Tag: importance of prayer

Posted in Bible study, From the Insideout, LGG Study

Committed to Praise

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Read: Psalm 100; SOAP: Psalm 100:4-5

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise.
Give him thanks. Praise his name. 5 For the Lord is good.
His loyal love endures, and he is faithful through all generations.

Psalm 100:4-5

It’s easy to praise God when everything is going great in our lives or when something good happens … a prayer is answered … someone is healed … someone is saved … you get the job you wanted … a baby is born …. God provides for a need … However, what about the times when everything seems to be going wrong? What about when someone you love is sick … you don’t have enough to pay the bills … the doctor just gave you bad news … your car needs repairs that are expensive … what then? Do you still praise Him or do you get lost in the sorrow, the worry, the concerns, frustrations, fears … ? We all know the right “Sunday School” answer – we praise Him – even in the storms of life – right? But – How? How, when the walls are closing in and everything seems hopeless? This passage is how … or at least a stepping stone of encouragement. We make a habit of shouting out praises to the Lord … We determine to worship Him with joy, to enter His presence with joyful singing. We acknowledge that the Lord is God and pronounce every morning that He is good. We enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. We give Him thanks and praise His name! Why? Certainly not because everything is perfect or because it’s always easy – for life isn’t always easy and neither people nor life’s circumstances are perfect. We commit to praising Him because, as David acknowledges here – “the Lord is good. His loyal love endures, and He is faithful though all generations. So when life has you down – when complaining or whining seem the best or only option left – PRAISE HIM ANYWAY! Recall His past acts of kindness and goodness … remember the way He has helped you or provided in the past … For when your relationship with God is based on these truths and not dependent on your circumstances you will stay yielded to a lifestyle of PRAISE.

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Posted in Bible study, The Importance of Prayer

He Gives Good Gifts to His Children Who Ask Him

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Inspired by “The Importance of Prayer”, aLGG Bible Study – w3d4
Today’s Scripture Reading : Matthew 6:5-13; 7:7-11; SOAP 7:11

7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 Is there anyone among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you then, although you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 

Matthew 7:7-11 NET

The first of our suggested passages today is most likely familiar to everyone. Known as the “Lord’s Prayer”, it is recorded here in Matthew as well as in Luke. It is the model Jesus gave the disciples when they asked Him, “how then should we pray?’, (Luke 11:1). In Matthew chapter 11, however, the focus is more on the attitude of our praying – the inflection of our attitude should be one of persistence. Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking – believing that God is hearing and will answer the request, which as we have already been reminded in our study – is indeed His promise – when we pray according to His will, (1 John 5:13-15). The last of this passage, verse 11, points out that not only is God attentive to our prayers He also answers with good gifts. Jesus uses the analogy that if we, as people with sinful natures, know how to give good gifts – how much more will the Father do likewise for His children?

Why is this a good lesson on “The Importance of Prayer”? Because if we don’t trust that God will give us a fish instead of a snake then we most likely do not truly believe He is a good God. If this is the case then our prayers will fail from the get-go. We must learn to pray from a position of trust whether we are praying for God’s Kingdom or our own needs.

Father, thank You for wanting to interact with Your children and thank You for being a good Father, who faithfully and lovingly gives good and perfect gifts. Thank you that they are gifts not only of tangible needs and wants but also gifts of the Scriptural nature – of teaching and encouragement, of mercy and discernment. help us to use them well and to ask for things that bring you glory. Please help me be aware of what I’m asking for, to ask with right motivation, and help me to be persistent and to ask believing – In Jesus Name – Amen!