Pathway to Prayer (Summer Series 2023) – Introduction

Preached 6 August 2023 at Christ church, Billericay

Title: Pathway to Prayer – Introduction

Purpose: Intro session for series – Why?, Who?

Reading: Ephesians 6:18-20; Matthew 6:5-8

Intro – Pathway to Prayer (Summer Series)

Today we start our summer series for 2023. We have given it the title ‘Pathway to Prayer’, and we will be looking at various aspects of prayer in each of our sessions. As usual, there are craft activities to enjoy, if you would like to.

What is Prayer?

It is interesting to note that the Bible speaks of prayer a lot, that shouldn’t surprise you, and it is full of prayers. It often says things like ‘when you pray ...’, but I couldn’t find a line that started ‘if you pray ...’. So, the assumption is that everybody prays.

We should, therefore, start our introduction by trying to define prayer.

Do I have any suggestions?

- Asking for things?

Well, yes, that’s intercessory prayer, that’s what we do in each of the services we hold, and I’m sure that’s what we do at home as well. Many times the Bible reminds us to pray for those in any sort of need, for example:

James 5:14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him

- Talking with God?

Well, yes, prayer should be two-way, not only us telling God what we want, or our hurts and pains, but us also listening for His replies. This is part of what it means to ‘pray in the spirit’ on all occasions.

God is there ready to listen to us at any and at all times. Even when we are at our lowest, He is keen to hear from us. Even when we are at our worst, and don’t know what to say, or how to say it. The Israelites prayed some awful prayers when they were defeated by the Babylonians and exiled.

Psalm 137 verses 8&9 says:

⁸ Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction,
    happy is the one who repays you
    according to what you have done to us.
⁹ Happy is the one who seizes your infants
    and dashes them against the rocks.

We may pray like this, if we need to, God wants to hear from us even in our worst times. Sometimes, though, we will not have the words for the prayers we want to make, and in those times, God himself, through His Holy Spirit, is there to help us. Romans 8 tells us:

²⁶ In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. ²⁷ And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

Who? / Why?

Now it seems I’ve begun to move on to answering the other questions set for this session – Why? And Who?

Let’s start with ‘Why?’, because we’ve sort of answered the ‘Who?’

Why?

Well, the first two answers to ‘Why?’ are easy, they are found in Philippians chapter 4. They are:

- because God commands us to, because we learn from God that way

because God commands us to

because we learn from God that way

and here’s what Paul writes to the Philippians in chapter 4:

⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Anxiety

We all get anxious about things from time to time, it seems to me that people are more anxious now than they used to be, but that could just be my impression. Either way, God tells us that we do not need to be anxious, instead we should take our concerns, our worries and our fears to Him.

Thanksgiving

We bring these things to God with thanksgiving, for all the incredible things He has already done for us. The experience of praying and petitioning God will give us peace – because we will know better than we did when we started that God is in control and has everything in hand. Truly, being in His presence means that the problems of the world are just that little bit more removed from our immediate worries. That does not mean, of course, that we can simply pray and that is all. There will still be things we need to do, and sometimes they will be difficult or dangerous. Our attitude, though, will be changed, our assurance that our actions are necessary and correct in whatever situation will be clearer.

- because we are now friends, not servants

The next reason is that we are now friends with god, not His servants. Jesus says...

John 15:15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

The final reason I have today, although, I’m sure there are others, comes from the few verses that led into our reading from Ephesians.

- because we are in a war

That is because we are in a war. This is what Paul said:

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled round your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Then he says “ … and pray in the spirit …” because prayer is spiritual warfare. It’s a way of fighting off the devil and all his temptations and all his evil in the world. If more of us took this approach, I’m sure the world would be a better place, because God has chosen to work through His people, their prayer and their acts.

Matthew 6:5-8

Our other reading has a little to say about how we pray, that is not really my topic, but right at the end it tells us that ‘your Father knows what you need before you ask him’.

Just like us, with a toddler, it’s easy to see what’s needed, you can often know exactly what they want and need, but we still like to be asked, and we know that it is good for them to ask. And our Father in heaven is just like that with us too.

So, I’ll end with a slight variation on one of my other answers to Why pray?

- Because God likes to be asked

That’s because God likes to be asked and learning to ask, as I’ve already said, is part of our training as we seek to become mature Christians.

Amen.