Scripture Jeremiah
1:9-12
How many of you
remember 10 years ago learning about the prayer of Jabez? Bruse Wilkinson sates that he prays the
prayer of Jabez every day and he wrote a book about it. The rayer of Jabea is a perfect example of a
principle I want us to learn today: Praying the FAITHBOOK or praying the
scriptures or praying the bible.
1 Chronicles 4:3-10
These were the
sons of Etam: Jezreel, Ishma and Idbash. Their sister was named
Hazzelelponi. Penuel was the father of
Gedor, and Ezer the father of Hushah. These
were the descendants of Hur, the firstborn of Ephrathah and father of
Bethlehem. Ashhur the father of Tekoa
had two wives, Helah and Naarah. Naarah
bore him Ahuzzam, Hepher, Temeni and Haahashtari. These were the descendants of
Naarah. The sons of Helah: Zereth,
Zohar, Ethnan, and Koz, who was the father of Anub and Hazzobebah and of the
clans of Aharhel son of Harum.
9 Jabez was more
honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, "I
gave birth to him in pain." 10
Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, "Oh, that you would bless me and
enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I
will be free from pain." And God granted his request.
Are you a
self-centered pragmatic pray-er — a believer who thinks of God more as a Santa
Clause than the sovereign Father. Does your praying have more in common with
programming a heavenly computer than surrendering to a loving Master. Do you
claim God’s promises for your own ease rather than being claimed by God’s
purposes for His kingdom.
Praying through
the Bible will yield a mind informed by the will of God, a heart enflamed with
the love of God, and hands extended in the service of God. All three of these
are central to life in Christ, and all three flow out of our communion with
Christ.
So, what’s
involved in praying the Scriptures? Praying the Scriptures requires us first to
be in the Scriptures regularly. We can’t hide the Word in our hearts if we’re
not lingering in the Bible’s pages. As Martin Luther said, we need the gospel
every day because we forget the gospel every day.
Read the bible
but also let the bible read you. If we aren’t careful, we can read the
Scriptures for information and inspiration while playing dodgeball with our
calling to transformation. Having the Scriptures “read us” deepens our prayer
life.
Praying the Scriptures,
therefore, calls us to look for Jesus in every part of the Bible. “Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets” (Luke 24:27),
we want to discover everything prophesied and promised about Jesus as He is
progressively revealed in the history of redemption from Genesis through
Revelation.
Minds informed
by the will of God and hearts enflamed with the love of God will be
authenticated by hands extended in the service of God. The more we pray through
the Scriptures wearing the lens of the gospel, the less we’ll find ourselves
giving God bit parts in our story and the more we’ll think about finding our
place in His story. The central and operative question in life is not “What can
I do for Jesus?” while He’s away in heaven. Rather, it’s “What can I do with
Jesus?” since He’s right here, right now.
Jer 1:9-12
Then the Lord
reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, "Now, I have put
my words in your mouth. 10 See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms
to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant."
11 The word of the Lord came to me: "What do you see, Jeremiah?" "I see the branch of an almond
tree," I replied. 12 The Lord said to me, "You have seen correctly,
for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled."
Praying God's Word
. Would you like your
prayers to be more powerful? Pray the Scriptures. Hebrews 4:12 says Heb 4:12-13
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword,
it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges
the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. When we speak and pray the Scriptures, we are
coming into agreement with God, and His power is released to answer our
prayers.
Maybe you feel like God doesn't hear your prayers? Or
maybe you don't know what to pray for in certain situations. 1 John 5:14-15
This is the
confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his
will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us — whatever we ask — we
know that we have what we asked of him.
1John 5:14, which tells us we can have confidence in
God. Not only does He hear our prayers, but He also promises to answer them
when we pray in line with His will. He hastens to perform His Word.
Benefits of Praying the Scriptures
Praying the
Scriptures will increase your spiritual growth. You actually learn what God
says about certain situations, and by praying His Word you will see His
results.
Many people have testified that just by praying the
healing scriptures they have been healed, physically as well as mentally.
You can live a stress free life if you will only just
pray because when you pray, you are turning the situation over to God. You're
taking the situation out of your hands, and putting it in His hands. You're
releasing it to God. These Scripture Prayers are very easy to read, and if
you'll read them every day, even within a week, you will have memorized
Scripture and won't even realize it until a situation arises, or until someone
asks you to pray for them.
Jeremiah
29:11-14 HOPE
For I know the plans I have for
you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and
pray to me, and I will listen to you.
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
Matt 19:26 POSSIBILITES
Jesus looked at them and said,
"With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
Philippians
4:13 STRENGTH
I can do everything through him
who gives me strength.
Matthew
6:9-13 FORGIVENESS
"This,
then, is how you should pray: "'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your
name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have
forgiven our debtors. And lead us not
into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.'
JESUS IN THE
WILDERNESS PRAYED THE FAITHBOOK
Matthew 4
the 3 temptations – “it is written…”
COMMUNION
RESPONSE: WE FALL DOWN
Rev 4:9-11
Whenever the
living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and
who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who
sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their
crowns before the throne and say: "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to
receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will
they were created and have their being." Holy, Hoy, Holy!
PRAYER TIME
One way to pray the scriptures is to take the prayers
in scripture and pray them. You have to make them personal. The prayer of Jabez needs no alteration. Here
is a prayer of affirmation that I need only to alter slightly: Col 1:3-7
I always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when I pray
for you firstb congregation, because I know of your faith in Christ Jesus and
of the love you have for all the saints— the faith and love that spring from
the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard
about in the word of truth, the gospel that has come to you. All over the world
this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you
since the day you heard it and understood God's grace in all its truth. You
learned it from Andy Boetcher, Ken Gould, Sally Molyneux, Bob Holloway, the
pastors and teachers before them, all these dear fellow servants, who have been
faithful ministers of Christ on our behalf, and who also told me of your love
in the Spirit.
Prayer
Promises
Jer
1:12........ "I am ready to perform My Word."
Jn
16:24....... "Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full."
Mt 21:22........."...whatever
things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."
Jer
33:3......... "Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and
mighty things..."
Jn
14:14........ "If you ask anything in my name, I will do it."
Jn
16:23........ "...whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give
you."
Jas
5:16........ "The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails
much."
Job
22:27...... "You will make your prayer to Him, He will hear you..."
1Jn
5:14........ "Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we
ask anything according to His will, He hears us."
1Jn
5:15........ "And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know
that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him."
Jn
14:13........ "And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the
Father may be glorified in the Son."
Isa
55:11....... "So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall
not return void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in
the thing for which I sent it."
Jn
15:7.......... "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will
ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you."
Mt
18:18........ "Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be
bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in
heaven."
Mt
18:19........ "Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth
concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in
heaven."
Jn
15:16........ "You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you
that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that
whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you."
Jer
29:12........ "Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will
listen to you."
Isa
65:24........ "It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer,
and while they are speaking I will hear."
Ps
91:15........ "He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be
with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him."
Ps
141:2......... "Let my prayer be set before You as incense, the lifting of
my hands as the evening sacrifice."
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