Prayer
The Basis of Prayer
Leviticus 20:7-8
7 Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy,
for I am the Lord your God. 8 And you shall keep My statutes, and perform
them: I am the Lord who sanctifies you.
NKJV
The basis of prayer is the character
of God. In this series we do not have time to look at each attribute
of God. But, it is these attributes that form the loving, personal God
Who will listen to our prayers and respond in our best interest. The fact
of His listening becomes the basis of our prayer life. God has chosen
to hear us!
Psalm 145:18 The Lord is near to all who call upon
Him, To all who call upon Him in truth. NKJV
This knowledge provides us
with the assurance that God will hear, because He wants to listen to our
prayers.
1 John 5:14-15 14 And we can be confident that he
will listen to us whenever we ask him for anything in line with his will.
15 And if we know he is listening when we make our requests, we can be
sure that he will give us what we ask for. NLT
The Greek word used by John translated "confident" means freedom of speech,
that is, the freedom to speak boldly. This is the same type of freedom
granted to citizens of the United States under our constitution. As time
moved on, this Greek's word meaning was modified by usage with this freedom
of speech became the picture of any type of confidence.
In other words, we have a freedom to talk to God. His character assures us that He will listen when we speak. We do not need to interrupt someone else's conversation and to force our words in edgewise. God is always ready to listen and respond in accordance with His will.
But this asking must be in line
with God's character. The asking must be in spirit and in truth. This
is the manner we worship and approach God.
John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship
him must worship him in spirit and in truth. KJV
The need for prayer should be obvious. It is our method of speaking to God. We really have two ways to talk to God -- through our actions and through our prayers. But, even honest, devout good works will not replace the need for prayer. Just as a parent desires to hear the voice of his or her child, so does God long to hear your voice raised in prayer. Prayer is the means of our spiritual unity with God.
