Our Life of Prayer

1. Read: “Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1).

2. About the Text:

1) Jesus taught us to be a praying people.

2) Jesus’ life itself was characterized by deep and abiding prayer.

3) He devoted hours of His time to prayer, often purposefully and intentionally leaving aside the multitudes of people desiring His time.

4) Jesus considered that time with His Father important and paramount in His life, and we are called to be His followers.

5) What kind of prayer life do we have?

3. Ref. to S, T, P, O, and A.

1. “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

2. Being thankful demonstrates humility, acknowledges God’s providence in our life, and shows dependence upon God and others for whom we are thankful.

3. Thankfulness is central to the Christ-like attitude of Philippians 2:5-10 that every Christian should have.

4. Saying “thank you” recognizes the free-will of another in doing something that is thank worthy.

5. It places another’s words or actions above that of self. Preeminently, it places God the Father and His will above all!

6. Jesus was thankful and we should be thankful also (Mark 8:6).

7. We need to offer prayers of thanksgiving frequently as

8. Colossians 4:2 says, “Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving.”

1. Jesus said, “Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them” (Mark 11:24).

1) Does this statement seem odd to you?

2) Doesn’t someone who is already asking for something have faith?

3) Why would he be asking if he didn’t believe?

2. Yet Jesus says that when we ask, we need to believe that we will receive. How is this?

3. A lot of times, when we ask for something, we are simply trying to control the outcome instead of acknowledging the power of Another.

1) What Jesus is trying to teach us here is that when we ask something from God, we must let it go and really trust that God will take care of it.

2) Prayer is not an avenue to control God, prayer is an avenue to let go of our control of a situation and believe that God will provide.

4. Sometimes we don’t receive precisely because we think we are still in control of the situation.

1) To pray as Jesus commanded, we’ve got to let go of our control so that God can be in control.

2) This is what Jesus is saying when he says, “Believe that you receive them.”

3) Seeking to maintain our own control over a situation that we have prayed to God about, isn’t believe in God, it is believing in self.

5. The expression, “Let go, and let God” is scriptural.

1. It takes love to bring another person’s name before the throne of God.

2. When we pray for others, we are loving them in a great way because we are saying that they are important enough to talk to God about.

3. Jesus taught us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:39).

4. Do you pray for yourself? If you don’t, then you need to, because even Jesus prayed for Himself (Matthew 26:39).

5. If you do, then you need to pray for your neighbor as well showing the same love for your neighbor as you do for yourself.

6. Jesus prayed for us in John 17:20-21 when he said, “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.”

7. Jesus prays for us even today.

8. The Bible says that Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us (Romans 8:34, Hebrews 7:25).

9. When we pray for ourselves and others, we are loving ourselves and others like Jesus loved.

1. Peter wrote, “but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:15-16).

2. Holiness is the spiritual quality of being set apart from the world and its corrupting influences.

3. We are holy when we do not allow fleshly desires to control and consume our life.

4. Holiness purifies and makes us distinctly different from those around us.

5. Prayer is a holy act because it takes us away from all of the physical influences that would seek to consume us and bring us under their dominion.

6. When we pray, we make a move toward the Holy One, God Himself.

7. We “come before His throne”—an expression we use to illustrate that we are leaving behind worldly concerns and entering a higher and holier court than our earthly domain can afford.

8. God is holy, and because of that, when we pray, we must conform to the reality of Who He Is, not our own.

9. James talks about those who don’t respect God’s holiness when they pray:

10. “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:3-4).

11. Praying with unholy desires yields self-condemnation.

1. Our prayer life should be characterized by . . .

1) Thankfulness

2) Faith

3) Love

4) Holiness

2. Invitation