They Needed To Know Real Prayer Religion Essay Example

They Needed To Know Real Prayer Religion Essay Example They Needed To Know Real Prayer Religion Essay They Needed To Know Real Prayer Religion Essay Prayer That Works is the rubric for Derek Stringer s current series here on Word Alive. I m Jane Moxon and thanks for fall ining us for the following message in the series. Derek Yes thank you. Prayer is something we all do some people merely as a last resort when they ve tried everything else. For others of us we truly want to do it effectual and worthwhile. We read books about supplication, may be travel to seminars but still we struggle. And that s why we re look intoing out some supplications in our Bible so that we can larn through them. My hope is that as we go through these illustrations it will assist us to truly pray and see God at work. And thanks Jane for you help as we come to another sample supplication in Bible. Jane Well today s illustration comes from Ephesians 1:15 to 23. The rubric is Eye-Opening Prayer. Dr. Derek Stringer is the Teacher for Good News Broadcasting the production squad behind Word Alive and a batch of other programmes that you may hear on your wireless. Derek preaches in many different churches and conference call and see him if he is near where you live, we can give you inside informations of his agenda. How approximately coming to our Bible Teaching Conference. It starts on Friday eventide and concludes Sunday afternoon. If you ca nt do the whole week-end, come for the Saturday. Again, we can give you inside informations when you contact us. Derek Thankss once more for acquiring our programme started Jane. So our subject is all about Prayer. . . one of the most of import topics we could look at. It s besides a large guilt trap if we do nt near it the right manner. For illustration. . . I wonder if we would be happy if our supplications were published so that others could read them. That s a absorbing idea, is nt it? What if every supplication you prayed, word for word, somehow ended up in book signifier so that anyone, anyplace could read them? Would our supplications be deserving reading if they were published? And would they measure up for the pages of the Bible or would they be more fit for the rubbish bin? In this series we ve started to look at the published supplications of the Apostle Paul. It takes a certain sum of bravery to compose down your supplications, but these supplications deserve to be studied because they are unlike most of our supplications. They set a really high criterion, which if followed, would radically transform our ain supplications. And that s precisely what we re trusting for. When the adherents listened to Jesus pray they said, Teach us to pray. They knew the mechanics. They did nt cognize the quality praying that Jesus knew with His Father. They knew HOW to pray. They needed to cognize existent supplication. Our supplication is, Lord, teach us to pray. And assist us to larn from Paul. I m doing some premises as I begin this programme: One is that most people pray. Another is that most of us feel unequal in supplication. And one more is that most of us would wish some practical aid in supplication. That s what this talk is all approximately. As we study the supplications of the Apostle Paul, we are traveling to detect new forms of supplication that will assist us speak to God more efficaciously. If we want the Lord to learn us to pray, this is a good topographic point to get down. After all, supplication is the thermometer of the psyche. If you want to cognize what a adult male believes, do nt state me what he says ; state me what he prays. A adult male may state many things, but when he prays, his bosom is to the full revealed. Let me propose something for us to see in this country: What a individual prays for others is finally what he wants for himself. And how a individual prays for others demonstrates the soundness of his religion. With that in head, we turn to the supplication of Paul in Ephesians 1:15 to 23. This is the first of two great supplications by Paul in this short missive ( the other 1 is found in Ephesians 3 ) . Before we jump into the text, I have a confession to do. For many old ages whenever I have read this supplication, it has ever seemed really hard for me to understand. For one thing, in the Greek text verses 15 to 23 constitute one long, complex sentence, filled with phrases and clauses piled on top of each other. It s easy to acquire lost in the inside informations and lose the message. But it would be a shame to dismiss it merely because it seems complex because this is truly an astonishing supplication. If it starts as a susurration it ends in a boom. What begins as a dribbling mountain watercourse becomes a mighty downpour of truth by the terminal. Actually the supplication is truly simple. The key is at the terminal of verse 17. Jane Paul says, That you may cognize him better. Derek That s it! That s the whole supplication right at that place. Paul is praying that the Ephesians might cognize God better. This means that he is composing to and praying for trusters who already have some cognition of God. His cardinal petition is, O Lord, I pray that these people who already know you might come to a new and deeper cognition of who you truly are. The Grecian linguistic communication contains a