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I. What is Prayer? Prayer is communication with God. It is a conversation
between you and God. It involves our talking to God and also listening
to what God has to say to us. In any healthy, growing relationship there
needs to be good communication or it will never last. Think of your best
friend. You became close because you shared yourself (thoughts, dreams,
desires, feelings) with each other. Our relationship with God is no different.
In James 4:8 we are told "if you draw near to God He will draw near to
us." The more we open ourselves up to God, the more of Himself He will
reveal to us. II. Important Things to Remember About Prayer
III. Does God Answer Prayer? Four answers: Yes, No, Wait, and I've got another way! God doesn't always answer in the way we might think. We need to have open hearts and minds. God is creative. Keep in the mind-set of 1 Thess. 5:17, "pray without ceasing." IV. Some Guidelines for Prayer Jesus' disciples asked Him to teach them how
to pray. He said to them, "when you pray, pray like this. Our Father who
art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done.
On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive
us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into
temptation, but deliver us from evil..."
By Trudy Vander Veen Do you ever have trouble knowing what or whom
to pray for? You'll be amazed how much guidance you'll find right in your
Bible. Most of us would hardly think of going out
in public without checking our personal grooming. And we always plan carefully
before entertaining guests in our homes. But many of us drop casually
to our knees with little notion of how we are going to spend out time
with the Lord. Sometimes we don't have in mind anything to pray for, but
start to pray automatically because "it's time," or we're conscious that
our list of petitions and praises far outnumbers the moments we have allotted
for prayer. Without a plan, our prayer time and thoughts
are erratic: we voice a quick thanksgiving, state a need, confess a sin,
raise up a friend's prayer request, and so on. All the while we're fighting
the tendency to dwell on the many pressing tasks that need doing. Undoubtedly such casual, unplanned prayer is
better than no prayer at all. And often we need simply to resort to the
Lord in prayer without a specific plan for that time: we need time in
His presence more than we need specific communication. But for our prayers
to be "powerful and effective" (James 5:16), we need to follow Peter's
advice: "The end of all things is near. Therefore, be clear minded and
self-controlled so that you can pray" (1 Peter 4:7). One way to be clear minded during prayer is to use a memory device, "Pray Powerfully." After we've practiced using this device for a while, the letter in "pray" should call to mind four elements of praise, while those in "powerfully" should remind us of ten types of petitions. In our family, we don't use the acrostic in a regimented way that takes away the spontaneous nature of communion with God. It is simply an aid in bringing specific aspects of prayer into focus so that we can give each appropriate attention. And since we cover so many elements in praying according to this pattern, we realize that sometimes we'll have to choose to cover only a few in a given period of prayer. PRAISE Praise the Lord, Proclaim His Greatness. "I
will praise you , O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your
name forever. For great is your love toward me; you have delivered my
soul from the depths of the grave" (Ps. 86:12-13). In the Lord's Prayer, praise comes first. Our
prayers should follow that pattern. Praise is giving God the adoration
of our hearts simply for who He is. It is expressing to God His worth.
