God has always been approachable by His people through prayer. Many verses in the Psalms let us see some of the beautiful examples of God's people reaching out to Him in prayer.
Jewish prayers had several elements (see slides 4-8):
1) Love and Praise
2) Gratitude and Thanksgiving
3) Recognition of God's Holiness and affirmation of one's desire to obey and please God
4) Confession of sin and a longing for a pure heart.
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." (Matthew 5:8) Purity is the result of continued spiritual harmony with God. We have to grow in purity. It begins when we first accept God's call to follow Him. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Are you a new creation? If so, are you growing in your walk with Christ? Do you desire to obey God and please God? Are you actively confessing your sin and longing to grow in purity?
The author of Hebrews was addressing a concern for those among them who were not growing in Christ. He wrote: "...you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil." (Hebrews 5:11-14)
If we don't grow in our relationship with Christ, we will not develop "powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil."; we will be "...unskilled in the word of righteousness..." In other words, we will not be equipped to deal successfully with the issues of life. Instead, we will "agree with the counsel of the ungodly; become carnal--unable to be distinguished from the lost; and eventually, sit with scoffers of our Lord and have nothing to say against their behavior." (see Psalm 1)
We learn about Jesus by reading, studying, meditating, and memorizing His Word. We develop a relationship with Jesus by talking (praying) with Him constantly throughout the day. Prayer is learned. Jesus' closest disciples--those who walked with Him daily--even asked, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples." (Luke 11:1b) The disciples watched Jesus and knew that prayer was the foundation of His life.
Scripture offers us captivating glimpses into the prayer life of Jesus. There are at least 25 recorded instances of Jesus praying. We can see that He prayed for others, with others, alone, regularly, and in accordance with the Truth. His prayers were heartfelt. His prayers were both short and long. In addition to these recorded prayers, He often taught on the importance of prayer. Jesus is our best example of how important it is to have a fervent and effectual prayer life.
As we grow to know Jesus better, we should begin to love the things He loves and hate the things that He hates. We should become more like Him everyday. If so, we will no longer be easily swept away by the secular culture, but instead anchored to the One and Only absolute--Jesus!
Next week I'll plan to complete our brief look at prayer by studying Jesus' answer to His disciples when they asked, "Lord, teach us to pray..." Also, I will show you five elements found in powerful prayers.
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