figure of different words that might be translated as know. This peculiar poetry contains a verb that means to cognize profoundly, personally, closely. For case, I know the Queen. I know who she is and what she looks like. If you show me her image, I ll state, That s Queen Elizabeth the II. But I do nt cognize her personally and she does nt cognize me from Adam s house-cat. But I can besides state, I know my married woman. That s an wholly different sort of knowing. After old ages of matrimony, it is a cognition that is really deep and really personal. And that s the kind of cognition Paul is praying for. Now if you know Ephesians at all, you know that the first portion of Chapter 1, verses 3-14, is a doxology of congratulations to God. That doxology is followed by this long supplication that they might cognize God better. Think of it this manner: First Paul puts the truth out, so he prays the truth in. In poetry 3 he says we have been blessed with every religious approval. So the supplication is non, Lord, give us new approvals, but Help us to recognize the approvals we already have. Not Give us new truth, but Help us see the truth we already know. Religious truth can be academic and cold and formal. So he s praying, Lord, turn them on to the truth. Lord, they know you, now make them excited about cognizing you. Jane So, the petition is: To Know Him Better I keep inquiring that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and disclosure, so that you may cognize him better. Derek I read verse 17 and instantly the high spot pen goes to work in my encephalon. There s the phrase I keep inquiring. Paul did non believe that if you made a supplication petition, you neer had to do it once more. When Paul prayed for the Ephesians, he prayed the same petition over and over again-that they would cognize God better. Sometimes I hear it said that since God knows everything we say before we say it and everything we think before we think it ( which is true ) , that we should neer reiterate ourselves in supplication ( which is non true ) . We do nt pray to inform God of anything. He knows what we are believing long before we voice our supplications to him. But if he knows all, why pray at all? The simple reply is He s God and we re non. We pray to show our entire dependance on him for everything. As we continue to pray for the same things for our loved 1s over and over once more, the reverent desires of the bosom grow stronger and we are reminded that every twenty-four hours we must be 100 % dependant on him. We ca nt populate on yesterday s approvals and we ca nt depend on yesterday s supplications. So merely like Paul, we maintain inquiring on behalf of our loved 1s. Another affair that I notice is that merely God can give us what we truly need. If we are Christians at all, the Holy Spirit lives within us, but we must pray that the Holy Spirit will allow us the wisdom we need to understand the things of God. Education entirely will neer run into our deepest demands. For most of us, we have knowledge coming out our orbs. We have discourses and Cadmiums and Christian wireless and books galore and conferences and notebooks crammed with information. If cognition entirely would do us holy, we would wholly be honorary apostles. But the thing we need is for the Holy Spirit to make what merely the Spirit can do-gives us wisdom and disclosure to do the truth come alive in our Black Marias. This petition itself-to know God better. That s simple and clear, is nt it? I heard of a adult male who has endured a really hard test in the last several old ages. He said how his ordeal has changed his position of what it means to cognize God. There are different degrees of cognizing God, he said. There is the degree of experience. All of us who know the Lord have some experiences with him that we can utilize to assist others. Then there is the degree of cognition. This comes from traveling to church, listening to discourses, reading the Bible, reading good books, traveling to a Christian college or to a seminary. Most people consider knowledge a higher degree of the religious life. This is a degree I tried to work from, but it did non look equal, he said. But there is another degree, which he called the degree of wisdom. This degree comes merely by supplication. He offers this really helpful penetration about a Level 3 relationship with God: We begin to see things through God s eyes and less through our eyes. Peace merely comes from this degree. It is non mensurable, interpretable, nor apprehensible. Degrees 1 and 2 are non requirements. I see prayer raising the nonreader to great degrees of peace and wisdom where certain PhDs in faith may experience empty. Our supplications become less gim me and more help me see what you want me to larn through this-to deepen my relationship with you. The thing that strikes me as I read those words is that God invites us to seek his face. He wants us to cognize him better. It s non as if our Heavenly Father is concealing himself from us. But we can merely hold a close relationship with him if we will seek it in supplication. That s the load of Paul s prayer-for a Level 3 relationship with God that does nt depend on cognition or experience but comes through wisdom as we seek the Lord. Any of us can hold that kind of relationship with God if we want it, and if we are willing to