The Old English root of the word "worship" is "worth-ship." We find voicing our praises aloud to be a helpful
exercise, particularly toward concentrating. Forming the words with our
lips and listening to what we are saying give reality and depth to our
expressions of praise. We may borrow from the words of the Psalms, making
them our own. Or we may sing or read hymns from the "praise" section of
a hymnal or sing along with praise selections on a record or tape. Whatever
way is most natural and meaningful to us, we tell the Lord that we love
and adore Him. REMEMBER AND REJOICE WITH THANKSGIVING "Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let
us shout aloud to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before Him with
thanksgiving and extol Him with music and song" (Ps. 95:1-2). Perhaps nothing so grieves the heart of God
as the sin of ingratitude. We need to say to ourselves often, as did David,
"Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits" (Ps. 103:2). Thanksgiving is a form of praise. After focusing
on who God is, we recall what He has done in the spiritual, physical,
social, and occupational areas of our lives. ACKNOWLEDGE SINS, ASK FORGIVENESS "For the sake of your name, O Lord, forgive
my iniquity, though it is great" (Ps. 25:11). Looking at God's character and His good acts
toward us awakens us to our sinfulness. We need to confess our sins with
humility and sorrow. We need to acknowledge that we have broken God's
Law and offended Him by failing to respond to His love or to meet the
needs of others. We should ask the Lord to forgive us and to reveal hidden
areas in our lives that are unsurrendered (Ps. 139:23-24). Then we can
claim a new promise, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just,
and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (1
John 1:9). YIELD TO GOD'S GUIDANCE "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test
me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in
me, and lead me in the way everlasting" (Ps. 139:23-24). True confession includes more than sorrow for sin. It involves a sincere intention to turn from our sin. Such change requires the power of the Holy Spirit, and He can change us as we yield ourselves to Him. In this final phase of our praise time, we yield everything we have to God presenting ourselves as a "living sacrifice" to Him so that we can be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Rom. 12:1-2). Elements of this petitioning: God gives us the privilege of being His co-workers
in redeeming and transforming His creation, and we can do this by intercessory
prayer that is done POWERFULLY. POLITICAL AUTHORITIES "I urge, then, first of all, that requests,
prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone--for kings
and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives
in all godliness and holiness" (1 Tim. 2:1-2). Not only our president,
but our legislators, judges, governors, ambassadors, cabinet members,
mayors, and all others involved in the government need our prayers. Their
decisions affect for good or evil not only our lives, but also the lives
of hundreds and millions of other Christians and non-Christians. So we
ask the Lord to reveal His will to them, to give them God-fearing advisors
so that they will gain wisdom, to protect them fro assassins, and to grant
them health and family harmony. Political leaders in other nations also need
our prayers. We should not think that just because they are more powerful
than we are that our prayers will be of no effect, for "The king's heart
is in the hand of the Lord; He directs it like a watercourse wherever
He pleases" (Prov. 21:1). OPPRESSED AND OUTCAST PEOPLE "Arise, Lord! Lift up your hand, O God. Do
not forget the helpless" (Ps. 10:12). Many people have been hungry and homeless all
their lives; innocent victims of hate, political greed, famine, or war.
Some have seen their homes reduced to rubble by enemy shells, others have
been forced from their homelands and have nowhere to go and nothing to
feed their starving children. Boat people are brutally attacked by pirates.
Other refugees, crowded into dismal tent cities, wait long, hopeless years
for sponsors. Behind the Iron Curtain, Christians worshipped underground
for fear of imprisonment, secretly sharing precious pages torn form a
forbidden bible to nurture their faith. We should plead with our compassionate Savior to have mercy on all such suffering people. WE can ask Him to keep alive in us the desire to share, the willingness to sacrifice. We need Him to show us, who have been give so much, how we can help the oppressed. WEAK, WOUNDED, WORRIED PEOPLE "And the prayer offered in faith will make
the sick person well, the Lord will raise him up" (James 5:15). Next we pray for all those who are ill physically
or mentally, and also for those who are wounded in spirit, grieving the
death of a loved one, stinging from the rejection of divorce. We think
of those who experience family turmoil due to infidelity, unemployment,
rebellious children, drug and alcohol addiction or other heartaches. Naming
these persons specifically, we ask God to send them relief and comfort,
and to use their sufferings to bring them closer to Him. EMERGENCIES ON EARTH "You will hear of wars and rumors of wars,
but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen but the
end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against
kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All
these are the beginning of birth pains" (Matt. 24:6-8). Media reports of erupting volcanoes, floods,
earthquakes, and famines pointing out man's helplessness in the face of
nature's fury. Repeated brutal murders impress on us the depth of man's
sin and depravity, and tragic deaths in crashes remind us of life's brevity. In our prayers we ask God to speak clearly
in these disasters, causing people to turn to Him as their only sure refuge.
