Pause and Praise
Repent
ASK
Yield
The Lord’s Prayer:
Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done,
on Earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.
Amen
What do we do when we pray and ask, and it seems like we either don’t get the answer we want or even worse-we get nothing in return?
…for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
Matthew 6:8 New International Version (NIV)
Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity, he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.”
Luke 11:5-8 (NIV)
So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Luke 11:9-10 (NIV)
1 Thessalonians 5:17: “Pray continually” “Pray without ceasing”
There is no perfect equation for prayer that gets our words to God’s ears faster.
There’s no special way to fast track our prayer to the beginning of the “prayer queue.”
There’s no magic word that grabs His attention to get us an immediate “yes”.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:8-9 (NIV)
As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.
Ecclesiastes 11:5 (NIV)
“If you understand it, it is not God.” – St. Augustine
When we pray, it’s not about changing God’s mind. It’s about changing our hearts.
“The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.” – Soren Kierkegaard
When we ask God for things, we shouldn’t be trying to bend His will to ours, but actually the opposite. We should be asking for our will to be bent to align with His.
“I find the doing of the will of God… does a man so much good, that it leaves no time for anxiety…” – George Muller
How are you asking God for things in your life? Are you seeking your will or His?
Do you want His will, or yours?