Saturday 10 August 2013

Read: Acts 4:23-31

Imagine that you had a red telephone in your house which went straight to the office of the Prime Minister? If you knew that every time you picked up that phone the Prime Minister would answer immediately and would be able and willing to help you with your problem would you use it?

 

Prayer is an even more powerful, even more direct form of communication than a telephone to the Prime Minister. We don’t only have communication with the leader of a single country. We have direct communication with the all powerful, all sovereign ruler of the universe. That is why we can pray with confidence that God is able and willing to answer our prayers.

 

When the believers pray in Acts 4 they begin with remembering these things about God. They start with God’s power. “Sovereign Lord, you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.” They begin their prayer by remembering why they can be confident that God is able to answer their prayers. When you pray you pray to the same God who put all the stars in the sky and can measure them all with the span of His hand (Isaiah 40:12). You are praying to the God who formed land and sky and seas. You are praying to the God who perfectly balanced the sensitive ecosystem of the world so that life could be sustained. You are praying to the God who created your body with all it’s intricate systems and minute detail. We can pray with confidence because we know our God is all powerful.

 

But the believers’ prayer doesn’t end there. They also praise God for His sovereignty. God’s incredible power would mean nothing for us if He was not also in control of the world and all that happens. The believers affirm that even God’s enemies “did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.” Our God is totally in control. Even His enemies do what He decides and what He wills. Nothing happens on the Earth that is outside of God’s control.

 

If God is all powerful and all sovereign then we can truly pray with confidence that God is able to answer our prayers but how do we know that God wants to answer our prayers? I don’t know about you but I would hesitate to ever pick up that red phone at my house because I wouldn’t trust that the Prime Minister would have the time or the desire to solve my problem.

 

This is not the case with God. Because Christ has secured our relationship with God by His life, death and resurrection we can come before God with confidence and boldness (Hebrews 4:16). We know that God is not only able to answer our prayers, He desires to answer our prayers.

 

What happens for the believers in Acts 4? God answers their prayer powerfully and immediately. Through their confident, bold prayer the God of the universe empowers them to boldly preach His word to the nations.

 

Do you bring your needs and desires before God with confidence and boldness? Do you pray that God would enable you to share your faith courageously? Do you pray that God would enable you and use you to build His kingdom? Pray confidently and boldly today that God would do these things in your life.

 

Prayer:

Write down your prayer points in the space provided. Use today’s reading to help you get ideas.

 

Adoration:

 

Confession:

 

Thanks:

 

 

Supplication:

¥ Pray that God would enable believers around the world to preach the gospel with great boldness and passion. Pray that they would be fearless in their proclamation of Christ in their communities. Pray that God would bring many around the world to faith and trust in Him as a result of these believers.

¥ Pray for the men in your church. Pray that they would grow in their relationship with Christ and that they would be filled with a desire to serve Him. Pray that God would challenge them to be powerful leaders in their families. Pray that they would be loving and gracious husbands who would willing sacrifice of themselves for the sake of their wives. Pray that they would be tender and wise fathers who would raise their children to serve and love God.

 

Discussion Questions For Families and Groups

1. What would a praying church look like? What would be the hallmarks of the church?

2. What would it take to be praying church? What attitudes need to change for your local church to become a “house of prayer for all nations”?