GOD OUR PARTNER IN PRAYER


A. "WHEN THOU SAIDEST, SEEK YE MY FACE, MY HEART SAID UNTO THEE, THY FACE, LORD, WILL I SEEK" - PSALMS 27:8
  1. The Psalmist speaks to God:
    1. As his partner in prayer
    2. He thinks of his own prayers as an instant favorable reaction to the Lord's invitation to pray
  2. Experience in the school of prayer shows:
    1. That the attitude of the Psalmist is correct
    2. That the Lord is indeed our partner in the prayer life of the child of God
B. OUR OPENING TEXT REVEALS TWO GREAT AND CLOSELY RELATED TRUTHS ABOUT THE PRAYER LIFE
  1. God is its author; "When thou saidest, seek ye My face":
    1. This Divine invitation to us to seek Him in prayer, makes God both the source and the incentive for prayer - "Oh thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come" - Ps. 65:2
    2. In Psalms 22:27 we read again, "All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord; and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship Thee" - Ps. 86:9
    3. "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not" - Jer. 33:3
    4. "And He spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not faint" - Luke 18:1
  2. Note some of the Divine reasons for inviting man to seek the Lord in prayer:
    1. Because He loves us more than our finite mind is able to comprehend, "The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn thee" - Jer. 31:3
    2. He made His love everlasting and binding in the infinite gift of His only Son John 3:16
    3. Christ is the word by which He - God - the infinite One adopted human nature - tying it to Himself for ever and ever - John 1:14; Heb. 2:14-17
  3. Jesus Christ is our assurance from God:
    1. That He wants us to pray to Him - to say, "Abba Father" - Rom. 8:15
    2. The Son of God is both our Advocate and our Medium in prayer - I Tim. 2:5; I John 2:1-3; Heb. 4:15
    3. Said Jesus, "No man cometh unto the Father but by Me" - John 14:6
C. OUR RESPONSE TO GOD'S INVITATION; "MY HEART SAID UNTO THEE, THY FACE, LORD WILL I SEEK"
  1. Here we have the great secret of the prayer life of the Psalmist:
    1. It came from his heart - "And ye shall seek me, and find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart" - Jer. 29:13
    2. The heart is the seat of our thoughts from which flow our actions and when our heart responds to the Lord's invitation to seek Him in prayer that makes it real and effective
    3. That is why the wise man suggests, "Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life" - Pr. 4:23
  2. Moreover:
    1. When our heart is in the prayer life - prayer will become a joy - a privilege - breath to our soul
    2. But that brings in a new and related thought - the heart the Psalmist refers to is not the natural heart - that heart is deceitful and desperately wicked - Jer. 17:9; it will never dictate prayer to God
    3. David speaks from a new heart; a heart of flesh - created in righteousness and full of the love of God
    4. Said he to the Lord, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me" - Ps. 51:10
  3. Thus we may test our attitude toward the prayer life:
    1. If the sin-laden heart still dictates the issues of life, we have definite evidence that it will keep us from seeking the Lord in prayer because it is filled with enmity toward God - Rom. 8:6
    2. But if it is the new heart, born of God it will respond to God's invitation as the plant leans toward the sun
    3. These are some of the implications I see in our opening text, how glorious is the truth of God


Design © John Bryant 2011