Relationships in the Lord’s Prayer

“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.”

— Matthew 6:14

 

Notice, this verse immediately follows the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus didn’t say feed people as God has fed you. He didn’t say keep other people from being tempted as God has you. In the prayer, Jesus acknowledged God—His holiness, supremacy, reign, power, love, mercy, forgiveness, and wisdom. 

 

The only time in the Lord’s Prayer that Jesus speaks about what a person is to do is in relation to forgiving another person. In the rest of this prayer, Jesus speaks about what God does, can do, or will do in relation to us.

 

Why is it significant that Jesus spoke about our action in a prayer to God? Why did He choose to speak to us about forgiving a person?

 

In each of the other parts of this prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray to God recognizing who He is and the most important things we need. He emphasized our relationship to God.  When we pray, we are expressing our relationship with God. Just like when we speak with people with whom we are in relationship, we speak with God through prayer. 

 

Still, why did Jesus include the phrase about us forgiving as God forgives? God created us for relationship. We desire relationship with Him and other people. In every other part of this prayer, Jesus spoke about our relationship with God in recognition of who He is. If we do not forgive people, it disrupts our relationships with God and people. Unforgiveness is like a seismic shift in the earth’s core. We don’t fit together well with God and people if we harbor hatred, anger, or grudges. 

 

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught us to recognize who God is and who we are in relationship to Him. In doing this, our relationship with God stays intact and not fractured. Jesus, in this prayer, also reminded us God forgives and restores relationship with us, and that we must forgive and restore relationships with people as God forgives us.

 

Jesus emphasized this by pointing it out in verse 14. He said, if you forgive people their wrongs against you, then God will forgive you. Is God’s forgiveness conditional? It’s conditioned on our repentance and confession. When we need to forgive someone, all the fault for the break in relationship is not on the other person. We have erred, too. When we forgive the person, we end up recognizing our part in the fractured relationship. This recognition leads us to confession and repentance to God. Forgiving others renews relationship with the person and with God. Verse 14, then, is accurate; we forgive others, then God forgives us.

 

“Forgive us our sins as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us” (Matt 6:12). 

 

We pray in recognition of who God is. We forgive in recognition of God’s forgiving us. Both are about relationships. God created us for vertical and horizontal relationships. Forgiving renews vertical and horizontal relationships as does regular talking with God and significant people in our lives.

 

Feet of Faith

“We hope that your faith will grow so that the boundaries of our work among you will be extended. Then we will be able to go and preach the Good News in other places far beyond you, where no one else is working.” (2 Corinthians 10:15b-16a [NLT])

In 2 Corinthians 10, Paul taught about false teachers who sought followers. One way these teachers gave for people to consider them worthy to heed was by declaring how many followers they had. Paul countered this by saying in verse eighteen, “When people commend themselves, it doesn’t count for much. The important thing is for the Lord to commend them.”

In this chapter, Paul told the Corinthians his hope was for their faith to grow so he could go out farther in the mission field to tell other people the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This statement leads us to consider a few things. Paul cared enough for the Corinthians that he wanted to make sure they had a firmly established faith before he left them. He did not want to leave too early and then these new Christians succumb to the deceptions of Satan through false teachers. Paul wanted to make sure the Corinthians understood their salvation by faith in Jesus Christ through God’s grace is enough. He cared that they stood strong in the faith even when other teachers tried to convince them of their own greatness and “prove” their legitimacy. Paul wanted to make sure the Corinthians could stand firm in their faith.

With verses fifteen and sixteen, Paul showed he desired for other people along with the Corinthians to know about Jesus so they, too, might believe in Him and receive salvation from sin and death. He did not sit back, pat himself on the back, and decide he had completed his task from God. Paul did not consider rest his goal but taking the Gospel to each unbelieving person. His goal was to be a bondservant to Christ, experience His mighty power, suffer with Him, share in His death, and experience the resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3:10-11 [NLT]). Paul’s job as a servant and redeemed child of God was to tell everyone the Gospel, not just the Corinthians. He desired to go as far as Rome and then onward. Paul said further in Philippians 3:12, his goal was to “press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.” He only stopped preaching and teaching when he died. The only commendation Paul sought was from the Lord. God’s commendation of him was the important thing (2 Corinthians 10:18).

How does this relate to us? Why are these verses important for us today? We need to consider if we have grown in our faith or if we have stagnated. Have we listened to the Gospel, believed in Jesus Christ, heard God tell us His task for us, and obediently begun doing as He told us? Being obedient to God requires our continued growth in knowledge of and relationship with Him. It requires daily communing with and obeying Him. This growth was so important that Paul did not want to leave the Corinthians and go further abroad without ensuring they could withstand the fiery darts and arrows of the evil one (Ephesians 6:16). How is your faith? Is it growing? Stagnating? Non-existent?

The other thing important for us to understand in these verses is, like Paul, obeying God in one task does not mean we completed His commission of us. Paul heard Jesus tell him He sent him to the Gentiles. Gentiles, plural. Gentiles are all non-Jews. Every city, village, or town outside Israel that was Gentile. Paul’s task was to keep on proclaiming the Gospel to the Gentiles and anyone who would listen. Like Paul, when God tells us to tell other people the Gospel, we have not completed the task the moment we speak the last word of our Gospel testimony to one person or group of people. We do not get to erase that task from our mental whiteboard. Jesus sent His disciples to the world to share the Gospel, make disciples, baptize them, and teach them to obey everything He commanded them (Matthew 28:16-20). Only upon the death of a disciple is his or her job on earth done. Are you eagerly training the newest converts and growing them to share the Gospel so you can go out further and share the Gospel with more people, too?

