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Isaac BrownTri-County Christian ChurchMarch 18, 2018Resources:Commentaries; Jim Daily, ; Reuben Archer Torrey, The Power of PrayerThe Hand of GodMatthew 7:7-11; James 4:1-3IntroductionThese seven words contain the secret of the poverty and powerlessness of the average Christian, of the average minister, and of the average church. "Why is it," many a Christian is asking, "that I make such poor progress in my Christian life? Why do I have so little victory over sin? Why do I win so few souls to Christ? Why do I grow so slowly into the likeness of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?" And God answers in the words of the text: "Neglect of prayer. You have not, because you ask not." – Reuben Archer TorreyToday, we’re going to start a 2-part series on prayer. The practice of prayer is often taken with a grain of salt in Christian culture, so it’s important that we realize the gravity of prayer and just how serious the implications of prayer are for our lives. Further, prayers can be broken down into two categories. These categories, prayers for the hand of God, and prayers for the face of God, are what we will be exploring for the next two weeks. Understanding and practicing each category of prayers can help lead to a fuller prayer life and a deeper relationship with God.As little Deborah sat down to eat dinner with her parents she instinctively reached for her fork. “Please hold on,” her father replied. “We haven’t said grace yet.” This exasperated the girl, who was tired and hungry. “Daddy,” she said with a sigh, “why can’t we just pray once a week? Why do we have to ask for our daily bread every day?”Her older brother, wiser and eager to set her straight, weighed in before the dad could answer. “You don’t think we want stale bread, do you?” he said.Today, we’re going to talk about prayers for the hand of God. These are prayers that most if not all of us are quite familiar with. Prayers for the hand of God involve those moments when we are asking God directly for the things that we want or need. Examples of such prayers might include, “Father, please grant me rest tonight so that I might be prepared for my presentation tomorrow,” or, “Lord, please bring healing to my bruised shoulder.” Prayers for the hand of God involve asking him to meet our daily needs and concerns. Most any of us participate in prayers just like these on a regular if not daily basis. You may wonder what further examination is warranted into such prayers, but we often have misunderstandings as to if and how these prayers are answered by God. Today, we’ll examine God’s common answers to these prayers, and clear up any misconceptions about how God works with prayers for His mighty hand.Let’s look first at a verse from Matthew 7… This is Matthew 7:7-11, and it reads as follows:Matthew 7:7-11 – Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. "Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!These verses paint a pretty clear picture that when we ask, God answers. Further, they seem to indicate God’s willingness to give good gifts to His children. And yet, sometimes when we pray, the answers simply don’t seem to come. Has anyone ever felt like that before? Nevertheless, here we are called to…Trust in God’s Provision to UsThe verse from Matthew paints an expectant picture that God is eager to provide for us when we seek him earnestly. But in contrast, let’s read a verse now from James, beginning in chapter 4, verse 1.James 4:1-3 – What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.James makes it very clear that one reason we may not receive answers to our prayers is because we ask with the wrong motives. What motivates our prayer is not to be selfish or for the satisfaction of corrupt appetites. Our motives must not be evil or nefarious, because in praying to God from an evil motive, we ask God to betray his own nature of pure goodness. As an example, I should not pray that my shoulder be healed so that I might punch someone comfortably tomorrow. Put simply that’s not a nice prayer, and the answer to that prayer will surely be, “no.”I’m actually more interested in the last half of the first verse, which reads, “Don’t they come from the desires that battle within you?” What is the battle within us when it comes to prayer? We tend to want what we want, when we want it, how we want it, with no questions or exceptions. You see, my friends, often times, when we are seeking the hand of God in prayer, we try to limit God’s responses to what we most urgently desire. While it’s not inherently wrong to want what you want, we must understand that God is so much greater than we are, and His answers to our prayers are far more correct than anything we could ever conceive of in our own minds.I want to look at 3 common misconceptions regarding prayer, specifically, why we pray and why we don’t get what we expect. Here they are:Expecting our answer over God’s answer– When most any of us pray, we have an answer to that prayer in mind. We may ask for something very specific, and in turn, we expect an answer that is equally specific. But consider this… How much better does a mother know what her young child truly needs than that child himself knows? How much more does a doctor know how to treat medical symptoms than that patient himself knows? Should we be surprised then that the God of all creation knows how much better to answer our prayers than we would? Let us be reminded by this