Title: The Essence of Prayer
Content We are those who have the privilege to pray to God. We are the ones who have received the grace to ask for anything in the name of Jesus. Therefore, we must realize the power of prayer and live every day. God the Creator who makes the impossible possible, it is an amazing event and a miracle to have a conversation with the God who lives and controls history today. I believe that it is the love and grace of Jesus Christ that made this possible. Therefore, I hope that your eyes will be opened to the fact that our lives are bound to be happy and full of peace.
But at some point we left our greatest weapon, prayer, to rust. In particular, young people hate to pray. Youth who do not pray have no future. Young people, now we must restore the power of prayer. To do that, we need to know what prayer is. God said to Gideon in today's text:
“I will surely be with you, and you will strike the Midianites as one strikes one” (verse 16).
God assures me that even though the Midianites are as numerous as locusts and as numerous as the sand on the beach, you will defeat them as easily as if you were striking against one man. The important thing here is that Gideon did not go to God, but God came to Gideon and talked to him. Gideon had to respond to God who first approached and reached out his hand. Here we need to pay attention to how he responded to God, restoring faith in God and receiving answers to prayers. So, I hope that all of you will recover the essence of prayer and become people of powerful prayer.
Prayer is humility (v. 17).
“If I have found favor with you, show me the sign that you are the one who spoke with me.”
Gideon is now asking, 'Now if I have found your favor, if the one I am speaking with is really the God who performed great miracles to bring us out of Egypt, as the forefathers said, give me clear assurance through a sign.' will be We may criticize, “How can you ask for a sign without believing the word of God that he will surely be with you?” However, we must see that Gideon is speaking with a humble heart before making an earnest request to show him as a sign that the one who spoke to him is truly a God of power. In verse 13, he is showing a completely different image from his arrogant questioning before God.
“Surely he laughs at the scornful, and shows kindness to the humble” (Proverbs 3:34).
That's right. It was because God saw his humility that he answered his request for a sign. Believe that God sustains the humble. (Psalm 147:6) God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. (James 4:6) The important thing is that God hears the wishes of the humble. .(Psalm 10:17) When we pray before God, if we wear clothes of humility, God will surely answer us.
Prayer is devotion. (Verses 18, 19)
We pray as if we were lying still and waiting for the apples to fall. It is true that what appears to be great faith. But that is not all of prayer. Gideon did not end with a prayer. With earnest longing for his request to be answered, he humbly begs him to wait for him to come and present his gift before the Lord. We can learn an important fact about prayer here. In other words, prayer is a fact of devotion.
We need to realize that speaking is not all about prayer, it must be followed by devotion. The gifts he brought were an ephah of flour and a young goat. ‘Eva’ is one of the units for measuring the volume of grain, and 1 eva corresponds to about 22.7 liters. It weighs about 9.6 kg. It can be said that Gideon's sincerity is clearly shown in the preparation of such an abundance of gifts in a situation when food to eat was absolutely scarce. It is a devotion that comes from a heart to serve God. At the same time, it comes from the sincerity of his earnest desire to receive answers. Please believe that God was pleased to answer when Gideon offered the greatest gift he could give.
God is pleased to accomplish amazing works through our devotion. Voluntary dedication becomes a prayer of power. Even if our devotion is a small devotion that does nothing to accomplish God's work, please believe that God is a God who is very pleased and responds. Jesus knew this fact better than anyone else, so he dedicated his life to the point of giving up his life to save us from the power of sin and death.
“For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).
Jesus' devotion to us was manifested in God's power to save us. Therefore, we want you to believe that devotion to God is the greatest prayer. Sometimes God asks us to make a commitment. This is not intended to burden us, but to express God's great love for us and to give us an opportunity to participate in God's wonderful work. Our devotion to God is like a jewel of prayer.
Prayer is obedience (verse 20).
“The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread, put it on this rock, and pour the soup on it.” Gideon did so.
God commanded that the meat and unleavened bread that Gideon offered as a gift be placed on a rock, and soup poured on it. It seems that he disregarded his sincerity when he told Gideon to put the food on a rock without trying his best and to pour soup on it. However, Gideon did not ask questions and obeyed quickly, even though common sense would not have convinced him. Please believe that when Gideon obeyed, the fire from the rock devoured all the food, leaving no trace behind.
Through a miracle that only God can do, God convinced Gideon that “the Lord is with you” (verse 12). But obedience is not as easy as it sounds. Without faith you can never obey.
“By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and went out to a land that he would receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8).
Abraham did not know where he was going to go to the land he would receive as an inheritance. Without faith, I would never have been able to do it. That obedience requires us to have faith in God. Obedience is a living prayer. Remembering that God wants us to pray for obedience the most, we want to believe and obey the living God.
“If you will listen to the word of the Lord your God, and carefully observe all the commands I have given you today, the Lord your God will set you above all the nations of the earth.
If you obey the word of the Lord your God, all these blessings will come upon you and follow you” (Deuteronomy 28:1,2).
Wrap-up
We must now restore the power of prayer. To do that, we need to know what prayer is. Prayer is not all words. Prayer is humility. Prayer is dedication. Prayer is obedience. When you pray like this, you will experience the amazing work of God who answers you as if he answered Gideon with fire. God is pleased and looking for those who pray like this. Through those who pray with humility, devotion, and obedience, God accomplishes His wonderful work. I pray that all of you will be praying with humility, devotion and obedience.