Acceptable Prayer - Part Two

ACCEPTABLE PRAYER - Part Two

 

Point to the Lord Jesus Christ as the One through Whose Name we pray.

---

Our God is not like any other god. The gods of the heathen are idols or demons. Our God is the one Who made Heaven and earth, and Who has been so gracious as to become our Father through the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

There is only one God. We speak of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This does not mean that we believe in three Gods. He is one God, but He is in three persons. You are only one person, yet you have a body, a soul and a spirit.

 

When we pray, our prayers have something to do with the three Persons of the Godhead. We pray to God our Father. It is He Who answers our prayers. The Lord Jesus said in John 16:23 that His disciples were to "ask the Father.” The Father is not One Who is far away and strange, and Who does not want to hear us when we pray. He loves us far better than any earthly father or mother could, and He loves to hear us pray, and to answer us when it is right to do so.

 

We could never pray without the Lord Jesus, for it is in His name that we pray. You have seen checks, have you not? They are only good when there is a name signed at the bottom. A checks made out for a hundred dollars would be worth no more than a piece of scrap paper if it had no name at the bottom. Some people seem to pray in their own names. Their prayers are worth no more than pieces of paper. If we think for a minute that God should answer our prayers because of what we are, or because we have done something good, those prayers will go into Gods wastebasket. He only answers prayers in Jesus' name. Jesus said, "Whatsoever ye shall ask in A My name, that will I do" (John 14:13). This does not mean just saying "In Jesus' name" at the end. It means to ask for what you ask, because of what Jesus has done for you in dying on the cross for you. There are a good many prayers that would not be prayed if we really thought about that. Selfish prayers would be ruled out. And there are some prayers that we forget to pray that would be prayed if we remembered about the cross and all Jesus did for us there.

 

But this is not all there is to prayer. You have seen stools with three legs. They stand very nicely. But if they had only two legs they would fall down. So there is a third part to prayer that makes it stand before God.

 

We really do not know how to pray. Sometimes we ask for the wrong things. Often we do not pray for the things we should. We do not pray in the right way, so often. But God has made a provision for us. The Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Godhead, prays with us and for us. Romans 8:26 tells us that He prays for us for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but He knows the will of God, and can pray in the right way. So His prayers go to the Father with ours, and God answers in His own good way. Whether the answer is "Yes,” “No,” or “Wait," we can be sure it is the right answer, and that some day even if we have to wait a long time, we shall understand how very right everything that our Father does, has been for us.

---

STUDY QUESTIONS