"Praying woman hands" by ThiênLong is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
The sermon series A Fresh Wind continues with Prayer. It is interesting that my Sunday lesson centered on obedience and prayer based on Phillippians 4:6-9 and the sermon message was on prayer as well. I promise I did not coordinate that. It was likely coordinated, but on a much higher level than I operate on. I will link to that lesson HERE but also paste the scripture from it after the sermon’s scripture. Sunday’s sermon was based on Luke 11:9-13. Let’s read that here.
9“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
10“For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened.
11“Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he?
12“Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he?
13“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”
Luke 11:9–13 (NASB95)
As promised, here is the Philippians passage from the small group lesson.
6Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
7And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.
9The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
Philippians 4:6–9 (NASB95)
The keywords in the sermon passage are “ask” and “seek.” What you look for, you will find. If you’re asking God for answers in your prayers but fail to watch for those answers, God didn’t say no we just missed what He said. Seek. But note in verse 13 of the Luke passage what Jesus tells us God will answer with, “…how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” Also, in the Philippians passage, which tells us a lot about how to ask for things from God, we are told, “…the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” In both cases, we don’t get what we asked for. We get what God sends us; the Holy Spirit and His peace. What does that mean?
It means that in the middle of the storm, the difficulties of life, we find God’s contentment. How do we find that? Using the Philippians passage as a guide when we “ask” and “seek.” We do so in a way that is humble, anxious for nothing, which means worried, and with thanksgiving.
This isn’t easy to do if you aren’t used to it. Even for those seasoned prayer warriors, sometimes things get complicated, and refocusing is required. We are human. We make mistakes and allow distractions to enter our lives. Especially in times of difficulties, we can forget to keep our eyes focused on Jesus. Peter gives us a great example of what happens when we are in the middle of a storm and forget to keep our focus on Christ.
27But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”
28Peter said to Him, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.”
29And He said, “Come!” And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus.
30But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!”
Matthew 14:27–30 (NASB95)
Note here Peter knows the man he is talking to is God-made flesh. He knows Jesus is powerful because he has seen Him do wonderous miracles. Yet he is still afraid. He took his eyes off Jesus momentarily and regarded the raging storm all around him, and he was afraid. In his moment of fear, Peter cried out to Christ. Jesus answers but pay attention to the first verse to how Jesus responds to Peter’s request.
31Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”
32When they got into the boat, the wind stopped.
Matthew 14:31–32 (NASB95)
Immediately. Right away, Jesus responded. Jesus knows Peter has doubts. Jesus knows Peter is human and makes mistakes, but He answered anyway, and as soon as they got back into the boat, the storms ceased.
In the Sunday sermon, Pastor Lee asked us questions about prayer. Have we prayed? Do we have a regular prayer practice? Are we willing to pray in a group? Would any of us be willing to pray at the altar up front?
She suggested we didn’t have to know “how to pray.” We have an example that leads into the Luke scripture, the Lord’s Prayer, which is an excellent template for prayer. But the Lord’s Prayer isn’t the only way to pray. It is probably the least used way to pray. Most of the time, prayer is simply a conversation with God. We talk, and He listens.
This weekend the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church held its annual conference in Athens, Georgia. Pastor Lee and Pastor Palmer were both in attendance. She talked about how they prayed quite a bit at the conference. She mentioned how they had the words being prayed projected onto screens in many different languages. She marveled at hearing everyone praying the same words but sounding differently. She likened it to an “Acts 2 moment.”
1When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
2And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them.
4And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.
Acts 2:1–4 (NASB95)
It is an appropriate comparison, given we are in the middle of Pentecost now. Her point was that it doesn’t matter what we pray or how. We are all united under Jesus by the Holy Spirit in our worship of God the Father. We seek to enjoin our cause with His and ask His blessings upon our lives. If our endeavors fall into His ways, and we follow His advice for our lives, He can choose to bless us. If we fail to adhere to His ways, He can choose to ignore our requests. It is for Him to decide, but His book gives us sound advice on making requests of Him. It doesn’t say He will always honor them, but we should be content with whatever His answer is. If we are obedient to His Word, Ways, and Call on our life, we can learn to be content in all things with what He sends our way. The alternative is to be worried, anxious, and afraid all the days of our life. If those are my choices, I choose peace and contentment when I can.
Because I posted the Greek word for Breath from last week, here is the Greek word for Prayer from the passages of Luke before the scripture used for Sunday’s sermon.
1It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.”
2And He said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come.
3‘Give us each day our daily bread.
4‘And forgive us our sins, For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.’ ”
5Then He said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to him at midnight and says to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves;
6for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’;
7and from inside he answers and says, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’
8“I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
9“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
10“For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened.
11“Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he?
12“Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he?
13“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”
Luke 11:1–13 (NASB95)
Greek Strong’s Number: 4336 Pray
Greek Word: προσεύχομαι
Transliteration: proseuchomai
Phonetic Pronunciation: pros-yoo’-khom-ahee
Root: from <G4314> and <G2172>
Cross Reference: TDNT - 2:807,279
Part of Speech: v
Vine’s Words: Pray, Prayer
Usage Notes:
English Words used in KJV:
pray 83
make prayer 3
pray for 1
[Total Count: 87]
from <G4314> (pros) and <G2172> (euchomai); to pray to God, i.e. supplicate, worship:- pray (× earnestly, for), make prayer.