What Every Christian Needs to Know About Prayer: Praying to Be More Like Christ

You're listening to A New Beginning with Greg Laurie, a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God.

Visit our website and learn more about Harvest Partners at harvest.org. In the beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie says, too often we wallow in our feelings of helplessness, when the reassurance of God is just a prayer away. Now you need to see God for who He is, so just think of the awesomeness of God, the power of God. God's characteristics include things like compassion, power, generosity, and grace.

Our characteristics are often just the opposite. We're needy, powerless, self-centered, and sinful. It's easy to see how we need God, but how can we bring all that He is to the mess that we have? Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie points out it's through the pathway of prayer.

It's part of an important series on the basics, called Essentials. If you want to know what it takes to be a strong Christian, you must have a prayer life. So turn in your Bibles to Ephesians 6 and Luke chapter 11.

Both of those chapters. Ephesians 6, Luke chapter 11. Now what is prayer? Prayer is communicating with and listening to God. prayer is communicating with and listening to God. Ephesians 6, 18 tells us that there are different kinds of prayer.

That's why I had you turn there. It says, Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. There's different kinds of prayer. You can pray publicly, you can pray privately, you can pray verbally, you can pray silently, you can pray kneeling, you can pray standing, you can pray lying down, and you can even pray driving. The main thing is to pray. As Ephesians 6 says, Praying always. And by the way the word all speaks of the frequency of prayer.

The frequency of it. It's not like you just do your token prayer in the morning and you're good to go. No, you're praying throughout the day. You're praying in the morning, you're praying in the afternoon, you're praying in the evening. And that's what it means when the Bible says that you are to pray without ceasing, for this is the will of God and Jesus Christ concerning you. So why should I pray?

If you're taking notes, here's something to write down. Why should I pray? Simple answer, because Jesus told me to.

I could stop right there. Jesus said in Luke 18 one, men are always to pray and not to give up. And by the way, Jesus himself was a man of prayer.

He left us a model to follow. He was constantly praying. In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is praying, calling on the Father and saying, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. On the cross, Jesus is praying.

First, Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. And then later, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So if Jesus felt the need to pray, certainly you and I need to pray. Number two, prayer is God's way, appointed way for obtaining things. Because I'm told over in James 4 two, you have not because you ask not.

That's a very interesting passage. You have not because you ask not. Now, I'm not suggesting that whenever you pray, you'll always know the will of God, or whenever you pray, you'll always have more money than you need, or whenever you pray, you'll always be in perfect health. Because there are times when God will allow difficulties in our life to cause us to trust in him all the more. But my point is, there are times when the reason we don't have what we need in life is simply because we have not asked the Lord about it. So we should pray.

Okay, here's another one. Prayer is the way by which God helps us to overcome our anxiety and worry. Here's a good verse that every believer should memorize, Philippians 4 six. Don't worry about anything, but pray about everything. Let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God that passes all human understanding will keep your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Prayer is the way, also, that we make ourselves ready for the return of Jesus Christ. Luke 21 34 Jesus says, Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing drunkenness and the cares of this life, and that day come upon you unexpectedly.

He's referring to the day of the Lord. Watch therefore, and pray always. So as you can see, prayer is not an option for a believer. If you want God to speak to you, if you want God to provide for you, if you want God to help you to not worry, if you want to be ready for the return of Jesus, you need to pray. But there are times when God does not answer our prayers in the way that we would like. We'll even say God doesn't answer my prayers. Wait a second, no is as much of an answer as yes is. Why don't you just say you don't like the answer?

Here's a way to look at it. If the request is wrong, God says no. If the timing is wrong, God says slow. If you are wrong, God says grow. But if the request is right and the timing is right and you are right, God says go. Want to hear that again? No.

Okay. So how can we have our prayers answered more often in the affirmative and hear more yeses instead of nos? Well that brings us to Luke chapter 11. And we're going to read a few verses that give to us what we often refer to as the Lord's Prayer.

Now just a word about this before we read it. The Bible never calls this the Lord's Prayer. We'll call it that because that's how we remember it. This was an answer of Jesus to the request of his disciples when they said Lord teach us to pray. They didn't say Lord teach us a prayer as in Lord teach us a killer prayer.