pay the monetary value to hold it. Jane So, the petition is to cognize Him better. What s the MEANS by which that can go on? Derek The MEANS Jane, is The Eyes of Your Heart Flooded With Light . I pray besides that the eyes of your bosom may be enlightened. This is the bosom of the supplication. It is besides the lone clip the phrase the eyes of your bosom appears in the New Testament. That means that this is a important truth that demands our attending. The bosom has eyes. Did you know that? When Paul speaks of your bosom, he s non mentioning to the organ in your thorax that pumps blood throughout your organic structure. The term bosom refers to what we might name the existent you, the topographic point inside where the determinations of life are made. The bosom is the topographic point where you decide what values you will populate by and what way you will travel and how you will populate your life each twenty-four hours. Every of import determination you make is made by your bosom. And your bosom has eyes that can be opened or shut. When the eyes of your bosom are closed to the visible radiation of God, you stumble blindly through life, doing one dense pick after another. You fall into iniquitous forms, you break God s Laws, you end up driving into the ditch, you make the same errors over and over once more, and you enter one dead-end relationship after another. Why? Because the eyes of your bosom are shut and you ca nt hold moral vision. The visible radiation of God is shut out of your life. And that means you can see and be blind at the same clip. That is, you can hold 20/20 vision with your physical eyes but the eyes of your bosom can be blind to the visible radiation of God. There are tonss of people like that in the universe. Physically they can see but spiritually they are wholly unsighted. I think a batch of Christians live like that. They know God but their eyes are so filled with the things of the universe that they are unsighted to the truth. Let me exemplify. Here we have a Christian immature adult male who has been raised in a Christian place. He s been traveling to church for years- kids s ministry, and the young person group. Now he goes off to university and at last he s on his ain. He meets a miss and they become an point. Soon they are kiping together. When his parents hear about it, they are ferocious and disquieted and disquieted and they wonder what to make. They argue and plead and cajole and threaten and quote Scripture, all to no help. What is the job? It is exactly this: The eyes of the bosom are shut to the truth of God. And until those eyes are opened, all the shouting in the universe wo nt do much difference. But at this point we encounter a most liberating truth from our text. Paul prayed for the Ephesians that the eyes of your bosom might be opened. One interlingual rendition says, that the eyes of your bosom might be flooded with visible radiation. Opening unsighted eyes is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. He and he entirely can make it. But he can make it, and this is the beginning of our hope. This is why we pray for our kids and grandchildren and for our household members and for friends and loved 1s who today are far from God. As our kids turn older, we discover over and over once more how small control we have over them. We can non oblige their obeisance because we can non oblige their Black Marias. But we can pray and shout out to God and state, O Lord, open the eyes of their bosom. Help them to see the visible radiation of truth. Jane When Eugene Peterson translated the last portion of this chapter for The Message, he included this alone sentence: At the Centre of all this, Christ regulations the church. The church, you see, is non peripheral to the universe ; the universe is peripheral to the church. Derek There are two radically different ways of looking at things. Either the universe is at the Centre and Christ is at the fringe or Jesus is at the Centre of life and the universe is away at the borders. So many Christians have bought into the impression that this universe is all that affairs. They ve pushed Christ to the fringe of life. But when Christ comes to the Centre, the universe is seen for what it truly is-something on the borders. A adult male I know of was fighting with this really issue. What helped him was this analogy. Populating for Christ is like a football game. You re either on the bench or you re in the game. Your job is, you re sitting on the bench drop the balling off when you ought to be in the game functioning the Lord. Bench heaters sit about, goof off, laugh, cut up, and trade gags while the game is traveling on. If you of all time make up ones mind to acquire in the game, you wo nt hold clip to make the things you do now. If our immature people sleep around, or if they get drunk on the weekends, if they cheat and cut corners, if they are rebellious and unmotivated, those things are merely symptoms of a deeper, more cardinal issue. They ve neer made a personal committedness to acquire serious about Jesus Christ. They re sitting on the bench when they ought to be in the game. And I tell you this with entire certainty, one time you get into the game, one time Christ becomes the Centre of life, no 1 will hold to state you non to kip around, and no 1 will hold to state you, Do nt acquire imbibe on the