We also ask Him to show mercy to the survivors of these tragedies and
to use these events to bring many people repentance and faith in Christ. Newscasts remind us to pray as well for national
elections and peace talks for favorable weather and good harvest for cessation
of pollution and for protection from nuclear holocaust, for equality in
race relations--indeed, for any worthy issue. REVIVAL AND READINESS FOR CHRIST'S RETURN "...if my people, who are called by my name,
will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked
ways, then will I hear form heaven and will forgive their sin and will
heal their land" (2 Chron. 7:14). Having viewed a world groaning from
a load of sin and its awful consequences, we are moved to pray for revival--that
will begin in our own lives and homes, spread to our churches, and then
to our schools, workplaces, and society as a whole. We pray for a movement of the Holy Spirit to
convict the world of sin and bring about a re-awakening in churches that
will result in greater interest in and loyalty to the Word of God. And
we pray for a rededication of individual Christians to a deeper walk with
the Lord and a greater longing for Jesus' return in glory. FAMILY, FRIENDS, FELLOW CHRISTIANS "I thank my God every time I remember you.
In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy...I have you
in my heart...." (Phil. 1:3,4,7). Beginning with our nearest relatives, we bring
the needs of our family members to the Lord. As much as possible, we find
promises from God's word that apply to them and ask the Lord to fulfill
those promises. We reach out further to the extended family, to friends,
co-workers, neighbors, and members of our church family. When we don't
know their specific needs, we can pray with Paul that Christ may dwell
in their hearts through faith, that they may be rooted and established
in love, may have power to grasp the love of Christ, and may know His
love and be filled with the measure of the fullness of God (Eph. 3:17-19). UNSAVED AND UNCOMMITTED PEOPLE "The Lord is...patient with you, not wanting
anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). Our heart's desire is that all our friends
and loved ones be saved (Romans 10:1). So we pray that God will send into
the lives of our unsaved family members and friends the message or messenger
that will cause them to turn their lives over to Christ. We ask the Holy
Spirit to remove the veil from their eyes. We also petition for immature Christians and
those who know Christ as Savior but are not walking with Him and not using
their lives in His service, consequently missing the best He has for them. LEADERS AND LABORERS IN THE KINGDOM "And pray for us, too, that God may open a
door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for
which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should"
(Col. 4:3-4). Our own pastors and church staff deserve and
need our faithful prayers. In addition, we intercede for home and foreign
missionaries; radio and television ministers; Christian teachers, speakers,
and counselors; Bible translators and distributors; youth pastors and
campus pastors; those who work in prisons, hospitals, relief organizations,
child welfare agencies, and others. When we can we pray for these people by name,
asking the Lord to strengthen them for their daily responsibilities, to
use them to spread the gospel, to bring healing and wholeness to those
who suffer. We pray for Christians who are in important and highly visible
positions of leadership, asking that they be kept from the temptations
that accompany popularity and success. LONELY AND LEAST "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure
and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress
and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world" (James 1:27). Loneliness is epidemic in our modern world.
The elderly grandmother in the nursing home who has no visitors, the prisoner
whose family has forgotten him, the serviceman in a far-away country,
the single parent or widowed person who feels unsupported, the unmarried
pregnant girl who doesn't know where to turn--all need our prayers. We ask God also to be a loving Father to little
children who are victims of abuse or are handicapped or orphaned. In our
prayers we ask that unborn children be given a chance to live and that
they be accepted by loving, caring parents. Aged, senile persons who seemingly
have no reason to continue living are surely among the "least" of Christian
brothers for whom He would have us pray. YOURSELF "Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares
for you" (1 Peter 5:7). Finally, we bring to the Lord our own needs--those
pertaining to our personal lives, our spiritual condition, our health
or finances, any aspect of our existence. We ask God to bless the work we do, inside
and outside the home. We ask His guidance and blessing for our plans,
the relationships we have with others, and our long-held dreams. Each
hurt, worry, and confusing or troubling situation we lay before Him. We
reflect on His great love and power, believing that He can do "immeasurably
more than all we ask or imagine" (Eph. 3:20). We place our lives in our
Father's hands and entrust to Him our bodies and souls. We cannot run to all of the needy people of
the world, bind up their wounds, put food in their stomachs, or hold their
trembling hands. But we can exercise the healing power of Jesus and make
Him present in their lives, as well as in our own lives, when we pray
POWERFULLY. (Discipleship Journal, 1985) "The Heart of a Servant" By Bill Mills "Let each of you regard one another as more
important than himself." Phi. 2:3 In the midst of a world where people casually
destroy one another for the sake of position, God speaks words that are
almost too much to believe! Instead of using each other to gain for ourselves,
we are to give ourselves up for one another. Most of us would sell ourselves
cheaply for even a few moments of importance, and now God is talking about
looking at one another as more important than ourselves. How in the midst of this world, with all of
our hearts turned inward, with all of our instincts growing out of a depraved
mind and heart, can God teach us to live this way? By means of God's greatest
miracle, the new creation, He transforms our hearts and our relationships!