verse from the book of Isaiah:Isaiah 55:8-9 – “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are you ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”To attempt to confine God, by our expectations, to a prayer’s answer that we ourselves have conceived is barely to seek God at all. Now that’s not to say that God’s answer to your prayer will never be the same as the answer that you had envisioned, this can certainly happen, and we’ll talk more about that later. But we must trust that God may have a better answer for our prayers in mind. There’s a real danger when we’re looking for a very specific answer to our prayers. God may answer our prayers in His own way, and if our minds and hearts are not open, we may completely miss those answers to our prayers. Think about that for a moment. You may want to go home and ask God if he has already answered some of your long-standing prayers in a way that you weren’t expecting!Expecting our Timing over God’s Timing – Another trap that we fall into is that we tend to want the answers to our prayers right now as opposed to later. Again, this is not so nefarious in and of itself, except for the fact that as surely as God’s ways are higher than our ways, so God’s timing is better than our timing. There are numerous Bible verses that indicate the value of waiting on the Lord. Here are a couple from the book of Psalms.Psalm 37:7 – Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him.And…Psalm 46:10 – Be still, and know that I am God.How difficult is it for us to simply be still before the Lord? Our culture is partially to blame for our impatience. We live in a world where we are able to, in general, get whatever it is that we wanted, and we can get it 5 minutes ago. Friends, learning and practicing the art of patience could save you a lot of headaches in this world. Make it a point to pray to God to teach you the practice of patience and stillness if you feel like you don’t have that card in your deck. Often times, through the waiting, God may be trying to teach us something, some important lesson that may or may not be directly related to our prayers. Similarly to watching for God’s specific answers to our prayers, we need to watch for lessons that God may be teaching us through the timing of when He answers our prayers, unless we might miss such lessons all-together.Trusting God that He Loves Us – Wow! That’s a big one. Do you believe that God loves you? Do you believe that He loves you all the time? Sometimes, when we are in the thick of a struggle, and we feel like our prayers aren’t being answered, it’s not uncommon to begin to question God’s motives with us. Have I done something so wrong that He can’t or won’t hear me? Is he actively punishing me for being defiant? Is my prayer not important enough for God’s ear? All of these are questions that can plague us if we don’t see an answer to our prayers or we don’t see it in what we consider a timely manner. These are distracting thoughts that we simply need to put out of our heads. God reminded the Jewish exiles in Babylon amidst their great struggles of the following:Jeremiah 29:11-13 – For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.There are a lot of promises in these verses. God again promises that when we pray to Him, he listens. He also promises that when we seek him with all of our heart, that we will find Him. But let’s not forget the verse that opens up the set. The Lord promises us that he has plans to prosper us and not to harm us, and plans to give us hope and a future. The fact of the matter is, God loves us, so much so that He has sought after us for the duration of time and even sent His own perfect Son to die for us as a sacrifice that we might be together with Him eternally. We must never forget these things, no matter how bad things seem to get as we wait on answers to our prayers. God has our best interests in mind. Meditate on that truth when you are amidst a struggle to see the Hand of God in answer to your prayers.But does God always answer our prayers? This is a core question which underlies the entire message of this sermon. I believe the answer is yes, though as we’ve seen, he doesn’t always answer them in the ways that we might expect. In general, I believe there are 4 basic answers that God gives to us when we pray, and we’re going to talk about them now. In this, we will see that we can have…Assurance in God’s Provision to UsOur Plan– Sometimes, our prayers are in line with what God would desire for us. When this happens, the answer to our prayers is a resounding yes. Our motivations, goals, and timing have lined up with God’s, and our prayers are answered in the way that we had hoped that they would be. This is truly a beautiful occurrence when it happens. We find ourselves resting in the assurance that God heard exactly what we asked for, though we must remember that such an answer to our prayers is no more valid normore indicative that God hears our prayers, loves us, and answers us. That is to say, the remaining answers to prayer on this list are just as indicative that God is indeed there for us.His Plan– Sometimes, what we have asked for is not as good, not as right, or not as appropriate as something God has already planned. Put simply, we have asked for something, but God has something better in mind. Better how? Perhaps we learn a valuable lesson in God’s answer to our prayer. Perhaps the outcome of God’s answer to our prayer is better for us in the long run. We must