Biblical Prayer: The Practice of Prayer

The Purpose of Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer as an Inspired Pattern

Biblical prayer. This is part 15 on this topic and we've titled this one the practice of prayer. Just a little introduction and review because it's been, this is the 15th session so I figured it could be important to go back and remember what we started with.

So we remember, if you remember we started with the examination of the purpose of prayer, then we looked at false teaching on prayer. Then we answered two very specific questions. If God is sovereign, why pray?

And then we spent some time answering the second question, does prayer really change things? Then we examined what prayer should not be. Then we spent several weeks examining prayer using the example of our Lord's teaching his disciples in Matthew 6.

Remember in that text we called it an inspired pattern for prayer. And then after some words of caution we read this, pray then in this way. And I actually like the King James Version, after this manner pray ye.

All right and then we went through all the petitions. These are the first five, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And then do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from evil. And then last week we examined the doxology, for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen. Now this week we're going to continue on the subject of prayer but from a practical perspective.

And so we're going to hopefully we'll answer this question, what does prayer look like in practice? Now we've seen that the movement in the Lord's prayer beginning with hallowing the Lord's name first, in other words we saw somewhat of a priority in those six petitions.

Then moving towards the petitions and ending with the doxology. Many Christian theologians and pastors use an acrostic to aid in the person, to aid the persons who are praying. Who knows what's coming?

What's the acrostic? Go ahead, yeah. The acrostic looks like this. A stands for adoration, C for confession, T for thanksgiving, and S for supplication. I actually like this, I like it a lot because I think it breaks down the Lord's prayer, it's modeled after the Lord's prayer, and it puts it into a very simple form that like a mnemonic or an acrostic.

So we're going to start and we're going to look at how can this help us in our prayer life. Now to read this I need glasses. All right, R .C. Sproul in his book which is titled Does Prayer Change Things, he says this, as in the pattern of the Lord's prayer, the most appropriate way to begin prayer is with adoration.

Adoration: Learning to Praise God with Words and Song

Sadly we are most often moved to prayer by our desires and needs. We go to God when we want something from him. We are in such a hurry to mention our requests and articulate our needs, which God already knows, that we omit adoration altogether or skip over it quickly in a perfunctory manner.

Any comments on that? Any ouches out there? I mean it's just so true. How often do we go to go to prayer and we jump right to Lord give me this, give me that, do this, do that, and we skip over the whole concept of adoration.

I like what Sproul says about like.

That God knows our petition, like we're in such a rush to get the words out, meanwhile God already.

Knows it. You're absolutely right. And he continues with this comment, to omit adoration is to cut the heart out of prayer. He says the prayers of the great saints, the prayer warriors of church history are marked by their fervent adoration of God.

And then he suggests two possible causes for weakness in adoration in our prayer. And I think he's on to something. The first is simply a lack of vocabulary or suitable words to express adoration. Now here's what he means by that.

It's not the norm for us to speak in words of adoration. It's just, especially in our technically oriented society, everything is logical and right down the line. And we don't, how many people even read poetry anymore?

You know, poetry is almost a lost art, all right? We know how to flatter people, but we're stuck on words to express true, real adoration to our great God. And now we actually don't even need words to flatter, we use emojis.

So we cut right through that. I found the emoji button and that's great because I don't like to text, so you send me a text. If I can do it in emoji, you're getting an emoji right back. I can tell you that right now.

Do not emoji God. Charles Wesley understood the problem of coming before God and expressing thoughts in words. And to express that, he wrote, oh, for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise.

Just pause and think about this for a moment. What is Wesley doing? He's coming to praise God in song. And as he sits down to write the song, he says, oh, if I only could speak a thousand languages, you know, then I could sing, you know, my great Redeemer's praise.

And so he really sums that up. I thought that was an excellent example. And he continues in the second verse, my gracious master and my God assist me to proclaim and the glories of your righteousness, et cetera, et cetera.

But you get the idea. Sometimes we actually do need help in expressing what we would like to express to God. The best examples of adoration expressed to God is found in the Psalms. And that's why if you're not involved in a serious study of the Psalms or reading the Psalms on a regular basis, you may find that that's one of the reasons why you have difficulty expressing praise, because the psalmists really know how to do it.

It seems the poetic form is more conducive to expressing praise and adoration than prose. The second hindrance to expressing adoration is ignorance. All right. And what he means by that is the lack of knowledge of God will certainly hinder biblical praying.

If we understand, if we just pause and focus and think about what the scripture says about who God is and then what he's done, that will certainly help in our praise and thanksgiving. All right. It is the knowledge of who God is and what he has done that will feed the fervor of your praise and adoration.

I mean, we've talked about it, but every time we get a glimpse of heaven, what are the angels doing? They're in awe. They keep responding with holy, holy, holy, because as they're right in the presence of God and they see all the marvelous things that he does.

Sproul says this, if we fill our minds with his word, our inarticulate stammers will change to accomplished patterns of meaningful praise. By immersing ourselves in the Psalms, we will not only gain insight into how the how of praise, but also enlarge our understanding of the one whom we are praising.

After all, what is the chief end of man? Chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. And one important way to glorify God is to praise him and adore him for who he is and what he has done.

There's a, it's about a seven minute audio tape. I don't know if any of you have heard it. It's called Powerful Praise. It's a pastor from a church in the South and all he does is read off the names and titles of God.

And it's, I mean, it's just exciting, you know, when you hear him do it. I'll see if I can get a copy of it and maybe I'll praise or show it or I can't show it to you. It's not video. We're so used to the visual.

I'll play it for you so you can hear it. If I can get my hands on it. R .C. Sproul said, because the whole life of the Christian, which is to be a life of obedience and service is motivated and rich when holiness and the dignity of God are etched into our minds.

These are my comments. Every time we sing that song It Is Well With My Soul, I actually stop singing as everybody else is singing, because I identify so much with the songwriter as we sing the third verse.

I want to go through this. He begins, the third verse of It Is Well With My Soul begins, he starts his, my sin. And then if you look at the text of the song, he stops and gives a brief commentary before coming back to his thought.

This is the way it goes. He says, my sin. And then here's the parenthesis. Oh, the bliss of this glorious thought. In other words, he is so moved. He can't even get the whole sentence out before without adding this parenthetical phrase.

Oh, the bliss of this glorious thought. Then he comes back to his thought. My sin, not in part, but the whole. His nail to the cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Oh, my soul.

And then, of course, that chorus, It Is Well. All right. But I mean, just the way he does it, he can't even get the whole thought out without making a comment on it. That is some fervent adoration. There's an example putting it into practice.

Confession, Contrition, and Repentance Before a Holy God

Second part is C, is confession. And this is Sproul again. He says, after expressing adoration, we must come to God with hearts of confession. We have no right to come before God at all, apart from the finished work of Christ.

We can make no claim in and of ourselves to the year of God. We have no intrinsic right to his presence. The scriptures tell us that God is too holy even to look at sin. God delights in the prayers of the righteous, but we are not very righteous in our daily lives.

Nevertheless, the God we serve invites us into his presence in spite of our sin. So confession needs to be a regular part of our prayers. In fact, confession should be a daily practice. Why? Why should confession be a daily?

That's it, because we sin on a daily basis. So we need to confess our sins. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. God commands us to confess our sins, but at the same time, he promises to forgive us.

And confession involves true repentance, not merely, and I'm sorry. True repentance reflects contrition, which is a godly remorse for offending God. And it's here that the sinner mourns his sin, not for the loss of reward or for the threat of judgment, but because he has done injury to the honor of God.

Notice, what's the title of the lesson tonight? The Practice of Prayer. And we want to be able to be praying more biblical, and here we're seeing what is necessary in order to do that. In fact, this is the context of the beatitudes.

The second beatitude says, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Who are those that mourn? That's not rhetorical. There you go. We have to go back up one beatitude. Blessed are the poor in spirit, right?

Who are the poor in spirit? Those who see their poverty in spirit, and what does that cause them to do? It causes them to mourn before God, and when you mourn before God, that drives you to your knees in confession of your sin.

There's always an order when you're given lists in scripture. There's almost always an order that makes sense in it. In other words, those who see their poverty in spirit, another way of saying it, those who see their spiritual bankruptcy before a holy God.

There's no better example of true repentance than Psalm 51. Everybody know the context of Psalm 51? That's David after he had sinned with Bathsheba and confronted by Nathan, and he comes before God, and look at how he begins.

Be gracious to me, O God, according to your loving kindness. According to the greatness of your compassion, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. You can see, you can almost feel the attitude of his heart, the attitude of contrition and repentance, and he goes on, for I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.

Against you, you only, I have sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified when you speak and blameless when you judge. There's David standing before God. He says, whatever you got, I deserve it.

Is that the way we come to God in prayer? That's true confession. I'm a sinner. My transgressions are before me. I've sinned against you, and whatever you do, I deserve it, and then later on, he prays, create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. There's a heart. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit. There's true repentance, contrition, and that's the type of confession that we need in our prayer life.

Thanksgiving, Gratitude, and Remembering God’s Benefits

The T, Thanksgiving. Again, this is Sproul. Thanksgiving must be an integral part of prayer. It should be inseparably related to our petitions of supplication. The scriptures tell us to come to God and make all our requests known with thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is an acknowledgment of God and his benefits. In Psalm 103, David says, bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, and he continues, ingratitude is a serious matter. The scriptures have much to say about it.

The failure to be grateful is the mark of both the pagan and the apostate. Ungrateful hearts. The seriousness of ingratitude is highlighted by the Apostle Paul in the book of Romans. He calls attention to two primary sins of pagans.

