TEACH ME TO PRAY WEEK # 1

Why should we pray?

1)  Pray because God tells you to. Look at these verses:

        Luke 18:1

        Philippians 4:6

        Ephesians 6:18

        1 Thessalonians 5:17

It’s a command that we are given over and over again.

2)  We pray because God has promised to answer. James 4:2

 If you want to see things accomplished, ask God. You can talk about it all you want, but it won’t happen unless you ask. Without prayer, nothing of lasting value is going to happen. God delights in answering the prayer of the faithful. Hebrew 11:6; Matthew 7:7; John 15:7

3)  Pray because major events must transpire in our life. Miracles. Sometimes the answer may take longer than we want, but keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking. God truly answers prayers.

4)  Pray so that your joy may be full. John 16:24. Do you want to be full of joy?

5)  Pray because it is the best solution for worry and concern. When we pray, we leave the matter in God’s hands and are free from worry and concerns. God has given us an invite to cast all our cares upon Him. 1 Peter 5:7….. We should not worry Philippians 4:6-7…..Whatever is bothering you, pray and give it to God.

6)  Pray because it makes God happy. It brings joy to the heart of God when we turn to Him in prayer. It makes Him happy when we depend on Him to move in the circumstances of our lives.

HOW SHOULD BE PRAY

Here are Four Keys on How To Pray

1. Simply, believe when you pray. Matt.6:7
We all need to develop confidence; ABSOLUTE confidence that God hears us even when we pray a simple prayer like: “God help me.” He hears us and He will answer. We always can depend on God to be faithful to do what we have asked Him to do, as long as what we are asking is in accordance with His will. He is our Helper. Hebr.13:6.

Simple believing prayer comes straight from the heart of the one praying and goes straight to the heart of God and that is what we want isn’t it?

2. There is a time for secret prayer. Matthew 6:5-6
Although some prayers are public prayers or group prayers, most of our prayer life is done in secret and should be that way. We don’t have to let everybody know how much we pray and everything that we pray about. We can our friends know that we are praying about a certain country or so of course, but we never should make a display of our prayers to impress people.

3. Be humble when you pray. Luke 18:10-14
Prayer needs to come from a humble heart. Jesus taught us that by telling us about the Pharisees; He didn’t like that at all is it? They made a show about their prayer life and there was nothing secret about it at all. God hasn’t given us a bunch of complicated, hard-to-follow guidelines. Prayer can be simple, unless complicated people make it complicated.

4. Prayer needs to be fervent. James 5:16
If you desire for your prayers to be effective and they should be; they need to be fervent. When most of us hear the word fervent; we think we need to work our prayers up and need to show some strong emotion before we pray; otherwise our prayers will not be effective. The Message. Bible says it like this: …The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with.

This shows that our prayers must come from a sincere heart and not just our head. Sometimes we try to sound so devout and well-designed that we get lost. We don’t even know what we are trying to pray about. If we could ever get delivered from trying to impress God or people, we would be so much better off.

One thing is for sure that sometimes we have to change things in our lives to make room for prayer; we simply have to come to that understanding. We have to eliminate things that are less important and know that when we want to discover the life we were born to live and want to get passionate about it, we need to pray.

PRAYER MODELS

Many people follow prayer models when they pray, others just “goes with the flow” or “Shoot from the hip”. Prayer models are excellent to use when you are praying in public. Prayer Models will help you keep your mind focused while praying so it doesn’t wander.  Hopeful these models will not only give you a better idea on HOW to pray, but it will make is much easier for you to pray and therefor you will do it more often.

The first one we are going to look at is the ACTS Prayer Model

A-Adoration

C-Confession

T-Thanksgiving

S-Supplication

Adoration is praising God for who he is. Confession is owning out sins. Thanksgiving is giving thanks to God for all he has done and is going to do. Supplication are prayer request of others and ourselves. Let’s talk about Adoration.

ADORATION

We put aside all out thoughts and troubles and come into the presence of God. It is time for “turning out heart home”, a pause in our activities to focus on God and God alone.

Adoration means worship. It is adoring and praising God for who he is. Tell God what he means to you and how you love him. Praise him for His nature and attributes. He is Holy. He is unchanging. He is Omniscient.

READ Psalm 18.

David began the Psalm by saying  “I love you O Lord my strength”. When was the last time you ever said to God “I love you”?

Then David acknowledged who God is…..”My rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my shield, my salvation, my stronghold..” . In another Psalm, “my light”. As David continues, he gives God praise for what he does, “he rescued me because he delighted in me”.

Who is God to you? King of Kings, eternal, compassionate, loving, forgiving, merciful, omnipotent, patient,.

Write down at least ten things that describe who God is to you? Then look up 10 more things that describe who God is, in the Bible. Write these down. You will be using them for your homework. J

CONFESSION

This is the time for truth telling. Even as we know God is aware of all our faults and failures, it is important to let God know that WE are aware of them as well.  Too often we can hid and deny the places that hold the most pain. Too often the world rushed on and we allow situations to fester.

Truth telling involves honest appraisal both of the good and the bad in our life. It is a time to speak to God with the deepest trust that these circumstances need attention, healing and resolution. Often this honesty needs to be spoken aloud, shared with a trusted friend or spiritual leader for in the speaking, insight often comes.

Being honest before God may lead us into some painful realizations as to our needs for seeking help, reconciliation or guidance. Such honesty is the most direct and powerful way to resolve the situations of our life.

So this week, as you pray each day, Start with Adoration followed by Confession of sin (those that you are aware of and those that you are not). This will get you on the way of a habit.

Next week we will talk about Thanksgiving and Supplication.