In this brief passage, we see Paul’s heart. He cared for the new believers enough not to leave them inadequately prepared to stand against false teachers. Paul taught them until they had a firm foundation in Christ. He desired to continue carrying out Jesus’ commission to him, too. Paul eagerly desired to tell more people about the salvation Jesus Christ gives to anyone who would believe in Him and who would confess and repent of his or her sins. He loved God with his whole being. Paul loved people because of the love Jesus put into his heart. He did not want anyone to die without knowing Jesus Christ as his or her Savior.

Paul got it right; he loved God and loved his neighbor, even if that neighbor lived a two-week boat journey away. He acted upon the love Jesus put in his heart. Paul obeyed the commission Jesus gave him. His obedience to Him showed his love for Him and the people Jesus loved. What does your life show? Does it show your love for God? Are you obeying the commission God has for you? Do you love other people enough to care about their eternal salvation? Have you considered what others would say of your faith when you die? Would they say, “He/she must have hated those people a lot because he/she did not tell them about Jesus, and they were his/her neighbors?”  

Now is the time to look earnestly at your heart, spirit, and mind to decide how deeply you love God.  Are you mature enough to stand on your feet of faith so your own teacher can tell other people about Jesus? Are you mature enough in your faith so you can begin fulfilling the great commission of Jesus with your life because of your love for Him? Do you love your neighbors enough to tell them the Gospel?

“When people commend themselves, it doesn’t count for much. The important thing is for the Lord to commend them.” (2 Corinthians 10:18 [NLT])

The Person Who Prays - Loves Other People

Introduction

In last week’s Bible study, we learned what Peter meant when he told the believers in Asia Minor to have sound judgment and be sober-minded when they prayed. We came to understand this means believers must exercise self-control and consider themselves humbly in relation to God. This self-control comes through the indwelling Holy Spirit, if we let Him control our thoughts, emotions, actions, and words. With a sober mind, we believers can stay calm and collected in the face of persecution, trials, and adversity remembering Jesus faced these without sinning. Jesus’ life testified to God’s love, mercy, and grace continually. A believer, Jesus said, will face hard times so we should be guarded knowing hard times will come. Because we are believers, we can know the Holy Spirit is available to protect and guide us.

In the earlier Bible studies on the effective person of prayer, we learned the Bible teaches this person is to be righteous, alert, and fervent, believe God can do what we ask, pray in solitude, pray ceaselessly, and approach God with his or her whole being. This week we will learn from Jesus, Peter, and Paul. As believers, our relationship with other people – husband to wife, believer to believer, and believer to all people – affects our communing/prayer time with God.

Jesus’ Teaching – Relationship among Believers

Prayer with God is communing with Him through petition, intercession, thanksgiving, adoration. Communing with God includes all acts of worship while at church and in our daily lives. Prayer requires speaking and listening to God, just as any other growing relationship requires speaking and listening. God is not the only one who listens; we are supposed to listen to Him, too. Listening to God comes from reading the Bible, listening to preachers and teachers, and being aware of the Holy Spirit’s inward changes of our thoughts and resultant actions.

Being in a relationship with God means worshipping Him, too. Adoration results in worship. Within worship, believers sing, pray, listen, read, and bring offerings. True worship requires harmony between Christians. Jesus spoke to this point in Matthew 5:23-24. He said,

“Therefore, if you are presenting your offering at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother and then come and present your offering.” [NASB]

In this passage, Jesus spoke about the relationship of Christians to each other. He said if anything hinders your relationship with another Christian it will affect your relationship with God. Jesus instructed the people to reconcile with other believers whom they offended or who had offended them then take their offering to God. Remember, God said He will hear the prayers of righteous people, not the unrighteous (Proverbs 15:29; Psalm 17:1 and 19:14; 1 Timothy 2:8; James 4:3 & 5:16; 1 Peter 3:12, and 1 John 5:14-15). He will listen to the prayers of those who genuinely seek Him. To be righteous before God, we must repent and confess our sins. By going to the fellow believer who has something against us and making the relationship right, we acknowledge our sins and repent of them.

We show our repentance by correcting our actions, words, and attitude. We turn from our old way of life to the new way Jesus has made for us and empowered us to have through His Holy Spirit living in us. After we repent and renew our walk in God’s ways, we go before God seeking His forgiveness. When Christians do these two things – repent and confess – God promises to forgive them of all their unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). When forgiveness occurs, we can be in His presence and He will accept our prayers and offerings.

When we as Christians reconcile with another believer, we are following Jesus’ teaching. Our offerings to God become acceptable because He made us righteous and holy through the forgiveness of our sins by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. When we are made righteous by God, He will be with us and allow us to be in His presence, and will accept our offering. By obeying Jesus’ teaching and God’s command to love our neighbor, we show our love for God. Reconciled relationships among believers can bring unhindered prayer/communing with God.

