Attributes of Prayer
1/19/03
I want to share with you seven attributes or
characteristics of prayer in order for prayer to be effective and
powerful. These are essential for
effective prayer! Each one could easily
take the whole time in sharing but that’s not my purpose. Enough will be said about each one to
clearly show how important each attribute is to effective prayer.
Prayer and Faith
Ps. 5:3 In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the
morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.
Prayer is not just talking, it’s believing!
When faith ceases to pray, it ceases to live.
Prayer has no life without faith!
Ja. 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives
generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
6 But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown
and tossed by the wind.
7 That
man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord;
8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.
Only God can move mountains, but faith and prayer moves
God--not manipulate, but prayer does move the heart of God!
Mk. 11:24 (NIV) Therefore I tell you, whatever
you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
Heb. 11:1 (KJV) Now faith is the substance of things hoped
for, the evidence of things not seen.
Prayer and Trust
Ps. 62:8 Trust in him at all times,
O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.
You can’t pour out your heart to
someone you don’t trust.
Trust is born out of truly knowing Jesus--not knowing about
Him.
Trust takes faith to a more intimate level.
Trust removes a person from “begging.”
Persistence is not begging!
If you don’t understand the character of God you will never
be able to trust Him.
When you say that you trust someone you are saying that you
believe the person in whom you trust has you at their best interest.
When prayer is bathed in trust it has no disappointments.
Prayer and Desire
Rom. 10:1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for
the Israelites is that they may be saved.
Desire is what drives prayer.
Half hearted prayer does not touch the heart of God. Half hearted prayer is the same as being
lukewarm.
Ask yourself, is your prayer a ritual or is it the cry of
your heart?
When the heart cries out to God it is out of a deep desire.
Prayer and Fervency
Ja. 5:16 (KJV) Confess your faults one to another,
and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much.
Prayer and Persistence
Mat. 7:7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
Laxity, faint-heartedness, impatience, timidity will be
fatal to our prayers.
Gen. 18:20 Then the LORD said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah
is so great and their sin so grievous
21 that
I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has
reached me. If not, I will know.”
22 The
men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the
LORD.
23 Then
Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the
wicked?
24 What
if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away
and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it?
25 Far
be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked,
treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the
Judge of all the earth do right?”
26 The
LORD said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare
the whole place for their sake.”
27 Then
Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord,
though I am nothing but dust and ashes,
28 what
if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the
whole city because of five people?”
“If I find
forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.”
29 Once
again he spoke to him, “What if only forty are found there?”
He said, “For
the sake of forty, I will not do it.”
30 Then
he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can
be found there?”
He answered, “I
will not do it if I find thirty there.”
31 Abraham
said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only
twenty can be found there?”
He said, “For
the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.”
32 Then
he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if
only ten can be found there?”
He answered,
“For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”
33 When
the LORD had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned
home.
Prayer and Character
Prayer governs conduct and
conduct makes character. Conduct, is what we do; character, is what we are.
Conduct is the outward life. Character is the life unseen, hidden within, yet
evidenced by that which is seen. Conduct is external, seen from without;
character is internal—operating within. In the economy of grace conduct is the
offspring of character. Character is the state of the heart, conduct its
outward expression. Character is the root of the tree, conduct, the fruit it
bears.
Feebleness of living reflects its debility and laziness in
the praying hours. We simply cannot talk to God, strongly, intimately, and confidently
unless we are living for Him, faithfully and truly. The prayer-closet cannot
become sanctified unto God, when the life is foreign to His precepts and
purpose.
Edward M. Bounds
Ez. 14:12 The word of the LORD came to me: 13“Son of man, if a country sins against me by being unfaithful and I stretch out my hand against it to cut off its food supply and send famine upon it and kill its men and their animals, 14even if these three men—Noah, Daniel and Job—were in it, they could save only themselves by their righteousness, declares the Sovereign LORD.
Prayer and the Word of God
Jo. 15:5 “I am
the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will
bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
6 If anyone does
not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such
branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
7 If you remain
in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it
will be given you.
8 This is to my
Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my
disciples.
1 Jo. 5:14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if
we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
15 And
if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked
of him.
How are we going to know His will
if we don’t know His Word?
Praying the Word of God gives boldness.
Acts 4:23 On their
release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the
chief priests and elders had said to them.
24 When they heard
this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,”
they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in
them.
25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit
through the mouth of your servant, our father David:
“‘Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in
vain?
26 The kings of the earth
take their stand
and the rulers gather together
against the Lord
and against his Anointed One.
27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met
together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire
against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.
28 They did what your power and will had
decided beforehand should happen.
29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and
enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.
30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform
miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
31 After they
prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled
with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.