July 28 2013 Psalm 85 Colossians 2:6 -15 Luke 11: 1-13
Last week we
listen to and discussed the story of Mary and Martha. We may have learned that
being faithful to God involves more than doing things out of love - that an authentic doing of the word arises
out of hearing the word. I believe
that was what Jesus was trying to say to Martha, that Mary has chosen something
better than just doing first. First we
need to hear the word then we put it into action. Many have a difficultly taking time out to attend
a gathering where the word is shared. Many never really hear the word for themselves and often take in only someone else's perspective of the word and accept that prespective as gospel.
Jesus reminded
Martha when she became anxious and upset that simply listening to him and
talking with him is a good thing to do first - an important thing, a necessary
thing - and that perhaps a simple meal with good conversation might be better
than a fancy meal with anger and or being upset. We too need to be reminded that God’s
provision is daily, not all at once. We
cannot store up on provision and then disconnect or stop communications with God. Therefore
Folks, we dare not be self-satisfied.
May I suggest if you feel you are running low on strength to face life
and its challenges, ask yourself this question?
“How long have I been away from the source”? Your relationship to God is moment by moment,
not day by day or week by week as many of us unknowingly try to make it. If you have been overcome with life’s
circumstances, anger, frustration, sickness or unforgiveness be it a family or personal issue, stop;
take a time out and communicated with God in prayer. Prayer will lower your blood pressure, ease, balance and calm your soul. Something is always happening when we pray, even if we do not feel it or see God's handy work at the moment. Jesus teaches us how to get into lineament with God's amazing grace, so we can access the awareness of manifested prayer even is it is a no to a specific plea, don't give up hope because something good is always happening somewhere.
"JESUS TEACHES US HOW TO PRAY"
Today's gospel
reading continues by showing Jesus a few days later - at prayer. When he is finished praying, one of his
disciples says to him: "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his
disciples to pray." Jesus gives
them and us a formula to begin our prayers.
Some years ago somebody developed this little reminder of how to pray. It was coined, Praying
the ACTS. The letter A stands for Adoration, C for Confession, T for Thanksgiving, and the S is for Supplication. This
formula comes to us out of the common prayer Jesus taught, we heard its
beginnings this passage this morning.
Our Father in Heaven, hollowed be thy name. Prayer should start with Adoration: You can use words such as: Oh Great and
Merciful God, creator of all that I am and will ever be, In
other words let your heart speak words of praise to your God, lift up His
holy presence. The words are not as
important as your honest enthusiasm for a loving and merciful God, for the
great things that he has done. Does a
hymn come to mind here? "Oh Come to the
Father great things He has Done." Look
up expressions of Adoration in the Psalms there are lots of expressions in the
poetry and music found there. Make notes
of things you read. How many here Journal? If you keep a record of your personal pleas, I promise you, later on you will see the good and how your prayer was answered.
Next we have CONFESSION: Then Jesus says, acknowledge your sin, using
these words “And forgive our sins as we
also forgive everyone who is indebted to us”. This moment of confession is the corner stone
of all prayer. If I have not forgiven
those who trespassed against me, no matter who, what or why, how then can I
pray asking God to do for me that which I have not done for others? In other words we break the great commandment
which instructs us to do for our neighbour as we have done for ourselves.
Jesus has already
sealed my forgiveness with his act of unconditional love. All I have to do is accept it. If that were not so his love and forgiveness
would have conditions. Let me illustrate this act of forgiveness
using a metaphor. Jesus from the cross, offers
to take our cloak of sins, which by the way would include acts of hate, rage,
murder, jealously, greed, selfishness etc.
He takes these sins unto himself
and in exchange, offers us his cloak of righteousness. This
can only be done with the attribute of God’s unconditional love and
forgiveness. If we accept his cloak,
that is how He will present us to God.
Not in our sinfulness, but in his righteousness. We are no longer held in bondage by our dirty
old rag of sinfulness, but we are awash in His love and forgiveness, dressed in
the garment of his righteousness. Understanding this act of grace, we can go
into the next phase of prayer with thanksgiving in our heart.
THANKSGIVING: Here is where you get to say thank you God for all that you have
done for me, for food,shelter, work, family, friends, life whatever comes into
your thankful heart and mind. {let us keep in mind here for many in our world who pray food, shelter, work, life, etc. may be meager compared to yours, but the thanksgiving is the same.} Say it
from the heart with honest enthusiasm letting Him know how appreciative you
really are for whatever you have. It delights God to hear your
words of gratitude, thanks and praise and all the Saints of heaven cheer you
on. The last stage of the ACTS prayer
is supplication.
SUPPLICATION: Supplication is the final component, and this means praying not only for your
needs but also for the needs of others. Pray
for your friends, family, your pastor, missionaries, government leaders, and
persecuted persons around the world. Don't forget to include you as
we are all in need. You may want to pray
for such things as God's guidance, wisdom, and opportunities to serve, you may
ask for anything in my name Jesus tells us and something will happen.
Unfortunately
there are many who still think of God as a kind of santa clause figure, where
you give him your wish list and he fills it.
Here, generally the first three stages of entering into pray are
missed. Often we go right to the asking
stage, without taking the proper time to tune in. I have often used the metaphor of a musical
instrument to illustrate this point. If
I don’t take time to check the tuning of my instrument before I begin to play,
I will make noise, not music, and no one will make any sense of what I am
attempting. Same with prayer, if we don’t take time to
tune in for prayer, our prayer will be nothing more than a noisy gong. Everything in the Universe has an alignment process,
where things must be aligned as they should.
I believe that Jesus is telling us a formula for alignment here,
something we can follow when we want to communicate with God.
I would like to
debunk 5 of the most common reason why people say they just cannot pray.
1. Those
who feel not good enough to approach God.
Don’t you know that none or us are good enough, and it is probably the
best reason why we need to pray. On our
own we will never be good enough, we all need God by our side.
2. God
has more important things than me to take care for. If you believe you are a part of His
creation and that He knew you before you entered the womb He is your real
Mother, your real Father and your God. Nothing in this world is more important to Him
than His child. No matter how old you
are, or what you have or have not done, you are his child. 3. I
should not ask or pray for myself, it selfish, I should pray for others. If I have never prayed for own deliverance, healing,
or peace of mind so I can experienced his hand of mercy on me, how can I assure
others that prayer works?
4. I
prayed, once should be enough. The
scriptures debunk this theory by telling us over and over again to pray without
ceasing. One gesture of gratitude is not
enough to fill the cup for ever, one thank you is not sufficient. As you drink the good drink you will need to
refill the cup moment by moment, day by day.
5. I
don’t know what to ask for, I am afraid that I will ask for the wrong thing. Prayer is not meant for asking, prayer is
meant as a means to communicating with God.
Speak openly with your God show Him worship and praise, tell Him your
sin and accept His forgiveness, then shower Him with gratitude and speak of
your needs for yourself and for others.
Do it as many times a day as you feel the need. He
will help you rise us up out of your circumstances and will supply you with
your true needs for living spiritually. Isn’t
God GREAT!!! Take a time out to pray.
No comments:
Post a Comment