prayers

(15 quiet-times as at 18/10/11)

On-going prayer - Ephesians 6.18

Ephesians 6.18 says, "And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people."

I was recently having a chat with someone and told them that God had given me a really interesting idea which I explained. The person listened and then responded saying, 'there are lots of good ideas, but the best thing is to pray, ask God for his idea and then do that.' It wasn't the answer I wanted to hear! What they were saying was - pray and ask God for his ideas - and this is absolutely right. Very often we have an idea, but it's not a God-idea. So let's make sure that our ideas are inspired by God!

But this person missed the point! The point is that God tells us to pray in the Spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests. Our daily lives should be filled with 'prayers'. These may just be saying 'thank you Lord' under our breath, or facing a test and saying, 'Lord help me', or seeing someone who looks upset and asking God to reveal his love to that person (he may get you to do something!) You see, we can pray all the time. This doesn't mean 24/7 so we don't sleep! It means we always have an attitude of talking, listening to and communicating with God throughout every day.

If we are constantly keeping the lines of communication open with God, then just as we get electricity when we 'plug in' something, so we get filled with God and his ideas as we pray throughout the day with all kinds of prayers and requests. It's good and right to have set times of prayer, but very often because we're chatting with God and seeking him, the ideas that pop into our head are from God. That's the power of on-going prayer!

Luke 2.34-35

Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

Simeon then made a prophecy about Jesus that many people may well find a bit shocking. Jesus later confirmed what Simeon had said by confirming one of the things he came to do was to bring a sword and not peace! A bit strange? “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law." (Matthew 10.34-35)

Simeon had spoken to Mary and Joseph explaining that Jesus would cause people to rise and fall and to reveal what was in people's hearts. Just imagine you're in your youth group and people are all getting on really well. Suddenly a new person comes in. It's a girl and she's very pretty. The girls look at her and ask, 'is she prettier than me?' The lads think, 'she's pretty, I wonder if she'd like me?' Her presence in the room shows something of what's in people's hearts.

Jesus did this but on a massive and spiritual way. By what Jesus said, did and who he was - his message brings out what's in people's hearts. Many people hate Jesus, hate the Bible and hate the message of Christianity. But simply because Jesus exists, this gets revealed. Other people love Jesus and follow him and the Bible (true Christians). Their heart for God is revealed because of Jesus! Sometimes people react badly to us - these people may be friendly at times. But when we say we're a Christian, they get all hostile. Why? One reason is because Jesus is revealing what's inside them - Jesus is the truth and he reveals truth! But once you know what's in people, you can pray for people!!

Quiet-time created 21/01/11

Prayer and 2 Thessalonians | TOP

I don't know how you pray or how you do prayer in your church (I hope you do pray as this is power that unlocks God to work in situations supernaturally!!) Anyways, our church does prayer very informally. People can pray out during the worship time or speak out prayer as God leads them. Other churches have 'set' or 'written' prayers. Every church responds to God differently, as he made us all different! What matters is the heart behind the prayer, that we do pray and allow God to lead our prayer. One way to pray is to use prayers in the Bible which has some amazing prayers. We'll look at just two prayers in this quiet-time. These were prayers that Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica. Consider praying these prayers for you friends, family and across your church:

2 Thessalonians 2.16-17: "May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word."

2 Thessalonians 3.16: "Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you."

When you pray these prayers, you know you're praying prayers that God will answer because you're praying prayers that are in his Word - which is from God himself. You're praying God's love, God's help, encouragement, hope and strength over every good word and thing that people do. You're then praying peace in everything and every way and that God would be with everyone. Can't get better than that!

Quiet-time created 3/5/10

The Power of Prayer and Praise - Acts 16.25-26 | TOP

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose.

