Contents
1.
God Acts
2.
Peace
3.
Revelation
4.
Discipline
5.
Fellowship
Perhaps
it is almost too obvious, but when we pray things happen. Awareness
of what happens can be a strong motivating force to pray. Let's now
consider what happens when we pray.
1.
God Acts
We have already seen that when we pray
in line with God's will it opens the way for the Lord to move and act.
It is perhaps one of the great mysteries of the Christian faith, this
link between prayer and God moving.
1.1
When God acts
- often
we have to wait to see an answer
- we
therefore need to persevere
- see
Eph 1:17 I keep asking
- we
therefore have to battle against giving up
- see
Jesus' instruction in Lk 18:1
- persistence
is therefore needed
- see
Mt 7:7 the tense is “ask and go on asking”
1.2
God Unlimited
- God
can and does act even when people don't pray
- but
God wants us to be seen as co-workers with Him
- the
truth is that when we pray, WE are changed as well
2.
Peace
Phil 4:6,7 clearly indicates than when we pray and commit everything
to the Lord, peace takes hold of our hearts. We need to examine the
process:
2.2
With Thanksgiving
3.
Revelation
3.1
Revelation
In Eph 1:18,19 Paul prayed for understanding for them in specific
ways. Often it is as we pray that such understanding comes.
It is as we come into the awareness of the presence of God in prayer,
that the Spirit brings us new insight, knowledge or understanding. This
insight etc. may be:
- an
awareness of the Lord himself
- an
awareness of our own sin or failure
- an
understanding of a situation : clarity, balance or totally new concept
of it
- an
assurance that the Lord has heard and answered
3.2
Response
Such
revelation, in turn, produces a response in us:
- of
worship, adoration, a drawing close in intimacy
- of
confession
- of
further prayer and petition
- of
thanks and praise
4.
Discipline
4.1.
The Need
As we have already seen in Lk 18:1on, Jesus encourages
us to keep going in prayer. In other words it is not always an easy
wonderful flow from the Spirit. It frequently seems to be something
that needs working at and persevering with. In other words, we often
need that self-discipline that Paul spoke about to Timothy (2 Tim 1:7)
4.2
The Means
When
we pray we need to learn to:
- seek
the awareness of the presence of God
- push
wandering thoughts from our minds.
To
achieve this it will involve
- making
a conscious resolve to seek God by
-
a calling on God for help
- a
conscious effort to put aside wandering thoughts
- a
structure or decision as to what to pray about
4.3
The Process
Like the athlete, the early days require time, effort, strategy
and endurance to keep going. In some ways it is like learning to drive
a car. To start with the act of driving the car is made up of a number
of self conscious separate actions but eventually it becomes a natural
flow.
4.4
The Consequence
The result or consequence of this is that eventually the act
of praying becomes something that we can do without a major effort.
In other words, we develop to become a disciplined person whose life
of prayer becomes more than a casual few words to God. We begin to flow
into what suits us best, not a formula, but a joyful flow of relationship
with Father.
5.
Fellowship
Many Christians find praying alone
to be quite difficult and therefore praying with another or others is
often quite helpful. We will cover this more fully on the next Part
but for now we will simply note that prayer can bring us into deep fellowship
with other Christians. Christians who can pray together find the Lord
drawing them into a new level of unity through the fellowship they experience.
To conclude this Part find
one other person and thank the Lord together for the variety of things
that happen when we pray and for the wonder of this thing called prayer.
If
you want to ask anything further about these things, contact Tony Thomas:
tony.thomas@rochfordcc.co.uk
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