You know one to pull out in case of an emergency. The mega prayer. Though I don't think there's anything wrong with praying the Lord's Prayer verbatim. It's a beautiful prayer. And if it comes from your heart, it's a powerful prayer. But it wasn't just a prayer. It was a template for prayer.

It's a model for prayer. They said Lord teach us to pray. And then of course he begins with the words after this manner therefore you should pray. So he was saying don't just pray this prayer but follow this pattern in your prayer as well.

Okay so with that in mind let's read Luke 11 verse 1. Now it came to pass he was praying in a certain place. When he ceased one of his disciples said Lord teach us to pray as John taught his disciples. And he said when you pray say our Father who art in heaven hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us day by day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we forgive everyone who is indebted to us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. Now I want you to notice that before a word of personal petition is offered I must consider who I am speaking to.

It starts with our Father who art in heaven. Too often we cut to the chase. And by that I mean we go straight to the grocery list.

Okay. Lord here's what I need from you. There's nothing wrong with that.

There's a place for that. But it's not necessarily the first thing we should pray for. I begin my prayer with worship, adoration, and an acceptance of his will. By the way when we worship do you know what we're doing?

We're praying. That's prayer. It's prayer set to song. That's all it is.

It's prayer with melody. So I think to come in late when worship is going on why would you want to do that? I mean not to mention the fact that we have a killer worship band. I mean that's kind of the understatement of the century. But more than that. More than that. Because let's just say they were really lousy.

Okay. Still they're leading us in prayer but they happen to be really good. But the point is they're leading us in prayer set to song. So when we sing these songs I'm praying.

And then we bow our heads and we might bring petitions before the Lord and so forth. But the point is I'm contemplating the greatness of God. Have you ever noticed that when you see God in his power and his glory you see your problems in a different way? Maybe you come into church burdened with things you're concerned about.

They're real concerns. And you go out with those same problems but your perspective changes. Because when you have a big God you will see that you have small problems. But if you have big problems do you have a small God? Maybe you need to see God for who he is. So Jesus says after this manna therefore pray our Father who art in heaven hallowed be your name. So just think of the awesomeness of God. The power of God. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment.

Hey everybody Greg Laurie here. You know my uncle Fred Jordan had one of the first Christian TV programs out there. It was called Church in the Home.

I remember watching it as a little boy when I was living with my grandparents. Well we have Church in the Home for you every weekend. It's called Harvest at Home and you can find it at Harvest.org. We have worship and a message from God's Word.

So join us this weekend for Harvest at Home at Harvest.org. Well we're investigating the power of prayer today. And Pastor Greg now brings us some practical counsel on making our prayers more effective. Let's listen.

And that brings me to principle number one. If you want your prayer answered in the affirmative pray according to the will of God. If you want your prayer answered in the affirmative pray according to the will of God. Jesus teaches us to pray, Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done.

Again our Lord modeled this in Gethsemane. Remember when he said to the Father, Father if it's possible let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless not my will but what? Yours be done. So he was saying alright Father as I contemplate the horrors of the cross and taking the sin of the world upon myself.

If there is any other way to do this let's do that. Nevertheless not my will but Yours be done. And so it's a submission to the will of God.

Listen. The primary objective of prayer is to line my will up with God's will. Prayer does not change God's mind. Prayer changes my mind. Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance. It is taking hold of His willingness. By my praying I am instructing myself more than Him. The objective of prayer is not getting my will in heaven. It is getting God's will on earth.

You could illustrate it this way. Let's say you are in a little boat and you are trying to get to the dock so you take out your rope. You throw it and you pull yourself down. Are you pulling the dock to your boat or are you pulling your boat to the dock?

Well you are pulling your boat to the dock. And that is what prayer is. I am not grabbing hold of God saying, Come on God.

No. I am pulling myself toward Him. The objective is to get in alignment with God's will. Because I am told over in the book of 1 John 5.14, Here is the confidence I have in Him. If I ask anything according to His will, He hears us and we have the petitions desired of Him.

Listen. Nothing lies outside of the reach of prayer except that which lies outside of the will of God. So what is God's will? Here is an amazing promise from Jesus. He says, If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you. Here is an expanded translation from the Greek. Jesus speaking, If you maintain a living communion with Me and My words are at home with you, I command you to ask at once for yourself whatever your heart desires and it is yours.

