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LEARNING TO PRAY

(Mark 9: 33-37; Matthew 7: 7-11—Preacher: Ps Paw Liang)

What is prayer to you and how is your prayer life? Some people learnt to pray through hard way—when they come to the end of their rope. They ask or beg God to perfect miracles. Sometimes God answers and we say prayer changes things. Sometimes God won’t just answer as what we ask, instead He uses prayers to change us. So don’t keep up a life of prayer unless we prepare to change.
Pray with a Humble Heart: 
First we need to come with a right heart, right attitude. Mark 9, Jesus reminds us to be like a child. The disciples are disputing who is the greatest. Jesus points them to a child to teach them a lesson of humility. Like a little child who admires and trust their Father. We need to have this sense of awe and reverence to God, our Father. We depend on Him and are in need of His mercy! We shouldn’t come with a demanding spirit. Instead, we need to be aware of all these wild ambitions and motives (our flaws and sinful nature). Such a disposition will help us to see our need of God’s mercy. And Jesus also reminds us, “Blessed are those who are poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of God. Without such a humility, we will not make room for God in our live and prayer is useless if we approach God with a haughty and demanding spirit.

Pray with a Submissive Trust: 
One of the purposes of prayer is to bring our heart to trust in God’s wisdom, not in our own. Mat 7:11 “though you are evil, know how to give good gift to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give goods gifts to those who ask him!” Our knowledge of God will help. We know He is mighty, loving, and good. God knows all things and will only give what will be good for us, may be not in the instant moment but for our life. God cares not only for our immediate needs that He has the whole picture in mind.  

Prayer with authority: 
We need to come to God with confidence and hope. Matthew 7: 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. In this prayer, we call upon the will of the Father upon the earth. We are not so much speaking to God, but speaking for God. Jesus often used this prayer to calm the storm, ‘Quiet, be still!’ (Mar 4:39), to heal the lepers, the lepers and in Mar 9 to command the impure spirit to leave the boy. In Luke 9, Jesus delegated this prayer of commands to his disciples to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal. (Luke 9:1-2). We often do not have confident to pray with authority. Yet for some churches this is the most abused and misused prayers. In the great commission, Jesus also send us with His authority (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:5,8, John 20:21-23). We need discernment so that we know how to pray with confidence. Discernment is a gift from God to see what’s actually going on and to know what needs to be done in the given situation. We are able to understand the spirit of people.

Praying is receiving His grace: 
Nothing can make our prayers worthy to be heard. And no method can qualify us for access to God. We can only RECEIVE. Only GRACE can do—through the saving work of Christ; that’s why we pray ‘in Jesus’ name.’ It’s not a formula for prayer, but a confession of faith that we consciously trusting in Christ for our salvation and acceptance by the Father.

Prayer with humility helps us to see God’s mercy and greatness. With confidence and hope help us to be aware of His presence that God will hear  and answer our prayers. With discernment we call upon His will to happen yet we’re always mindful that only by His grace, our prayers are worthy to be heard. Only by His grace we have access to the Father through Jesus Christ.

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