Imagine the headlines of the day - "singing blamed for prison breakout" or maybe a new show would be aired on Israel TV.. "Extreme Makeover: Prison Praise Edition." Something extraordinary happened on this day when Paul and Silas started to praise God in prison with prayers and songs. A power rose up that was so incredible that it transformed the lives of many people in that prison and would have shaken the homeland security department of the day. For Paul and Silas, it should have been a dark night locked in a prison cell with all kinds of criminals. But instead, they chose to focus on Jesus and praise him despite their physical circumstances. They had a hope set in eternity, a knowledge of the power of God. In the darkness, Paul and Silas fixed their eyes on Jesus. They prayed and sung unashamedly, as the other prisoners looked on at their worship service. But then something happened.. Suddenly there was a massive earthquake so that the very foundations of the prison were shaken. At once, all the prison doors flew open and everybody's chains came loose. Wow! Let's trace the steps.. They were praying and worshipping God; others were listening as they confessed they were not ashamed of the Gospel. Then suddenly God moved - we know this was sudden as 'at once' the doors opened. The doors didn't just open, they flew open. It wasn't just one door, it was all the doors. It wasn't just the chains on Paul and Silas that came off, it was everybody's chains.. Praise blows open prison doors, it frees people and it breaks all the chains. Today, despite anything you are going through, commit to pray to God, worship him with your guitar or favourite worship CD and keep on doing it. Even in your darkest hour. The power of God is such that when we worship, God will break the chains in your life, he will bring freedom where you have felt trapped and will open doors you thought were shut. But keep on praising him, no matter what, until you see God move - then carry this on as a way of life! He will not only work in your life, but in the lives of others. But prayer and praise is the key.

Ezekiel 22.30-31 - The importance of prayer | TOP

In Ezekiel 22, we learn about the sins of Jerusalem. Jerusalem had done detestable (really evil and disgusting) things in the sight of God. Blood had been shed, Israel had worshipped idols, treated the father and mother with contempt, oppressed the alien (the immigrant / foreigner), ill-treated the fatherless and the widow, accepted bribes, done extortion and committed many other serious and often sexual sins. This set God against them as each of these are things that God hates because they are not holy and are against his character and Word. We must be so careful to check ourselves so that we are not doing things that are against what God wants by reading his Word (the Bible), doing what it says and letting it change us. But when we look around our cities and nations, we see people committing the same kinds of sins. Sometimes, we even see evil things taking place within the church. In Ezekiel 22, God's response to all the bad things was to look for someone to 'build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would have to destroy it'. God's response is the same today. He is looking for 2 things: people to build back up the walls and people to cry out to him on behalf of situations, people and nations. The result of this not happening is that God's judgement has to come - destruction. God is a God of justice and injustice has to be punished. So what does it mean to build back up the wall? A wall protects and divides. It is time to shout about God's Word and make it known, to get back to the truth about God. It is time for restoration in the church and outside of the church - to put back into place that which the evil one has destroyed.. We need to fight to protect the minds of children, the oppressed, to see God's ways put above the ways of secular and human thinking. Then, we have to stand in the gap before God. Wherever there is a piece of the wall missing, we have to cry out to God about that area of life - abuse, war, famine, injustice, pain, suffering, hate, terrorism, violence, corruption, false prophets.. Today, determine you will help rebuild the walls that have broken in the lives around you, and cry out to God for those people, for your city, for the church, for the nations.

1 Timothy 2.1-2 - A Biblical example of believing the Bible & prayer | TOP

It's clear that now, more than ever, we need to be in prayer for our leaders, nations - and for the Middle East situation, as Paul says to Timothy 2.1. I saw a talk by 'Lynne Hammond' on GOD TV exploring this verse. She said a practical application of this can be found in relation to King Cyrus of Persia (I believe Iran forms much of modern day Persia), who was a very evil King.

In Jeremiah 29.10, we read God talking to Israel:

"This is what the LORD says: "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place.."

In Daniel 9.2-3 (and following), we find that Daniel took the Scriptures literally:

"in the first year (the) reign (of Darius), I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes."

So, Daniel responded to the Word of God to Jeremiah and interceded for Israel, for God to restore Jerusalem as he had promised..

The practical application of this can be found in Ezra 1.1-4:

"In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing:
"This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:
" 'The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Anyone of his people among you—may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the LORD, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem. And the people of any place where survivors may now be living are to provide him with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem.' "

So, according to God's Word, and through the prayer of just one of God's people, we see that the evil King Cyrus was used by God to bring restoration to the temple in Jerusalem.

