How to Pray

How to Pray – Pr. Lingli, 20th Sep 08 Youth Fellowship

These sermons in fellowship are really precious Words of Life! Thanks to Pr. Lingli for sharing God's word with us. Please find below transcript.

Prayer can be made anytime and anywhere. It doesn’t have to be very long, we don’t have to face any certain direction. It is very convenient. But despite these, Christians still struggle to pray to the point that they might give up prayer, not believing in prayer altogether.
How are our prayer lives?

The youth fellowship’s theme this year is “A closer walk with God.” One of the means to achieve this is through prayer. We have to maintain a close relationship with God, through communication with God, which is prayer.
Though prayer can be very simple and prayed by anyone with a truthful heart, we can learn how to pray from Jesus’s teachings. Let’s have a revision today. Let’s have more prayer warriors in YF. Let’s have a revival in YF.
What attitudes should we have in prayer?
Matthew 6:5-8
5"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him."

Jesus showed an example of wrong attitude in praying. That of a hypocrite. V5. These men wanted to be seen praying, but prayer is not for the purpose of letting man see.
In the bible, many times it was recorded that before a meal, Jesus would give thanks for the food. He set an example for us in illustrating that one of the objectives of prayer is to give thanks. Hence, an attitude to adopt in prayer is that of thanksgiving to God. By that, it would also indirectly testify our beliefs to non-believers.
To note that God should be the focus of our prayer and not man, not for the sake of testifying to other men. In application, let us bravely pray whenever thanksgiving for food, no matter what the environment.
What attitudes should we have in prayer?

1. V6. Attentiveness. “6But when you pray, go into your room”. Find a place where you can concentrate and be attentive in prayer. Find a time where you can pray in attentiveness.

2. FAITH V9. "This, then, is how you should pray: " 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,”We can't see Our Father in Heaven but we believe by FAITH (Hebrews “Certain of what we do not see”). There are many unseen things but are no doubt real. Eg. A mother’s love, the air we breathe. The lesson of faith is taught in Hebrews 11. We have faith in God that He hears our prayers. Our God is one whom we can trust, unlike ‘gods’, money, AIA …Let’s grow closer to God. The psalmist of psalm 121 expressed his growing closer to God, growing faith in God. We see the psalmist’s faith through that psalm.
Pr. Lingli proceeded to share a testimony about her mum when she fell ill.There was a time when her mum fell ill and she urgently needed the finances for medical treatment. Back then, she was still a student in seminary and had limited means. The urgency was so great that she almost borrowed. When she was just about to borrow, miraculously the needed financing was provided. Through that experience, she learnt to rely on God. God is true.

3. V9 also teaches us on Humility in prayer. “hallowed be your name,” 愿人都尊你的名为圣We are but man. We are sinners, needing help. We are limited. Using the below parable to illustrate,
Luke 18:9-14v11The Pharisee stood up and prayed about[a] himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' 13"But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' 14"I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

4. v.10 your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Learning to Submit.Jesus prayed in Gethsemane.
He prayed when choosing his disciples.
He prayed before food.
He prayed before he was to die.
Jesus submitted to the will of his Father in Heaven. To submit is to abide by what God gives us when we do not want it. In submitting, we have to ask. “What does God want to do? ” instead of “What do I want to do?”. Through prayer, God helps us to understand His will and what he wants us to do. God’s will acts even when things might not be explicitly clear in the bible. And it is then we abide by God’s will as individuals. For example, the bible tells us to preach. To a certain individual, God’s moving in his heart might be “Should I preach in Afghanistan knowing full well the dangers?”
God’s Will act inside us individually. God’s way is the best way. We have to pray to abide by his will.

5. Persistence in Prayer
Luke 11:8 I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness (or persistence) he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
Persistence doesn’t mean repeating.
Example. Salvation of family members. We persist in praying for non-believing family members. Persistence comes into play when God does not yet provide an answer. George Mueller had 5 friends. After 5 years, 1 believed in Christ, after 10 yrs, another, after 25 years, 4 had come to Christ and finally after 52 years, 2 years after Mueller’s death did all 5 came to Christ.

Content of our Prayers – A.C.T.S.
Adoration – Worship/Praise to God
Confession - Psalm 51. A psalm we can turn to for confessing to God.
Thanksgiving - Psalm 103. Giving thanks for what we have.
Supplication - Requests. To take note that we first seek the Kingdom of God and
His righteousness. (Note that supplication comes last!)

Please keep in prayer:
-baby Declan’s health while David and family are in Brisbane.
-Tracting ministry
-Sis Peixuan’s pregnancy
-Government, authority

We can intercede for others in prayer.
Let us not pray with the wrong motives.
James 4:3When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
One might ask, God already knows, why should I still pray? Because of the A.C.T. portion!
We end our prayers with Jesus name. Jesus is our bridge to God.
Where do our prayers end up?
Rev 5:8 And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
Our prayers will be remembered. God collects our prayers.

Please note that the above contents have not been vetted by Pr. Lingli or anyone else. There may be inaccuracies in my understanding reflected in this transcript. Hence please do not treat the contents as straight from Pr. Lingli but rather, it is a result of my imperfect efforts with an aim for these messages to be shared for the edification of man.