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3. Fruit of Prayer
Perhaps it is almost too obvious, but when we pray things happen. Awareness
of what happens can be a strong motivating force to pray. Let's now
consider what happens when we pray.
1. God Acts
We have already seen that when we pray in line with God's will it opens
the way for the Lord to move and act. It is perhaps one of the great
mysteries of the Christian faith, this link between prayer and God moving.
1.1 When God acts
often we have to wait to see an answer
we therefore need to persevere
see Eph 1:17 I keep asking
we therefore have to battle against giving up
see Jesus' instruction in Lk 18:1
persistence is therefore needed
see Mt 7:7 the tense is “ask and go on asking”
1.2 God Unlimited
God can and does act even when people don't pray
but God wants us to be seen as co-workers with Him
the truth is that when we pray, WE are changed as well
2. Peace
Phil 4:6,7 clearly indicates than when we pray and commit everything
to the Lord, peace takes hold of our hearts. We need to examine the
process:
2.1
Releasing everything
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stress so often comes when WE try to rule our lives
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when we share EVERYTHING with God, it lifts the burden from us
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letting go of everything makes room for Him to deal with it
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the peace that comes is the very presence of God
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this even over-rides our intellectual understanding
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human peace requires removal of the problem but divine peace comes
often in the midst of the problem
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Jesus brought this peace to His disciples while facing his imminent
departure from them (Jn 14:27). It involved:
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it involves bringing a steadiness to our resolve
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this peace guards, surrounds or protects our inner being
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it steadies our thoughts
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it is “in” Christ Jesus, as we abide or rest in him
3.
Revelation
3.1 Revelation
In Eph 1:18,19 Paul prayed for understanding for them in specific ways.
Often it is as we pray that such understanding comes. It is as we come
into the awareness of the presence of God in prayer, that the Spirit
brings us new insight, knowledge or understanding. This insight etc.
may be:
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an awareness of the Lord himself
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an awareness of our own sin or failure
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an understanding of a situation : clarity, balance or totally new
concept of it
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an assurance that the Lord has heard and answered
3.2
Response
Such revelation, in turn, produces a response in us:
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of worship, adoration, a drawing close in intimacy
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of confession
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of further prayer and petition
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of thanks and praise
4. Discipline
4.1. The Need
As we have already seen in Lk 18:1 on, Jesus encourages us to keep going
in prayer. In other words it is not always an easy wonderful flow from
the Spirit. It frequently seems to be something that needs working at
and persevering with. In other words, we often need that self-discipline
that Paul spoke about to Timothy (2 Tim 1:7)
4.2 The Means
When we pray we need to learn to:
To
achieve this it will involve
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setting aside time
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making a conscious resolve to seek God by
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prayer via reading Scripture (see Part 2)
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which results in adoration or appreciation of who He is
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and sets the scene as it really is
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and removes reliance on feelings.
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a calling on God for help
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a conscious effort to put aside wandering thoughts
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a structure or decision as to what to pray about
4.3 The Process
Like the athlete, the early days require time, effort, strategy and
endurance to keep going. In some ways it is like learning to drive a
car. To start with the act of driving the car is made up of a number
of self conscious separate actions but eventually it becomes a natural
flow.
4.4 The Consequence
The result or consequence of this is that eventually the act of praying
becomes something that we can do without a major effort. In other words,
we develop to become a disciplined person whose life of prayer becomes
more than a casual few words to God. We begin to flow into what suits
us best, not a formula, but a joyful flow of relationship with Father.
5. Fellowship
Many Christians find praying alone to be quite difficult and therefore
praying with another or others is often quite helpful. We will cover
this more fully on the next Part but for now we will simply note that
prayer can bring us into deep fellowship with other Christians. Christians
who can pray together find the Lord drawing them into a new level of
unity through the fellowship they experience.
To conclude this Part find one other person and thank the Lord together
for the variety of things that happen when we pray and for the wonder
of this thing called prayer.
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