Now we hear a statement like that and we think of a genie in a lamp. Yes. Whatever I want. Yeah. Whatever you want. God will give you carte blanche. Really?

Yeah. Whatever you want. Ask what you will and it shall be done unto you. But don't miss the first part. It is a conditional promise.

What is a condition? Jesus says, If you maintain a living communion with Me and My word is at home in you. Guess what? If I am maintaining a living communion with God and His word is at home with me, I am not going to pray for stupid stuff. I am just not going to. I am going to start praying crazy prayers like, I want you glorified through this Lord. Prayers like, I want your will even more than my will though it may be more difficult Lord.

You see you begin to understand that your Father knows better than you know. So start your prayers with an awareness of the awesomeness of God our Father who art in heaven. Hallowed be your name. Your objective is to get your will aligned with God.

Number two. When I bring my petitions before God this is something that I do after I have acknowledged the greatness of God. I mean Jesus says, Ok now pray.

Give us this day our daily bread. Do you find it an amazing thing that this all knowing, all powerful, omnipresent God who created the entire universe has an interest in you and me personally? But the Bible says He does. God is concerned with the things that concern me. Why would He care about my daily bread?

I don't know. Job even asks, Job 717, What is man that you make so much of him? Why do you give him so much attention?

Here is a simple answer. Why does God care? Because He loves you. Why does He love you?

That is a good question. But He does. He does. He loves you with an everlasting love. In fact Jesus said, Fear not little flock. It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Do you know that God loves to give stuff to His children? Maybe an easier way to understand it is thinking of God as a grandfather instead of a father.

Now I know it is addressed as Father in heaven. But you know when your parents, you know you are careful with your kids. No we are not going to give you that. No you have to do your chores first. And then you have to do this and you have to do that. When you ask a grandfather, yeah I will get it for you right now.

Yes! It is kind of our privilege as grandparents to spoil our grandchildren. See the way we look at this as grandparents is this is our reward for putting up with you as our children.

And this is your punishment for all the things you did to us. But there is just a love and a desire to just bless your kids. And I am not saying parents don't have this.

Clearly they do. But this is the picture. God loves to do these things for us. He is not reluctant to do it. In fact Jesus said, You parents if your children ask for a loaf of bread do you give them a stone? If they ask for a fish do you give them a snake? Of course not.

And if you give good gifts to your children despite the fact that you are sinful people how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those that ask Him? You know if your little toddler comes up, Mommy I am hungry can I have a piece of bread? Here is a rock. Can I have an egg for breakfast?

No but here is a live venomous snake. You would never do that. Unless you were, I don't know who you would be to do that.

But you wouldn't. So the Father loves to bless us. Here is another secret to answer press that is really important. You must confess your personal sin. Jesus teaches us to pray, Forgive us our sins as we forgive those that sin against us. This word sin can be translated trespasses, shortcomings, things that we have done that are wrong.

Notice this is something I should do on a regular basis. After this matter therefore pray. Our Father who art 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 sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Guess what? You sin every day.

Now maybe you will look back in this day and say I think you are wrong on that Craig. I don't think I sinned today. You just sinned. It is called pride. No but seriously there are sins of commission and omission.

Right? A sin of commission is doing what you should not do. A sin of omission is not doing what you should do. So you might be priding yourself on the fact that you did not have a lustful thought today. And you didn't lose your temper today.

And you didn't scream at anybody today. But then at the same time you were so proud of how well you did you thought I am better than anybody around here. And in reality that very arrogance is a sin. Or maybe the Lord led you to share your faith with someone and you flat out said no.

Or God told you to pray about something and you said no. There are a lot of things that really are sins in our life. So the best thing to do is just every day say Lord forgive me of my sin.

Known and unknown. The Bible says in 1 John if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Paul wrote in Philippians 3. I don't mean to say I have already achieved these things or I have reached perfection. Dear friends I am still not all that I should be but I am focusing my energies on this one thing.

Forgetting what is behind me and looking forward to what lies ahead. If you don't see the need for regular repentance then you are not really walking with God. Because I have found the greater the saint the greater is the sense of sin and the awareness of sin within.

And listen to this. If you have unconfessed sin in your life your prayers aren't going anywhere. I mean you can pray piously. You can pray loudly. You can pray impressively. But if you have a sin in your life you have not confessed before God your prayer life is going to come to a screeching halt. Because the psalmist said if I regard iniquity on my heart the Lord will not hear me.

