How Else Does God Communicate His Will To Us
So Philip ran to him , and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, Do you understand what you are reading? And he said, How can I, unless someone guides me? And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him .
How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things! .
No man is an island. No matter how much we study we need teachers to point us in the right direction. God provides them to edify His people , instructing them in the fundamentals of His Word. This is one of the main reasons we should regularly assemble togetherso we can hear spiritually mature elders expound the words of life from the Scriptures.
What Should We Pray For Pray For Salvation For Joy In Trials For A Teachable Obedient Single
Thats enough for another sermon, but briefly
A. Pray for salvation.
David asks God to save him , which in the context obviously refers to being delivered from his enemies. But in New Testament terms, pray for God to save you from His judgment. Jesus came as the Savior . He didnt come to save decent people who just need a boost in their self-esteem! He came to save sinners . If youve never cried out to God for salvation, that is your main need!
B. Pray for joy in trials.
David asks , Make glad the soul of Your servant. That was a bold request at a time like this . C. H. Spurgeon said , We ought either to be rejoicing in the Lord, or pining after him! Ask God to make you miserable, unless his conscious presence makes you happy.
C. Pray for a teachable, obedient, single-minded, reverent heart.
Here Im focusing on the wonderful request of verse 11, Teach me Your way, O Lord I will walk in Your truth unite my heart to fear Your name. In any trial, a teachable heart is essential. Ask God what you should be learning about Him and about yourself in the difficult situation. Most of us instinctively pray for quick deliverance, but David prays that he will learn Gods ways so that he will walk in obedience to Gods truth. He prays that his loyalty will not be scattered or divided, but rather be united or single-minded. He wants to be wholly devoted to God. And the end result is that he will fear or reverence Gods name.
D. Pray for Gods glory and supremacy over all.
Whose Prayers Will God Refuse To Consider
The LORD is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous .
Behold, the LORDs hand is not shortened, that it cannot save nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear .
One who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination .
You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures .
Good communication is a two-way street. Not only must we talk to God through prayer, but we must pay close attention to what He has to say to us. We do this by studying and following His written Word, the Bible .
God expects us to pay attention to His written Wordespecially to His foundational principles, the Ten Commandmentsas a prerequisite for His hearing and responding to our prayers. The books of the Bible can be compared to letters from Him, each communicating aspects of His will to us. If we wont listen to His written Word, our requests of Him are futile. He tells us He will simply refuse to respond .
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Our Invitation To Pray
God invites us to pray. Stop and consider the high honor of this invitation. The God of the universe invites us to talk with Him at anytime and anywhere about anything and everything. Its incredible when you think about it. God wants us to pour out our hearts to Him in every situation. Nothing is too big or too small to bring before Him.
Prayer is really Gods invitation for us to include Him in every activity and event in our lives. Prayer is an act of obedience and humility.
Prayer: Talking To God With Your Hands
This childrens message was originally written for a Christian School chapel of 1st 6th graders. It teaches the basic elements of prayer and encourages children to establish prayer as a habit in their own lives. What Ive written below would be a 15-20 minute presentation, but you can extract the main points for a childrens sermon on Sunday morning. You could also add some additional content for a childrens church lesson.Weve also posted some prayer coloring pages for kids. That might be a good activity to add to this Bible lesson.:
- Does anyone here like to talk on the phone?
- Do any of you talk on the computer with emails, IM, or Skype?
- Who do you like to talk to and what about?
- How many of you have cell phones?
- How many of your parents have cell phones? Do they get upset if they lose their phones?
Talking with people is important to us! We make sure that we can call others whenever we want. We also make sure people can reach us wherever we are.So if talking to people is easy and we do it all the time, why is it so hard to spend time talking with God?Why is it important to talk with God?
New Sunday School Curriculum:free Bible lesson in pdfSunday School curriculum for kids
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Small Group Bible Study Prayer
Lord, In Jesus name, I pray that this group to learn and grow together in prayer and fellowship with each other as we go through this Bible Study, tonight. God help us through this Bible Study to make deep friendships. And each person here, will receive what they need to equip them to be the person who God designed them to be. Lord, help us to prayer for each other needs and show Gods love to each other as you take us through this Bible Study. Amen.
