God And His Word - A Question And Answer Approach To Understanding The Bible

LESSON 7: THE SPIRIT-FILLED LIFE - PRAYER AND WORSHIP 1. WHAT IS PRAYER? Prayer is talking to God. As a person expresses his feelings in conversation with God, the prayer may take on the form of adoration, confession, supplication or thanksgiving. 1 Timothy 2:1, 8. Every Christian should learn to pray; however, prayer cannot be "taught" like an academic subject. "Like love and faith, like the response of the soul to beauty and the experience of the joy of God, prayer has to be known at first hand or it is not known at all." (White) A. Prayer is learned through fellowship with those who pray and through reflection upon their example. It was "as Jesus was praying in a certain place, when He ceased" that one of the disciples was stirred to ask Him, "Lord, teach us to pray" (Luke 11:l). We learn to pray by listening to those of our spiritual friends who do pray; also, we learn by studying the Bible's account of the men of prayer to whom God was real and near and attentive. B. Prayer is learned through personal trial and error. Just as a growing child learns to please or displease his parents, so the developing Christian learns to harmonize his will with that of God. The beginning Christian should simply talk to God as he would with a friend, expressing his feelings right from his heart. James 4:3. 3. IS THERE ANY BENEFIT IN MEMORIZED PRAYER? Generally, a memorized prayer comes from the mind rather than the heart. Real prayer must be fervent and filled with faith. James 5:16; Hebrews 11:6. There are 2. HOW CAN A PERSON LEARN TO PRAY?

179