Prayer: A Connection To Our Heavenly Father

Well, good afternoon again, brethren, and again, it's a delight to come and see you and be able to get together for Sabbath services. And I certainly appreciate Mr. Hudson's sermonette, clearly information that we, you know, we read, but we need to focus on and be able to continue to apply in our lives. So I thank him very much for that. Well, brethren, all of us, as the children of God, we know that we're supposed to pray to our Heavenly Father. And I'm going to venture to guess that all of us are praying people.

And I hope that we can talk about that a little bit today, because, you know, we know that we're admonished to pray on a daily basis. Jesus said to pray for your daily bread, and so obviously he's indicating that we ought to be consistently and praying on a regular basis, and in a sense, daily basis. And of course, here at services, we open closed services with requesting and then thanking God for his involvement and for his blessing. And of course, whenever we have meals, we commonly ask God's blessing on the meal. We pray privately, in a private or secret place, our bedroom, our office, wherever it is, at college some long, some few years ago.

They had prayer closets in the dorms. That was quite convenient, actually. That was a very nice addition to the dormitory area where we lived, or where many of the students at the time lived. And yet we know that we're instructed to pray in that way. And of course, we have other admonitions. You could read, I could read many different verses out of the Bible about prayer.

But what I want to ask us today, and I know all of us have not only heard messages on prayer, but we have practiced maybe the art or the need for prayer for many decades.

And yet I want us to think about, have our prayers, or can our prayers, become more of an obligation, more of a rote thing that we do if we set aside a certain amount of time, in our day for prayer? You know, is it at times our prayer becoming less meaningful, maybe even more repetitious? Because of course we know what the model of prayer is. We know the kind of the highlights of what the model of prayer tells us. And yet I want us to consider, do we run into some of the problems that Jesus describes here in Matthew 6?

See, here on the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus gave the model of prayer in Matthew 6, starting in verse 9, he gave kind of an outline of a prayer that he told his disciples to to pray. This is the way I want you to pray. He actually says, pray then in this way in verse 9 of Matthew 6. And so he docked them what it was that they could pray about. And yet what I want to read is starting in verse 5. It says, whenever you pray, don't be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogue and at the corners of the street, so that they can be seen by others. And so clearly, you know, Jesus was noting something that was common in the Jewish community. And even among the, say, the religious people of the day, they often would make a show out of prayer. And thinking that that was what God wanted, or that that made them look good. If you drop down to verse 7, he also says, when you were praying, don't heap up vain repetition or empty phrases, as the Gentiles do, as others outside of Israel do, for they think that they'll be heard because of their many words. Verse 8, do not be like them.

So here, not only is Jesus giving instruction on what to pray about, or that we need to understand the need to pray, but he says there's some things to a bully. Don't, don't maybe enlarge your prayer by being repetitious or overly repetitious, and certainly don't do it for a wrong motivation, or with a wrong motivation. That's what you find. If it's to be seen by others, then that's a wrong motivation. We need to be communing whenever we pray. We need to be communing with our Heavenly Father. And certainly, as it says here, you know, we don't want to have that wrong motivation or even to use empty phrases as it says. What I want to focus on today is simply that our prayers shouldn't be out of an obligation, although we are obligated to pray to God. You know, God tells us that we need to develop a relationship, develop a rapport with Him. So our prayer should be more than an obligation and more of a connection.

Our prayers, your prayers, my prayers, should be a connection that we cannot live without. A connection with our Heavenly Father. And so that would be, in essence, the title of what I want to cover today. Prayer being a connection to our Heavenly Father. Now, how could we ensure that our prayers are meaningful and heartfelt and effective? It talks about the, you know, the fervent, effectual prayer of the righteous man avails much in the book of James. That seems to be talking about the topic of being in need, whether healing or for other things. And it says, you know, we need to effectively ask for God's help in that way. So how can we ensure that our prayers are meaningful and heartfelt and effective? Where would you go in the Bible? What examples would you use to guide your prayers? To guide your connection, your relationship with God?

Well, I wrote down three or four here that I think would be helpful.

And the first one that I want to mention is simply something that we might take for granted, or we may not even think about. But our Heavenly Father knows when we are praying.

And of course, He very much wants to hear from us. Now you might think, well, that's kind of an odd point, but that is the point. Our Heavenly Father knows. Let's look at the book of Acts here in chapter 9. Acts chapter 9 is an example of, and of course this is an extraordinary example, because it's dealing with the conversion, the initial conversion of the Apostle Paul. And as we know, he was out slaughtering the church. He was out creating havoc for the church. He was going from one place to the next. He had gotten in chapter 9 verse 2 letters that he took to the synagogue in Damascus so that if he found any who belonged to that way, you know, that's a description that you find for the church. That way, if anyone belonged to that men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. And so, of course, God was going to change the course of his action rather dramatically, and he struck him down. He was given a vision, and ultimately, if we take a look here in verse 8, when Saul had this encounter, when he got up from the ground, even though he opened his eyes, he couldn't see a thing.

