Tuesday: Timeless Teaching
Prayer miraculously bonds finite souls with their infinite Creator. Prayer is spiritual adhesive. Bonded with the heavenly Father, believers transcend their earthly natures and sinful tendencies. This transformation separates them from the world. Should Satan successfully recast prayer into a self-centered mold, thus robbing prayer of its potential for our transformation, we could be powerfully compromised and our witness stymied.
Image © Jeff Preston from GoodSalt.com
Read Matthew 6:7-8; Matt 7:7-11; Matt 18:19-20. What do these verses teach us about prayer? The sincere believer trusts in God’s ability to honor His promises. Never has anyone lodged a request that intimidates God. His authority is unlimited, His strength unmatched. God’s people approach heaven’s portals with trust in the Lord-that He will do what is best for us, even if we can’t see it at the time. Faith is not simply trusting in what we can see; true faith is trusting God when we can’t see the outcome that we want and anticipate (see Heb. 11:1-7). No doubt, as long as you serve the Lord, as long as you walk in faith, you will have to trust in God even when you don’t see things working out as you have hoped, or even prayed, for. Even a quick reading of the Bible will show you that you will not be alone, either.
Read Matthew 6:9-15, Matt 26:39. What do these verses teach? Trust should not be confused with arrogance or insolence. Boldly approaching God’s throne involves no sense of entitlement. The believer’s demeanor is characterized by boldness and humility. In Gethsemane Christ plainly declared His preference but concluded, Not My will, but Yours.
In addition to complete surrender, the forgiving spirit is another indication of humility. We ourselves, having been forgiven so much, must do the same to others.
Are you angry with someone, finding it hard to forgive? Take it to the Lord in prayer. Pray for yourself that you will learn to forgive. Pray for that person. Over time, what do you think will happen?
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It's true that if you forgive others you'll be forgiven as well.
indeed faith is one of the ingredients of prayer. we have to believe God in His promises because faithful is He who has promised us. we have to take God at His word. As human being we are so erring and myopic that we ask for things that will not bring blessings to us. but thanks be to God that He is too wise to err and to good to withhold any good thing from them that ask Him. let us trust and believe Him. let us try to do away with presumption in our prayers. if we want our prayers to be answered, let us have the spirit of love and forgiveness. above all let us end our prayers by saying ''thy will be done'' let us cultivate that habit of humility in prayers and our father in heaven will richly bless us.
This is the difficulty we face - to deny self purposefully, and allow Gods' will to become our will. By gods' grace through the working of the Holy Spirit we can gain this victory over self
We often get the bold part right but fail on the side of humility. It's a balancing act but one that is possible. I think what helps (which the lesson does point out) is engaging in intercesssion. I find that when I carve out time to pray for others, I'm less likely to get locked into my own little world. Pleading someone else's case before God does require some level of humility. Granted, selfish motives could exist when praying for specific people. However if we make it a practice to include in our petitions the people we're less likely to pray for - like a neighbor or your boss for example - the less self-absorbed we become.
Asking, seeking, & knocking are ingredent of faith and trust in God. When we ask in sincerity He who promise is faithful. Moreover, we should surrender our will to God like Jesus did, we should also remember that forgiveness is the vehicle that will transpoted our requests to the master hearer hence we should do all things possible on our own side to forgive those whom we have said i will never forgive though its very hard but for our own good we should ask the Lord to give us the heart to forgive so that our father in heaven will forgive us.
Can God answer prayer of sinner?
If God didn't answer prayers of sinners, we would all be in deep trouble. So, yes, God answers the prayer of sinners.
But generally God doesn't answer the prayers of unrepentant sinners (See Ps 66:18), but sometimes He does:
When the Israelites wished that they had died in the wilderness, God granted their request, and they died in the wilderness.
When the mob asking to crucify Jesus asked, "Let His blood be on us and our children," it seems to me that God granted that request as well.