Praying for Change

When we pray, we can trust that our wise and loving Father will give the best answer.

James 5:16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. A prayer of a righteous person, when it is brought about, can accomplish much. Hanging above the door in our house was my mother’s favorite plaque, which read, “Prayer changes things.” From an early age, I witnessed her praying about difficulties and giving God glory for answering her petitions. Indeed, this is our confidence: Anything we pray for that aligns with the Father’s plan will be granted. And the more time we spend with Him, the more we’ll come to understand His will and how to pray for it. Some requests are granted immediately, simply because our Father loves to give us good gifts. Other requests may require time or certain preparations before they can be given. We, meanwhile, must patiently persevere, remembering that prayer transforms the believer’s heart. Whatever the Lord’s response or timing, we should trust He has the best in store for His children. That means we might not receive what we’re asking for—but something even better. God alone perfectly knows each heart’s desire and how best to fulfill it. Prayer is our most powerful tool for shaping the world around us, and it is always available. And as we give attention, time, and perseverance to conversation with our Father, we find no limit to what He can achieve in people’s hearts and circumstances.

The Power in Prayer

The true beauty of prayer is not a particular outcome but intimacy with the Father.

Matthew 7:7-11 7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or what person is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf of bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? 11 So if you, despite being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! Have you become disillusioned with prayer? Perhaps you’ve been persistently asking, seeking, and knocking, but God hasn’t answered your request. If that’s the situation, you may be wondering why so many Christians speak about the power of prayer when it seems ineffectual in your life. Verses 9-11 of today’s passage help us understand the bigger picture. Jesus draws a comparison between earthly fathers and the heavenly Father. He notes that a human father, who is flawed and limited, can give good things to his children. So it stands to reason that the heavenly Father, who is all-powerful and all-knowing, will give what’s beneficial to His children. Sometimes, however, we are like spiritual toddlers. In our limited understanding, we don’t realize that our requests aren’t always what God deems best for us. Prayer is powerful when our petitions are according to His will but not when they’re self-willed (14 This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him. 1 John 5:14-15). What’s amazing is that God uses the prayers of His people to accomplish His plans. He’s completely sufficient without us, but prayer teaches us humility, dependence, submission, and trust. Intimacy with God is built when we come to Him with our praises, thanks, confessions, and petitions. The profit of prayer is not that can we receive something but that we’re able to relate to the One who supplies all our needs.

The Damage of Prayerlessness

When we bring our problems to God in prayer, He responds with encouragement.

Colossians 4:2-6 2 You must keep praying. Keep watching! Be thankful always. 3 As you pray, be sure to pray for us also. Pray that God will open the door for us to preach the Word. We want to tell the secret of Christ. And this is the reason I am in prison. 4 Pray that I will be able to preach so everyone can understand. This is the way I should speak. 5 Be wise in the way you live around those who are not Christians. Make good use of your time. 6 Speak with them in such a way they will want to listen to you. Do not let your talk sound foolish. Know how to give the right answer to anyone. Prayer should be a priority in the life of every Christian. If Jesus, who was the Son of God, often slipped away to talk to His Father, then we surely need it even more! Without prayer and Bible reading, believers are prone to feel discouraged and distant from God. When troubles loom, do you seek man-made options in place of taking your concerns to the Lord? Chasing counterfeit solutions only leads you away from God and His will. What’s more, they are short-lived at best and utter failures at worst. Under such conditions, discouragement is unavoidable. But a believer who’s immersed in prayer and Scripture reading finds security in God’s power and presence. Even though a habit of neglecting prayer has negative consequences, the direction can be reversed at any time. First, confess your prayerlessness. Then ask the Lord to give you the strength and desire to make communication with Him a regular discipline. Then set aside time every day to read your Bible and pray. In those moments of communion, He’ll make burdens lighter, offer encouragement, and fill you with confidence in His faithfulness and care for you.

