IS PRAYER PROFITABLE?


A. "WHAT IS THE ALMIGHTY, THAT WE SHOULD SERVE HIM? AND WHAT PROFIT SHOULD WE HAVE, IF WE PRAY UNTO HIM? - Job 21:15
  1. Questions are raised for several reasons:
    1. To attract attention.
    2. To cause one to consider.
    3. And questions seek answers.
  2. Two important questions are a part of our text:
    1. "What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?"
    2. "And what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?"
B. WE ARE LIVING IN AN AGE OF THE PROFIT SYSTEM
  1. Our very life is geared to the profit system:
    1. The value of the dollar dictates our ability to be frugal and enjoy prosperity.
    2. Wages and the profit system go hand in hand today.
  2. Is prayer profitable?
    1. They who raised this question to begin with, as indicated in our text, say, "no, prayer does not profit him that exercises in it."
    2. They have that attitude because they are totally ignorant of the blessings of prayer.
  3. I can think of seven specific blessings by which men of prayer profit:
    1. Prayer connects them with the very Source of all life.
    2. Says the Psalmist, "For with thee is the fountain of life" - Ps. 36:9
    3. "For in him we live, and move, and have our being" - Acts 17:28
    4. Prayer changes things, as nothing else can: It saved Peter from drowning - Matt. 14:30, 31; it brought eyesight to the blind man - Mark 10:46-48; it brought back a boy from the dead - 2 Ki. 4:35; it gave the thief on the cross the hope of eternal life - Luke 23:42-44
    5. It brought the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples - Acts 2
    6. God has promised to answer prayer - Jer. 33:3
    7. It has been proven over and over to be profitable.
C. WHY PRAY?
  1. Because God wants us to pray:
    1. "And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that man ought always to pray, and not faint." - Luke 18:1
    2. "Pray without ceasing" - 1 Thess. 5:17
    3. "Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." - Phil. 4:6
    4. "I exhort therefore, that first of all supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men." - 1 Tim. 2:1
  2. Because prayer is the best way out of all our troubles, the best cure for all our worries and anxious cares:
    1. Who has not experienced the blessing of prayer when a load of burdens fell off from the one engaged in earnest prayer - 1 Pet. 5:7
    2. "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." - Matt. 11:28
  3. Because answered prayers are the irrefutable argument for Bible Christianity:
    1. "One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see" - John 9:25
    2. That was Elijah's great argument that brought Israel back to God - 1 Ki. 18:36-39
    3. That convinced Pharaoh that the God of the Israelites was the true God.
  4. Because prayer is the reasonable thing to do:
    1. It is a sin not to pray.
    2. They who partake of food without saying grace sin against God - Job 9:14; 15:4; 21:14
    3. Think of what God says about the prayerless - Ps. 53:4; Isa. 64:7
    4. I would not know how to live without prayer.
    5. Those who neglect prayer sin against God and against themselves - Jer. 10:25


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