His Son becomes both the pattern and the power for this new way of life.
Paul continues his teaching to the Philippians: "Have this attitude in yourselves which was
also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did
not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself,
taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men."
Phil. 2:4-7 Jesus Christ, the Son of God, with all of His
infinite power and position, all of His righteousness and glory, His eternal
resources, became a man, He took on the form of a bond-servant and submitted
to death on the cross. Willingly, the lowest form of man, the death of
a common criminal. Christ was a servant to that degree, and God wants
that attitude to characterize our lives also. He tells us that our relationships
will be transformed (Phil. 2:1-4) as we learn to respond in this way. We talk so much in Christianity about giving
our heart to Christ. That is a beautiful statement and has much truth
in it. But we must realize that the Christian life has far more to do
with Christ giving His heart to us than us giving our heart to Him. The
very process of discipleship is one of God building into us a heart like
His own. And we must make no mistake about it; when God gives His heart
to us, it will be the heart of a servant. No only our life, but all of
our relationships will be transformed by His heart. Can you see how invalid this way of life would
be? Picture with me a husband and wife whose relationship together has
been built on competition, as the world teaches them how to live. Now
they try to out do each other in being one another's servant. Instead
of trying to look better, they now try to get their partner to look better.
Instead of seeking to manipulate their partner to do something for them,
they seek to give themselves up for their partner. This servant's heart
has become a catalyst to transform entirely how they see each other, feel
about each other, respond to each other. Because of the life of God within
them and the power of His love, a dynamic has been created within their
relationship which has changed everything about their lives. Think about a family where children multiply
the hurts they receive in the world into their own home. Now, rather than
reproducing the pain over and over again that comes from not measuring
up to whatever standards are set out there (physically, mentally, socially),
there is the reinforcement of love and affirmation in the midst of failure.
We have been taught to return evil for evil, but now we give blessings
instead. A community of servants, people building up one another, healing
taking place in a home that has now become a sanctuary in the midst of
a world where pain might very well be the most visible characteristics
of people's lives. Visualize with me now a church. When we are
honest about it, we know that all too often, our church relationships
are very much like what we experience in the world. Too often we are hurt
rather than healed and built up. Sometimes the people we see there are
seeking to take the best place, the highest position. Once in a while
we see the same kind of competition, the harsh words, the selfish attitudes
in our brothers and sisters that we see in the faces of our enemies and
hear in their voices. We are not perfect people; we do fail one another. Can you dream with me about churches that are communities of servants, sanctuaries, like the family we just described? A place where we look into the eyes of a brother or a sister and say, "How can I give myself up for you? What can I do to serve you? What do you need that I can give you in order that you might grow into everything God desires you to be?" Oh! Can you visualize with me what a church would look like where the members tried with al their hearts to be one another's servants? It is not insignificant that Jesus' new commandment came just after washing the disciples' feet and instructing them to follow His example. That servant's heart is obviously the main characteristics of the love to which we are called.
© 1997-2003 Ryan C. Nielsen
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©1997-2003 Youth Ministry Resources Galore by Ryan
C. Nielsen. |
Leadership
Guide: