The Duty and Privilege of Prayer
(Lessons edited by Matthew L. Vance)
Theme: Though it seems elementary to
most Christians, prayer is a vital exercise for every true believer.
Scripture Reading for the Lesson: Matthew 26:36-41, 6:5-8
26:36 Then cometh Jesus with them un to a place called Gethsemane and
saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go
and pray yonder.
37 And he took with him Peter and the two
sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.
38 The saith he unto unto them, My
soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tary ye here, and watch with
me.
39 And he went a little farther, and fell
on his face and prayed, saying, O my Father,
if it be possible, let this cup from me: nevertheless not as I will, but
as thou wilt.
40 And he cometh unto the disciples,and findeth
them asleep, and saideth unto Peter, What,
could ye not watch with me one hour?
41 Watch and pray, that ye enter not into
temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
6:5 And when
thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are for they love to
pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners sof the streets, that
they may seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
6 But thou, when
thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door,
pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret
shall reward thee openly.
7 But when ye
pray, use not vain repetitions , as the heathen do, for they think that
they shall be heard for their much speaking.
8 Be not ye therefore
like unto them; for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before
ye ask him.
Introduction
Prayer is a characteristic of every true Christian.
Prayer has always been a characteristic of the true people of God and every
great man of faith has also been a great man of prayer. Though pray is
a necessary duty, we must also remember that prayer is a marvrelous
privilege. God wants us to pray! God expects us to pray! God hears
us when we pray! Oh, the glory of this privilege to have access to God
the Father. Prayer is the believer's line of communication to God.
God does not rely on mind-reading to hear from us, he wants to hear us
pray with our lips and voice. He desires to hear our petitions and requests.
He also desires to hear praise, adoration, and thanksgiving. Let us take
advantage of this great privilage.
Exposition of the Lesson
1. The Personal Altar
From the earliest days of the human race, men have met
with God at an altar. The altar was the single most important place in
the lives of ancient men and women. Whenever they went they built altars
to the Lord God. It is not less important for us today. We must regularly
"build" an altar to the Lord God of heaven. The "Christian" life that
knows no prayer is not a genuine Christian life at all. That may sound
but it is still true.
The Bible is filled with the subject of prayer and
today we will look at some of the instructions for prayer as well as some
of the intructions to pray.
A. Instructions for Prayer
1) Secret. It is importand that each of us
have a personal altar that know secret prayer. By secret we getting alone
with God. Jesus instructed his disciples in Matthew 6 not to pray as the
hypocrites did. They deliberately prayed where others would see and hear
them. In their case, it was not devotion to God that caused their prayer,
but the desire to be seen of men. They fed their pride by letting everyone
know that they prayed. Jesus told us to "enter
into thy closet,"- which
speaks of having a private place in which to pray. It indicates that we
are to take specific action for the purpose of praying. I know that you
can pray while you drive or while you wash the dishes but this does not
constitute the "secret" prayer that Jesus talks about. Some of us fail
right here at this first point: we do not have a place or time for
prayer. Jesus also taught us this lesson by his example. He consistently
went alone to be alone in prayer.
The next phrase in
the verse says, "and when thou hast shut
thy door." This further emphasizes the
point that we are to practice private, undisturbed, undistracted prayer.
It is not always easy to do, but we must make an effort to plan a time
of prayer and shut the door. That phone call can wait. If it is really
important they will call back later. That activity can wait just
a while. That job or task can wait a few minutes. This time alone with
God is vital. Enter into the closet, shut door and PRAY.
2) Spiritual Prayer
must be more than just thinking words with the mind and saying them with
the mouth. It is a spiritual exercise. Jeusu said in John 4:24, "God
is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in
truth." Our prayer must transcend
beyond the human realm and become the cry of of our spirit. The spirit
of man is often the "heart" of man in the Bible. This refers not to the
physical organ but to the inner spiritual man within us. We must pray from
our spirits and not just from our physical beings. Jude 20 speaks of "praying
in the Holy Ghost." This is often taken to mean that we should pray in
tongues and I feel certain that is true. However, I feel that praying in
the Holy Ghost may also mean "praying in the anointing of the Holy Ghost."
The Holy Ghost will anoint us to pray. (Note from the Webmaster: It has
been a long time since I felt this kind of anointing and I beg your prayers
I will get this back.) Sometimes we will be anointed to pray in a
heavenly language, sometimes we will be anointed when we pray in English.
In either case our prayer needs to be spiritual.
3) Fervant. James 5:16
states that "the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth
much." Fervant means "hot" or "earnest." We must admit that much of prayer
is not fervent, it is mediocre at best. If we went about our jobs like
we pray, we would probably be fired. Why should a Christian have a hard
time being earnest in prayer. If you've taken the time to pray, why waste
the time sleeping or daydreaming. That certainly would not be considered
fervent prayer, would it? Are you even thinking about what you are saying?
Are you just saying words? Are you in a rut and repeating the same phrases
without even thinking about it? Jesus said in Matthew 6 that we are not
to us "vain repetitions."
