I read a story of a man who lived alone in a little hut in a great forest. He felt it his duty to pray before meals and at bedtime. So he merely repeated some prayers he had learned as a boy.
One day he decided to keep count by putting a walnut in a glass jar every time he said a prayer. This went on year after year until there was a long row of jars completely filled. As their number increased, he became more and more self-satisfied.
Then he had a dream. Jesus stood before him and asked, "What is the meaning of all these containers filled with nuts?" The man replied, "Each nut stands for a prayer." "Take a hammer and crack the nuts one by one," said Jesus. The man did as he was told and found that the kernel of each had dried up. When he had cracked all the nuts, nothing remained but a pile of empty shells. Then Jesus said, "Your prayers too are empty. You speak the words you have been taught, but your heart is not in them. Prayers are meaningful only when they come from the heart, not just from the lips."
1. PRAY WITH A CLEAN HEART, FOR THE RIGHT REASONS
When we become a Christian it is like God installs a spiritual phone line into our heart. We can now communicate directly with God about anything and at time. But when we sin against God this line is broken. It is disconnected. We cannot talk to God until the phone bill has been paid, until we confess our sins to Him John 14:13-14.
Psalm 66:18 David says,
Psalm 66:18 |
"If I regard (or keep) sin in my heart the Lord will not hear me."
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In order for God to hear our prayers we must pray with a clean heart: we must forgive others Mark 11:25-26, we must care for and help others (Proverbs 11:23), we must not pray selfishly just to get what we want (James 4:3), we must obey God. Proverbs 28:9
says that one who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination." That means God hates the prayer of one who is disobedient. 1 Peter 3:12 says, "the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers; but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil." If you want God to hear and answer your prayers you must be honest with Him, you must come clean with Him, you must confess your sins sincerely and have a clean heart.
2. PRAY IN JESUS' NAME, ACCORDING TO HIS WILL
A second condition for prayer is found in John 14:13-14 and in 1 John 5:14 . John 14:13-14 says,
John 14:13-14 |
"And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it." |
Notice we are to pray in His name. Most people end their prayers with the phrase, "in Jesus' name Amen." Some people think that if they don't say this phrase at the end of their prayer God will not hear it. They think it is like a stamp on a letter. If you do not put a stamp on a letter it will not go.
What does it mean to pray in Jesus name? In Korea most people have a personal tojang. A tojang is a seal or a stamp. If you open up a bank account they ask you to put the imprint of your tojang on the bank book. Whenever you go back to the bank by using your tojang you can take money out of your bank book. Now if you are very busy you can give your tojang to someone you trust and ask them to take money out for you. They can take your tojang and do what you want done, in your name. But it would be wrong for them to take your tojang and steal from you, doing whatever they want.
When you pray you have Jesus's tojang in your hand. You are praying in His name. When you pray "in his name" it means you are praying "I pray this because this is what Jesus would want if He were me." It is wrong to just pray selfishly and say, God, give me this, give me that? No, in prayer I need to want what God wants. I pray, "not my will but your will be done" (Luke 11:2).
1 John 5:14 says
1 John 5:14 |
"Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us."
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The phrases "according to His will" and "in His name" mean the same thing. When I pray I should pray for the things that Jesus wants.
3. PRAY IN FAITH
A third major condition for prayer is to pray in faith. In Matthew 21:21-22
Jesus said,
Matthew
21:21-22 |
"If you have faith and do not doubt ... it will be done. And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."
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Let's talk about faith for a minute. Some people say that if we just have more faith we would be happy, healthy, wealthy and all our problems would be over. Some people think that faith means to see it in your mind and believe it strong enough. Maybe you are out of a job and are looking for a place to work so you can make money to live. They would say that you exercise your faith and visualize yourself getting a job. Close your eyes and in your mind visualize a man coming to your house with a contract for you to work for his company. Visualize on that contract a big salary. See him knocking on the door of your house and you opening it. In your mind hear him offering you the job and you accepting it. If you can only have enough faith, if you can only believe it strong enough than it will happen.
Is that true? Is that what having faith, in the Bible, means? Matthew 17:20
says that if you have faith as small as a tiny mustard seed you can do great things. The important thing is not how big your faith is. Your faith can be small. Very small. As tiny as a little mustard seed. The important thing is not how big your faith is. The important thing is what you put your faith in. Do you put faith in YOUR faith? Do you put faith in YOUR prayer? No, Mark 11:22 says, "Have faith IN GOD."
James 5:16 says
James 5:16 |
"The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails (or accomplishes) much."
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Today we have learned that to pray effectively we must (1) pray with a clean heart, for the right reasons. We must (2) pray in Jesus'name, according to His will. And we must (3) pray with faith in God. How is your prayer life?
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by Steve Nicholes
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