Thursday, December 22, 2005

Fruitful Prayer Life

And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God. Colossians 1:10

Prayer is the means by which we relate everything we do to a sovereign, almighty God. It is the process of acknowledging God as having a right to rule in our lives and to be the source of everything we are and have. He is our life, our hope, and our strength, and we owe Him all thanksgiving, and honor, and praise. We keep our total being licked in to God through His Word and by the link called prayer.

Through prayer we confess our sins and receive forgiveness and are cleansed from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9

Through prayer we reaffirm our position in Christ. Ephesians 1:15-23

Through prayer we take opportunity to give God the thanksgiving He deserves. 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18

Through prayer we know God and become rooted in Him. Ephesians 3:14-21

We must also pray in the name of Jesus. "I will do whatever you ask in my name...You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it." John 14:13-14

Praying in Jesus' name means pray in the character and nature of Jesus. According to Romans 8:34, Jesus is at the right hand of God interceding for us, so, as we pray in His name, our prayers are passed on to the Father.

Our prayers must line up with God's Word. In John 15:7-8, Jesus says, "If you remin in me and my words remain n you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you may bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." If we are praying "in the Spirit" and according to God's Word, then we are in agreement with God.

We must pray according to God's will. In 1 John 5:14, "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. As we seek God's kingdom and His righteousness, all the things we need will be given to us. Matthew 6:33 Sometimes this means denying our own desires, asd asking God instead for what we know He wants.

Prayer is, and should be, part of every Christian's life. It is the way we communicate with God, in order to give Him praise and thanksgiving, as well as to confess our sins.

We need to know how to pray..in His name, according to His will, with clean hearts, just as we need to pray with faith that our prayers will be answered and fruit may result.

2 comments:

Mark Lowenstein said...

Thanks for all the Scriptures and the reminder that our prayers must line up with the Word of God! I can see you put alot of time and thought in putting all this together. :)

Prayer is a way of showing our humility and proclaiming our deep need for God's love, affirmation and guidance. In addition, we're rooted in God through our daily time of prayers.

Amen to the quote: pray in Jesus' Name means to pray in the character and nature of Him!

Finally, like David, we pray for this, "Lord, create in me a pure heart!" Amen, brother!!!!

Anonymous said...

Dennis,

Yes, I really enjoy all of your prayer blogs. I am NOW HOOKED!

"What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?" Deuteronomy 4:7

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, it says "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in ciurcumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. I CRINGE when people look for God in good. We still PRAISE GOD regardless of our bad and good situations.

Psalm 34:1, it says "I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips". I suggest you continue to read it because it is very inspiring and uplifiting for me.

Dennis, let us hear more of your wonderful and powerful COMMENTS!
GIVE US the FIRE FOR GOD's WORD daily!

GOD is POWERFUL,
Holly