Tags like this are
a churchly systems approach. Someone at some time in the past started it.
It sounded ok. So it continued.
If you think others may
be offended.(1Corinthians
10:32;
9:19-22).and
think you odd for not adding this tag to a prayer you say such as at a
meal when someone asks you to pray, then add it! Ain't gonna hurt no one!
-I had to pray about it when
I got upset and felt offended when I sensed a fellow worker was thinking
sexual thoughts and was touching me, even though it wasn't in a sexual
place. I felt he was 'coming on to me'.
-Do we pray to the Father
or Christ? 1John 2:23
We call on the Father:.1Peter
1:17. The Father begets us:.1Peter
1:3; Hebrews 1:5. We
are His children. All Christ did focused on the Father:.John
5:19; 17:6-26;
10:18.
-How earnestly are we to
pray?.James
5:17?
James 5:17 "Elias was a man
subject to like passions as we are and he prayed earnestly.(word
'earnestly' not in original Greek).that
it might not rain and it rained not on the Earth by the space of three
years and six months."
Pray and live from your
heart that which is good,
meaning, being sincere,
that is, no ulterior.motive,
that is, what you think and do must match.."If
you cannot honestly trust what you say, if you cannot say that what you
feel in your heart matches what you speak and if your action does not match
what you have in your mind, how is it possible that you can ask the body
to work with you? To be sincere means, whatever you do, act with your heart
and your mind 100 percent. Sincerity is whatever you think and whatever
you do matches and with that comes insight."....Ven
Lama Dondrup Dorje. Always call on God out of a sincere heart.(*),
that is, what you are saying to God is sincere.
Isaiah
63:8 "For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not
lie, so he was their Saviour."
Act from your own good
convictions. Why the good ones?
Be single minded.(but
what if I know my heart is not so good?):.Matthew
7:14. How to be single minded? Think about what you are saying while
you are saying it and by realizing that this is important time for you:.Philippians
4:6.
The Pharisees
made meaningless prayers for the sake of appearing sincerely
religious to others. The word 'earnestly' is not in the original. Just
pray,
meditate, contemplate and study spiritual things, such as the.Bible.
That is all. The 'effective' and 'fervent' prayer.('effective'
and 'fervent' in the original means the same and that is 'work').is
a prayer that you want to be effective.
-How do we."draw
near to God"?.James
4:8
One draws near.(original
Greek is 'comes near').to
the Creator when he knows that because he has accepted the righteousness
of Emmanuel the Christ, he is accepted and approved of God and God is pleased
with Him:.Hebrews
10:22.
It is all in what one thinks
because, the nature of love of the Great Infinite One is already in you
and one with you and
just that close, nearer than breathing and closer than hands or feet.
But if you feel that He is
displeased with you, you will not be able to 'see' Him and allow
that closeness to have any effect upon you. We all would rather stay away
from anyone whom we feel may be displeased with us. And who wants to be
close to someone who
may send us to hell, as many
religious people erroneously
believe.
It is through a "better hope".(Christ
and what He made possible for us:.Hebrews
7:19).that
we can be confident of closeness with God:.Ephesians
3:12. This gives that closeness effect.(1Thessalonians
2:13).in
our hearts and consequently brings forth the
promises in our lives.
By thinking about Christ.(for
through Him we have
access
to the Father:.Romans
11:36;
5:1,2).we
can become involved in an increasingly intimate
relationship
with the Father.
As we pray about things
while they are occurring we walk (and talk) with God; we involve God in
what we think and do.
If you don't talk to God,
He'll assume you are not interested in His involvement. See the example
of Jabez.
Ephesians
5:1 "Be you therefore followers of God, as dear children."
-Our
church
talks a lot about group and individual intercessory prayer. This makes
me feel like my prayers aren't quite good enough the way they were, although
I never heard any complaints from God. By intercessory prayer I mean that
they say we are in a spiritual battle with the devil and God's people must
pray to get the demons' hands off society so the word of God can have free
course and affect others for good. I am concerned for others, but I am
in two minds about how they are approaching it.
That kind of puts the devil
in charge of God calling people. Are we saying that God would let the world
go to "hell" if His people didn't have intercessory prayer? Does God love
the world that little? Does their salvation depend upon whether or not
we have intercessory prayer or anything else for that matter, or upon the
finished work of Christ? Are we trying to do Christ's finished work all
over again? Are we saying that the devil has gained more evil than God
has good? Is Christ incapable of doing what He said He would? Do we really
know what our works should be?
But, should we pray for
others? Yes!
Should we pray
for departed ones? Yes!
The word 'intercessor' appears
only once and that in the Old Testament where it means 'to meet someone'.
The same root is also translated 'intercession' and occurs 4 times in the
Old Testament. The words 'intercessory prayer' do not occur at all in the
Bible.
In Isaiah
53:12 it refers to Christ making intercession for the transgressors,
which He accomplished at the cross. He is the intercessor for the
saints:.Romans
8:27,34; Hebrews 7:25.
