According to Luke 11:1-13 [NLTse]

Would anybody here like to experience a greater closeness to God? I know this can be kind of a sticky-wicket kind of question to ask because our feelings and experiences can be so subjective: What makes me feel close to God might not make you feel close to God. And then, of course, there’s always the temptation (when seeking after certain feelings or experiences) to begin to get hooked on the high or emotionalism that good feelings and thrilling experiences can leave us with and come to a place where the high and the thrill are more important to a person than God. Ultimately it’s not about our feelings anyway: The Lord Jesus promises that He is with us and even within us whether we feel it or experience the reality of it or not.

All that being said and acknowledged, does anybody here desire to feel or experience a greater closeness to God? … Are you willing to work for it? I’m not trying to offend anyone, I’m just asking because we’ve become such a “microwave” culture: Looking for instant gratification; expecting instant relief; demanding instant results. And getting to enjoy a sense of closeness with the Lord is less like microwaving and more like marinating…

If you want to grow closer to God I want to invite you to begin growing your time with God in prayer. Now perhaps you already have a strong prayer habit, and that’s wonderful! And history tells stories of great men and women of prayer who had focused, set-apart prayer times of two, three, four hours and more during special seasons of intercession! So we can always grow!

Many Christians struggle with prayer, I know. Perhaps you are one of them. I hear Christians sometimes wondering: Does it really matter if I pray, isn’t God just going to do what He wants to anyway? And if our praying does matter, why does it sometimes take so long for my prayers to be answered? Is there a difference between times when we should keep on praying until we get a response and times when we should just trust that the Lord has heard our prayers and thank Him ahead of time in faith? If everything that happens to us and our loved ones is allowed by God then does it matter if I pray for God’s protection for them? And the questions and the confusion can go on and on…

And there are answers to many of those questions and other questions like them. And perhaps the Lord will share them with us over time. But for now I’d simply like to take us through a little bit of a survey of what the Bible has to say about prayer that I hope will encourage us to make time to pray before we go to bed tonight, and tomorrow, and the day after that, and so on.

Father, inspire us; fill us Holy Spirit; help us, Lord Jesus. Amen?

Open your Bibles (or feel free to use the Bible in your pew) to Psalm 62:8… Verse 8 tells us that God is our refuge – our place of safety. Now, because God is our refuge, what does v. 8 tell us to do? trust in him at all times; pour out our hearts to him. uuu Because the Lord is our safe place He calls us to pour out our hearts to Him.

Turn to Hebrews 10:19-22… Let me read it for us: “And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter Heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. This is the new, life-giving way that Christ has opened up for us through the sacred curtain, by means of His death for us. And since we have a great High Priest Who rules over God’s people, let us go right into the presence of God, with true hearts fully trusting Him. For our evil consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood making us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.” Look at this passage; think about what this passage is saying: uuu How should we approach God when we come to pray?

o Fearful and cautious

o Confident and open

o Making sure we speak the right words

o Proud and complacent

confident and open. uuu We can fearlessly enter God’s presence on account of Christ, with true hearts, fully trusting in Him. uuu

Turn with me to Luke 11:9-10… What three things does Jesus tell us to do? uuu keep on asking; keep on seeking; keep on knocking. uuu And when we do, what does He promise will happen? when we keep on asking we will be given what we’ve been asking for; when we keep on seeking we will find what we’ve been looking for; when we keep on knocking what’s been closed to us will be opened. uuu

Let’s turn to Philippians 4:6-7… What does the Holy Spirit through Paul tell us not to do? don’t worry about anything. Instead, what are we told to do? pray about everything: tell god what we need and thank him for all he has done. What are we promised when we do this? we will experience god’s peace, and his peace will guard our hearts and our minds as we live in christ. uuu

Turn to John 14:13-14… The Lord Jesus tells us to pray in His name, why? because the work of the son brings glory to the father. uuu Trusting in what Buddha has done does not bring glory to the Father. Believing Mohammed’s teaching does not bring glory to the Father. Asking the help of some other god or power does not bring glory to the Father. Jesus is the only way to God. The more often we pray relying upon Jesus, and every time He gives us what we’ve asked Him for, those around us are more and more convinced that our Father is indeed God!

Over to Jeremiah 33… The prophet Jeremiah has been taken into custody by the King of Judah, and, in v. 3, the LORD speaks to him: “Ask Me and I will tell you some remarkable secrets about what is going to happen here.” Why does God want Jeremiah to pray? god wants to tell jeremiah “remarkable secrets” about what’s going on and what he is going to make happen. uuu God wants to let us in on His secrets! Sometimes when the Lord is calling us to pray it’s because He wants us to know what He’s about to do before He does it!

Lastly, let’s go to Ephesians 3:20… Concerning prayer, how does the Holy Spirit through Paul describe God here? able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope. uuu

The experience of prayer is a very intimate one for most people: Trusting that Jesus is next to us as we walk and talk to Him; visualizing Him sitting across from us or next to us as we sit and pray; believing the voice in your head that just responded to your words was the Holy Spirit’s voice, it is all very profound and faith-building!

But, again, I know many struggle with what to pray for: We often ask God for such temporal (as opposed to eternal) and worldly (instead of godly) things which works to quench our sense of intimacy and closeness with the Lord. So, let’s finish up exploring a couple more Scripture.

Turn to Romans 10:1… What did Paul pray for the people of Israel? for them to be saved. uuu

Over to Matthew 9:37-38… What did Jesus tell the disciples to pray for? for the lord to send more workers out to bring people to christ and disciple them. uuu

Here are a couple that are all together: Start with Psalm 19:14… What request is being made? for our words and thoughts to be acceptable to god. uuu How about in Psalm 51:2… to free us from guilt and purify us from sin. uuu Down to 51:10… a clean heart and a loyal spirit. And lastly, Psalm 86:11… to teach us to live out his ways with purity of heart. uuu

I’ve included in today’s Bulletin an Insert listing many of the members and adherents here at First Presbyterian. (I’m sure it’s not complete, so if your name is not on it but you consider yourself a part of the church here, make a note about it later on when we sign the Red Books and we’ll make sure the church is praying for you, too.) Set aside special time each morning and each evening when no one will disturb you, or perhaps call or meet to pray with a friend if that enhances your sense of closeness and fellowship with Christ. Kneel, walk, sit, … It takes some work, but you want to grow closer to God!

He rewards those who sincerely seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6)