Peter’s Teaching – Relationship between Husband and Wife

Jesus taught about right living in one kind of relationship – Christian to Christian. Peter taught of another important relationship that needs to be right before communing with God. In 1 Peter 3, Peter spoke to the believers in Asia Minor about the husband and wife relationship and its relevance to prayer. He said in verse seven, “You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman, and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life so that your prayers will not be hindered.” [NASB]

In this verse, Peter taught Christian husbands to live with their wives recognizing she is physically weaker, and show her honor as a fellow heir of God’s grace. He reminded the husbands women are generally weaker physically. This fact is known and understood. More than that, and different than what the world knows, Peter told them to honor their wives because they are heirs of God’s grace, too. [Paul taught also about the love of a husband for his wife in Ephesians 5:25 and Colossians 3:19.] Unlike the cultural thought that women were property and only had status in the community by being the wife or mother of a man, Christian wives – Christian women – have value because God created them and saved them. They have the same status in God’s kingdom as men; they will inherit eternal life just like male believers. This value explains part of the definition of “honor” used in this 1 Peter 3:7. The honor due to women is two-fold. Honor women because God created her in His image. Honor Christian women because they will inherit the kingdom of God because of His grace.

Made in His image and redeemed by His blood - women, wives, men, husbands – all people have value. To view and treat them as lower than one’s self is sin and hinders prayer. The last part of this verse is the main point. To love God in word, but not in action shows that “love” to be false. True love of God shows itself in a person’s life, by godly actions, words, and attitudes. These show the real heart of a person. If one truly loves God, one will follow God’s commands, laws, and precepts. Jesus summed these up with two commandments. He said we are to love the Lord God will all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Though women and wives of the time had no value or status, the husbands and men were to treat them as having value. They were to honor them.

This holds true today. God made each person. He loves everyone. Jesus Christ, God’s Son, died for the sins of all people. That is true love. Who are we to devalue the people for whom Christ died? To be right before God so our prayers will not be hindered and He will listen to them, we must live right in this world. We must treat each person with respect because God made them. A Christian woman or man must honor her Christian husband or his Christian wife because she or he is a joint heir of God’s grace. We must love our neighbor as our self. Peter emphasized this when he repeated part of David’s prayer in Psalm 34:15-16. He said, “For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and His ears attend to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” To look down on your spouse and dishonor him or her, Peter said, is unrighteous, and the Lord is against those who do evil. Come before the Lord in obedience. Come before Him seeking forgiveness and an unhindered relationship with Him.

Paul’s Teaching – Relationship among All People

In Matthew 5, Jesus taught Christians to live in harmony among themselves so their offerings to God would be acceptable to Him. In 1 Peter 3, Peter taught Christian men to honor their wives so their prayers would not be hindered. Paul taught about relationships and prayer, too. When he wrote to Timothy, he said in 1 Timothy 2:8, “Therefore, I want the men in every place to pray lifting up holy hands without wrath and dissension.”

In this passage, we learn about Paul speaking to Christians regarding their relationships with all people, not just their spouse or other believers. He told them to lift up holy hands –hands that have done no sin. Hands are important for worship. For by the hands, worshippers present offerings to God and they praise Him. Hands are offered to God for His service in the world. For God to receive and use something from a sinful person, it must be presented with holy hands, hands that have not sinned or been a part of sin. To have holy hands requires having a clean heart and performing only acts of love and care. It affects the heart, mind, and body, the areas by which a person is to love God. Having holy hands comes from loving God with one’s whole being, just as Jesus and Moses taught in Deuteronomy 6:5 and Matthew 22:37-39. James taught this, too, in James 4:8. He said, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners and purify your hearts you double-minded.” James spoke about the whole part of the being when he talked of cleansing hands and heart.

For a Christian to have holy hands, one of two things must occur. He or she must not sin, which is highly improbable because each person sins and falls short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) or he or she must confess and repent upon which God will forgive him or her. The latter is most probable for a person to have holy hands because all people sin. Paul recognized the source of most uncleanness of hands. He said it comes with wrath and dissension. These words from the Greek language mean to be angry, have a temper and be violent, to doubt and dispute, to argue, and to question what is true. Wrath and dissension lead to a breakdown in relationships and chaos in community. God is not a God of chaos, but of love and peace (1 Corinthians 14:33). True worship and prayer to Him cannot come from chaos, anger, violence, and doubt. That is why Paul taught people to lift holy hands. He knew and taught people to seek God, confess and repent, receive His forgiveness, and restore a right relationship with Him. When people are cleansed of their sinful actions and words, which come from a person’s heart and mind, they have holy hands and can offer to God unselfish prayers, God-centered worship from a clean heart, and love offerings to God by their actions and words.

• 

Jesus’ Teaching – The Greatest Commandments

Jesus’ answer to the Pharisees’ and Sadducees’ question is the primary lesson about right relationships to God and all people. With these relationships being right, our offerings, prayers, and worship will be righteous and unhindered. God will commune with us and hear and answer our prayers.

In Matthew 22:37-39, Mark 12:29-31, and Luke 10:27-28, Jesus taught we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbor as our selves. The teachers of the Law knew this. They learned it from their teachers who learned it from God through Moses in Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. Jesus reiterated it for the Jews who followed Him. He, Paul, and Peter taught it to the diaspora Jews and the Gentiles they discipled. By consolidating all God’s laws into these two great commandments, Jesus taught all the laws of God are about the love of God and the love we are to share with Him to other people. By teaching them side by side, he taught the love of other people is a top priority of God. When we do not love other people like God loves them, we do not love God with our whole being. We qualify our love. The teacher in Luke 10:29 wanted to qualify it, too, and justify himself when he asked, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied with the parable of the Good Samaritan. This parable tells us our neighbor is any person whom we meet or know about, not necessarily our family or neighbor by proximity. The Jewish teacher understood the person who showed mercy to the beaten man was the man’s neighbor. Jesus commanded him to go do the same. Be the same to someone else. Our neighbor is any person who needs mercy and love.

