Prayer

This Weeks Notes

A relationship with God has multiple ingredients, but none are more critical than prayer.

Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. Colossians 4:2 NLT

Are you hurting? Pray. Do you feel great? Praise. Are you sick? Call the church leaders together to pray and anoint you with oil in the name of the Master. Believing-prayer will heal you, and Jesus will put you on your feet. And if you've sinned, you'll be forgiven, healed inside and out. Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with. James 5:13-16 MSG

Prayer literally unlocks a whole new level of possibilities…

I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth. 1 Timothy 2:1-3 NLT

We’re meant to mix our thoughts with His thoughts until His thoughts become our thoughts and our thoughts become action.

Prayer isn’t just or even so much about asking, it’s about abiding.

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
John 15:7 ESV

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalms 37:4 ESV

You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. James 4:3 ESV

If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you’ll want what I want you to want, and I’ll give you what you want, because I wanted you to want it…

Prayer isn’t how we go about changing God’s mind, but rather our giving Him the space to change ours.

Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one. Matthew 6:9-13 NLT

Jesus is the master of the emergent or unmet need…

One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up… Luke 18:1-6 NLT

And as for the outsiders who now follow me, working for me, loving my name, and wanting to be my servants. All who keep Sabbath and don't defile it, holding fast to my covenant. I’ll bring them to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. They'll be welcome to worship the same as insiders, to bring burnt offerings and sacrifices to my altar. Oh yes, my house of worship will be known as a house of prayer for all people. Isaiah 56:6-7 MSG

“His is the power; ours is the prayer. Without Him, we cannot. Without us, He will not.”
Jack Hayford

“Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” John 11:40-44 ESV

As for me, I look to the Lord for help. I wait confidently for God to save me, and my God will certainly hear me. Do not gloat over me, my enemies! For though I fall, I will rise again. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light. Micah 7:7 NLT