~ Introduction ~Prayer .. .. .. is simply .. .. .. talking to God!! It is a two-way conversation, communication is the goal of prayer, and God is waiting for you to talk to Him. There are over 650 prayers that are recorded in the sixty-six books of the Bible. There are prayers of penitence, praise, petition, protection, and provision. The longest prayer is Jesus' prayer which is the whole 17th chapter of the gospel of John. Peter's desperate plea is the shortest in Matthew 14:30, 'Lord save me". Men and women are praying to God having real life situations that they come to the Lord. The first prayer is a conversation that God had in the garden of Eden Genesis 3:8-9. The last recorded prayer is John on the isle of Patmos, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus" Revelation 22:20. Whatever our need is there is a prayer for us. Crying out to God to rejoicing in Him. The battlefield in our Christian life is fought in prayer, clothe yourself in the armor of God that Paul talked about in Ephesians 6:11-17. We can get dressed for the battle, but most people have no idea how to put it on and fight in God's power not ours. Then vs 18 reminds us to pray always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. Prayer is our battlefield where the struggles of life are won, the blessings are celebrated. We have to know where life is met. Did you know that out of all of the thing that the disciples could have asked they only asked Jesus to teach them to pray. They were with Jesus almost three years during His ministry and the one they they knew was that prayer was the secret of His life on earth. They wanted to know that surrender into prayer too. Jesus rose before daylight and prayed; he prayed before each significant undertaking. When His life became busier, what did Jesus do? He prayed even more to God. In Luke 11:1 we see that His disciples wanted Him to teach them how to pray with power too.
We will journey through the pages of this book, learning from Jesus "How to Pray" We will find patterns of prayers that will be strong for us as we call out His name. We will find a code word, a word that will remind us to the truth of the chapter and you will want to write it down and keep it in your mind during the day. Now we will begin the journey to learning forty Scriptures that every believer should learn to pray.
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Hope that you will have a good New Year and come back and study with us.
~ A Prayer for a New Beginning ~Psalm 51:1-12 1 Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before. me. 4 Against You, You only, have I sinned and done this evil in Your sight— That You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge. Behold, 5 I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. 6 Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. 7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 Make me hear joy and gladness, That the bones You have broken may rejoice. 9 Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. When you think of how King David had so many failures one of which is his adulterous affair with Bathsheba. How then could he be a spiritual giant and writing the God honoring Psalms? Then you read his repentance in Psalm 51. You see what his heart was truly like even in the midst of the sins that he allowed in his life. In that scripture he has opened his heart and laid it before God, he was sick of his sin and wanted God to heal the spirit which was tarnished and sinful. David learned how to deal with it and put it away. Psalm 51 is the kind of prayer that leads us to confess and ask forgiveness. A heart with true repentance. Repentance is not just remorse for the things we have done, being sorry for our sins is not enough to find forgiveness and repentance. The rich youn ruler left sorrowful and did not repent. Luke 18:18-23 18 Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 19 So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. 20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’ ” 19 So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. 20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’ ” 22 So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” 23 But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich. It is also not the regret, Pilate regretted being part of the ruler that sent Jesus to the cross, he washed his hands of it, but there is no word of him repenting from that regret. Matthew 27:24 24 When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it.” It is also not to reform or becoming a different person for it. Judas reformed, he took the silver back to the priests and yet he did not repent. He hung himself because of the regret without having repentance. Matthew 26:14-16 14 Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests 15 and said, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?” And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver. 16 So from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him. Matthew 27:3-5 3 Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, 4 saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” And they said, “What is that to us? You see to it!” 5 Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed and went and hanged himself. When you have true repentance of your sins, you will change your mind, which changes your will, which then changes your actions. You become a new person in Christ. Let go of the sin in your life and hold onto God. This Psalm has been a comfort to believers that if King David found forgiveness and became a man after God's own heart. then we can also find a new beginning with God too. We need to take these three important steps: Assume Personal Responsibility, Seek Reconciliation, and Embrace the restoration process. Acts 13:22 22 And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave their testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will. ~ Assume Personal Responsibility ~When we look at Psalm 51 and the first six verses David is taking personal responsibility. Those who refuse to take personal responsibility cannot find a new beginning for their lives. You have to claim your failures and not fault others. In these verses David begs for mercy, he knew that it was his faults that caused him to sin, that he did not even deserve God's grace and forgiveness. He took owner ship with the words "My transgressions .. my sin .. my iniquity." His sins that were always before him, did walk with him. He had Bathsheba each day which had to remind him that he had Uriah killed so that he could have his wife. Joab, was there reminding him of the evil he did. Everyone in the castle knew and it was always there in front of him. He also did not justify himself for the things that he did wrong, he laid it all bare before God. He pleaded for forgiveness and we can find our return to God, but we have to take personal responsibilities for the sins which we have committed. ~ Seek Reconciliation ~Then David also knew he needed private reconciliation with God Himself. David again pleaded with God to cleanse his life. David asked for God to create him a new heart. The word he uses also explains the ability of God that can make something new out of nothing. We are not able to do this for ourselves no matter how hard we try. It is private between us and God. When we have true repentance in our hearts, and we come to God to accept His love. The response of our loving God with the true repentance in our hearts is reconciliation. David longed to be in communication with God again after his sins broke that relationship they had. ~ Embrace the Restoration Process ~There is a process from personal recognition and private reconciliation which then brings us to public restoration. When David was pardoned and free from the guilt and sin he started to pray for others again. He promised to teach people and convert sinners. He broke out in Praises to God because he could not hold in the joy of being in God's forgiveness. Our lives can see a valuable lesson, the things that we try to cover over and hide, God uncovers and wants us to fix it and not sin anymore. These things will be revealed for all to see. We now know that every thing we uncover and confess, then God covers that ove and it is gone. We will have a new heart and a new beginning. ~ Code Word: Bedcovers ~When you crawl in bed and pull up the covers over you think that if you try to hide your sin then God will uncover it for the world to see, but if you uncover it and ask for forgiveness then He will cover it in forgiveness and you can let go for always. ~ Can You Memorize |
HaniniyaI am Haniniya and I am from Bethlehem, Judea, Israel and I love the Lord and walk in His Word. I want to share His Word with You each day. Past Studies!!
July 2024
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