Prayer
Finding the Heart’s True Home
by Richard Foster

Part 3— Moving Outward
Chapter 16—Petitionary Prayer

“ Whether we like it or not, asking is the rule of the Kingdom.”
C. H. Spurgeon

OPENING PRAYER

1.       Our Staple Diet—not optional
         Every parent wants to be asked.  It drives connection.
         Petition is not a “lower” or inferior form of prayer.
         Neglecting petition in favor of more inward prayer is self-serving and the antithesis of what God intends.
         Our petitions are often self-serving and childish, but petition is the child-like    relationship that Jesus spoke about in terms of becoming part of the Kingdom.

2.  Unanswered Prayer
         A problem, an embarrassment
         P.T. Forsyth—“We shall come one day to a heaven where we shall gratefully know that God’s great refusals were sometimes the true answers to our truest prayer.”
         Our prayers are answered but we can’t see them sometimes.
         Our prayers might be bad for us the way we envision them.
         We are capable of infinite self-deception.

3.  Sin hinders our prayers
         It’s not that we aren’t good enough—that’s already established, but we get in our own way
         We lack God’s vision
         We lack the ability to wholly discern God’s heart
         We need to rely on the Holy Spirit and the Son interceding for us continually.

4.  Paternoster—The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13)
         A “total” prayer
         Give:  Jesus is concerned with the minute daily necessities of human life
         Forgive:  We owe an enormous debt—parable of the evil servant
         Commission  and omission.
         As long as we can’t forgive, we won’t allow ourselves to be forgiven.
         Forgiveness is a commandment after the fashion of the Spirit: Make yourself open to the Spirit who will cause you to be able to forgive with His love.
         We won’t forget.  We may not reconcile.  But we must forgive.
         Deliver:  Evil=trials—God only tries us when He needs us to see our hearts.
         “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil”….
         Let there be nothing in me that will force you to reveal my heart through trial.
         This is why the Desert Fathers pursued God so fiercely—they sought out their sin so that there would be nothing left for God to try them about.

5.   Layers of Petition
         What are we told to pray for? 
         What do we often pray for? 
         What do we avoid praying for?
         Make a list of things you need to pray for. 
         Keep going until you exhaust everything God brings to mind.
         Start now, but you will probably need to add to it over several days.
         Keep the list where you can see it.

6.  Herbert Farmer:  “If prayer is the heart of religion, then petition is the heart of          prayer.”
        
        
Closing Prayer
Dear Father, I don’t want to treat you like Santa Claus, but I do need to ask things of you.  Give me, please, food to eat today.  I’m not asking for tomorrow, but I am asking for today.  Please forgive me for the infinite offenses to your goodness that I have committed today…this hour.  I’m not even aware of most of them.  That in itself is a sin against heaven.  I’m sorry.  Increase my awareness.
         In my ignorance if I have asked for things that would really be destructive, please, do not give them to me—do not lead me into temptation.  Do protect me from the evil one.
For Jesus’ sake-- Amen


You can share our lessons with others who can’t be here in person by referring them to
http://christian-transformationblog.blogspot.com  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
I've been reading a Lenten series through YouVersion these last few weeks, and today this came through from Watchman Nee--a writer from China who I did not understand when I tried to read him 30 years ago.  But now I begin to see what he was saying.  Like John of the Cross.  And Teresa of Avila.  And John Coe. The fact that I am now in my 60's in not lost on me here.  Until God has brought us through "difficult and painful ways", it is hard to see where He is taking us.  Until the Spirit has swept the heart clean of the residue of the Old Person--or at least a great portion of it--and replaced it with Himself, it is impossible to experience the miracle of resurrection in your own soul.  Now I see a glimmer of what is to come and it urges me on to surrender more and more of myself.  Surrender to God is, in the end, the only way to Life. "God must bring us to a point - I cannot tell you how it will be, but He will do it - where, through a deep and dark experi
Read more

Beneath the Cross of Jesus...

Image
Come and sit with me at the foot of the Cross for a few minutes.  It's a peaceful place-- a place where we come to realize that there was never anything to worry about in the first place.  We can sit here with Jesus amidst the weeds of our lives and just ... be.  And it's ok. This next week is a week of remembering Jesus' path to the Cross.  We remember His resolute journey.  Luke says, "He turned His face to Jerusalem".  He knew where He was going and why, and He did not turn away.   Jesus calls us to not "turn away" from ourselves.  Just has He had to deal with fear and dread as He walked obediently toward His death, He calls us to continue, unflinching, in our quest for the whole self He made us to be. Last week we talked about the Shadow Self in each of us--the hidden parts of our hearts represented by the low scores on our Myers Briggs tests.  I have been meditating on my hidden places.  None of them is as extreme as my inclination to Int
Read more

The Journey

Image
An Interlude at the Beginning of Advent... Today we took time to enjoy the work of The Advent Project , put on each year by Biola University's Center for Christianity, Culture and the Arts. The story of Christmas actually began in the Garden with the story of Adam and Eve.  The drawing that caught my eye was one of Eve kneeling at the foot of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in despair as the serpent looks on from the trunk.  But rather than the figure of the angel ordering her from the Garden, the figure of a glowing Mary stands next to her, linking the 2 stories, linking the lives of these two Mothers--one of pride and grasping, the other of obedience and humility-- as surely as Paul linked the First and Last Adams. Please click the link below and enjoy the art, music, poetry and meditative writing you find. http://ccca.biola.edu/advent/#day-nov-29 And sign up, if you like,  to have this wonderful devotional sent to you daily throughout Advent by entering your
Read more