weekends. You merely wo nt make it. Once the eyes of your bosom are opened, the visible radiation of God s truth will come implosion therapy in and you ll neer look at anything the same off once more. Sometimes we worry excessively much about the symptoms without covering with the root issues of life. We should pray, Open the eyes of their bosom, Lord, because when that happens, life will radically alter. They get in the game for the Lord. They ll travel to the powwow and state, You call the drama, Lord. I m ready to make whatever you say. Jane And allow s check-out the RESULT of this sort of praying. Derek As Paul prays, he has three things specifically in head that will ensue from the eyes of their bosom being opened. First, they will cognize aˆÂ ¦ All That God Has Given. The hope to which he has called you. This looks back to the minute of their transition. Verses 3 to 14 list some elements of that hope: Blessed with every religious approval, Chosen in Christ, Predestined to be adopted as boies, Recipients of his grace, Redeemed through his blood, Forgiveness of wickednesss, Wisdom and apprehension, God s program made known to us, Chosen and predestined, Included in Christ, Sealed by the Holy Spirit, Given the earnest of the Spirit. All this is ours. It is the lasting ownership of every kid of God. We are rich and blessed beyond all step. Paul prays that we might understand how rich we already are. Jane And the 2nd consequence! Derek Second. . . All That God Has Promised. The wealths of his glorious heritage in the saints. This looks in front to the terminal of clip when we will see the Lord face to face and have all that he has promised us. It is beyond our capacity to depict the glorification of that minute. Eye has non seen nor ear heard what God has prepared for those who love him. Sometimes we wonder what Eden will be like. I think it will be everything we dreamed of and nil like we imagined. Traveling to heaven is non so much traveling to a topographic point as it is traveling to a individual. If I ve been on a trip, off talking for several hebdomads, I may state to person, I ca nt wait to acquire place once more. But I m non speaking about the actual bricks and the actual rug. It s non as if when I come in, I say, Hello, curtains, I m glad to see you once more. Hello, sofa, I missed sitting in those chairs. You d believe something was incorrect if I talked like that. No, place is cherished to me because of the people I love who live at that place. When I say, I ca nt wait to travel place, I mean that I ca nt wait to see my married woman Pauline once more. It s the same thing with Eden. The glorification of Eden is non the streets of gold or the Gatess of the pearl or even the River of Life or the angels of God. The glorification of Eden is Jesus. Heaven is wherever Jesus is, and when we eventually acquire to where Jesus is, we will be home for all infinity. Jane And other consequences are? . . Derek All That God Has Provided. His uncomparably great power for us who believe. There are four different Greek words for power here. He uses the word from which we get dynamite, the word from which we get the English word energy. He uses a word that means muscular strength and another that means brave power. God s power is sufficient for all we need. Often we are gripped by fright, insufficiency, insecurity, and a feeling that we are powerless to alter things. The good intelligence is, God s power is wrapped up in a individual, Jesus Christ. This is the power that exploded in Jesus when he rose from the dead. If you know him, you have the greatest power beginning in the universe life within you. When I was a Church Pastor I would see with people who were deceasing of malignant neoplastic disease. They looked so frail. It was clear to me that they were down to their last few yearss. Speaking was hard. I would keep their manus and reference the great promises of God about heaven. I told them that I was nt an expert on decease but I know person who is. I told them I know person who had died and come back from the dead. His name is Jesus. He holds the keys of decease and Hades in his manus. Fear non appears 365 times in the Bible, which means there is a Fear non for every twenty-four hours of the twelvemonth. When the minute comes, do nt be afraid. Just name out the name Jesus and he will come for you. I do nt cognize about decease by personal experience, but I know who stands at the door to do certain we make it safely through to the other side. Jane Psalm 23, Though I walk through the vale of the shadow of decease, I will fear no immorality, for You are with me. Derek Why should we worry? Why should we fear? Why should we doubt? Why should nt we travel out vocalizing? Our God has given us all we need. Oh, that we might cognize the hope of our naming, the wealths of our heritage, and the astonishing power of God. It s all ours and it s all wrapped up in one Person, Jesus Christ. Oh, that we might cognize him better. Oh, that our eyes might be opened to see things clearly. Oh, that we might love him and function him and do him the Centre of life. What a brilliant encouragement this transition is. Pray, pray, and maintain on praying. Pray for each other. Husbands, pray for your married womans, and married womans for your hubbies. Pray for the group you teach. Pray for the new Christians you