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Lessons From The Prayer Life Of Hezekiah
If we are not careful, fear can become more than just a passing emotion. It can grip our lives and take control of our thoughts and cause us to not trust God.
The enemy likes to use the same tactics over and over to knock us down. Today well look at a man who was in deep distress and how he combatted his fears with prayer.
Prayer is something we will never master. We continually need to be reminded to bring every detail to the Lord, so he can calm our hearts down, reveal his will and be glorified as he works in our lives.
In 2 Kings 19, we finally see a godly king rise up in Judah! Besides King David, King Hezekiah was the most righteous king of Judah. But just because he lived an upright life, did not mean his life was easy it was quite the contrary. Instead, he was the target of an attack by the King of Assyria. Assyria was a much more powerful nation but it was Hezekiahs prayer life that saved them from their enemies.
So lets take a closer look at how this man prayed and learn from him.
It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way
The right Bible study is the part of your ministry that helps you reach students going through difficult times or those struggling with issues you may not even know about. We want to take away whatever barriers are in between you and the Bible study that will help you reach all of the students in your ministry.
Amplify: Growing A Faith That Lasts is a powerful study that equips students to grow a dynamic faith by studying a variety of core spiritual truths. Over the course of 52 weeks, Amplify examines 17 foundational elements of faith, each using a unique 3-lesson framework.
Your students will journey through the following concepts: The Holy Spirit, Worship, Gods Word, Obedience, Gods Mercy, Evangelism, Gods Sovereignty, Suffering, Gods Righteousness, Holiness, Spiritual Gifts, Service, Humility, Knowing God , Prayer, Stewardship, The Unchanging God
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Psalm : A Lesson On Prayer
A man who worked as a messenger for a photo lab got a message on his beeper instructing him to pick up a package at an unfamiliar company with a long, difficult name. He looked skyward and exclaimed, God, where am I supposed to go? Just then, his pager came on, this time with the clients exact address.
A man nearby witnessed this scene. Raising his arms to the heavens, he cried, Why dont you ever answer me?
Do you ever wish that prayer worked like that? You pray and instantly a voice gives you the answer youre looking for! Sign me up! But I find prayer to be a much more difficult process. I need all the help I can get on how to pray more effectively.
Psalm 86 gives us a helpful lesson on prayer. It is the only psalm in Book 3 of the Psalter labeled as written by David. In many ways, it is not a very original psalm. Its like a mosaic, piecing together verses and phrases from other psalms and Scriptures. That has led some to think that David himself did not write it in this form. But it seems to me that David easily could have taken things he had already written and used them in this prayer. We dont need originality in our prayers, but rather, reality with God. And Psalm 86 is the earnest, heartfelt cry of a man of God in a desperate situation laying hold of the God whom he knew well.
Although there are many lessons on prayer in this psalm, which could comprise a sermon series, the main lesson is simple:
Why Should We Pray We Should Pray Because We Have Great Needs
David begins , Incline Your ear, O Lord, and answer me for I am afflicted and needy. The fact that he cries out for God to save him shows that David knew that he could not save himself. In 86:7 he mentions that he is in the day of trouble. In 86:14, he specifically mentions the band of arrogant, violent men that were seeking his life. David was deeply aware of his great need, which drove him to earnest prayer.
It sounds obvious to say that we have great needs that should drive us to prayer. But the truth is, our pride blinds us to how needy we really are, so that we rely on ourselves or on other people or on some godless method to get us out of our troubles. Finally, when nothing else has worked, we say, Weve done all that we can do. The only thing left is to pray! Its our last resort. But, as John Bunyan said , You can do more than pray, after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed. Prayer should be our first resort!
The main reason that people do not cry out to God to save them from their sins is that they do not see their great need as sinners before the holy God. They see themselves as basically good. Sure, they know theyre not perfect, but they arent evil sinners! They compare themselves with terrorists and child molesters and think, Im doing okay. Not seeing their desperate need, they dont cry out to God to save them.
