Congratulations! You are plugging into God’s Word by being a part of these devotionals through LSA and hopefully they are affirming how deeply you are loved and challenging you to walk deeper and confidently on your journey to know God. The challenge before us this week is to firstly trust the Bible. Anything that is truth should be able to stand up to questioning and critical thinking and not be afraid of being rightly challenged. So maybe that is the journey you are on—to be a critical thinker when it comes to the reliability of the Scriptures. Are you satisfied with your arguments or claims, backed by reason and supported by evidence as to why you do or do not trust God’s Word? Or are you riding on the convictions of others? See the resources below if this is something you struggle with or want to be better informed about. The second challenge is to move from milk to solid food, and we are doing that with respect to prayer by examining together some of the teachings on prayer, and exhorting you to go deeper on your own by a simple google search of ‘prayer in the bible’ and seeing where it takes you. Whatever the journey, well done!
Today we will look at 5 more passages from the New Testament on prayer. Some are direct teachings, and some are indirect. Although I have quoted them from the New International Version, feel free to look them up in various translations. Just be mindful that some translations are more loosely translated from the original Greek.
2 Chronicles 7:14
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 I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and heal their land.
*God is always ready to forgive and work in our lives, despite our sins, when we repent
*The place to take our shame and remorse is to God. He is faithful in seeing the humble heart and desire to follow Him, and He will forgive and heal.
*this reflects collective prayer—many coming together in prayer
Ephesians 6:18
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
*we can take everything to God in every circumstance. He encourages us to share it all with Him
*we are to be active in remembering to pray (be alert and always keep on praying…)
*we don’t just pray for ourselves but for others as well
*although God knows everything, He somehow invites us into the power of prayer
*this reflects individual prayer
James 5:13
Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise.
*it is in the midst of our trouble that God desires to hear from us; not once we have it all sorted out
*we don’t have to be joyful or happy or remorseful to pray. God desires us to be real.
Romans 8:26, 27
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
*The Holy Spirit indwells the Christian, and carries our deepest prayers to God, even when we cannot put them into words
*The Holy Spirit intercedes for us to God directly.
*God hears those prayers because God the Father and the Holy Spirit are one
*the Holy Spirit always intercedes on behalf of God’s people in accordance with God’s will
*our prayers don’t have to be fancy; sometimes we don’t even know what to pray
Luke 5:15, 16
But the news about Jesus spread all the more, and great crowds came to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses. Yet He frequently withdrew to the wilderness to pray.
*Jesus felt prayer was important. In the midst of people coming to be taught and healed, He withdrew to pray
*prayer is necessary. If Jesus made time for it in His life, how much more do we need to do the same
*prayer is valid work.
I hope this has whet your appetite to seek out what God has to teach you about prayer. Remember, it isn’t a magic formula or something on the checklist to maturity. It is so much more. It is communicating with our Abba, Father with our deepest concerns and hurts, and sharing our common, everyday happenings with our ‘friend.’ As He speaks to us through His word, we speak back to Him in prayer. Have a blessed week!
Our song for today is Thank You Lord by Don Moen and Paul Baloche.