Words God Loves to Hear

Words God Loves to Hear.

Have you ever taken your kids on a long road trip? What is the question you will be asked? “Are we there yet?” And you pleasantly answer, “Not yet.” But when the question is repeated every few minutes your words and the tone of your voice usually changes. And as the kids keep acting like kids, and keep asking the same question again and again some of you may feel your blood pressure rising and you may even begin your Incredible Hulk transformation! Ever been there?

I wonder, does God ever feel that way? Does he ever get mad at our questions and how we pray? Today, we are going to look at the kind of words God loves to hear.

When Jesus followers saw and heard him pray, they were curious. And at one point they said: “Jesus, how do you do pray? Show us! Teach us how to pray.” Jesus said ok, pray something like this: ‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.’ (Lk 11:2-4)

Lets look at Jesus prayer & see what we can learn.

1. Jesus teaches us how to pray. He says:

Pray to the Heavenly Father. "When you pray, say: 'Father ." (v. 2).There is a general sense in which God is the Father of all people, since they are His offspring as Creator (Acts 17:26-28). But since the human race fell into sin, we enter life separated from God. In fact, Jesus told the Jews that they were of their father, the devil (John 8:44). It is only when a person puts their trust in Jesus as Savior and receives Him by personal invitation that they become a child of God in the true sense (John 1:12-13) and can call God Father. Thus the first requirement if you want to pray rightly is to repent of your sins and put your trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior.

The term “Father” implies the intimacy and love of a close personal relationship! It should encourage us to come to God and expect to find grace and mercy. God is not only a Father, He is by far the most gracious, merciful, and loving of all fathers!

Some have wondered if it is OK to pray to Jesus or the Holy Spirit. There is nothing in the Bible that forbids us from praying to the Son or the Holy Spirit. However, the normal pattern of prayer is that we speak to God the Father, in the name of His Son Jesus, with the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.

Pray with a Respectful Attitude."'Father, hallowed be your name'" (v. 2).The Jews of Jesus’ day tended to view God as so sacred and holy that they kept a safe distance from him. They didn’t even speak the name of God, because it was too sacred. They needed to learn that they could approach God as a kind and loving Father. In our day, it seems that the reverse is true. Many American Christians think of God as their Good Buddy in the Sky. We must keep in mind that when we pray we're talking to our Heavenly Father, who is to be respected and acknowledged as Holy. Pray with a respectful attitude.

Pray with a Submissive Heart."your kingdom come'" (v. 2). Here we accept His plan for our lives has. Prayer is about aligning us with God’s plans, not asking God to align with our plans.

When a commercial aircraft comes into the Fargo Airport & there is voice communication between the pilot and the tower the purpose is to align the aircraft with the runway. Can you imagine the pilot saying to the tower: We’re a little off course here. Could you move the runway a little to the left? That’s NOT the way it works. The runway doesn’t move to line up with the aircraft, the aircraft moves to line up with the runway.

The purpose of prayer is not to move God to align with us; it’s to move US to align with God. We pray ”YOUR kingdom come” NOT OUR will be done.
Pray for Daily Needs. 'Give us each day our daily bread’ (v. 3). Jesus gives us permission to be practical. He invites us to pray for our physical necessities-food, clothing, and shelter. The Father wants us to depend on Him each day for life's essentials.

The content of a prayer varies with the occasion and the circumstance. There is a difference in how I pray in the library here at church or during a winter storm when in my car I hits black ice and I’m starting to do a broody on Hwy 10. My prayer in the car would probably be a short intense prayer.

Pray for Forgiveness."And forgive us our sins, for we forgive everyone who sins against us" (v. 3). God wants to forgive our sins, but we need to ask. We all have sins. We are all sinners. Sin is the wrong we’ve done and the good that we haven’t done. Sins are transgressions against God & we need God’s forgiveness to clear our record.

The assumption in Jesus’ prayer is that our forgiving of others andGod’s forgiving of us go hand-in-hand. We forgive others for the ways they have wronged us and ask God to forgive us for the ways we have wronged him. This means that your relationship with God is connected with your relationships with others. To receive forgiveness ask for it and give it. Pray for forgiveness & give forgiveness.

Pray for Protection."'Lead us not into temptation'" (v. 4).Jesus isn't implying that God tempts us. This is a prayer for God's protection from Satan's dangerous traps. Today & tomorrow are full of potential temptations and tests that could take us down. We can ask God for help, strength and protection to avoid sin, resist temptation, and pass the tests we will face. Each day, Jesus is saying, pray that the Lord will remind you of your vulnerable areas, guard your eyes, guide your thoughts, and protect you from sin.

The Bible has a lot more to say about prayer. Let me suggest two.

2. Check your MOTIVES.

We read these words in James 4:3: “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”God considers our motives. Our requests may be acceptable, but the reason for making them may be unacceptable. Remember, no matter how long we have been Christians, our flesh - our old sinful selfish nature, still influences our thinking and even our praying.

Hear this: God refuses to listen to those prayers that come from our selfish sinful nature. God does not listen to prayer that comes from a heart filled with selfish motives. Check your motyives.

3. Ask HUMBLY.

One of my spiritual barometers is whether I can ask for help from other people. That is an indication of my humility. The Apostle Paul asks for help: “I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.” (Rom 15:30);

Paul humbly asked for help. It is like they say; Moses wandered for 40 years in the desert because he had too much pride to ask for directions! Too much pride can disguise itself as self-reliance but it can make you very lonely and very vulnerable.

In the last two months I have experienced, what I call, spiritual warfare. On three different Sundays, while preaching, I felt like I was fighting a battle. I had difficulty speaking and concentrating. It seemed like someone was speaking into my mind, telling my to sit down and shut up because no one was listing to my phony words anyway. I went home on those Sunday’s completely exhausted, emotionally spent, and discouraged. The last time it happened I felt so beaten down that all I wanted to do was quit.

I have never struggled like this before in all my years of preaching.

I have asked the board and others to be praying for me about this issue because I could not deal with it by myself – even though I thought I should be able to. The kind of pray God wants us to pray is when we ask humbly.

Now let me close with this: Today’s message on prayer isn’t just about information, it’s about action. God doesn’t just want us to know how to pray, He wants us to pray. So here’s the challenge: How would implementing Jesus pattern of prayer change your prayer life?

There is a 4^th very important truth, about prayer, that Jesus talks about in Luke 11:5-13 which we will look at next week.

Philip Yancey, In his book “Prayer” gave this Recipe:

Keep it honest. Keep it simple. Keep it up.