God's Word on PrayerSample

PETITION

1 Samuel 1:17—One major difference between Christianity and all other religions is that the believer has a God who hears and answers prayer. In the Old Testament, during a contest with Elijah, the priests of Baal made desperate efforts to speak with their god by crying out and cutting themselves, but to no avail. “But there was no voice; no one answered” (1 Kin. 18:26). How different that was from these words of the psalmist: “But certainly God has heard me; He has attended to the voice of my prayer” (Ps. 66:19). The beautiful truth of prayer goes even beyond that. God does not just hear and respond when we pray, He wants us to go to Him in prayer regularly, taking all our cares, concerns, and joys to Him. As we do, there are two things to remember:

a. The nature of our petitions. When we pray, our petitions should be made by faith (James 1:6) in the name of Jesus (John 14:13). If we do, we can rest assured that our prayers are heard (1 John 3:22; 5:14–15).

b. The objects of our prayers. We should certainly pray for ourselves. We should confess any sin (1 John 1:9), ask God for wisdom (James 1:5), and place any needs and desires before the Lord (Phil. 4:6–7). We should also pray for others, such as spiritual leaders (Col. 4:3), sick believers (James 5:14–15), rulers (1 Tim. 2:1–3), and even our enemies (Matt. 5:44).

This Bible study is an excerpt fromThe OPEN Bible, Published by Thomas Nelson Bibles