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This Week’s Devotional Topic
PRAY THIS WAY
When it comes to PRAYER, it is certain that the word of Jesus Christ would be the most meaningful, the most accurate and the best criteria for communicating with God, His Father.
Before Jesus shares a specific example of prayer with the disciples, he describes how and what to pray for. Listen to these instructions:
Matthew 5:44 “…pray for those that persecute you. Don’t pray in a manner that draws attention to yourself.
Matthew 6:6,7 and in Matthew 14:23, Jesus Himself went away to pray privately as in the personal presence of God and it doesn’t take a lot of words to get your message across.
Jesus’ prayer found in Matthew 6 and Luke 11 is often referred to as “the Lord’s prayer”.
Matthew 6:9-13 “…Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”
We see that Jesus understood the importance of physically getting away from distractions…
Luke 5:15,16 But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.
And Jesus prayed fervently in the Garden of Gethsemane and in Luke 22 we hear him tell the disciples to pray that they may not enter into temptation.
Matthew 9:38 tells us that we should prayer earnestly to the Lord that He would send laborers into His harvest.
In Matthew 19:13 Jesus laid hands on the children and prayed for them
One of the most well known prayers of Jesus found in scripture is talking to His Father about you and I. Listen to him speaking as a High Priest would approach the throne of God on behalf of His people…
John 17:1-26 These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. …… And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.
We should pray for each other that we would be filled with knowledge of God’s will, as we read in…
Colossians 1:9,10 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
James 5:13-18 Describes the prayer of faith…
Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.
Luke 18:1 One day Jesus told His disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up.
I Thessalonians 5:17 Pray without ceasing
Brothers and sisters, please listen to these words of instruction and examples. God help us to pray this way.
This week’s Scripture:
Matthew 5:44; 6:6,7,9-13; 9:38; 14:23; 19:13; Luke 5:15,16; 18:1; John 17:1-26; Colossians 1:9,10; James 5:13-18 and I Thessalonians 5:17
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