And the word regard means cling on to or hold on to. So maybe there is something in your life and the Lord has been saying to you that is a sin and you need to stop. And you say no I am not going to stop. But I pray for this right now. The Lord is saying sorry I can't hear you. Now technically He hears you but He is not going to respond to that prayer because that is willful disobedience. So there needs to be that confession.

Forgive me my sins as I forgive those that sin against me. Important insight today from Pastor Greg Laurie by way of his message What Every Christian Needs to Know About Prayer. It's from his practical essential series. And there's more to come from this study here on A New Beginning. For an instant replay of any part of today's message or all of the presentation go to harvest.org.

Look for the title What Every Christian Needs to Know About Prayer. You know Pastor Greg we've all been through a whole lot these last 18 months or so. It's been just a terrible time for our culture. And obviously it's not just adults that have been affected. Kids have been affected too. How can we speak truth and comfort to small children directly from the truth of scripture?

Have any suggestions for us? Yes I do and I do think children have suffered. So that's where you come in. Because ultimately the primary responsibility of educating your child spiritually rests on the shoulders of the parent. And in some cases the grandparent. I know we expect Sunday school teachers to do it or we want the pastor to do it. Or we want the teacher in the Christian school to do it.

And they all have their place. But they're there in more of a role of reinforcing what you are doing as a parent. Moses told fathers to write these things down for your children. And he said teach it to them in the morning, in the afternoon, and in the evening. I think it's always a good thing to have ongoing conversations with your children about spiritual things. Everything doesn't have to be a sermon.

But there needs to be opportunities where you're helping them to understand how the Bible applies in their life. And one thing I would also suggest is turn off those electronic devices. You know put the iPad away. Turn the phone off.

Put the child on your lap. Open the book. Let them read through the book. Let them turn the pages.

We absorb in different ways. And I think there's something about a screen that is actually numbing. And screen use among very young children is very high every day. I just read a number.

It's something like seven hours a day even for preteens. Folks this is where you step in as parents and grandparents and say put the devices away. And now we're going to open up this book. Or now we're going to do this together. Or we're going to take a walk together and enter their life.

There's never going to be anything that takes the place of that. So we have a great resource to help you in this work that you're doing with your little ones. One is called Babies Carry Along Bible. It's beautifully packaged. It has a little handle on it.

A flap opens up. Very thick pages with fantastic illustrations with the writing of Sally Lloyd-Jones. And I love this because it's like saying to a little one, here's your Bible. They have their little Bible as mom and dad carry their Bibles as well. And this is designed for newborn to age four. Then we have an amazing book that comes with it.

Hardcover. Again beautifully illustrated talking about how God is near. You know there's so many scary things out there for kids. And you know they see what's on the TV. Maybe you're watching the news and you forget that little eyes are watching and little ears are listening or your discussions. And it's scary. So here's a book that Sally Lloyd-Jones has titled Near.

And it's based on Psalm 139 where the psalmist talks about how God is with them wherever they go. And these are two resources that are going to be very effective with small children. Newborn to age four. I highly recommend you order them for your kids or your grandkids. For some of you maybe your great grandkids. And we'll rush you your own copy of Near and Babies Carry Along Bible written by Sally Lloyd-Jones for your gift of any size. So whatever you send to us here at Harvest we'll take those resources and use them to continue to reach out through our radio broadcast and our other ways that we reach people through television, online, etc. And bring the teaching of God's Word and the proclamation of the gospel.

So order your copy of this book by Sally Lloyd-Jones called Near and also her book Babies Carry Along Bible. And we hope you'll get in touch with us today. They're both here waiting for you. And we'll send them both together to thank you for investing so Pastor Greg's teaching can continue to come your way each day.

We're so grateful for listener support. It's the only way we can make a new beginning available. So get in touch today with your donation and we'll send you Near and Babies Carry Along Bible to say thanks. Write a new beginning Box 4000 Riverside, CA 92514 or call us at 1-800-821-3300. We can take your call anytime 24-7. Again 1-800-821-3300 or go online to harvest.org. Next time Pastor Greg comes back to complete his insights on prayer from the series Essentials. Hope you'll join us here on A New Beginning.