Spiritual Life Disciplines Part 10 Spiritual Discipline 2

Spiritual Life & Disciplines Part 10 – Spiritual Discipline #2 – Prayer

What is prayer? • Prayer is simply talking to God • God speaks to people through His Word. People speak to God through prayer. • Prayer has many forms: • • Formal vs. Informal Praise & Thanksgiving Confession Request

Prayer is required • Jesus expects believers to pray • • • Matt. 6: 5 Matt. 6: 6 Matt. 6: 7 Matt. 6: 9 Matt. 7: 7 • The church is commanded to pray • Col. 4: 2 • 1 Thes. 5: 17

Why don’t we pray? • • Wrong priorities Lack of persistence or discipline Don’t know how We live under the delusion that we are not totally dependent on God for everything all the time

Private prayer • Private prayer requires 3 ingredients which most of us lack: • Time • Privacy • A place lacking distractions • Matt. 6: 6, 14: 23, Mark 6: 46, Luke 5: 16, 6: 12, 9: 28)

Prayer is learned • Prayer is learned by being taught to pray (Matt. 6: 9 -13) • Prayer is learned by praying • Prayer is learned by meditating on Scripture • Prayer is learned by praying with others

Prayer helps • Have a designated time and place for private prayer • Pray regularly with your family • Pray out loud or use a journal to help avoid letting your mind wander • Pray through Scripture

The problem with most prayers • “We tend to pray the same old things about the same old things” – Don Whitney • 6 areas we tend to pray about: • • • Family Future Finances School or Work Church or Ministry Current Crisis

Praying through Scripture • Psalms are designed by God to be expressed back to God • Psalms are an ideal place in Scripture to pray back to God • Both Jesus and the early church modeled praying through Scripture (Matt. 27: 46, Acts 4: 24 -26)

3 Challenges • Prayer is required: Will you pray? • Prayer is learned: Will you learn? • Prayer is answered: Will you persist?