People at Prayer (1)

I was recently in Hong Kong and I had the opportunity to attend the Ambassador International Church on Sunday, 3^rd of June.  The speaker was Henry Craig who spoke on “People at Prayer”.  I was really blessed by the message because I believe it is a balanced message on prayer.  The summary of the message was:

The necessity of a daily prayer live
Jesus is our example, he knew what to pray about, how to pray and he prayed daily.  He taught this valuable principle by example - ‘Prayer is keeping company with God; it is fellowship with the Almighty.  He told his disciples to always pray and never give up.  He prayed constantly, setting time aside to pray.

Every true prayer is a variation of the theme - ‘Your will be done, Thy kingdom come”

The purpose of every prayer should be to pray for the establishment of God’s will to be done on earth whether it is in our lives or in our community or nation.  When God is glorified, the emphasis is on Him, the spotlight is on Him.  Bringing Him glory and having His will is the benchmark for every prayer.

In the Lord’s Prayer, we can see a pattern for prayer.  It shows that we need to pray about God’s concern before we pray for our own concerns.  As we can see in Matthew 6: 9-13 below:

“This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.   And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one”.

 God centred petition

·         God’s name –hallowed by your name

·         His Kingdom – your kingdom come

·         His Will – your will be done

 Man centred petition

·         Provision - Daily bread

·         Pardon - Forgiveness 

·         Grace not to sin

·         Protection

Fellowship in prayer

An example is the story of Daniel; when he had to interpret Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams to save lives (Daniel chapter 2).  He went to his mates to pray with them.  He got his friends together and urged them to plead for mercies from God.  He knew the importance of fellowship in prayer.   In Matthew 18:19-20; our Lord Jesus mentioned the power of agreement in prayer:

“I also tell you this: If two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you. For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them”

To be continued…..

Blessings,

Dupe