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Armor Of God Bible Study Series
This Bible study on prayer wraps up our series on the Armor of God. Prayer is not only how we put on God’s Armor, it is what empowers it! During this series of lessons we have also been focusing on prayer because thats where the battle is fought. Prayer brings what God can do. The armor is Gods and on loan to us through His powerit is empowered by Him! Ohand lets remember, we may be in the battle, but the war has already been won!
We assume everyone knows how to pray, but in our world today religion and traditions can make it seem complicated. Simply put, Christian prayer is possible because of Jesus we can communicate – talk with God! But prayer goes way beyond communication…it encompasses communion with the One and Only God!
We speak of “prayer life” because prayer is to be a constant part of our daily lives. Think about the times that most of us do pray – at church, during our quiet times, before meals, before bed, in times of crisis. Bible study on prayer can help us to hewn our skills as a soldier of Christ.
1 Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to pray continually , without ceasing , at all times .
Lesson Summary: Prayer is what empowers God’s Armor as we put each piece on.
Time: With a group of about 15 4th-6th graders, this Bible study on prayer lesson took about 1 hour. Actual teaching time took about 20 minutes and we allowed 30-40 minutes for prayer stations. Some parts can be deleted if you don’t have that much time.
Focal Scriptures: Ephesians 6:18-19a
Prayer Opens Our Spiritual Eyes
It enables us to get in touch with what God is doing and how He is doing it.
In II Kings 6 you may recall the story of when the Army of Israel was surrounded by their enemies and Elijah’s servant got nervous. Verses 15-17 say
Now when the attendant of the man of God had risen early and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was circling the city. And his servant said to him, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” 16So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” 17Then Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” And the LORD opened the servant’s eyes and he saw and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
Prayer opens our eyes, enabling us to see what God is doing, to see things we are blinded to without prayer. That’s because prayer is communication. We speak to God, God answers us, speaking to us, showing us.
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Basics Of How To Pray
The Bible is full of Scriptures on prayer commanding us to pray, and also telling us where to pray, how to pray, when to pray, who should pray, and for whom we should pray.
1 – Where to Pray:
Of course we can pray anywhere & anytime, but Jesus tells us where our attitude of prayer should always be:
Matthew 6:6: “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
2- How to Pray
In Matthew 6:9-15 Jesus tells us how to pray when He gives us the pattern for prayer in what is now referred to as the Lord’s prayer.
“This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
This model for a thriving prayer life consists of
- petition for daily needs,
- request for forgiveness and protection.
Max Lucado includes a “pocket version” in his book – Before Amen. It gives us a simple way to remember Jesus’ example.
Father,
I need help. Heal me & forgive me.
They need help.
In Jesus name,
Amen
3 – When to Pray
1 Thessalonians says: “pray continually “
How Often Should We Talk To God In Prayer
Pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you .
God wants us to make praying to Him a regular habit. This doesnt mean we will pray without a pause all day every day. It simply means we must not cease making prayer a habitwe should pray regularly and consistently to maintain contact with God.
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Be Persistent In Prayer
In 1 Samuel 1, we see that Hannah is barren and is dealing with her husband Elkanahs second wife Peninnah taunting her for not having children . Hannah was angry with God and wept before the Lord. Despite the difficult circumstances she faced, Hannah persistently prayed to God.
1 Samuel 1:12 states that she kept on praying to the Lord. And her prayers were not just a one-time event, but she prayed with an intensity and focus. 1 Samuel 1:15 states she poured her soul before the Lord.
God calls for us to persistently pray for strength, wisdom and petition our requests with consistency, confidence, and steadfastness. When things are not going to plan or the outcome is not what we would like, it is easy to stop praying or believe that God has abandoned us. Praying to God persistently deepens our relationship with God and is an act of worship and surrender. When we pray, we acknowledge that we are not in control and are welcoming Gods sovereignty.
Today, I invite you to not lose heart and continue to pray persistently to God, surrendering every emotion, doubt, fear, and anxiety over to Him. God welcomes us like a loving parent and hears us through prayer.