EFP Part I: How NOT to Pray (c)

Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. (James 5:16)

Today we continue our series on EFP - “Effectual Fervent Prayer”. The last two weeks we have been teaching Part I, How NOT to Pray, and today we will finish this part up. As a reminder, let’s review our dictionary definitions about “Effectual Fervent”:

Effectual: 1. Producing, or able to produce, the desired effect. 2. Having legal force; valid.

Fervent: 1.hot; burning; glowing. 2. having or showing great warmth of feeling; intensely devoted or earnest; ardent. SYN – passionate

Remember that these are actually one word in the Greek: energeō (en-erg-eh'-o) - to be active, efficient. The goal of this series is to get to the point that our prayers become like Jesus’ prayers – active, efficient - producing the desired effect. So, let’s go back to Matthew’s Gospel to get back to Jesus’ lesson on how NOT to pray:

And when you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Truly I say unto you, They have their reward. But you, when you pray, enter into your closet, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father which is in secret; and your Father which sees in secret shall reward you openly. But when you pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not therefore like them: for your Father knows what things you have need of, before you ask him.

After this manner therefore pray: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. (Matthew 6:5-13)

Two weeks ago we discussed verses 5 & 6, addressing our key point that Hypocrites Love to Pray, and we stressed that Motives Matter! We concluded that praying for the wrong motives, praying for visibility and/or human response is NOT going to be effectual fervent prayer. Last week we discussed verse 7, with our key point being Much speaking does NOT produce much. We discussed how vain repetition and long wordy prayers for the sake of being long and wordy will also be ineffectual.

To repeat a question I have asked several times in this study: Am I saying that God will never answer your prayers if you pray the wrong way? No, God is bigger than that, but there is such a thing as Effectual Fervent Prayer, active, efficient - producing the desired effect. So, let’s continue where verse 7 left off, in verse 8:

Be not therefore like them: for your Father knows what things you have need of, before you ask him. (Matthew 6:8)

Have you ever thought about how much of your prayer time is spent in running down your list of needs? Or how much of your time is spent running down the list of other people’s needs? Let me ask another question - do you really think that you need to inform God of what is going on? Here’s today’s Key Point: God Knows! There’s no point in spending a lot of time trying to inform God what is needed – He already knows what is needed, and He knows it better than you do (as a matter of fact, what you think of as a “need” might not be a “need” in God’s eyes).

Here’s a potentially radical truth: petitioning God is NOT the primary purpose that God gave us prayer! It is A purpose for prayer, and the Bible does tell us to let our request be made known unto God (Philippians 4:6), but the primary purpose for prayer is simply communication with God (but we’ll address this more in future lessons…).

Looking back to verses 7 & 8: what are most Christians doing when they are praying their long lists? Generally they are listing for God all of the negative stuff going on in their life. DON’T DO THIS! If you spend thirty or forty minutes speaking out and rehashing all of your problems, and troubles, and the evil going on around you, you are just magnifying the problems! Proverbs 18:21 says “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” – if you are spending any amount of time in “prayer” speaking out all of your negative circumstances and problems, you are speaking out doubt and death. Romans 10:17 says that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”. So where does doubt come from? It ALSO comes by hearing, hearing anything that is counter to the word of God. So, instead of speaking out all of your negative circumstances, all of your troubles, it will be more effective to spend your time stating all of the promises God has given to you about those situations in His Word.

Let’s put this into human terms that we can all relate to – how much do you like it when a friend spends all of their time with you griping and complaining about everything that is going on in their life? Now, hopefully you are as gracious with your friend as God is with you, but let’s realize that there is a better way of communicating and relating with people and with God than griping and complaining. Instead of magnifying your problems, use your prayer time to magnify God. Or to put it another way: Don’t tell God all about your problems, tell your problems all about your God! This may sound trite, but it IS effectual!

Prayer is all about communion with God – it isn’t meant to be a time of griping, complaining, murmuring. Here’s a simple way to evaluate your prayer time – are you better off when you finish your prayer time than when you began? Are you more depressed coming out of your prayer closet than when you went in? Then you were NOT in prayer with God. Or are you energized, excited, and built up in faith as you exit the prayer closet? If you are truly in communion with God you will be built up! You can’t help but be built up when spending time with God.

One last thought on how NOT to pray - you don’t need to impress upon God how important your prayer is. A lot of prayers sound like a debate with God or perhaps an election campaign, stating or justifying all of the reasons that your prayer needs to go to the head of the line. God is NOT reluctant to bless you, but He is also NOT going to be manipulated by you – not by your words, not by your actions (or your holiness), not by what position you choose to pray in. He is ONLY going to be impressed with your faith in Jesus, and in your acceptance of and reliance upon Him. Again, am I saying that God will never answer your prayers if you pray the wrong way? No, but there is such a thing as Effectual Fervent Prayer, active, efficient - producing the desired effect.