are assisting. Pray that they will be turned on by the truth of God. There are so many ways we might use this message. Here is a good usher to praying for our kids. How long should we pray for them? And what should we pray for them? The reply is, neer halt praying for your kids. Paul said, I keep on inquiring. We can ever cognize God better than we do. And when you pray, ask the Lord to open the eyes of their bosom to allow the light come implosion therapy in. Furthermore, we should pray this for ourselves. O Lord, assist me to cognize you better. Open my eyes, Lord. Let the light come implosion therapy into my bosom. Help me to cognize all that you have given, all that you have promised, and all that you have provided for me. What if you do nt cognize Jesus at all? Reach out and take him by religion. He loves you and he died for you. Receive the gift of ageless life through Christ. Open your bosom. Crown him as Saviour and Lord of your life today. Derek We ever appreciate your phone calls, electronic mails and letters. Word Alive is a hearer supported wireless programme and we offer free transcripts of the messages. We ll direct them to an electronic mail reference. There are besides CD s available. Jane I ll give our contact inside informations in merely a minute. But in these few minutes that we have left here s Dr Stringer to sum up a few cardinal points about supplication. Derek! Derek It is easier to speak about supplication than to really pray. I ve learned a batch about supplication and about our ain attitude towards it. I ve come to understand that supplication is a religious life line. Equally necessary as external respiration is to maintain us alive, so supplication is the activity that keeps us spiritually alive. I besides learned that for many of us it is hard to pray. We come armed with inquiries: Is God interested in my supplications? iˆ Why is it that frequently when we do pass quiet clip in supplication we feel guilty because it feels like we re non making something? iˆ Why ca nt we concentrate in supplication because we are so easy distracted? iˆ Why do we so easy give up praying? Two things are clear here. First, in order to hold religious life, we must develop a form of supplication that is every bit consistent as external respiration. Second, supplication will alter us! We have a good God who loves us beyond what we can conceive of: Taste and see that the Lord is good. We need to take the enterprise and disengage from our busy lives and from our oppugning to come before Him. Because God is a good God and because He loves us so much, the truth is: He ever answers our supplications. He besides answers the supplications instantly. It may non be the reply that we re looking for but there is ever an reply. It may be the squeezing of a Father s manus in ours, the quiet comfort of a Father s voice, the reassurance of a Father s presence. We can ever number on God s response. True supplication is non imploring or wheedling a loath God. True supplication is believing. Prayer is thanking alternatively of kicking, swearing alternatively of seeking, joying, accepting, allowing, having that is prayer. In the pattern of supplication God enters our universe, our ideas, our concerns, our heads, and our Black Marias. If the Father is so eager to give to us and already knows what we need why bother praying? The reply is that the intent of supplication is clearly to convey us into an apprehension of the Father s bosom ; it brings us, non ever to the topographic point of an reply, but to the topographic point where a direct reply is unneeded, to an apprehension of the programme and the intent of the Father. We must get down to understand that supplication is portion of normal Christian life and that true life with the Father is impossible without it. Prayer is difficult, it gnaws into our agenda, and it can be every bit much a beginning of defeat as satisfaction. Basically, supplication is simple. It is loving communicating with God. All we need for supplication is an unfastened bosom. But this does nt intend there are nt prayer Sessionss that drag, times when our lips are expressing graceful words while our heads are murmuring gawky ideas. Struggle is the true intelligence about supplication. With all of this said, supplication is sometimes still hard for us. But I want to pray. If supplication was every bit natural as take a breathing to Jesus, and He is our theoretical account, so supplication demands to be portion of my religious exercising every bit good. So where do we get down? First of all: Merely make it! With the hesitation words that we can pull off to acquire out, we merely get down speaking and listening to God. It becomes a bosom to bosom connexion. Second: There is a subject to prayer and we need to utilize this subject to see our universe through God s eyes. This means appreciating every small thing and in our gratitude acknowledging it as supplication. This will hold a ripple consequence on our lives. Third: Use Bible as a agency to pass on. Find a Bible that you like and read it after which you might take some clip to chew over on it and let God to talk as the Spirit moans within you. In this manner let God to touch your bosom and your spirit. Derek Many thanks to our Producer Phil Critchley and of class to Jane Moxon for her aid. Good-bye for now and God bless you.