Praying According to God’s Will

Hebrews 13:20-21 20 God is a God of peace. He raised our Lord Jesus from the dead. Jesus is the Good Shepherd of the sheep. His blood made the Covenant of Worship which will last forever. 21 May God give you every good thing you need so you can do what He wants. May He do in us what pleases Him through Jesus Christ. May Christ have all the glory forever! Let it be so. Scripture teaches that God hears and answers when we make requests according to His will (14 We are sure that if we ask anything according to His will, He will hear us. 15 If we are sure He hears us when we ask, we can be sure He will give us what we ask for. 1 John 5:14-15). Although our Father is always faithful to guide us in specific situations, He also wants us to know His big goals for us, which are described throughout His Word. Today’s passage from Hebrews 13 is one such example. With regard to both character and deeds, God’s purpose for believers can be summed up in these two requests from Hebrews 13:21: • His goal is to “equip [us] in every good thing to do His will.” He wants us to depend fully on Him to accomplish the good works He planned beforehand for us to do (For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Eph. 2:10). These include righteous living in obedience to His Word as well as fruitful service in His name and to His people. • God is “working in us that which is pleasing in His sight.” As the Father shapes us into the image of His Son, He is transforming our character so we’ll have a heart bent toward pleasing Him. Otherwise, all our good works are useless. When you ask God to accomplish these two things in your life, you can be sure He will.

Four Ways to Pray Like Paul

Guest Contributor

As Christians we know that we are supposed to pray, but do you ever get stuck on exactly what to pray for? If you are looking for some prayer prompts that will take you beyond, “uh, Lord…uh… be with them today?” look no further than the four important prayer points that are found in 1 Thessalonians 3:1-5.

“(v1) Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, (v2) and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith. (v3) But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. (v4) And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command. (v5) May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.”

Read m ore: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/chorusinthechaos/four-ways-to-pray-like-paul/

A Pattern for Prayer

Jesus teaches what to focus on in our prayers and encourages us to approach God with a humble heart.

Matthew 6:5-10 5 “When you pray, do not be as those who pretend to be someone they are not. They love to stand and pray in the places of worship or in the streets so people can see them. For sure, I tell you, they have all the reward they are going to get. 6 When you pray, go into a room by yourself. After you have shut the door, pray to your Father Who is in secret. Then your Father Who sees in secret will reward you. 7 When you pray, do not say the same thing over and over again making long prayers like the people who do not know God. They think they are heard because their prayers are long. 8 Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. 9 “Pray like this: ‘Our Father, who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.   Are your conversations with God primarily a checklist of needs? Petitions are certainly appropriate, but prayer is also a time to focus on the Lord in love and worship. When praying to our Father in heaven, we should ponder three things that today’s passage indicates are important to Him: His name, His kingdom, and His will (Matt. 6:9-10 above). Hallowed be Your name. While the goal is to honor and exalt God, our prayers can easily become self-centered. This can be an issue in public prayer if we try to exalt ourselves in the eyes of others. But it can also happen privately when we focus only on what we want God to do. Your kingdom come. Praying for God’s coming kingdom means setting our hope on Christ’s future reign while submitting to His rule over our life now. Your will be done. No matter how much we want the Lord to answer our prayers the way we desire, every petition must be readily submitted to God’s will. It is a way of acknowledging that His way is always best. The next time you pray, make a point of pondering the Lord’s greatness, exalting Him, and humbly submitting your will to His.

A Passage To Ponder: John 17

Have you ever heard someone pray whose passion, feeling, and fervor were so intense that their sincere petitions brought you closer to God than you’d ever felt before?

Such is the prayer of Jesus in John 17 that some writers have called this chapter “The Holy of Holies of John’s Gospel.” It’s the longest recorded prayer of Jesus in the Bible.

In John 17 we gain deeper insight into Jesus’ relationship with the Father and His thoughts and emotions in the shadow of the cross.

If there ever was a Bible-based three-point sermon, John 17 naturally provides it. Jesus prays for Himself, for the disciples and for all future disciples.

Jesus Prayed For Himself (1-5).

No less than eight times in John’s gospel Jesus speaks of “the hour.” Now the hour has come. The betrayer is coming. The disciples will soon run in fear like scalded dogs. And the cross is in sight.

Some today have incorrectly concluded that the cross thwarted God’s plan. That Jesus’ death put the Divine purpose on hold until some future time. Not so. The cross was not the suspension of God’s plan, but the consummation of it.

Jesus said, “I have finished the work,” and “I have glorified you.” Jesus’ ministry had ended. His mission was about to be fulfilled in His sacrifice for our sins.

Five times in five verses Jesus refers to His purpose in life as glorifying God. He came “to do the will of the Father.” He possessed divine glory before the world was as Deity. He glorified God in His lifework. Even His death. in the supposed shame of the cross, would result in glory. And He would return to glory.

Jesus Prayed For His Disciples (6-19).