Look at what he says, for even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations and the foolish heart was darkened. They didn't honor him and they didn't give thanks.

Two marks of being, of how the pagans look at God. And then Jesus emphasizes the importance of giving thanks in the story about healing ten lepers. Remember in Luke 17? Ten were healed, but one returned to give thanks.

And in verse 15 of chapter 17, now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back and glorified God with a loud voice. And he fell on his face at his feet, giving thanks to him. And I love he adds, he was a Samaritan.

That was sarcastic. Jesus responded with a question that served as a chastisement after he says, and he was a Samaritan. Where's the other nine? How come ten were healed and only one returns? In light of the manifold blessings that we have been granted through Jesus Christ, how can we fail to give thanks?

Just think about it. You know, there's that old song, count your blessings, name them one by one. You know, we sing that, but you know what? That's not a bad idea, is to just name the blessings, all the things that God has given to us.

Then Sproul says this, if God never grants us another glimpse of his glory in this life, if he never grants us another request, if he never gives us another gift from the abundance of his grace, we still would be obliged to spend the rest of our lives thanking him for what he has already done.

That kind of sets it in perspective. And we come to the last of the acronym of Acts, supplication. I don't think too many of us have problems with this. This is where we kind of live in our prayer life.

Supplication, Praying in God’s Will, and Why Some Prayers Seem Unanswered

But Sproul says this, someone once said to me, with so many people starving, it might be wrong for me to pray for a rug for my living room. Yet the God who cares about the empty stomachs of the world is the same God who cares about empty living rooms.

What is important to us may also be important to our father. If we are not sure about the propriety of our request, we should tell that to God. James 1 .5 says, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

He continues, he says, the Greek phrase translated without reproach literally means without throwing it back in your face. We don't need to be afraid of the reproach of God, provided we are sincerely seeking his will in a given situation.

In other words, nothing is too big or too small to bring to God in prayer. The key then to effectual praying is praying in the will of God. God will not honor prayers to bless criminal or immoral behavior.

So if you plan on robbing a bank, don't ask God to pave the way and make it successful. That doesn't cut it.

When you buy a lottery ticket, you're not supposed to pray over it.

Let your conscience be your guide. So what does praying in the will of God look like? Hmm, it's an interesting one. What does the praying in the will of God look like? It looks like the model prayer we just did.

That's why we went through that. Why did we go through the Lord's Prayer or the model prayer? Because that's we're supposed to pray in this manner. Second, in the weeks to come, we will be looking at the prayers of godly men in Scripture as examples of how to pray.

And one last point. R .C. Sproul ends this section of his book with reasons that prayers seem to go unanswered. This comes from his many years in ministry and people come up and say, it seems like God's not answering my prayer.

And he came up with four basic reasons, and I was hoping we'd have time and we do. So we're going to close by looking at four of the reasons why it may appear that God's, and notice how I'm phrasing that, why does it may appear.

First reason, we pray in vague generalities. When all our prayers are either vague or universal in scope, it's difficult for us to experience the exhilaration that goes with clear and obvious answers to prayer.

If we ask God to bless everyone in the world or to forgive everyone in town, it's difficult to see the prayer answered in any concrete way. Having a broad scope of interest in prayer is not wrong, but if all prayer is so general, then no prayer will have specific and concrete application.

Don't be afraid to pray specifics for an individual, for a family, or for even a specific situation, and pray the outcome that you think is the godly outcome. Don't worry about God. Sometimes I think we don't want to pray specifically because we're afraid God might, we don't want to tarnish his reputation.

Don't worry about God's reputation. Pray the prayer, leave the answer up to him. Two, he says we're at war with God. If we're out of harmony with God or in open rebellion toward him, we can hardly expect him to turn a benevolent ear toward our prayers.

His ear is inclined to those who love him and seek to obey him. He turns his ear away from the wicked, thus an attitude of reverence toward God is vital to the effectiveness of our prayers. If you go through scripture, you'll find that there are certain things that God specifically says that if you're guilty of these, your prayers may be hindered.

And one of them, guys, is not treating your wives right. You mistreat your wives and your prayers will be hindered. Number three, we tend to be impatient. When I pray for patience, I tend to ask for it right now.

It's not uncommon for us to wait years, indeed decades, for our most sincere petitions to be answered. God is rarely in a hurry. On the other hand, our fidelity to God tends to depend on prompt and courteous acts by God.

If God tarries our impatience, gives way to frustration, we need to learn patience, asking God for his peace. And I think that one's self-explanatory. God will answer his prayer in his time, not in our timetable.

And number four, we have short memories. It's easy for us to forget the benefits and the gifts given by the hand of God. The saint remembers the gifts of God and doesn't require a fresh one each hour to keep his faith intact.

Questions?