Teleios Research, along with other authors, has shown
Christian belief actually can improve personal wellbeing! Therefore, we are
examining the Christian life in more detail to see how to uncover some of the
potential underlying causes of the improved wellbeing. In the last few weeks we
have covered salvation, eternal security and accepting God’s Word as truth.
We are now discussing the practice of Christianity
based on Acts 2:42 and 47. These fascinating verses describe the activities
involved in the Christian walk within the early church. They are repeated
throughout the Epistles. I call them the
‘5 tools to maturity’. These activities
most easily can be summarized as: praise, prayer, fellowship, outreach and
Bible study.
Last week we discussed praise. Today’s tool for consideration
is prayer. We do indeed have a great God who to whom we are privileged to pray.
How do we pray? Here are the basic concepts:
Access - As a forgiven
Christian God views us as sinless which allows us the privilege of direct,
unimpeded access to Him so we can pray. We can come before God with courage (Hebrews10:20-23)! The only limitation is ourselves from lack of obedience, guilt or
fear, that would limit or damage the content of our prayers (1 Peter 3:7).
Attitude in prayer
Faith - James tells us not to doubt when we pray and
we can accomplish much (James 1:6-7, 5:16).
Glorify Christ - We are to pray in such a
way that is consistent with the goals of Christ as established in the
Bible (John 14:13-14).
Continual - Our prayers are to be persistent and frequent
(Romans 12:12, 1 Thessalonians 5:17).
Everywhere - Pray in all places (1 Timothy 2:8).
Attitude adjustment - Allow prayer
itself to correct our attitudes and requests (1 Timothy 4:5).
Unhindered by sin - 1 Peter 3:7
Sober and watchful - 1 Peter 4:7
According to the Spirit - Our prayer should
be consistent with God’s revealed Word (i.e., scripture) which the Holy Spirit
uses to provide us power (Ephesians 6:17, Jude 1:20).
Content of Prayer
Thankfulness - We should express gratitude
for what God has done in in our and other people's lives (Philemon 1:4)
Praise - We should acknowledge God’s holy character and
actions
Note: The first
two aspects of the content of our prayer adds to the proper attitude of prayer
mentioned above but are also important content.
Our requests - We may petition God with anything that worries
us or concerns us. We should remember that we are praying to the great God of
the universe in our attitude as mentioned above (Philippians 4:6-7, 1 Peter4:12).
· Specific requests - They should be consistent
with God’s desires and example prayers (John 14:13-14, Ephesians 1:15-19,
3:15-18; Colossians 1:9-14).
· Request prayer from others - It is not a
numbers game but allow others to share in God’s answers to your prayers by
asking them to pray for you (Colossians 4:3).
What about confession of our sins? This is a
controversial point. We are free to confess but it is not necessary for the
following reasons:
The Epistles do not instruct us to confess our sins to God.
We are already forgiven.
The common injunction in the Epistles for our attitude
with respect to sin is simply to obey. It is the Holy Spirit who helps us obey
and defeat our sins. Therefore, our prayers can be more forward-looking,
service-oriented and filled with praise and thankfulness.
Thank you for joining me today. Come back next
week and we'll discuss fellowship, the third of the 5 tools to maturity.
WC Stewart
Response policy - The purpose of the comment section is to promote discussion that
is encouraging, propels the further search of Scripture and raises interesting
and thought provoking Biblically related questions. You may feel free to
disagree with me in a constructive manner using appropriate language. I reserve
the right to remove your comments if they are profane, pornographic, libelous
or I do not consider them constructive or consistent with the policy
stated above. By posting you no longer own your comments and you are granting
me an unrestricted worldwide license to use your comments.
Copyright © 2016 Teleios, Inc. All rights
reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment