WHOLE-HEARTED PRAYER


A. "BLESSED ARE THEY THAT KEEP HIS TESTIMONIES, AND THAT SEEK HIM WITH THE WHOLE HEART" - PSALMS 119:2
  1. This verse contains a prayer:
    1. Against distraction which is a common thing to many professed Christians - Is. 29:13; James 1:6
    2. Against a divided heart
  2. He wanted his prayer life:
    1. To be totally focused upon the Lord
    2. Another Bible translation reads, "Suffer my heart no longer to scatter itself upon a multiplicity of objects hither and thither by a thousand different aims
    3. But turn all its powers and its aims to focus upon thee
B. WHOLE-HEARTED PRAYER
  1. The human heart receives much attention in the Bible:
    1. "Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life" - Pr. 4:23
    2. "As he thinketh in his heart, so it he" - Prov. 23:7
    3. "I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doing" -Jer. 17:10
  2. Whole-hearted prayer:
    1. Means a prayer that affects and includes our whole being - "And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart" - Jer. 29:13
    2. The Lord complains about His people in these strong words, "For as much as this people draw near Me with their mouth, and their lips do honor me, but have removed their hearts far from Me" - Is. 29:13
  3. Prayer must be motivated by love which is whole-hearted and complete:
    1. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might" - Deut. 6:4-5; Matt. 22:37
    2. Of David the Lord said, "Who followed me with all his heart" - I Kings 14:8 Whole-heartedness is the one condition to receiving favorable answers to our prayers - Luke 18:10-14
C. A SPECIAL LESSON FOR GOD'S PEOPLE TODAY
  1. An honest look at our devotion leaves much to be desired:
    1. Our family worship is often hurried and defective in nature; we can think of so many things which need our attention during the day, that our time for worship is pressed to a point where it covers only minutes
    2. Then take a look at the Sabbath services - they are pressed into so many minutes - and if by chance, the preacher goes beyond the twelve o'clock hour, we feel that he is out of step with the time
  2. A prayerful reconsideration of our worship, be it in the home or in the church, is in place:
    1. Why be so hurried that we cut ourselves off from communion with God
    2. Can we think of a more important assignment than communing with the Lord
    3. Is there anything else in this world that is as urgent and important as is our relationship with God?
  3. Whole-hearted prayer is sevenfold:
    1. It makes God first - regardless of all else - Matt. 6:33; "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God. . . that is the first and great commandment" - Matt. 22:37-38
    2. It is undivided - that means that when we pray we are shut in with the Lord and that means that the world is shut out - Matt. 6:6
    3. It means that we are fully surrendered to the will of the Lord - this is difficult, make no mistake, but it is one of the Divine prerequisites
    4. It means that we are ready to accept and follow the counsel the Lord may give us, and that often changes all our plans
    5. It means, further, that we have full and complete confidence in the guidance of the Lord - John 12:49-50
    6. It means that we are in deadly earnest to know and to do the will of God, and that is why we approach the throne of grace in prayer
    7. Last, but not least, whole-hearted prayer takes our whole being into communion with God, and that is the great success and secret of successful prayer


Design © John Bryant 2011