So let’s avoid all of the time wasters from Matthew 6:5-8, these things that Jesus taught us NOT to do, and then let’s go to prayer and RELAX! After all, God is “Our Father” in heaven, NOT “our judge” (but more on that in next week’s lesson)…

Join us next week for our lesson entitled: Effectual Fervent Prayer Part II: Our Father.

If you have been blessed by this lesson, and would like to sow where you have been fed, you can make a tax deductible donation to Cornerstone Church using any of these methods:

1. To make a one time donation through PayPal, click here.
2. To Partner with us through a regular $25/month subscription through PayPal, click here.

Visit our main site at http://www.sharethelemonade.net/

EFP Part I: How NOT to Pray (b)

Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. (James 5:16)

Today we continue our series on EFP - “Effectual Fervent Prayer”. Last week we started with Part I, How NOT to Pray, and today we continue where we left off. As a reminder, let’s review our dictionary definitions about “Effectual Fervent”:

Effectual: 1. Producing, or able to produce, the desired effect. 2. Having legal force; valid.

Fervent: 1.hot; burning; glowing. 2. having or showing great warmth of feeling; intensely devoted or earnest; ardent. SYN – passionate

And as we noted last week, these are actually one word in the Greek: energeo¯ (en-erg-eh'-o) - to be active, efficient. The goal of this series is to get to the point that our prayers become like Jesus’ prayers – active, efficient - producing the desired effect. So, let’s go back to Matthew’s Gospel to get back to Jesus’ lesson on how NOT to pray:

And when you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Truly I say unto you, They have their reward. But you, when you pray, enter into your closet, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father which is in secret; and your Father which sees in secret shall reward you openly. But when you pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not therefore like them: for your Father knows what things you have need of, before you ask him.

After this manner therefore pray: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. (Matthew 6:5-13)

We spent all last week’s lesson going over verses 5 & 6, addressing our key point that Hypocrites Love to Pray, and we stressed that Motives Matter! We concluded that praying for the wrong motives, praying for visibility and/or human response is NOT going to be effectual fervent prayer. Just a reminder, I am not saying that God will never answer your prayers if you pray the wrong way, but there is such a thing as Effectual Fervent Prayer, active, efficient - producing the desired effect. So, what else did Jesus point out to us as being ineffective? Let’s start today’s lesson in verse 7:

But when you pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. (Matthew 6:7)

I used to repeat what is commonly called the “Lord’s Prayer” over and over again, thinking that it was having some sort of positive spiritual effect. What I didn’t know at the time was that just two sentences before Jesus taught this model for prayer he specifically instructed us to NOT use vain repetitions! Jesus stated that you will NOT be heard based on your much speaking. Here’s today’s Key Point: Much speaking does NOT produce much.

Let’s take a look at some of Jesus’ prayers:

“Peace, be still.” (Mark 4:39)

“Lazarus, come forth.” (John 11:43)

“Go.” (Matthew 8:32)

“Hold your peace, and come out of him.” (Matthew 1:25/Luke 4:35)

Go ahead and look up the complete accounts of each of these – every one of these prayers were totally effectual (as were all of Jesus’ prayers, to state the obvious). We discussed it as we went through The Believer’s Authority series, and we’ll spend more time on it in future lessons in this series, but the most effectual prayers are when we are simply speaking out and enforcing the authority God has already given us (as a matter of fact, unless God has already provided for, or given us authority in an area, our prayer isn’t going to force God’s hand!). There’s no need to be long winded – just speak The Word in faith. A lot of times, the shorter the prayer, the stronger the faith!

As we discussed last week, how much time you spend in prayer isn’t what is critical – one minute spent speaking in faith with the correct motives will be far more effectual that spending one hour filling time reciting a laundry list of needs and wants. Back when I first became a Christian, I used to set a cooking timer to one hour, and then struggle to fill the time. Although it did help me to develop a discipline to pray, it was not the comfortable, joyful, relationship building communication that God intended prayer to be.

Again, am I saying that God will never answer your prayers if you pray the wrong way? Not necessarily – God is bigger than that. But let’s be aware that vain repetitions and idle words to just fill time will not be active, efficient prayer – producing the desired effect. Vain repetition and much speaking is a time waster – it is NOT going to be Effectual Fervent Prayer.

Join us next week as we continue this lesson: EFP Part I: How NOT to Pray (c).

