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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Purpose of Prayer? | Bible general Archive 2 | tgc | 121441 | ||
HI Hank, I belivethe answere to your question can be found in Matthew 6:9-13. As you most likely know this is what is referred to as the Lord's Prayer. I belive there are all the principles and purposes of prayer revealed here. Fist of all we acknowledge who we are praying to andthe fact we only want His will not nessacarily our own. Next we look foward to His coming while asking to make difference for Him in our world today. So first we worship. Next we bring our request and acknowlege our dependency on Him. Then we ask for forgiveness and the strengh to forgive. Next divine protection Then we acknowledge from where our Hope comes and the Majasty of God and HIs kingdom. Also we see in the Psalms that David basically carried on conversations with God so should we rememebering that prayer is a two way conversation not just us bombarding God. But the bottom line to all of this is that it is the way we build our relationship with God. If we do not have communication with someone how can there be any relationship. For example if I neber carry on a conversation with my son how will I know him and he know me. Prayers main purposes are to build a relationship between us and God and to teach us to trust Him. Your Friend in Christ tgc |
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2 | Purpose of Prayer? | Bible general Archive 2 | BradK | 121475 | ||
tgs, I'll enter into the topic here with a section from Oswald Chambers, "If Ye Ask". I think it defines very well the purpose of prayer. "Prayer alters CIRCUMSTANCES through me It is only when a man flounders beyond any grip of himself and cannot understand things that he really prays. It is not part of the natural life of a man to pray. By “natural” I mean the ordinary, sensible, healthy, worldly-minded life. We hear it said that a man will suffer in his life if he does not pray; I question it. Prayer is an interruption to personal ambition, and no man who is busy has time to pray. What will suffer is the life of God in him, which is nourished not by food but by prayer. If we look on prayer as a means of developing ourselves, there is nothing in it at all, nor do we find that idea of prayer in the Bible. Prayer is other than meditation; it is that which develops the life of God in us. When a man is born from above (rv mg), the life of the Son of God begins in him, and he can either starve that life or nourish it. Prayer is the way the life of God is nourished. Our Lord nourished the life of God in Him by prayer; He was continually in contact with His Father. We generally look upon prayer as a means of getting things for ourselves, whereas the Bible idea of prayer is that God’s holiness and God’s purpose and God’s wise order may be brought about, irrespective of who comes or who goes. Our ordinary views of prayer are not found in the New Testament. It is not so true that “Prayer changes things” as that prayer changes me, and then I change things; consequently we must not ask God to do what He has created us to do. For instance, Jesus Christ is not a social reformer; He came to alter us first, and if there is any social reform to be done on earth, we must do it. God has so constituted things that prayer on the basis of Redemption alters the way a man looks at things. Prayer is not a question of altering things externally, but of working wonders in a man’s disposition. When you pray, things remain the same, but you begin to be different. The same thing when a man falls in love, his circumstances and conditions are the same, but he has a sovereign preference in his heart for another person which transfigures everything. If we have been born from above (rv mg) and Christ is formed in us, instantly we begin to see things differently—“If any man is in Christ, there is a new creation“ (rv mg). The good of praying is that it gets us to know God and enables God to perform His order through us, no matter what His permissive will may be. A man is never what he is in spite of his circumstances, but because of them. Circumstances, as Reader Harris* once said, are like feather beds—very comfortable to he on top of, but immensely smothering if they get on top of you. Jesus Christ, by the Spirit of God, always keeps us on top of our circumstances." Speaking the Truth in Love, BradK |
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3 | Purpose of Prayer? | Bible general Archive 2 | bstudent | 121560 | ||
"Consequently we must not ask God to do what He has created us to do." This is the tricky part. We may be tempted to rationalize actions that may violate God's will if we are not truly in tune with it. "Vengeance is mine, I will repay," for example. Unfortunately, many have found ways around simple truths such as: "Those who live by the sword will perish by it"; "The weapons of our warfare are not fleshly"; "You must love your enemy." Faith follows the things heard, thus true faith will wait upon God's Kingdom to ultimately make hallow the Father's name and cause his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. It will cause us to honor his sovereignty by honoring the governmental authorities through obedience as long as they do not ask us to violate what is holy. As we communicate with God through prayer and he communicates with us through his word and congregation, we make sure that our requests will be granted as they are according to his will. He will help us endure the injustices and atrocities of this world until the Kingdom brings to nothing all enemies of God. (1 Cor 15:24-28) That's worth praying, working and waiting for! Sincerely. |
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