The Senior Pastor of The Church of Divine Guidance has declared 2017 as the year of Prayer at CDG. The Sunday morning Adult Bible Study starting the year with a a study using the book "Prayer Begins With Relationship", by Cynthia Hyle Bezek, a study in the Breakthrough Prayer: Studies for Small Groups series. These are the notes for this study. The audio recording of each session is included in the notes.
If you surveyed books on prayer in a Christian bookstore, you'd find varied and often conflicting advice. Some authorities insist that successful prayer is scheduled; others favor impromptu prayer. One writer says fasting should accompany prayer, but another tells us to pray in any circumstance. Still another says that prayer is best done when alone, though someone else urges us to join with others. Some claim that prayer requires careful preparation and thought, while a conflicting authority says prayer should flow spontaneously from our hearts.
Wisdom is needed as much for prayer as for any other area of human living. The Proverbs give us wisdom for our prayer life. Prayer is a relationship. It is interacting between you and God. It’s a dynamic conversation between two individuals who love care for and enjoy one another.
Which of the following do your prayers most closely resemble?
a. A wish made when throwing a coin in a fountain.
b. A shrewdly crafted proposition to your spouse when you're unsure if he or she'll agree.
c. A distant hope a child experiences when daydreaming of something he or she wants to have.
d. Some candid advice offered to a boss who needs to make certain changes for everyone's benefit.
e. A desperate plea made in the face of imminent disaster.
Proverbs 15:8 (NLT)8 The LORD detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but he delights in the prayers of the upright.
Proverbs 15:29 (NLT)29 The LORD is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayers of the righteous.
What is the focus of these two verses?
The focus is righteousness. The both say that the Lord hears and delights in the prayers of the righteous and upright.
In both proverbs, it is the upright whose prayers delight God so that he hears them; conversely, it is the wicked whose prayer is so detestable that God distances himself.
Matthew 6:5-8 (NLT)5 “When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get.6 But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.7 “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again.8 Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!
Then He gave them a model for the way we should pray.
Why is this factor sufficient by itself to account for whether God hears our prayers or not?
What determines whether God hears our prayers or not is how much we are like Him and His character or our righteousness.
Like any parent, God's concern for our children's character is greater than his interest in granting our requests. Like any boss, he primarily desires faithfulness in an employee's work before granting private requests. Like any kind of leader, he willingly hears requests made by genuine followers whose loyalty is constant and sure.
1 John 3:22 (NLT)22 And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him.
How do we become righteous?
Clearly, upright cannot mean sinless.
Proverbs 28:13 (NLT)13 People who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy.
The essential difference between the upright and the wicked lies in what they do with the sin in their lives. The wicked conceal it, evidently so that they may persist in it. The upright, on the other hand, acknowledge their sin and renounce it.
An example of the two attitudes between wicked and the upright is here;
Luke 18:9-14 (NLT)9 Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else:10 “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector.11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else. For I don’t cheat, I don’t sin, and I don’t commit adultery. I’m certainly not like that tax collector!12 I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’14 I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
The New Testament reveals by faith in Jesus Christ, we are accounted to be fully righteous.
Romans 4:1-8 (NLT)1 Abraham was, humanly speaking, the founder of our Jewish nation. What did he discover about being made right with God?2 If his good deeds had made him acceptable to God, he would have had something to boast about. But that was not God’s way.3 For the Scriptures tell us, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.”4 When people work, their wages are not a gift, but something they have earned.5 But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners.6 David also spoke of this when he described the happiness of those who are declared righteous without working for it:7 “Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sins are put out of sight.8 Yes, what joy for those whose record the LORD has cleared of sin.”
Romans 3:21-26 (NLT)21 But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago.22 We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.24 Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past,26 for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he declares sinners to be right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.
Proverbs 16:3 (NLT)3 Commit your actions to the LORD, and your plans will succeed.
What does it mean to commit something to the Lord? What part do you think prayer plays in committing whatever you do to the Lord?
Prayer is the chief way we commit what we do to the Lord. We ask for understanding as we consult God's Word concerning his purposes, plans and values. To know these is paramount if our plans are to succeed. We ask him to lead us to information or to wise men and women who can advise us. Finally, we ask him to do those things we cannot do so our plans will succeed.
Committing our actions to the Lord is not a blank check if we are not in God’s will for us. For example I can pray and say if you answer I commit that I will do so and so for your kingdom. If that’s not God’s will for me and it’s what I want to do no even the good and righteous ones. If our plans conflict with something he's determined to do, they will fail. That would be like trying to 1do mMy will under God's power: Symptoms: frustration, superstition, anxiety— God won't be manipulated this way, even though many try–including a high percentage of Christians!
Proverbs 20:25 (NLT)25 Don’t trap yourself by making a rash promise to God and only later counting the cost.
That’s like praying “ "If you do thus and so, God, I'll do this and that."
In what situations might we be tempted to make a vow rashly?
When we are in a financial tight, or sick.
Why do rash vows become a trap?
Such vows are a trap in the same way that any hastily conceived plan is a trap—knowledge and wisdom which we do not have and circumstances which we cannot control can easily render us incapable of doing our part.
Luke 14:25-30 (NLT)25 A large crowd was following Jesus. He turned around and said to them,26 “If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple.27 And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.28 “But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it?29 Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money, and then everyone would laugh at you.30 They would say, ‘There’s the person who started that building and couldn’t afford to finish it!’
In giving this parable Jesus is cautioning against making rash decisions or promises. He suggests to careful, detailed, rational thinking in which you consider all aspects of what you’re getting into before you make the commitment. Such careful thinking is opposed to an impulsive decision made in a moment of intense emotion, without much thought about the consequences.
Proverbs 28:9 (NLT)9 God detests the prayers of a person who ignores the law.
If we want God to hear us, we must hear him. The law in Proverbs 28:9 means teaching, guidance, instruction, and includes not only Mosaic books but all other prophetic and wisdom teaching in the Scriptures. before bringing our requests to God on a matter, we should first know what God has already declared on the subject, and so avoid asking things contrary to his will.
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