If you have been blessed by this lesson, and would like to sow where you have been fed, you can make a tax deductible donation to Cornerstone Church using any of these methods:

1. To make a one time donation through PayPal, click here.
2. To Partner with us through a regular $25/month subscription through PayPal, click here.
3. To send a donation by check, mail it to:

Cornerstone Church
1433 N. Main Street
Naperville, IL 60563

Visit our main site at http://www.sharethelemonade.net/

EFP Part I: How NOT to Pray (a)

Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. (James 5:16)

Today we begin a series on EFP - “Effectual Fervent Prayer”. I don’t know yet how many parts this series will take, so let’s just say that today is Part I (actually it will be Part 1(a), since we were only able to cover one aspect of “How NOT to Pray” in the classroom). Let’s start by looking at the definitions for those first two adjectives:

Effectual: 1. Producing, or able to produce, the desired effect. 2. Having legal force; valid.

Fervent: 1.hot; burning; glowing. 2. having or showing great warmth of feeling; intensely devoted or earnest; ardent. SYN – passionate

Actually, in the original Greek “effectual fervent” was just one word: energeō (en-erg-eh'-o) - to be active, efficient. My desire is to see our prayers become like Jesus’ prayers – active, efficient - producing the desired effect. So, what better place to begin that discussion than with Jesus’ lesson on prayer? Let’s go to Matthew’s Gospel:

And when you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Truly I say unto you, They have their reward. But you, when you pray, enter into your closet, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father which is in secret; and your Father which sees in secret shall reward you openly. But when you pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not therefore like them: for your Father knows what things you have need of, before you ask him.

After this manner therefore pray: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. (Matthew 6:5-13)

Sometimes when you are “laying a foundation for life” you have to start by tearing down a shaky or unstable foundation that may already exist. We see that Jesus did exactly that in verses 5 through 8 – before he gave his model for prayer, he had to teach on how NOT to pray. Am I saying that God will never answer your prayers if you pray the wrong way? Not necessarily – God is bigger than that. But remember that "man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7). So let’s get to the heart of the matter - Jesus taught that there is a wrong way and a right way to pray, so we will begin today like Jesus did, by looking at how NOT to pray.

Verses 5 and 6 have today’s Key Point: Hypocrites Love to Pray

Hypocrites love to pray – they love to pray in public – they love to be seen by men as they pray. They love to impress people with their knowledge of Scripture. They love to show off how spiritual and/or holy they are. And what does Jesus say about these folks? “They have their reward.” One way to be truly ineffective in prayer is to pray in a manner that is more concerned with what other people will see, hear and think about you, rather than what God is concerned about. I’ll come back to this truth in a moment, but let me address verse 6 first: Is Jesus saying that we should never pray in public? No, not at all – as a matter of recorded fact, we only need to look at the start of Luke’s account of this same event to see that Jesus had been praying in public, and that is what led the disciples to ask Him how to pray:

And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, When you pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. (Luke 11:1-2)

So it isn’t public prayer that Jesus is teaching against, but our motive in prayer – if our motive is to have people notice us, that people would be impressed by how “spiritual” or “religious” we are, then that is all that we should expect. People may be impressed with us, but our prayers are going to be ineffectual. We say it in these studies over and over again: Motives Matter!

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profits me nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)

Matthew 6:6 does tell us to enter into our closets and shut the door – that is a good way to eliminate the possibility of being motivated by being seen by others. Again, I don’t believe that this was meant to be a formula or an ordinance or a law – instead it was meant to teach us that when we pray in secret, not to be seen of men, God will reward us openly.

I could put it this way: God is more concerned about your Motives for prayer than in your Methods in prayer! Does it really matter how many minutes or hours you pray each day? Do we need to measure up to some other human’s standards for prayer? Do we need to bow our heads and close our eyes when we pray in church? Are we doing it out of reverence for God, or just to appear reverent to other people that may see? I’m not saying that any of these methods is bad, but if the motives are bad, to impress people, remember that Jesus says “they have their reward”.

Again, am I saying that God will never answer your prayers if you pray the wrong way? Not necessarily – God is bigger than that. But let’s be aware of our motives as we go to prayer, recognizing that if our desire is for Effectual Fervent Prayer, prayer that is active, efficient – producing the desired effect, then we need to keep our motives pure. Praying with the wrong motives, praying for visibility and/or human response, is a time waster – it is NOT going to be Effectual Fervent Prayer.

Join us next week as we continue this lesson: EFP Part I: How NOT to Pray (b).

If you have been blessed by this lesson, and would like to sow where you have been fed, you can make a tax deductible donation to Cornerstone Church using any of these methods:

1. To make a one time donation through PayPal, click here.
2. To Partner with us through a regular $25/month subscription through PayPal, click here.
3. To send a donation by check, mail it to:

Cornerstone Church
1433 N. Main Street
Naperville, IL 60563

Visit our main site at http://www.sharethelemonade.net/