It's been so long I didnt blog - sorry lp!
Anyway kids, I promised my friend to blog about prayer. The secret to Jesus' success in ministry was a lifestyle of prayer.
Of all the things Jesus' disciples observed Him say and do, the bible records only one thing they asked Him to teach them, and that was how to pray (Luke 11:1). Why would the disciples do that? It was because they saw Jesus pray more than anything else.
Martin Luther said, "More work is done by prayer than by work itself." Most of the time, you dont have to say so much, counsel so much, do so much.. you just have to pray to see the inner transformation in a person or see the situation turn around.
The sad thing is that christians often put off praying because they think it is less important than other activities. They also think the length of time they pray isn't important. Why did Jesus spend hours in prayer? It is because He had a genuine relationship with the Father and any relationship that is worthwhile takes time to build and maintain.
Jesus knew that prayer is not automatic and that is why He understood that his disciples needed to learn how to pray. Often a new believer is told that he has to 1) read the Word 2) go to church 3) and pray. Yet many people don't stop to think that these things do not come naturally to us. We have to learn how to study the Word, how we are meant to function in the body of Christ, and how we are to pray.
Pastor Khong had once taught us to use the Lord's Prayer in Luke 11:2-4. Well, we don't need to repeat the words of this prayer exactly, but should instead use it as a pattern.
1) Our Father
We identify who He is & He is the s-o-u-r-c-e who can provide for the needs of everyone. "Lord you are the source of all that I need in this life."
2) In heaven
When we pray, we are not praying to someone on earth, the problems are on earth. We need external help, help from the spiritual realm.
3) Hallowed be your name
Hallowed means reverenced, set apart or sanctified. We are to first worship the Father as the Holy One. So in our prayers, we can say 'I want to proclaim aloud my praises for you for you have been good to me. You are a compassionate & gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness." And where do I get these words from? They are from the book of Psalm. Sometimes I would recite a Psalm of declaration before I move on.
4) Your Kingdom Come, Your Will be Done as it is in Heaven
A true person of prayer is not interested in His own kingdom. His interest is in God's Kingdom and what God wants to see accomplished. So we should have this attitude of asking for the fulfilment of God's prayer list before our own.
Eg When I pray for your future wife, Calvin, I would pray that she will be a prudent wife cos in Proverbs 19:14 it says "Houses & wealth are inherited from parents, but a prudent wife is from the Lord." & she will be one of noble character as she is going to be Calvin's crown.. taken from Proverbs 12:4 "A wife of noble character is her husband's crown, but a disgraceful wife is like decay in his bones." I wont mention about the 'disgraceful wife' in my prayer cos it ain't going to happen to you Calvin :)
Another eg would be in finding a job. If you know the marketplace is where you should be, then pray " Lord, I have an interest in finance or marketing or ??.. place me in a job where I can be used by you & be a testimony for you in the office."
5) Give Us our Daily Bread
We not only ask God for bread for ourselves, we have to ask for bread for everybody.
6) Forgive Us our sins for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us
Jesus is dealing with relationships. When you come before God, check to see if anyone has anything against you or if you are holding anything against anyone. Don't come into God's presence and expect to have your prayers answered if you are asking God to forgive you, but you are refusing to forgive others.
This is difficult but we have to will ourselves to say to God, " I choose to forgive so & so for ?? done to me in Jesus name. I choose to bless him/her that ?? " It is a conscious effort. We can't do business at a holy altar when we have a bitter heart.
7) Do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from the evil one
This does not mean that God will steer us toward temptation against our wills. God doesn't tempt us but He does test us. It simply means that we are to ask God for wisdom so we won't put ourselves into situations that will cause us to compromise our values or our relationship with Him. We are to influence others, be the salt of the earth and not allow ourselves to be influenced by others negatively.
8) Yours is the Kingdom, Power and Glory Forever
Some bible versions include this benediction. After you have prayed, worship God again. You are in effect saying "I know you are going to answer this prayer, therefore, I'm going to thank you ahead of time. I'm going to give you all the glory that comes from what happens."
It will take some work but you will learn the secret to answered prayer. It took me many years to learn how to pray effectively and the way that God wants to see it done. God loves to answer our prayer and loves to spend time with us. Our image of our earthly father often affect how we approach God. If we view our earthly father as one who is unapproachable & ready to punish us for the slightest error, then our view of God will be one where we feel we have to step on egg shells whenever we approach Him. Some fathers are non communicative or for a better expression, a man of few words. Then we will view God as one who is probably not interested in talking to us or even interested in what we have to say.
So before we approach God, we have to correct our image of God first. The Word gives us plenty of examples of God's love, compassion and mercy for people.
The bible says that we can make a difference and change the course of history (even in our family line) if we understand the purpose and power of prayer!
xxx