By David Brenneman
“Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’ For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions." Matthew 6:9-15.
"Then He said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to him at midnight and says to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and from inside he answers and says, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs. So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened. Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” Luke 11:5-13.
Luke vs 7-8, The idea that prayer is a passive activity has no place in the Word of God. Prayer is persistence, conflict, and spiritual warfare. Hebrews 5:7 " - Notes from Dr. David Jeremiah's Study Bible.
Luke 11:9-13 Prayer is a matter of faith-taking God at His word and
trusting His promise to work on His people's behalf-even when His
work is invisible, when the answers are long in coming, and when
He seems to be withholding His blessings. The act of persistent
prayer proclaims a believer's commitment to Him (Luke 18:1-5) - Notes from Dr. David Jeremiah's Study Bible.
By and large its becoming more evident to me the truths found in Dr. David Jeremiah's Study Bible notes.
To the tune that I rearranged my study to highlight to Pray more, remembering that God loves me and to not cease to pray.
It's the aim of Satan's minions to keep our hearts and minds away from truly deep active prayer.
He and they do not want a single prayer to escape into Jesus's awaiting ears...and my Dear Reader all prayers DO reach His awaiting ears.
Consider Daniel.
"Now while I was speaking and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God in behalf of the holy mountain of my God, while I was still speaking in prayer, then the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision previously, came to me in my extreme weariness about the time of the evening offering. He gave me instruction and talked with me and said, “O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you insight with understanding. At the beginning of your supplications the command was issued, and I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed; so give heed to the message and gain understanding of the vision." Daniel 9:20-23.
From the moment Daniel set his heart and mind to pray and he began doing so, the command was issued to go to him. Yet the one sent faced fierce opposition to getting to him. Daniel persisted in praying. He knew that regardless of any response as he surprisingly received it was on him to persist in prayer.
We may not receive such wondrous personal responses but we can be assured of the same effect that the Lord hears and will respond.
My last six months have mostly certainly been an exercise is persistence in prayer. It's also been fraught with disappointments and at times discouragement. But I indeed must press on. I can no more not pray than not breathe. Quite often the anguish of my heart over being unemployed has gripped me and I just didn't, and sometimes still don't, know HOW to pray.
As Dr. Stanley has pointed out in his Life Principles Study...we aren't defined by our circumstances. We are defined as having come to Christ for salvation and as such are Children of God, the bride of Christ. We are His Disciples. We are beloved of God. Making it personal on a daily basis, many times a day I am learning to remind myself that God loves David Brenneman. That He died for me and He has a plan and purpose for me. He promised never to leave me nor forsake me.
These things are part of my prayer life.
“When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him." Matthew 6:5-8.
Do you have a private place to pray? Find one. Has it been a while since you last prayed? Guess what, God noticed. Think about that.
We have every temptation assaulting our minds to keep us from praying. Even to the tune that we're blinded by things of this world that we 'love' as being so important to us that we can't see we have squeezed out time with Jesus.
You have done it, I have done it. We all give away our time with Jesus to things of this world that we 'love'.
We have to be persistent in prayer. I need to be reminded of this daily. It's too easy to be distracted from praying. I like what one version I read of Luke 11 that said that the Disciples noticed how important getting up early and getting away to pray was to Jesus that they asked Him how they ought to pray as John the Baptist taught his disciples.
Have you noticed how important prayer was to Jesus? Don't you want that for yourself?
God’s will is wrapped up in our relationship with Jesus. You aren't to go it alone living life once the Spirit indicates what God's will is for you. He leads we follow. He speaks we listen.
Persistence, conflict. Oh expect the conflict. We got to see the behind the scenes conflict in Job's life. We see it in Daniel's life. We see it in the enemy of God fighting over the body of Moses. There's going to be conflict in our lives with the enemy of God to fulfill His purposes and promises to us.
Expect the spiritual warfare.
"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." Ephesians 6:12.
In no other place is it so clearly written of our warfare than in Ephesians 6.
Pray On, Pray Over, Pray Through.
Whatever the Lord Jesus Christ has said in response to our prayers will come to be. What good and acceptable thing has He ever said would happen that has not?
We can't give up. We cannot make room for doubt.
Start your day reminding yourself that God loves you and what is best for you.
Then prepare for rough waters whether they arrive today or in the near future. It's better to prepare than be caught off guard.
All NASB Scripture Excerpts used by permission.
New American Standard Bible
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