Prayer: A Necessity and Privilege
Minister: | Rev. Ronald Van Overloop |
Date: | 11/29/2009 AM |
Text: | Ezekiel 36:37; Lord's Day 45 |
Psalters: | 172, 109, 185, 10 |
- The necessity.
- The Christian prays because prayer is conversation and communion of a regenerated soul with the covenant God.
- It is praise; it is intercession; it is gratitude.
- It is the new heavenly life reaching out for its source.
- It is verbal response of God’s wife (and children) to the speech of their Husband and Father.
- We pray because it is the primary way to thank God.
- We must tell Him as well as show Him our gratitude.
- Let us be more conscious of our need to thank and praise Him than we are of our needs.
- We pray because it is the means by which God gives His grace and Spirit.
- God has determined that the way to receive grace is via our asking sincerely, continually, and thankfully.
- This request for His grace and Spirit is for our sake, not God’s, nor because He is dependent on our praying.
- God has decreed to give blessings in the way of our asking, and our prayers are a part of His decree.
- And prayer is necessary as a means of consecration (cf. I Tim. 4:5).
- How we pray is determined by the One to Whom we pray.
- Remember that prayer is an holy art.
- Prayer must be sincere (not a formality, nor a seeking of the praise of men).
- We must pray to God as He has revealed Himself and to pray as instructed in God’s Word.
- Pray with humility and contrition (no self-righteousness or pride - Pharisee & publican, Luke 18:9-14).
- The only ground for your prayers is the merit and worthiness of Jesus Christ, the only Mediator.
- Pray for all things necessary for our souls and for our bodies.
- First, this means that we are to ask for all the things God has commanded us to ask of Him.
- We must not ask for anything we want, but we may ask “according to His will” (I John 5:14).
- We learn His will from Scripture, specifically from our Lord’s Prayer.
- Spiritual needs must be primary.
- Also we may and must pray for the our physical needs for the bodies God has given us.