What I Would Do Differently
Part 2: Biblical Foundations
4. Do you know the one you pray to?
J.I. Packer wrote, “One can know a great deal about God without much knowledge of him.”11
“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me” (John 5:39).
What are the practical implications?
How does your view of God change your prayer life?
1. ______________________________________________________________________
2. ______________________________________________________________________
3. ______________________________________________________________________
Hezekiah’s Prayer for Deliverance
And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD: “O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth;
you have made heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire. For they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. So now, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the LORD (Isa 37:15-20).
What can we learn for this passage?
Puritan Prayer O FOUNTAIN OF ALL GOOD,
Destroy in me every lofty thought,
Break pride to pieces and scatter it to the winds, Annihilate each clinging shred of self-righteousness, Implant in me true lowliness of spirit,
Abase me to self-loathing and self-abhorrence, Open in me a fount of penitential tears,
10 Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, 76.
11 J. I. Packer, Knowing God, 20th anniv. ed. (Downers Grove, IL.: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 26.
Break me, then bind me up;
Thus will my heart be a prepared dwelling for my God;
Then can the Father take up his abode in me,
Then can the blessed Jesus come with healing in his touch, Then can the Holy Spirit descend in sanctifying grace;
O Holy Trinity, three Persons and one God, inhabit me, a temple consecrated to thy glory.
When thou art present, evil cannot abide;
In thy fellowship is fullness of joy, Beneath thy smile is peace of conscience, By thy side no fears disturb,
no apprehensions banish rest of mind,
With thee my heart shall bloom with fragrance;
Make me meet, through repentance, for thine indwelling.
Nothing exceeds thy power, Nothing is too great for thee to do, Nothing too good for thee to give.
Infinite is thy might, boundless thy love, limitless thy grace, glorious thy saving name.
Let angels sing for sinners repenting, prodigals restored, backsliders reclaimed, Satan’s captives released, blind eyes opened, broken hearts bound up, the despondent cheered, the self-righteous stripped,
the formalist driven from a refuge of lies, the ignorant enlightened,
and saints built up in their holy faith.
I ask great things of a great God.12
J.I. Packer writes “First, we must recognize how much we lack knowledge of God. We must learn to measure ourselves, not by our knowledge about God, not by our gifts and responsibilities in the church, but by how we pray and what goes on in our hearts.”13 How could what you learned today change how you pray?
Putting Prayer into Practice Prayer Requests
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
__________________
Writing out your Prayer
12 Bennett, The Valley of Vision, 6.
13 Packer, Knowing God, 32.
Spend a few minutes writing out a prayer based on what you have learned today. If you have things in your life you need prayer for think about how you might pray for that in your prayer.
Homework
Seek to spend an extra 10 minutes praying each day. This could be at one time or 5 min twice a day.
Closing Prayer
Prayer Class Week 3 How We Pray Welcome
Ask if anyone can recall what was discussed in the previous class Book recommendation
Don Whitney: Praying the Bible Open in Prayer
Prayer and Scripture cannot be separated. Scripture drives prayer because it is the source of the knowledge of God and his promises.
D. A. Carson states, “The more we learn about God and his ways and his perspectives, the more we improve our grasp not only of elemental theology but of prayer as well.”14 Name of God and the attribute related to it
Name: El Shaddai (Lord God Almighty) Attribute: Omnipotence (unlimited power)
“Sovereignty and omnipotence must go together. One cannot exist without the other. To reign, God must have power, and to reign sovereignly, He must have all power. And that is what omnipotent means, having all power.”15
Name: Jehovah Jireh (the Lord will provide) Attribute: Goodness
Name: Jehovah (Jehovah is derived from the Hebrew word Havah meaning “to be” or
“to exist.” It also suggests “to become” or specifically “to become known”) Attribute:
Omnipresent
“One of two things causes a man to change his mind and reverse his plans: want of foresight to anticipate everything, or lack of power to execute them. But as God is both omniscient and omnipotent there is never any need for Him to revise His decrees.”16 Invocation in our prayers
Isaac Watts writes that an invocation to God may include the following17
• “Mention of one or more of the names or titles of God”
• “A declarartion of our desire and design to worship him”
• “A desire of his assistance and acceptance”
Verses that come to mind when thinking about that attribute of God 1. _____________________
2. _____________________
3. _____________________
Thinking about who God is and what he has done should lead us to prayer Paul connects his prayer in Ephesians to what God has done.