Relevance and Conclusion

A person can only truly love the Lord God by obeying Him that includes loving your neighbor as yourself. Hosea taught this in Hosea 6:6. He recorded God saying, “For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” Samuel said it to Saul in 1 Samuel 15:22 when he said, “Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.” Jesus carried this teaching forward and further. In Matthew 12:33, He spoke about the character of the person. He said, “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit.” With this passage Jesus condemned the Pharisees for leading the people astray with their teachings. These Pharisees could not worship God with clean hearts nor pray unhindered because they were not righteous. They had not accepted God’s grace, and it had not made them clean from their sins. If the Pharisees had loved God, they would have loved the people as God does. This showed their sinfulness and their split loyalty to God and their own selves. We must each decide if we will love our neighbors as our self and love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. The teachings and commandments are still real and relevant today.

What have we learned from this lesson today?

• Every person has value and is worthy of love, care, honor, etc. because God created and loves him or her.
•  Honoring a person means you recognize the person’s value and worth in the eyes of God and act toward him or her with proper respect and care.
• When we honor and love the Lord, it should show in our actions as honor and love of our neighbors – all other people.
• When we do not honor and love other people, it shows we do not truly love and honor God.
• To go before God with offerings, prayer, and worship, we need to have holy hands, hands pure from anger, dissension, bitterness, hate, and neglect.
• To have holy hands, we must either not sin or repent and confess our sins to God and be forgiven by Him.
• When God reveals to us our negative attitudes towards a person, we should go make things right with the person. Only by obeying God’s commands to love your neighbor are you showing God’s love.
• The teachings of Peter and Paul about love of people and right worship and prayer are not their own teachings. God told these commands to the Israelites through Moses in Deuteronomy and Leviticus. Jesus reiterated and consolidated them in His teachings recorded in the Gospels.

Are your heart and hands clean before God?

Will your prayers, worship, and offerings be acceptable to Him?

Do you hold bitterness, anger, or hatred toward other people in your heart?

God offers a way for you to commune with Him.

Confess and repent of your sins to Him and He through His righteousness will forgive you and impart righteousness to you.

Come, now is the time to worship and pray with your whole heart.

God will be with you and hear you.

Do the Right Thing: A James 4:17 Devotional

James compiled his teachings to Christians into one singular lesson. He said in verse seventeen, “Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.” When a person is a Christian, he/she belongs to God’s family and knows right from wrong because of Jesus’ Spirit indwelling the person. People can comprehend the heart of God. No believer can say he or she did not know the right thing to do. The Holy Spirit teaches of righteousness and convicts of sin. James said if a person recognized he/she was supposed to do something, but did not do it, omitting or choosing not to do what is right makes him/her a sinner. Whoa, intentionally not doing something right is a sin! Intentionally choosing to do something wrong is a sin, too.

Christians cannot say they did not understand. The Holy Spirit will tell believers what is right and wrong to do, say, and think. Luke spoke about this in Luke 12:47. The person who chooses not to do what God says is right, God will judge. Jesus similarly told the Pharisees in John 9:41. Peter took this idea further in 2 Peter 2:20-21.

Since we understand James’ meaning in verse seventeen, how is it a compilation of his earlier teachings? Consider his teachings.

·        Do not show favoritism to the rich hoping to gain influence and help from them in the future. God provides for each person what he or she needs when she needs it. You have an inheritance in the kingdom of God. Love your neighbors as your self. Show your love of God in your obedience to His laws. Do the right thing. (Ch. 2)

·       Show God’s love even to the poorest person by giving food, clothes, shelter, and daily needs. In this, you show your faith by your works and fulfill the second greatest commandment. Faith without works is useless (2:20). Do the right thing. (Ch. 2)

·       Guard your tongues. Blessings and curses cannot come from the same mouth. Ask for God’s wisdom. Allow the Holy Spirit to help bridle your mouth, which bridles your whole body thereby showing the new creation your relationship with God through Jesus Christ effected. Teachers have a greater accountability and stricter judgment from God. Do the right thing. (Ch. 3)

·       Ask for God’s wisdom to guide you so jealousy and selfish ambition do not lead you astray to arrogance and lying against the Truth. Seek wisdom and produce the fruits from above. Do the right thing. (Ch. 3)

·       Do not envy another person. Envy leads to quarrels and fights. It makes a person an adulterer, hostile to God. God gives the greater grace – the better blessing(s) – salvation and eternal life. James gave six things for each believer to return to God.

ü  Submit to God

ü  Resist the devil

ü  Draw near to God

ü  Cleanse your hands

ü  Purify your hearts

ü  Humble yourselves before God.

                        When a believer does these things to return to the Lord, God will draw near

                         the person and exalt him/her. Do the right thing. (Ch. 4)

·       Do not slander and judge another person. By doing so you judge God. You are not greater than God, so you cannot judge another person. Do the right thing. (Ch. 4)

·       Consult God when planning your future – in business and everyday life. You do not know the future and cannot plan without God’s guidance, recognizing He holds the future, provides the profit, and gives everything you need. Do the right thing. (Ch. 4)

Each lesson James taught to the Jerusalem Christians in his epistle dealt with the whole person – heart, head, mouth, and body. He taught how to speak and act as Christians in this world. James taught Christians to be “doers of the word and not hearers only.” That means embodying the love of God in their daily lives. Christians understand what they are to do because of the indwelling Holy Spirit and Christian teaching. They sin if they did not do what is right and just. Christians cannot say they do not want to get involved. As Christians who understand the right thing to do, they must do the right thing in situations encountered in daily life.

