2 | Commun/ication

1 Samuel 1:21-2:11 | Commun/ication

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Slides:

Don’t focus on the things we are praying about - focus on the One we are praying to.

Isaiah 29:13 

“..this people approaches Me with their words and honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me…”

Colossians 3:2

Set your mind on the things above, not the things on earth.

Isaiah 26:3

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.

Don’t focus on the activity of prayer - focus on the one we are praying to.

Romans 8:5, 26-27

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit… In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

By asking God for things, we exercise our belief that he really is the foundation of all good and that without him we can do nothing that is actually good. If God was a single, independent person, independence would be the godly thing. That would be how to be like him. But as the Son always depends on the Father, that is the nature of Christian godliness. Being a Christian is first and foremost all about receiving, asking, and depending. It’s when you don’t feel needy (and so when you don’t pray much) that you lose your grip on reality, and think or act in a non-Christian manner. In fact, as you grow as a Christian, you should feel not more self-sufficient, but ever more needy. Prayer then, is enjoying the care of a powerful Father, instead of being left to a frightening loneliness, where everything is all down to you. Prayer is the antithesis of self-dependence. With this in mind, instead of chasing the idol of our own productivity, let us be dependent children - and let the busyness that could keep us from prayer drive us to prayer.

- Michael Reeves (Enjoy Your Prayer Life)

Hebrews 4:14-16

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. 16 Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.