Prayer

Prayer is often the best thing you can do when you are at what seems like a “dead end”, or are feeling empty or a lack of perseverance to keep going. Praying with God can allow you to find faith that you didn’t have before, to restore things that you were thought were lost (to a reasonable – God-honoring way), and to persevere in walking with God. 

“But you, beloved, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, …” Jude 1:20 

I encourage you to consider prayer when you have reached what you thought was the end of a hope or you are feeling weak, lacking in faith. If you have complaints, .. without destroying your mind or your heart.. I encourage you to even give those to God – perhaps by writing them down, typing them in your phone, or just letting God know about them. He knows before you even speak about them.

 

 

 

Something I pray for often is to see God’s power. Because it produces hope for me. I also recognize that character produces hope: “Romans 5 – Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us”. The faith there is the faith of our salvation, but the faith I am talking about here is faith like what Elijah had the opportunity to be given: “Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.” James 5:17. 

Something Peter tells a church that he had previously preached the gospel to- shortly after mentioning reminding them of why they’re there (to live for God’s glory and will not in the flesh), how they should seek to live – not as they used to in terms of human passions, and why the gospel was preached .. as he is encouraging them to persevere in spite of them not following the culture around them in  the surrounding culture. He is encouraging them to continue to do good despite doing things differently than they used to in their flesh nature and despite not following  But after this in ch.4 he says: “The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear-minded and sober, so that you can pray.” 

Sober-mindedness is an important part of prayer! esv says :”The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers” So this s an interesting reminder to maintain what I think God intended for our prayers – to stay “sober-minded”. In other words, 

“Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, because love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). 

 

Finally, Jesus taught his disciples how to pray when they asked Him in the New Testament (Luke 11:1). We are not the disciples, but we are disciples. The Lord’s Prayer has meaning to it in which you can learn a ton about God, and that I think you can pray today: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your Kingdom Come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil”. Matthew 6:9-11

I loved seeing the slight difference between the Lord’s prayer in Matthew and in Luke. In Luke, Jesus reminds them of the sheer audacity of the servant in a story who asks a friend at midnight for something to eat for a guest. He tells his disciples, “I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence^[c] he will rise and give him whatever he needs.”. In Matthew though, before the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus reminds the disciples not to “heap up empty phrases so as to be heard,” .. because the Heavenly Father knows what you need before you ask Him.