remember to keep our eyes and our hearts open for an answer to our prayer that doesn’t match up with what we thought we were asking for. …And sometimes, it’s not easy to see the answer that God has given us, in line with His plan, until well after the prayer was answered. Nevertheless, He has answered. We must be vigilant to watch what God is doing in our lives as we pray.Not Yet– Other times, the answers to our prayers may lie well within the scope of what we have specifically asked for, or within the scope of what God has planned for us, but it is simply not the right time for the prayers to be answered. God may want us to rely on Him through suffering a little longer, or he may be teaching us a valuable lesson while we wait on the answers to our prayers. In any case, God’s timing is always perfect, whereas ours my not be. Through this waiting, we must have assurance that God indeed hears us, and has not turned his back on us. In times of waiting, it’s most appropriate to keep praying. Paul reminds us in his first letter to the Thessalonians:1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 – Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.In all circumstances, pray to God and praise God. This is indeed a call for us to never stop communing with God. Through good times and bad, let your prayers be heard.No – Sometimes, our prayers simply come with the wrong motives. They don’t glorify God, they are selfish, or they are rife with sinful motives. Hey, we’re all human, and we’re all prone to moments like this. If our prayers are simply not in line with what a godly prayer should look like, the answer may be a polite but simple, “no.” I have faith that the Holy Spirit will likely either keep you from too many prayers such as these, or will help to convict your heart and spirit if you’ve prayed such a prayer. Remember that “no” is as valid of an answer to a prayer as “yes” is, and when God chooses to say “no” to our prayers, we can continue to rest assured that it is for our own good that He has denied us.Nevertheless, between these four answers, our plan, His plan, not yet, and no, I am confident that God indeed answers every prayer that we pray. Remember that He is the Almighty God, who hears the prayers of everyone at all times, and is willing and able to field them all. He’s never too busy to hear you, though we must be careful not to let unconfessed sin get in the way of our relationship with Him. Do your best to make sure that you are right with God at all times, so that there might not be any barriers to the grace that He would give to you.What do we stand to gain when we unlock the full potential of prayer? It’s like a treasure chest full of hidden gems. I know I’ve brought you to this place before, but take a moment, and just imagine that the Creator of the universe hears your heart’s every desire and cry when you pray. Imagine that he cares, genuinely, and is moved to action when you call out to Him. What comforts are to be found in such a truth? Philippians 4:4-7 reads as follows:Philippians 4:4-7 – Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.This set of verses contains so many of those hidden gems. Rejoice, Paul says… There is joy to be found in the assurance that God answers prayers, and trust that He loves us, knows what’s best for us, and works that out within us through our prayer lives.There is gentleness to be found. As we learn to trust the Lord with our prayers, it naturally leads to a stillness within us. Turbulent waters may certainly come our way, but we find rest in the assurance that God is with us, and continues to work all things together for our good.We receive assurance that the Lord is near. We never have to worry about falling out of his reach. No matter what our prayer request may be, he sees us, and hears us. We are blessed by his presence at all times, as surely as the Holy Spirit dwells within us.Finally, we receive, “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding,” to, “guard [our] hearts and [our] minds in Christ Jesus.” …And notice how prayer is contrasted with anxiety. The closer we get to realizing the power of prayer in our lives, the further we get from an anxious state. Peace of heart and mind are within our grasp as we seek the hand of God and trust in Him to meet us, in His time, in His way, in His perfection.ConclusionWhen we pray to God for the things we want or need, we are indeed meant to be specific. Such prayers for God’s divine intervention, or prayers for the Hand of God, lead to His faithful response, so long as we understand and trust how He works through our prayer lives. We must remember that God’s ways are always greater than our ways, as is even His understanding of our needs greater than our own understanding of our needs. When we learn to trust in God’s answers to our prayers and God’s timing in answering our prayers, we unlock the keys to a peaceful and fruitful prayer life. Underpinned by our knowledge that God loves us and has our best interests in mind, we can find assurance that God not only works all things together for our good, but that He also always answers our prayers in one way or another. We are never out of his reach, and a fruitful prayer life for the Hand of God leads us to joy, gentleness, and a peace that transcends all understanding. Continue to work out your prayer life with God daily. Please stand with me as we prepare for the invitation. ................
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