14 D. A. Carson, Praying with Paul: A Call to Spiritual Reformation, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids:
Baker Academic, 2014), 76.
15 Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, 65.
16 Arthur Walkington Pink, The Attributes of God, new ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2006), 39.
17 Watts, A Guide to Prayer, 11-12.
“For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers” (Eph 1:15-16)
How we pray is often as important as what we pray.
We talked about the postures of prayer in week one, but now we want to look at some other attitudes of prayer.
“Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints” (Eph 6:18).
1. Praying at all times 2. Keep alert
3. Perseverance
4. Supplication for all the saints
James tells us that “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth” (Jas 5:17).
There is one statement that we should all pay close attention to
“was a man with a nature like ours”
We want to briefly look at three parables that speak to prayer.
The Friend at Midnight Luke 11:5-8 1. There is a ___Need__
2. There is __Friend__ who can __Provide _
3. The person must be __Persistant__ in order to __Receive__
The Persistent Widow in Luke 18:1-8 1. There is a __Need__
2. There is __Unbeliever__ who can __Provide__
3. The person must be __Persistant__ in order to __Receive__
The Pharisee and the Tax Collector Luke 18:9-14
1. The Pharisee prayed about his __Acomplishments__
2. The tax collector prayers about his __failures__
3. The one who recognized his __sin__ went away __Justified__
Why do we pray fervently Eric Alexander writes,
In the Christian church over the years, we have turned the truth upside down, and commonly speak of ‘praying for the work’—the implication being that prayer is an additional ingredient to our Christian service. The truth is that prayer is the real work, and apart from it all other work is in vain. The reason for that is quite simple. It is that essentially this work in which we are engaged is God’s work, not man’s.18
Humility is a necessary requirement for prayer.
Psa_51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 Eric J. Alexander, Prayer: A Biblical Perspective (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 2012), 40.
Contrite means something that is broken or crushed. David helps explain what that might look like. “O LORD, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me” (Psa 131:1-2).
Isa_57:15 For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
Isa_66:2 All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.
One of the great helps in prayer is Scripture itself.
Praying Scripture helps prevent prayers from becoming repetitive and also helps prevent the mind from wandering.
You need to understand its _____Meaning____ to pray it.
Make sure you understand the meaning of the passage you want to pray. Don’t just pray it because you think it sounds good or because you don’t know what to pray. we are praying is the meaning of texts, not just words.
The early Church prayed Scripture as seen Acts 4:24 which is from Psalms 2 Praying Scripture before you read your Bible
❖ Incline my heart to your testimonies (Ps 119:36).
❖ Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law (Ps 119:18).
❖ Unite my heart to fear your name (Ps 86:11).
❖ Satisfy us [me] in the morning with your steadfast love (Ps 90:14).
Praying the Bible
Psa 23:1-6 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. (2) He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. (3) He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. (4) Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. (5) You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. (6) Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
Ways to pray the Scripture19
1. Lord, you are my good shepherd
2. Lord, help me to follow you and not to wander
3. Help my family, shepherd those who are yours and those that are not, draw them in
4. Help the pastors at my church who are under-shepherds
19 Donald S. Whitney, Praying the Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015), 29-30.
1Co 13:4-8 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant (5) or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; (6) it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. (7) Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (8) Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
Putting Prayer into Practice Psa 23:1-6
What can we learn for this passage?