So this is our challenge: What is God doing through the current situation, what does the Bible say, and what is our response?

Praying for government | TOP

Let's take a peek at 1 Timothy 2.1-2: "I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone - for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness."
So many times our prayers are so selfish. We come before God with our shopping list and demand answers. Prayers are usually about us, our mates or family. Sometimes we may even pray for some other people, maybe even people we don't know, but often we don't. OK let's break down what God says through Paul, writing to his mate Timothy.
The Bible urges that 'first of all' we need to come before God with requests (asking for stuff directly), prayers (for God to move in people's lives), intercession (representing and 'standing in the gap' for people who don't know God before God) and thanksgiving. Did you know that thanking God is a major way to come before God in prayer. (The Bible says the Lord lives in (inhabits) the praise of his people.) So we need to come before God to pray for other people outside of our circle and clique.
Also 'first of all' we learn we need to be praying for our rulers and leaders - this means for the government, the Royalty, local council leaders and other people who have authority. Why do we need to pray for these people? So that we can live peaceful and quiet lives in godliness and holiness. In non-churchy-bibly words what does this mean? Good government and good leadership is God's will. To achieve good government we need to pray for those in government. If we don't pray for government people we will not get good government. On the flip side, if we have bad government it is because we have not been praying. We need more than ever to be praying for our government. Don't diss, pray.

Forget to pray for others? | TOP

Someone asks us to pray for them and we agree but then forget. Yet we need to be aware of Jesus' words when he said, 'Let your yes be yes and your no be no. Anything else is sinful.' So we need to be careful.
So how can we avoid doing this? Have some ideas in place. First, if you get a prayer request by phone, email, text. whatever - make sure you pray immediately. Don't put it off but pray. That way you will pray. If you're at home have a list on the wall you can add this prayer too. If you have a diary or reminder on your phone, email programme, PDA, whatever - put it into that and remind yourself to pray again.
Ephesians 6.18 says, '..always pray for all all God's people.' Galatians 6.10 says we should help others whenever we have the opportunity, but we should especially look out for other believers.' There's the commands from the Bible. Now go do it!!

Is it selfish to pray for ourselves? | TOP

No. Too often we spend time looking inwards at our own problems instead of focusing on Jesus, thanking God and looking at the needs of others. This is one way out of feeling unhappy - putting God and others first!
In Matthew 6.32, Jesus does say that God knows our needs, we should put him first. That is absolutely true. Does this mean we shouldn't pray for our own needs (with the right motivation?) Isaiah 62.6 (talking about praying for Jerusalem, but a good principle anyway) says, 'You people who remind the Lord of your needs in prayer should never be quiet..'
Sometimes, Jesus will bring us to a place where we are forced to cry out to him for help and guidance. This is usually because God is training, disciplining, discipling you. This is exciting because God obviously has a purpose for you. It is a place God has brought me to on many occasions!
This should be our attitude - praying on all occasions, asking God for everything you need. You should also pray for all of God's people (Ephesians 6.18)

EPHESIANS 6 | TOP

Imagine if you can that you are a soldier in the Roman army. They sure didn't have the equipment of a modern day military force but had the cutting edge technology for their day. Still, it seems a bit primitive and naff to us today.
So, a Roman had a belt to hold together the uniform, a breastplate of armour to cover his chest and back, sandals for easy, long walking, an armoured helmet to protect his head (and neck), a shield to defend himself. This was his basic defence.
But the soldier also carried a couple other weapons for attack. One was his sword, the other was the scream and chant, the beat of the drum, as they went into battle.
Today we may say - belt, kevlar body armour, army boots, kevlar helmet, riot shield, SA-80..
In Ephesians 6, we read about having the armour of God. For those reading the Bible at the time, they would have understood this kind of language. Today it's different so I've tried to explain it to help. So, what are our weapons of attack today as we fight with spiritual armour against spiritual enemies? First the Sword of the Spirit (the Word of God). Second, we pray continually for all of God's people. That's prayer, a weapon of attack against our spiritual enemies.