Read more; https://thepreachersword.com/2021/11/17/a-passage-to-ponder-john-17/

The God Who Prays for Us

Brian Chilton describes the Holy Spirit’s prayer for the believer’s life and provides three characteristics of this divine prayer. Source: The God Who Prays for Us By: Brian G. Chilton | November 1, 2021 Romans chapter 8 is perhaps one of the best chapters in the entire Bible. The chapter begins with an exposition of God’s salvific work for our lives, including God’s past, present, and future work. The chapter ends as it describes the eternal love that God has for his children (8:31–39). Romans 8:26–27 is a lesser-known passage of Scripture that finds itself sandwiched between the recognized famed theological treatises. In this passage, Paul describes the ministry of the Holy Spirit. But he notes that the Spirit of God “intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings” (8:26).[1] What does it mean that the Spirit intercedes for us? Paul notes that the Spirit of God actually prays for us on our behalf. This indicates three things about the Spirit’s prayerful petition for our lives. The Spirit Uplifts Us in Prayer When We Don’t Know What to Pray If we are honest, many of us struggle with our prayer lives. At least I know that I sometimes do. However, the powerful aspect of the Spirit’s ministry is that he prays for us even when we do not know what to pray for ourselves. If we find ourselves in a state of being where we know we need to ask God for something, but we don’t even know what to ask for, the Spirit has us covered. Millard Erickson notes that “Thus believers have the assurance that when they do not know how to pray, the Holy Spirit wisely intercedes for them that the Lord’s will be done.”[2] While believers often feel defeated due to their perceived inability to pray as they should, the Spirit steps in to assist the believe in ways that he or she does not even recognize. Read more at: https://pastorbrianchilton.wordpress.com/2021/11/01/the-god-who-prays-for-us/

Praying in Jesus’ Name

John 14:13-14 ¹³ Whatever you ask in My name, I will do it so the glory of the Father may be seen in the Son. ¹⁴ Yes, if you ask anything in My name, I will do it.

Do you know what it means to pray “in Jesus’ name”? This isn’t simply a phrase to be thoughtlessly tacked on to the end of our prayers. On the contrary, it’s an amazing privilege given to those who know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. One way to think about it is that we’re praying something Jesus might pray. You must be His follower before you can do or say anything in His name.

Since God is holy and we are sinful, the only way to approach Him is through His Son, who paid the penalty for our sins and clothed us with His righteousness. That’s why we bring our requests in Jesus’ name—He’s the only way to the Father (Jesus said, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one can go to the Father except by Me. John 14:6).

When we belong to Jesus, we approach God’s throne of grace not as beggars but as beloved children and co-heirs with Christ (¹⁶ For the Holy Spirit speaks to us and tells our spirit that we are children of God. ¹⁷ If we are children of God, we will receive everything He has promised us. We will share with Christ all the things God has given to Him. But we must share His suffering if we are to share His glory. Rom. 8:16-17). Because the Son acts as our intermediary and high priest, we can draw near to God with confidence, knowing that we will receive mercy and find grace to help us in our times of need (¹⁵ Our High Priest understands how weak we are. Christ was tempted in every way we are tempted, but He did not sin. ¹⁶ Let us go with complete trust to the throne of God. We will receive His grace and have His mercy to help us whenever we need it. Heb. 4:15-16).

The next time you’re about to end a prayer “in Jesus’ name,” remember what it means. Then ask yourself if your request is something Jesus would want for you.

10 Times When Prayer is Not Enough

By Chuck Lawless on Jul 27, 2021 01:00 am

First, a caveat. If you read this blog regularly, you know my commitment to prayer. So, I am in no way arguing that prayer is somehow ineffective or unnecessary. I simply want us to think about times when we need to do more than pray:

1. When we’re praying for someone to get saved, but we’ve made no attempt to share the gospel with that person. God is surely sovereign over salvation, but He uses us to tell the story.
2. When we’re praying for God to bring a wayward believer to return to God, but we’re not willing to confront that believer. Again, God calls us to help restore fallen brothers and sisters (Gal 6:1).
3. When we pray for God to provide financially for our church, but we’ve offered no stewardship training for our members. Why should God provide when we haven’t discipled?
4. When we’re asking God to free us from a controlling sin, but we keep putting ourselves in the same wrong place . . . with the same wrong people . . . at the same wrong time. Praying for freedom without also choosing wisely is lacking something. 
5. When we’re pleading with God to give us clarity about an issue, but we haven’t opened His Word on a regular basis in a long time. We shouldn’t expect God to answer this request when we ignore His primary means of speaking to us. 
6. When we’re asking God to show us His will, but we already know what we’re going to do regardless. This prayer is a bit superfluous when we’ve already decided what “will” we will follow. 

Read the rest: http://chucklawless.com/2021/07/10-times-when-prayer-is-not-enough/