Title: How to Pray (Luke 11:5-13)
Content Prayer is the privilege and common interest of all Christians. That is why it is said that prayer changes all things. There are countless proverbs about prayer. However, not many people know how to pray specifically. They are just imitating people who live a life of faith first. On the other hand, in some prayers, it is difficult to distinguish whether it is a prayer, a sermon, or an eloquence. This is because everyone does not have the correct principle of prayer.
In the text, the Lord said, “Pray like this.”
I. It must be done with earnest heart (5-8).
A. Prayer is like going to a friend in the middle of the night and asking for help.
It would be very nice to have a friend who came to his house in the middle of the night. A friend is someone you don't hate no matter when you meet and see at any time.
Moreover, if a friend is hungry because he has come a long way, he must serve him whatever food he wants. However, if I have nothing to offer to myself, I will give up on what to do, or if I feel that it is bothering me, prayer is not necessary.
That friend came to me until I arrived in the middle of the night, but prayer begins only when I have a heart to do anything in return for that friend.
So, if there is a place that I don't have, but I can lend it to, I don't hesitate to go to that place.
But I won't give it to you. Because it was already dark. So, in order to achieve your goal through this person, you have to go through several gates. 1) Don't annoy me. - Modern people cut off friendships if they annoy them.
2) I locked the door and went to bed as well. - How will I solve this?
B. Prayer is like moving a friend.
There is no resentment between being friends. They are living without a wretched side. If you are polite and do not expose your weaknesses, you are not friends.
However, the appeal of desperate necessity rather than the vague relationship of friends has more power than friendship. So he said, “Knock on the door.”
In other words, if you think that you will understand if you are just a friend, if your friend refuses, it will be difficult to choke any longer, or if your self-esteem is damaged, prayer will not be successful.
II. We must do it with a heart that seeks, seeks, and knocks (9-10).
A. Be active.
There must be a clear goal. A friend who comes to your house in the middle of the night needs food to eat, not entertainment.
Once you have a goal, you need to find it. So the person in the parable went to the house of a friend who had enough food.
It's hard to just find it. You have to knock until it opens.
B. I need love to feed my hungry friend.
The regret of not being able to treat a friend who came to his house led him to “search for it”. Are My Problems “Leading in Search”?
The principle of asking, seeking, and knocking must be well remembered.
III. It should be a relationship between a child and a father (11-13).
A. Prayer is not for everyone.
Only those who have become children of God have the right to pray.
2) How much you know does not require knowledge.
3) Only the experience of regeneration is necessary and the longing for God's grace is necessary.
A father always thinks of his children first.1) A father's only thoughts are how to raise his children well.
2) They want to give their children what they need.
3) I feel the joy of life through seeing my children happy.
3. Asking the father for help is acknowledging the father's existence, and as a father, there is the joy of being recognized. This is a father's pleasure.
B. We must seek the Holy Spirit.
Among the answers, the greatest answer is “the Holy Spirit.” 1) You cannot acknowledge God as the Father except through the Holy Spirit.
2) Prayer is possible only when the Holy Spirit works.
3) There is joy and satisfaction only when the Holy Spirit works.
If we do not receive the Holy Spirit, we have no choice but to pray with lust. There is no answer to prayers asked for wrongly, and even if they do, they will only be unhappy for everyone.
conclusion
Prayer is God's special grace given to the saints. Therefore, we must pray earnestly.
But asking in moderation is not prayer.
The secret to receiving answers to prayers is to act from the heart of loving a friend who came to me in the middle of the night.
An answer is given when a longing heart, love for a friend, and a tenacity to receive an answer harmonize.