Be “doers” of the word, not “omit-ers.”

PRAYER (part 2): Who is the Effective Pray-er

Introduction 

Last week’s Bible study, Prayer (Part 1): What, Why, and How, began a multi-part series on the Bible’s teaching on prayer and the pray-er. In the New American Standard translation of the Bible, over 132 verses speak on the pray-er and on praying, calling out, supplicating, asking, and requesting from God. The first part of this study on prayer and the pray-er covered three areas:

·         What is prayer?

·         What do we do when we pray?

·          How do we/are we supposed to pray?

This second part of the pray-er/praying Bible study series will cover what the Bible teaches on the pray-er - the person who prays.

If we can grasp the magnitude of prayer that prayer is not just a conduit to God’s help or a wish list, but a way of growing to know God better-of being in relationship with Him-then we will understand the importance of prayer in our lives. We may start our Christian life praying as a Christian discipline. Over time and with deeper devotions, prayer becomes an everyday desire to be with the Lord. Prayer is a way to stay in a continual and growing relationship with God. By it, we grow more Christlike, too.

What is expected of the Pray-er 

Many people think prayer is acceptable to God from anyone. We do not realize since prayer is part of the foundation of our relationship with God that specific requirements of the pray-er are necessary for God to hear prayers. The Bible mentions twenty-nine attributes, actions, and attitudes necessary of the pray-er. These group into eleven categories of attributes, actions, and attitudes of a person from whom God will listen to and answer prayer. I will strive to note these in descending order based on the number of times mentioned in the Bible though no one of them is important to the pray-er than any other. As a quick reference, these categories break out this way–righteousness, belief, praying in solitude, watchfulness and alertness, ceaseless prayer, fervency and enthusiasm, approach of God, self-control, love of people, acknowledge and love of Jesus, and praying in agreement.

Righteousness 

One of the most famous men in the Old Testament known to be righteous is Job. Even though he endured testing by Satan at the permission of God, Job never denied the Lord nor gave up on Him. He believed God listened and answered his prayers. While going through the trials Satan aimed toward Job, Job prayed to God. In Job 16:17-19, he expressed that though his prayer was pure, and it appeared he would sink in the darkness, he had a faithful and listening witness in heaven. Job recognized the need for purity and righteousness of the person praying. In Job 42:8 God recognized Job’s prayers as acceptable and righteous as opposed to those of his friends. In this verse, God spoke to Eliphaz (Job’s neighbor). He told Eliphaz twice that Job was His servant. God recognized and pointed out Job’s righteousness compared to Eliphaz’s lack of righteousness. He told Eliphaz what made him unrighteous in His sight–speaking against Him.

Besides these two verses on Job, eleven other verses in the Bible record God hears and answers the prayers of the person who is righteous. Righteousness comes from God to His believers. He gives righteousness through belief in Him and forgiveness of a believer’s sins when that person confesses and repents of his or her sin. God continues to give righteousness each day to a believer when that person chooses to live by the power of the Holy Spirit He put within the person on his or her day of saving belief in Jesus Christ. For Abraham, Moses, Job and others of the Old Testament, their saving faith came when they believed God and He counted it as righteousness (Genesis 15:6, Job 1:8, Hebrews 11). Because this attribute is important in the person who prays, I will give the verse and references concerning righteousness and the pray-er for your reflection. Consider the following verses:

Ø  Psalms 17:1 – “Hear a just cause, O LORD, give heed to my cry; Give ear to my prayer, which is not from deceitful lips.”

Ø  Psalm 19:14 – “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.”

Ø  Proverbs 15:29 – “The LORD is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous.”

Ø  Isaiah 56:1 – “This says the LORD, ‘Preserve justice and do righteousness for My salvation is about to come and My righteousness to be revealed.”

Ø  Acts 10:1-2– “Now there was a man at Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort, a devout (godly, pious, like God he was righteous before God) man and one who feared God with all his household, and gave many alms to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually.”

Ø  Acts 10:31 – “And he (Peter) said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God.”

Ø  1 Timothy 2:8 – “Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension.” (coming before God righteous as a right relationship with the Lord makes us)

Ø  James 4:3 – “You ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.” (Wrong motives, James noted, come from selfish desires and jealousy. These are not righteousness.)

Ø  James 5:16 – “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” (God will answer the prayer of a righteous person.)

Ø  1 Peter 3:12 – “For the eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous and His ears attend to their prayer, but the face of the LORD is against those who do evil.”

Ø  1 John 5:14-15 – “This is the confidence which we have before Him that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.” (God hears and accepts prayers that are in accord with His will. Our faith in Him means we can know He will answer our prayers made according His will.)

The Bible teaches the other side of this, too. It says in Proverbs 28:9, “He who turns his ear from listening to the Law, even his prayer is an abomination.” “Abomination” comes from the Hebrew word tow’ebah and means disgusting, wicked, and abomination[i]. A person who turns away from following God is sinful and wicked. God will condemn wicked people on judgment day. Peter wrote in 1 Peter 3:12, “The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, and His ears attend to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” God will listen to the prayers of the righteous, those who seek Him. Jesus said this to the Pharisees in Matthew 23:14 when He spoke about their actions. He said God would not listen to their prayers because of their evil actions and unrepentant hearts. God would condemn them.

