PRAYER


A. "O THOU THAT HEAREST PRAYER, UNTO THEE SHALL ALL FLESH COME." - Ps. 65:2
  1. David had many shortcomings, so do we but he was a man of prayer:
    1. His very life seems to have been an expression of prayer.
    2. Most of his Psalms are prayers - Ps. 4:1; 17:1; Ps. 5:3; 6:9; 35:13; 39:12; 42:8; 54:2; 55:1; 61:1; 64:1; 84:8; 86:6; 102:1; 143:1
  2. He had a regular time for prayer:
    1. "My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up." - Ps. 5:3
    2. "Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice." - Ps. 55:17
  3. Daniel, too, had a set time for his prayer seasons: Dan. 6:10
B. PRAYER -- WHAT IT IS
  1. The word "prayer" comes from the Hebrew word "lachas", and the Greek word "proseuche", and signifies "a whisper, a prayer, a request, an expression of adoration":
  2. There are, as we have seen, different shades of meaning of prayer:
    1. Meditation - Ps. 19:14; 77:12
    2. Intercession - 1 Tim. 2:1
    3. Supplication - Job 8:5; Ps. 6:9; 119:172
  3. The human concept of prayer:
    1. "Prayer is the soul's sincere desire uttered or unexpressed. The motion of a hidden dire that trembles in the breast." (James Montgomery)
    2. "Prayer is the world in tune, the spirit-voice, a vocal joy, whose echo is heaven's bliss." (Moors)
    3. Prayer is the medium that connects the mind of man with that of God.
    4. Prayer is the opening of the heart to God as to a dear friend.
    5. Prayer is to the soul what breath is to the body, without either there can be no life.
    6. Prayer is the language all men have in common.
C. GOD WANTS US TO PRAY
  1. "Call on me, and I will answer thee": Jer. 33:3
    1. "O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come." - Ps. 65:2
    2. "The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles." - Ps. 34:17
  2. It is a sin not to pray:
    1. "Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? Who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the Lord." - Ps. 53:4
    2. "Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name." - Jer. 10:25
    3. "I will cut off . . . them that are turned back from the Lord; and those that have not sought the Lord, not enquired for him." - Zeph. 1:4-6
  3. The Lord Jesus uses a number of effective illustrations to show the importance of prayer:
    1. The importunate widow - Luke 18:1-8
    2. The man that came to his friend and asked for three loaves of bread - Luke 11:1-8
    3. The attitude of the father when his son asked for bread - Luke 11:11-13
  4. He gives us an example of the prayer life He lived while on earth:
    1. "And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed." - Mark 1:35
    2. "And when he had sent the multitude away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray." - Matt. 14:23
    3. "And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God." - Luke 6:12
  5. The Bible is full of statements showing that God wants us to pray:
    1. The patriarchs were men of much prayer.
    2. Their altars were markers of the prayer centers in their pilgrimage.
    3. Prophets and apostles were dedicated men of much prayer. Can we be less?


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