December 11, 2022
Dave Stephens
Text: Proverbs 3:5–6
Topic: How to get our prayers answered
Big Idea of the Message: We will trust God and pray His will be done.
The early church “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” (Acts 2:42)
Apostle Paul: “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.” (Philippians 4:6,7)
We live in a society that throws things away so easily. Everything in life is about us and what works for us.
- Prayer is not a
- WE HAVE A WRONG UNDERSTANDING OF PRAYER!
Alot of people don’t pray because they haven’t learned to trust.
Since prayer is communication within a relationship, there must be trust in the one to whom we pray. Solomon speaks about this in a letter that was written in about 700bc…
- “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5–6)
You cannot lean on your own understanding and trust God with all your heart simultaneously. For most of our life, our own understanding and trusting God are at odds.
The pairing of trusting God and not leaning on your own understanding seems to be referring to the specific choice that needs to be made when our insight points in a different direction from God’s instructions.
In order to pray effectively, there has to be trust in the way that God desires to do things. We should be praying God’s will in every situation…and trusting that He is actually working.
In fact: Half of all prayer is getting our
“Thy will be done” is one of the requests in the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus taught His disciples to pray:
- “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:9–10)
When we pray, “Thy will be done,”
We do not pray, “My will be done”; we pray, “Thy will be done.” Asking that God’s will be done is a demonstration of our trust that He knows what is best. It is a statement of submission to God’s ways and His plans. We ask for our will to be conformed to His.
Praying God’s will
- - When prayers are answered…we can thank God. And when they’re not, we aren’t disillusioned that God is our servant and must respond accordingly.
First, we must ask for wisdom.
- “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.” (James 1:5)
In asking for wisdom, we must also trust that God is gracious and willing to answer our prayers: “But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt” (James 1:6; Mark 11:24).
So, praying according to the will of God includes asking for wisdom (to know the will of God) and asking in faith (to trust the will of God).
So…look at this…the Bible tells us what we can pray for that agrees with God’s will.
1) Pray for the things for which the Bible
We are told to pray:
- • for our enemies (Matthew 5:44);
• for God to send missionaries (Luke 10:2);
• that we do not enter temptation (Matthew 26:41);
• for ministers of the Word (Colossians 4:3; 2 Thessalonians 3:1);
• for government authorities (1 Timothy 2:1-3);
• for relief from affliction (James 5:13);
• for the healing of fellow believers (James 5:16).
Where God commands prayer, we can pray with confidence that we are praying according to His will.
We also should…
2) Follow the example of
- • Paul prayed for the salvation of Israel (Romans 10:1).
• David prayed for mercy and forgiveness when he sinned (Psalm 51:1-2).
• The early church prayed for boldness to witness (Acts 4:29).
These prayers were according to the will of God, and similar prayers today can be as well. As with Paul and the early church, we should always be praying for the salvation of others. For ourselves, we should pray as David prayed, always aware of our sin and bringing it before God (repentance) before it hinders our relationship with Him and thwarts our prayers.
We also must…
3) Pray with the right
- “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” (James 4:3)
We should also pray, not so our words can be heard and seen by others as “spiritual,” but mostly in private and in secret, so that our heavenly Father will hear in private and reward us openly (Matthew 6:5-6).
We also should…
4) Pray with a
A spirit of bitterness, anger, revenge or hatred toward others will prevent our hearts from praying in total submission to God. Just as we are told not to give offerings to God while there is conflict between ourselves and another Christian (Matthew 5:23-24), in the same way God does not want the offering of our prayers until we have reconciled with our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Maybe most important: we need to…
5) Rely on the
This is a wonderful truth:
- “We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.” (Romans 8:26-27)
We have the Spirit’s help in praying. At the times of our deepest depression or sorrow, those times when we feel that we “just cannot pray,” we have the comfort of knowing that the Holy Spirit is actually praying for us! What an amazing God we have!
Additional thought: Pray in the
Jesus is the reason we can approach the throne of grace (Hebrews 10:19–22), and He is our mediator (1 Timothy 2:5).
- -A condition to prayer is that we pray in His name. He has the authority, not us. (Seven sons of Sceva)
Application Point: We will trust God and pray His will be done.
When you’re tempted to believe that prayer doesn’t work…PRAY ANYWAY!
- Praying the Will of the Father is a 100% sure way to get our prayers answered.