God will listen to the righteous, those who genuinely seek Him and want to be in a relationship with Him. He will not attend to the prayers of the unrighteous-those who do not follow the Lord and who live and pray with selfish motives.

Belief

Belief in God is the attribute second most spoken of by the Bible in a believer who prays. The Bible writers most often stated it as “having faith in God.” In this category, five Bible verses speak on “prayer” and two regarding “pray” and “ask.” Jesus noted faith was necessary (Matt. 17:19-21). He said belief brings receiving that for which you ask in prayer (Matt. 21:22). Paul has great confidence in the faith and prayers of the Philippian Christians (Phil. 1:19). He said the believers of Philippi could pray with thanksgiving knowing God would listen to and answer their prayers (Phil. 4:6). James stated the prayer of faith would restore the sick (James 5:15). Mark noted for a pray-er to receive that for which he or she asked, he or she had to believe (Mark 11:24). John speaks of this same belief necessary for a child of God. He said because the Father loves believers, He wants to give them what they request (John 16:26-27). Each of these men spoke of belief in terms of the Greek word pisteuo. Pisteuo means to think to be true, to be persuaded and place confidence in God and Jesus Christ because of a conviction and trust in the triune God. That trust aids in getting what a person needs or prays for, and in receiving salvation. The Bible speaks through seven verses/passages of the pray-er needing to have faith or belief. Below are those verses.

Ø  Matthew 17:19-21; 21:22

Ø  Mark 11:24

Ø  John 16:26-27

Ø  Philippians 1:19; 4:6

Ø  James 5:15

Pray in Solitude

The third most common teaching in the Bible concerning the attribute, action, or attitude of the pray-er necessary for effective praying regards where to pray. Five times in the New Testament the disciples recorded Jesus teaching or modeling prayer in solitude. Jesus told people to go to an inner room. He contrasted this solitary praying with that of the Pharisees whom He called hypocrites. Four other times, Matthew and Luke record Jesus went to a lonely, quiet, and solitary place to pray. You will notice when you read these passages that Jesus took those dearest to Him, the disciples. He modeled prayer for them and He wanted them to pray to the Father, too.

Solitariness solely for isolation was not what Jesus taught. He taught this so people understood the intent of the pray-er’s heart was what God listened to and saw. That intent, be it righteousness or showmanship, determined if God would attend to and answer prayer. Jesus taught this lesson so people understood a pray-er must get away from distractions to commune truly with the Father. A quiet place allows a person to focus on God so the pray-er can approach God with reverence. That person can have an honest conversation with Him that enables two-way communication. This private conversation gives the pray-er solitude so he or she remains uninfluenced to push his or her sins, for which he/she makes confession should, under the rug. Solitude allows focus, genuine communication, and sincere repentance and confession.

The verses of the New Testament that teach this action and attitude of the pray-er are:

Ø  Matthew 6:6, 14:23

Ø  Luke 5:16, 6:12, & 9:28 

Watchfulness and Alertness

In the four verses that teach a pray-er should be alert or watchful, the writers of those verses used two Greek words watchfulness and alertness–gregoreuo and agrupneo. Both these words mean to stay awake to avoid the snares and deceptions of Satan. Agrupneo is an alertness in a believer’s character that keeps laziness and forgetfulness from becoming part of the person’s character, which would allow temptations to overtake him or her. It derives from the word used to speak of a shepherd abstaining from sleep to watch for the safety of the sheep. Agrupneo speaks of an active watchfulness and alertness. It describes being spiritually awake and alert as opposed to being spiritually indifferent. The writer uses this “alert” as a command/imperative. (This alert is aorist imperative.) Agrupneo is an action a believer is to do based on his or her character. It is characteristic of being a Christian who is growing more like Christ. If a person is truly a believer, then he or she will be alert. The character is of being a Christian, which should impel an active watchfulness. Luke and Paul used agrupneo for the English word “alert” in Luke 21:36 and Ephesians 6:18.

The second word used for alert and watchful, gregoreuo, has its emphasis on the action of being watchful, not the character of the person. In its original usage, it referred to being careful as one stepped on moss-covered stones, not being careful as a follower of God. Gregoreuo is an action and agrupneo should be part of the character of a believer. Over time, the usage of both came to mean the same thing–being watchful and alert. Matthew and Paul used gregoreuo in Matthew 26:41 and Colossians 4:2.

The important thing to remember about these passages is the call to be actively watchful and alert. For a person to be an effective pray-er, one who God hears, that person must be alert and watchful not to be tempted and deceived to follow a way other than God’s way. When people walk away from God and remain unrepentant, they are not righteous and their prayers go unheard by God. When a genuine seeking of God occurs by a person, God hears and will answer prayer.

Ceaseless Prayer

A person who seeks God in prayer should pray ceaselessly. In Luke 18:1, Jesus taught His disciples to pray always and not give up. He taught the Father would listen to the prayers of His children who cry out to Him ceaselessly day and night. He is the just King and brings justice for His people. The other point Jesus made with this passage came as a question. He asked, “Would the returned Christ find faith like this on earth when He returns?” Will people who call themselves believers have continual faith in crisis and calm and still follow Him?

Paul taught on ceaseless prayer, too. He said the pray-er should pray at all times and without ceasing in Ephesians 6:18 and 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18. He modeled this unceasing and faith-filled prayer in Colossians 1:9.

