Lesson 24: Talking with God in Prayer? (part 3)

Read: Matthew 6:25-34 - www.bible.com/bible/59/mat.6.esv

How can we learn to pray? One of the best ways is by example. So let's look at three prayers in Scripture to see things we should or should not do in prayer. The first is a model of prayer we should follow. We find it in Matthew 6:9-13. We call this "the Lord's prayer" but it would better to call it the disciples’ prayer because it is taught by Jesus to His disciples. This prayer shows us how we are to pray and what is to be included in our prayers. It begins with acknowledgment of God’s attributes, seeking His will, requests for supply of our needs, acknowledgment of our responsibility to others, prayer for protection from our enemy, and then ends with giving glory to God. The disciples’ prayer should be our basic model for talking with God.

The second prayer is found in 1 Chronicles 4:9-10. Jabez had been named a "pain" by his mother. This is the meaning of his name! As Jabez grew up, his friends called him…well, you can imagine how he would be teased in our society. This of course made Jabez very unhappy as a young man. One day he asked God to bless him in such a way as to prove to his companions that he trusted in a faithful God. God answered his prayer because Jabez was not looking for something for himself, he was looking and asking for God to be glorified through him.


The third prayer we will look at from the Scripture is found in 2 Chronicles 7:14. Again, this is a prayer initiated by God as instruction to us for how we are to pray. This prayer, however, has a blessing attached. God tells us if we "humble ourselves, seek His face, pray, and turn from our wicked ways" He will bless us. This blessing is threefold: He will hear us, He will forgive our sins, and He will heal our land.

What we've learned from these three prayers is God wishes us, in all of our prayer life, to give Him glory. Everything we pray for, everything we talk to Him about, is to be done with the single motive of glorifying God. No prayer we utter should ever be self-serving. Even when we ask for things for other people, such as healing or safety, every single prayer should have as its goal God's glory. This changes how we see things. It changes how we talk to Him.

*Read the following examples of answered prayer, and write what they teach you about God:
1 Kings 17:1 and 1 Kings 18:42-45
Matthew 8:2-3
Luke 7:3-10
2 Corinthians 12:7-10