our requests be made known unto God.
1. There is so much that troubles us.
a. Many things make us anxious and rob us of peace with God.
1) These are the practical concerns of our daily living.
2) In this pilgrim’s journey we have much suffering, distress, pain, persecution, calamity and what have you.
b. Yet at the same time we know that all things are in our Father’s hand and must work together for our good. Rom. 8
1) Should our attitude be stoic?
2) Or maybe all these matters become a vital part of our prayer lives?
2. We often struggle in prayer.
a. That struggle is to know the will of God!
1) We do not pray glibly. But with Scripture in hand we ask for God’s will to be done.
2) And that God may reveal that will unto us.
3) Long prayer chains will not change the eternal will of God!
b. We must be careful not to make our prayers carnal or selfish. Real danger.
B. Lord’s Prayer is our instruction here:
1. Go through the petitions individually.
2. We will see: God is first, His will and kingdom; we are second, lives, necessities, and the spiritual needs we have with sin and temptation. The we return to the glorious doxology that God’s is the Kingdom, Power and Glory forevermore!