Prayer - Meet Me

Today, we begin a series on prayer. The purpose of this series is to understand that prayer is simply talking to our heavenly Father. The Scriptural focus of our study will be Matthew 6:5-15, where Jesus provided prayer instruction for believers. This prayer is intended to be a model for believers to follow, not simply a prayer to be recited. 

 

Prayer is simply having a conversation with God. 

 

The motive of prayer is the issue of one’s heart (Matt 6:5)

Prayer is to be a personal conversation and not a way to impress others (Matt 6:6)

Prayer is not measured by the length or power of words (Matt 6:7)

God knows what we need. He desires to communicate with us (Matt 6:8)

 

Prayer is communication with God that involves both speaking and listening.

 

Part of effective prayer involves listening to God. 1 Samuel 3:10 is one example of how God initiates the conversation.

 

1 Samuel 3:10

And the LORD came and stood, calling as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant hears.”

When the infinite God wants us to understand how he acts, he describes himself to us in human terms [anthropomorphism—ascribing human characteristics to God.] He knows that’s the only way we can understand who he is and how he acts.

Notice that God “came” to Samuel. Religion is about man’s attempts to get to God, but God is the One who always comes to us. The Father came to speak to Samuel. Jesus came to make the way to God. The Holy Spirit came to live within us. God comes to us today in our confusion, doubt, anger, hurt, or disappointment. God desires to have conversations with us.

The “Lord came and stood.” God waited for Samuel, and so he waits for us. God so desires to have conversations with us.

“Calling us at other times….” God is patient and persistent. God comes calling because he so desires to have conversations with us.

“Samuel, Samuel.” God calls us by name.

 

Isaiah 43:1

But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.

 

One of the best explanations of prayer comes from a 17th century Frenchmen named--Francois Fenelon (August 6, 1651 – January 7, 1715).

 

Tell God all that is in your heart, as one unloads one’s heart, its pleasures and its pains, to a dear friend. Tell Him your troubles, that He may comfort you; tell Him your joys, that He may sober them; tell Him your longings, the He may purify them; tell Him your dislikes, that He may help you conquer them, talk to Him of your temptations, that He may shield you from them; lay bare your indifference to good, your depraved tastes for evil, your instability. Tell Him how self-love makes you unjust to others, how vanity tempts you to be insincere, how pride disguises you to yourself and others.

If you pour out all your weaknesses, needs, and troubles there will be no lack of what to say. You will never exhaust the subject. It is continually being renewed. People who have no secrets from each other never want for subjects of conversation. They do not weigh their words, for there is nothing to be held back; neither do they seek for something to say. They talk out of the abundance of the heart, without consideration they say what they think. Blessed are they who attain to such familiar, unreserved, conversation with God.

 

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