These verses remind us prayer is about being in relationship with the Father, not just an emergency lifeline. Prayer should happen in good times and bad. Besides this, the pray-er should align his or her request with God’s will. By doing that, the pray-er will join with God seeking the best and He will answer the prayer. The pray-er should be in such a close relationship with the Lord that his or her prayers are ceaseless (at all times), persevering, and in agreement with the will of God. 

Fervency and Enthusiasm

Along with ceaseless praying, the Bible instructs pray-ers to approach the Lord in prayer with what is on his or her heart. When a pray-er does this, the person is fervent, passionate, and enthusiastic concerning that for which he or she prays be it a petition, confession and repentance, or adoration and thanks. The word “fervent” comes from the Greek word ektenos and means earnestly, fervently, and intensely. When a person genuinely approaches God in prayer, the person speaks with enthusiasm (fervency) and not with meaningless repetition. The Bible speaks on these in four passages.

The Christian church prayed fervently for Peter’s release from prison in Acts 12:5. No earthly powers would intervene for Peter. The followers of Jesus knew God’s power could provide release for him. Jesus gave believers a model of fervent praying. Luke recorded in Luke 22:44 that Jesus, in agony, prayed with fervency as noted when His sweat was like drops of blood on the ground. James said Elijah prayed earnestly it would not rain and it did not for three-and-a-half years, until he prayed for rain (James 5:17).

Earnestness comes from the heart. This prayer is not a rote prayer learned as a child. It does not come from repetition, but as a heart’s cry to the Lord almighty. Jesus said the Gentiles prayed meaningless repetition to their gods, and those supposed gods stayed silent. Their prayers went unanswered (Matthew 6:7). Instead, Jesus taught His believers should pray to God about what is on their hearts. Be earnest.

Approach of God

In last week’s Bible study on prayer (Prayer part 1: What, Why, and How), we learned from the Bible we are to approach God recognizing His existence, mercy, power, faithfulness, and righteousness. Because of these, we are to approach Him with reverence, pray to Him only, and ensure our prayers give testimony of God. The question this current part of our study answers is the physical/spiritual action needed when praying. Five verses in the New Testament teach us how to approach God.

Ephesians 6:18 tells us to pray in the Spirit. Romans 8:26 says this, too. It says, “In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” This Spirit is the Helper Jesus promised His followers (John 14:16). Jesus added in John 14:26 the Father would send this Helper, the Holy Spirit, in Jesus’ name (with Jesus’ power). This means when we pray in the Spirit, we are communicating and communing with God through the Holy Spirit He puts in each believer when he or she professes Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. This Holy Spirit gives us access to the Father for communicating and utters things too deep for mere human words. By the Spirit, we commune with Him on a spiritual level.

Besides praying through the Holy Spirit, Paul taught we are to pray with our spirit and mind. If what we pray is not understandable to our physical/mental being, it will not affect our resultant actions and thoughts. Prayers need to come from the mind. Yet if our prayers are just mental and we do not commune with God with our spirit, too, then praying is rote discipline and does not affect us spiritually-growing us to be more Christlike, heeding God, and truly communing with Him. Prayer brings and nurtures our relationship with God. If only one part of our self prays to God, then true relationship building and bonding does not occur.

Besides approaching God through the Holy Spirit and with our whole being–heart, mind, and soul, we must approach Him acceptably with our physical self. We must speak acceptably to the Lord. David expressed this in Psalm 19:14 when he said, “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.” David recognized prayer occurs from the physical self and the heart.

God taught the Israelites to love the LORD with all their heart, soul, and might in Deuteronomy 6:5. Jesus taught His followers to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, strength (might), and mind in Luke 10:27. Jesus understood to be in a relationship with God, humans had to love Him with their whole being–spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional. To love someone with the depth of one’s being means a person must communicate and relate to another on each of these levels. Relationship and communication are more than speaking (action). Communication with the Lord is more than thinking your prayers to Him, too. Relationship with God involves physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual connection.

Self-Control

Added to the areas above, the person who prays, to be an effective pray-er, must be self-controlled. What does that mean? Just as we love the Lord with our whole being–heart, soul, mind, and strength–we are to bring the parts of our self under control while seeking to be one with God, build our relationship with Him, and become more Christlike. Part of that self-control is being humble. David spoke of this in Psalm 35:13 when he expressed his loyalty to Saul and his family. We must approach God with humility, which includes in prayer. Solomon humbled himself before the Lord in 1 Kings 8:28 when he referred to himself as a servant of the LORD God.

Peter added to humility in prayer. He taught, “The end of all things is near; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer.” This “sound judgment and sober spirit” he spoke of is self-control and humility. Besides that, when he said a person must approach prayer with a sober spirit, he meant the pray-er must be calm and collected in his or her spirit, temperate and dispassionate. To approach the Lord in prayer requires the person praying to be humble, self-controlled, calm, and collected. Building and deepening a relationship needs peace to occur. Frantic-ness is inevitable, but is not conducive to meaningful communication and growth.

Love of People 

When approaching the Lord in prayer, a person must harbor no ill will–wrath and bitterness–toward another person. Jesus taught this in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:23. He said, “Therefore, if you are presenting your offering at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother and then come and present your offer.” Jesus taught that interpersonal relationships can hinder our relationship with God because our emotions get in the way. If a person is fraught with negative emotions those emotions carry-over into other spheres of life including our relationship with God.