Evidently the Pharisees had certain prayers that they always prayed. They
said the same words in the same way just for the purpose of saying something.
Jesus told us that empty phrases are of no value in prayer. Prayer must
come from a sincere heart and must be earnest. James said about Elijah,
"Elijah prayed earnestly."
4) Habitual There will
probably be some who object to the use of this word. To some, something
that is habitual is something you do with thinking and to them habitual
prayer would be what we just warned against in the previous point. My point
is this: prayer must not be practiced haphazardly or just occassionally.
We are to pray regularly and consistently every day. In this sense we should
have a habit of prayer. God gave instruction that the fire was to be ever
burning on the altar, it was never to go out. (Lev. 6:13) We read in in
1 Thessalonians 5:17 that we are to "Pray without ceasing."
5) Humility We recently
discussed the need for humility in prayer while studying the parable of
the Pharisee and Publican which is in Luke 18. Pride and arrogance has
no place in prayer. We come to God not our own merit, but only by the merit
of Jesus Christ.
6) Unhurried In Matthew
26 we read where Jesus took Peter, James, and John with him to pray in
the Garden of Gethsemane. He asked them to pray with him and then went
away alone to pray. When he returned he found them sleeping. He then asked
a question which strikes us all to the heart yet today, "What
could you not watch with me one hour?"
Hear the surprise in his voice? It is incredible to Jesus
that his disciples could not pray for one hour..
You can't help but wonder how many of his disciples today pray for one
hour each day, or even one hour at any one time. The biggest concern is
not that we punch a time clock and spend a set amount of time in prayer;
the main concern is that we pray regularly and pray unhurriedly.
He who rushes into God's presence,
hurries through a few petitions, then runs back to the outside interests,
has not stayed long enough to lose the impression of the outside world
or to the gain the impress of that inside . Is. 40:31 - "They that
wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength..." Psalm 27:14
- "Wait on the Lord; be of good courage and he shall strenthen thy
heart; wait I say on the Lord."
Yes, we are to talk to God,
but we should also give him time to talk to us.
B. Incentives for Prayer
An incentive is a motivating
reason. There are numerous motivating reasons for us to pray. Some of them
might be called rewards for prayer.
1) God Desires that we
Pray. Can there be a greated incentive to pray than the fact that our
God wants us to pray? More than any other reason, we should pray because
God wants us to pray. He instructed us to pray. He expects us to pray.
2) It's God's Way of Meeting
Our Needs. God made the rules, did He not? Jesus plainly instructed
that we must ASK in order to receive. In oour text, Matthew 6:8 tells us
that God knows our needs before we even ask. So, is God knows our needs,
why doesn't he just take care of them? Jesus says in Matthew 7:7 "Ask
and it shall be given you..." James 4:2
says "you have not because ye ask not." Yes, we should pray because that
is how we receive from God.
3) It is our Source of
Power. Even Jesus prayed that he might have power. Houw much more should
we pray that we might have spiritual power? We are told that some evil
forces can only be overcome by prayer and fasting. We are told to "watch
and pray that ye enter not into temptation." As we commune with God, he
gives us power over Sin, Satan and the world.
4) It Brings Victory. The
reason that many believers are constantly discouraged and defeated is that
they do not pray. James said that if we would submit ourselves to God,
we could resist the devil and he would have to flee. Prayer is part of
that submission to God. In Ephesians 6, we are told to put on the armor
of God that we would be able to stand against the devil and his power.
Verse 16 is sometimes overlooked in discussing the armor of God, but it
is a vital part: "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the
Spirit..." Prayer is a necessarity for us to have victory.
5) Prayer Reveals Sin.
You might say "Hold on; that doesn't sound like an incentive to pray."
Oh yes, it certaintly is. We can become quite worldy when do not pray.
We take on attitudes, associations, actions and even fashions that we should
not when we are not praying. As we pray, God's Spirit works in us and revels
to us areas where we need to take action. A life without prayer will deteriorate
in sin. Read Psalm 139:23,24 and make it your prayer.
6) Prayer Prevents Sin.
Prayer will build up the spiritual man and keep him from yielding to
temptation. "Building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in
the Holy Ghost." (Jude 20)
7) Prayer Changes Things.
Through prayer, we are changed, others are changed and even circumstances
are changed.
11. The Public Altar
"My house shall be called
the house of prayer." (Mt. 21:13) Why
have an altar in the church house? There are some who would be upset if
they came to church next week and saw that the altars had been removed,
yet they haven't used them for a long time. Praying at your pew is not
enough; use the altar. It is the place of sacrifice and dedication. Our
churches should be filled with a volume of prayer.
11. The Family Altar
Joshua's declaration should be ours. As for me and
my house, we will serve the the Lord.. God loves families and will
bless the family altar. Take time to pray as a family.
Illustrations
D. L. Moody said once that a man ought to be able to "preach, pray or die
at a moment's notice." One one the great characteristics of Daniel was
his habit of prayer (Daniel 6:10) Develop a habit of prayer.
Lesson Next Week: Winning Souls for Christ