Writing out your Prayer
Spend a few minutes writing out a prayer based on what you have learned today while keeping Psalms 23 in mind. If you have things in your life you need prayer for think about how you might pray for that in your prayer.
Puritan Prayer O FOUNTAIN OF ALL GOOD,
Destroy in me every lofty thought,
Break pride to pieces and scatter it to the winds,Annihilate each clinging shred of self-righteousness,
Implant in me true lowliness of spirit,
Abase me to self-loathing and self-abhorrence, Open in me a fount of penitential tears,
Break me, then bind me up;
Thus will my heart be a prepared dwelling for my God;
Then can the Father take up his abode in me,
Then can the blessed Jesus come with healing in his touch, Then can the Holy Spirit descend in
sanctifying grace;
O Holy Trinity, three Persons and one God, inhabit me, a temple consecrated to thy glory.
When thou art present, evil cannot abide;
In thy fellowship is fullness of joy, Beneath thy smile is peace of conscience, By thy side no fears disturb,
no apprehensions banish rest of mind,
With thee my heart shall bloom with fragrance;
Make me meet, through repentance, for thine indwelling.
Nothing exceeds thy power, Nothing is too great for thee to do, Nothing too good for thee to give.
Infinite is thy might, boundless thy love, limitless thy grace, glorious thy saving name.
Let angels sing for sinners repenting, prodigals restored,
backsliders reclaimed, Satan’s captives released, blind eyes opened, broken hearts bound up, the despondent cheered, the self-righteous stripped,
the formalist driven from a refuge of lies, the ignorant enlightened,
and saints built up in their holy faith.
I ask great things of a great God.20
How could what you learned today, change how you pray?
Praying individually
This week seek to spend an extra 10 minutes praying each day. You can do it at one time or two 5 minute prayers. This should be time dedicated to prayer.
Close the class with prayer.
20 Bennett, The Valley of Vision, 6.
Prayer Class Week 4 What We Pray Welcome
Ask if anyone can recall what was discussed in the previous class Recap previous week
Book recommendation
Martin Luther, Little Prayer Book Open in Prayer
What are some of the reasons people pray?
1. _____________________
2. _____________________
3. _____________________
What types of prayers do these represent?
Different types of prayer
Adoration – Prayer that gives honor or worship to God
“God merits all the adoration that we can give him, for the beauty, the goodness and the faithfulness that he shows us in so many different ways… We praise him because of who and what he is.”21 God is worthy of worship and praise not only because of what he has done but simply because of who he is.
Intercession - Making a request to God on behalf of someone else Petition – Making a request to God and because of a need
Confession – Prayer that admits sin to God Thanksgiving – Thanking God for all he has done How many of you have a model or outline for prayer
1. ACTS model Why do you pray?
Confession Why is Confession Important?
“But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear” (Isa 59:2).
“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (Jas 5:16).
“If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened” (Psa 66:18).
Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts, and set the stumbling
21 Packer and Nystrom, Praying, 31.
block of their iniquity before their faces. Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them? Therefore speak to them and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Any one of the house of Israel who takes his idols into his heart and sets the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to the prophet, I the LORD will answer him as he comes with the multitude of his idols, that I may lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel, who are all estranged from me through their idols.
“Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: Repent and turn away from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations (Ezek 14:3-6).
“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).
Why is Confession Important in Prayer?
1. Confessing that one is a sinner in need of a savior is the first prayer.
2. Admit that we have sinned and been disobedient. (1 John 1:9)
a. Insincere confession downplays sin, excuses it, or blames others.
b. “Obedience is oriented to God victory is oriented toward self.”22 3. Godly grief leads to repentance. 2 Corinthians 7:10-11
a. Action must be taken to turn from sin. Colossians 3:5 b. We need help to put to death the things of the flesh.
Exodus 20:3-6
You shall have no other gods before me. (4) “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. (5) You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, (6) but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments (Ex 20:3-6).
1. There is nothing in creation by which God is represented (Deut 4:14).