'WHEN YOU PRAY' | TOP

Read Matthew 6.5-15. In these verses Jesus says to the disciples, 'when you pray' 3 times. He's saying the same thing to you. Are you praying..?
If you and your best mate just stopped talking to each other you'd lose contact and your friendship would be non-existent. That's what it is like if you aren't praying and talking to God. It's not about feeling guilty, it's about explaining to God you're struggling and asking for his help.
The Bible tells us to pray all the time (1 Thessalonians 5.17 and Ephesians 6.18) - not just in church or on a Sunday. It's not an excuse either - 'Sorry I didn't turn up for my GSCE exam sir, I was praying' is not the way... It's time to talk to God - get a regular time and pray when you can.

ARE MOUNTAIN MOVING PRAYERS POSSIBLE? | TOP

'If you have faith in God and don't doubt, you can tell this mountain to get up and jump into the sea, and it will. Everything you ask for in prayer will be yours if only you have faith.' (Mark 11.23-24, CEV)
a. Matthew 5.14-15 says that if you forgive others for wrongs they do to you, God will forgive you. Do you need to forgive someone?
b. Do you need to say sorry to God for something? Perhaps you need to say sorry to a person for something you've done.
c. Is there anything in your character you would like to change or that needs changing? Ask God to change you
d. Anyone you want to pray for? Write down their names and pray for them
e. Are there any answered prayers you want to thank God for? Is there anything about God that you want to praise him for?

PRAYER CRAZY - Part 1 | TOP

a. Get right with God. God ain't going to listen to you so much if you've been a bad little lad or bad little lass. Say sorry for wrongs - 1 John 1.7-9. Remember to thank God and 'big him up' (praise him). See Colossians 4.2
b. Pray on your way to work, school or college (see Philippians 4.6-7). We should always be praying. Pray for mates, your day, anything and everyone!
c. Pray when you're doing a boring job - washing-up (?), tidying up (??). But pray always (not out loud in High St - it might get you a few funny looks
d. Keep a prayer diary. It's easy to forget that God answers so many of your prayers so encourage yourself and write 'em down! God listens (Psalm 34.7) and is interested in everything about you and your day.
e. Pray when you're down. Tell God how you feel (1 Peter 5.7), resist Satan (James 4.7) and say 'God you've won and paid a price for me. You've promised me loads in the Bible, so I believe in it and say yes! (See Psalm 91.15)

PRAYER CRAZY - Part 2 | TOP

f. Pray with another person. Admit your sins to each other and pray with each other (James 5.16). When 2 of us meet doing the Master's business, he's right there! (Matthew 18.20). When two or more of us agree on something (within God's will!) it will be done for us by God (Matthew 18.19).
g. Make time for prayer. If you're like me, praying regularly is on the difficult side of difficult. But your prayer is your strength (Isaiah 40.29-31), your protection (Ephesians 6.10-17) and it's essential! (Ephesians 6.18)
h. Pray by using the Bible or music. If you can't think of a prayer, use one that's been written (try Psalm 33). Or write a poem, a song or use a book.
i. Prayer isn't gossip. 'Oh of course Mel's been sleeping around, we need to pray for her' Don't gossip, pray! Take a look at the Bible - Mark 11.25-26, Luke 6.37-38, 2 Timothy 2.16, Proverbs 25.9-10.
j. Impossible prayers. We've got one seriously awesome God and he can do whatever he needs to (Ephesians 3.20-21). If we believe and have faith we can move Mount Everest (Mark 11.23-24), uproot shrubbery and deposit it in the local pond (Luke 17.6) and more. Read John 14.12-14 for more

GOD WORKS MIRACLES - READ Joshua 10.6-14 | TOP

Joshua had taken the people of Israel into the Promised Land - just as God had promised. When the people had obeyed God, they had won every battle meaning God's power and Israel were feared across the land. One time 5 Kings had joined together to fight against Israel. This was going to be one serious fight but Israel won 'cos something amazing happened.
Joshua prayed to God and the sun stopped in the sky and didn't go down for a full day. The Bible says this never happened before or after this incident. A scientist recently said that there was a 12 hour time 'missing' from the history of Planet Earth - a time period that can only be made up by looking at this incident in the Bible.
God listens when his people pray, especially when you pray for what God wants. Your answer may not be so amazing but you never know