Peter and Paul both taught people need to live with understanding and care toward other people so they can approach God in peace and without anger, bitterness, or fretting. In 1 Peter 3:7, Peter spoke about husbands and wives, the closest human relationship. He said, “You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman, and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.” By harboring anger or a grudge against a person, we do not honor him or her. Bitterness takes root in a heart and prevents genuine communion with God. Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 2:8, “Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting holy hands, without wrath and dissension.” He taught the same thing Peter did. One cannot lift his/her hands in prayer if he/she lifts them in anger toward another person.

Our relationship with other people affects our relationship with God. These relationships include the husband and wife relationship, other familial relationships, and encounters with friends and other people within our sphere. We must honor, care for, and love other people. That was the second part of the greatest commandment Jesus taught. Love of other people is the second part of the Ten Commandments God gave Moses for the Israelites–love one another. The first part is to love and honor God. 

Acknowledge and Love Jesus

This should be obvious based on the myriad other teachings to people who pray. Yet we must include it lest someone say he or she did not know. Because Jesus Christ is the Son of God and one person of the triune Godhead, when Jesus told His followers and God told His children–Israel-to love the LORD with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, they meant for all God’s children to love Jesus Christ with their whole being, too. In John 16:26-27, Jesus told His followers because His followers love Him, the Father loves them and will listen to their prayers.

Jesus said one other thing in this passage. He said to ask in Jesus name whatever you will and the Father will give it to you (John 16:23-27). Does that mean those words, “In Jesus name,” are a magic formula like “abracadabra?” It does not. By saying them, you recognize and acknowledge that Jesus is your Savior and has the power to answer your prayers. Jesus said this more than once. He meant it. Jesus said it again in John 14:13 when He said, “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” He said it in John 15:16, too. He said, “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.” Notice what asking anything in Jesus’ name means-

·         It means He is your Savior. You identify with Him and suffer as a Christian as He suffered while on earth.

·         Asking in Jesus’ name means the Father gets the glory. If that for which you ask will not bring God glory, Jesus will not ask the Father and your request will go unfilled.

·         Asking in Jesus’ name means you are a Christian bearing fruit, growing towards perfection in Christ, and that for which you ask leads to more fruit, a harvest that testifies about God.

Pray in Agreement

This last listed attribute, action, or attitude expected of the one who prays to God is not unimportant. Upon it hinges harmony, love of other people, and love of God. Without these, a person cannot be an effective pray-er. Without these, one does not grow toward righteousness, genuinely seek to be in communion with God, and grow toward Christlikeness.

The author of Acts, most likely Luke, wrote concerning this attribute of an effective pray-er three times. In Acts 1:14 the disciples were of one mind and continually devoted to prayer. Luke said in Acts 16:13 Paul sought a place of prayer to be with other like-minded believers seeking to be with God. In Acts 20:36, before Paul left Ephesus for the last time, he cherished time to pray with the Ephesian Christians.

·         Praying with other people requires agreement for that which each prays and, therefore, unity.

·         Praying is important enough to seek other people with whom to join in harmony and seek the Lord.

·         Praying with other people is effective when each person praying in the group agrees on what he or she says to God in adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and/or petition. Jesus taught this, too.

Jesus taught His followers to pray together, too. In Matthew 18:19-20, Jesus said, “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in My name, I am there in their midst.” When more than one Christian communicates with God about the same thing, most likely those people are praying what the heart of God wills.

The question arises: Does praying with other people make prayer more effective? In practicality, it does not because whether one person prays according to the will of God or several people pray, God hears and answers the prayers of a righteous person. With more than one person praying in concert, prayers in unison rise before God for the same thing. The urgency of heart among the people each seeking God’s heart and will on a specific request gladdens His heart and perhaps makes the answer to prayer arrive sooner. He might rain down His blessings sooner. 

Recap

Does God hear our prayers? The answer is yes if the pray-er is righteous. Righteousness comes from being in a right relationship with God. Throughout the Bible, the different authors inspired by God agreed upon eleven things that made a pray-er effective. The first is the most important and leads to the others occurring. Without the first, some of the other ten are missing and God will not listen nor answer prayer. For prayer to be effective-for God to listen to and answer a prayer–the person praying (the pray-er) must genuinely seek the Lord and His will. If that occurs, God promises He will hear from heaven (2 Chronicles 7:14).

Relevance and Conclusion 

Do we approach prayer as an item on our daily to-do list? Do we treat it as just a Christian discipline? Prayer is not just a wish list or a get-out-of-jail-free card. Genuine prayer comes from a person seeking to grow in his or her relationship with God–to know Him and His will–and to grow more like Christ each day. The Bible records eleven attributes, actions, and attitudes of a person who is seeking a growing relationship with God. None of us is perfect. Each of us needs to grow in at least one of these areas. In which area are you weakest and do you need to grow?

·         Righteousness

·         Belief

·         Praying in Solitude

·         Watchfulness and Alertness

·         Ceaseless Praying

·         Fervency and Enthusiasm

·         Approach to God

·         Self-Control

·         Love of People

·         Acknowledgement and Love of Jesus

·         Praying in Agreement

This question and its answer is between you and God. Take it to God and ask Him to show you where you need to change so your relationship with Him can grow and you will glorify Him in your prayer life and public life. James said true wisdom and understanding from God results in righteousness (James 3). Today is the day for you to ask God for His wisdom and understanding about your prayer life.

What will you do today?