And so, clearly, this is going to be a problem. This was going to be a significant crisis for Saul at this time. He had been out very vigorously doing his job of destroying the church, and now something was going to change. So, in verse 9, here in chapter 9 verse 9, for three days, he was without sight, and neither did he eat nor did he drink. And in verse 10, there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. Actually, you see several different individuals named Ananias here and other places in Acts. It appears that they're in different places, so it must have been a common name, maybe like Bill or Bob or Jones or Smith or something for us, but Ananias is mentioned, that name is mentioned several times. But there was a certain disciple named Ananias, and the Lord said to him, Ananias, and he said, here I am, Lord. In verse 11, he says, I want you to get up and go to the street called Straight. Go to the house of Judas and look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. Now, what else does it say there in verse 11? I want you to go look for Saul. At this moment, he is praying. God knows what was going on in the lives of these individuals.

Well, sure he did. He also knew what he was going to do. But I point this out in verse 9, because it's obvious that God knew. Now, Saul clearly was in trouble. He was having to think about the direction of his life and that it was going to be turned upside down. And yet, of course, right now he was blind. And he was fasting for three days and three nights, I would guess.

And yet, God knew, as he gave this direction to Ananias, that at this moment Saul is praying. He's praying. He's praying more fervently. Now, he was at Pharisee. He knew about prayer. He practiced prayer. And yet, here he is praying like he has never prayed before. And it says he's praying right now, and he's seen a vision that a man named Ananias will come and lay his hands on him that he can regain his sight. But Ananias answered, Lord, I've heard about this guy. How much evil he's done to the saints in Jerusalem, and how he has the authority from the chief priest to bind them and those who invoke your name. But, of course, God says, well, that doesn't matter, because I'm working with him. He says, I want you to go, because he, this Saul, is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel. So, that incident you're familiar with, it's pretty easy to read. It's actually even pretty clear, but the point that I am making is that God clearly knew that Saul was praying. See, now, does he know that you're praying? Is he interested in you as a child of God? Is he interested in someone? I mean, he mentioned clearly about his son Jesus. This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. He was obviously involved with the life of Jesus Christ, even his physical existence here on this earth, and he obviously would be involved in the work of the Apostle Paul and his initial conversion here. And yet, he's also interested in each and every one of us. He's interested, you know, which parent doesn't like to hear from their children? Now, sometimes they may not have stuff you want to hear, but parents want to hear. Grandparents often want to hear from their children or grandchildren. Certainly, I think we could say that our Heavenly Father knows when we're praying, and he wants to hear from us. Let's go back to an example in the book of Daniel.

Daniel, of course, there are many different, perhaps, examples that we could use in this regard, but Daniel was, you know, quite a steadfast individual. He had been taken into captivity. He had been given incredible favor. He was honored by King Nebuchadnezzar because he seemed to have some special gifts. And, of course, he knew, you know, that's just because God not only told me what the answer to the dream was, but he told me what the dream was. Daniel knew this was not from me. But you also see that in Daniel 6, Daniel was praying three times a day. Even though he was directed, don't do it. And here in Daniel 9, I want us to look at this example because it's one of the best examples in the Bible of someone appealing to God and actually seeking God in fasting and in prayer, in supplication. Here in Daniel 9, verse 3, after Daniel figured out from reading Jeremiah that we're going to be in captivity for 70 years. So he realized I'm probably going to be here the rest of my life. Here in verse 3, he says, I turn to the Lord, the Lord God, to seek an answer by prayer and by supplication with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession. And so here, and I'm not going to read the entirety of what he had to say because it is a lesson in itself. It's something that we do cover at times on atonement when we're talking about fasting. And yet it clearly is Daniel confessing to God his sins and the sins of his people and begging God, beseeching God for mercy and for forgiveness and to rescue us. Turn your face toward us again because obviously, you know, we are in great distress. Jerusalem has been ransacked. You know, here we are in captivity. The people of God are in great distress. But let's drop down to verse 20. So I'm not going through the rest of that. You can go through that if you would like. But in verse 20 is what I want to point out while I was speaking and praying and confessing my sins and the sins of my people Israel. While I was presenting my supplication before the Lord my God on behalf of the holy mountain of my God. See, he was connected to the city of Jerusalem. He was connected to the temple there. He was connected to the worship of God there. He understood God's emphasis on that mountain. But he says in verse 21, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen before in a vision, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice. And so in the evening, the Archangel Gabriel appeared to Daniel.

And he came and said to me in verse 22, Daniel, I have come out or I have come out to give you wisdom and understanding. In verse 23, at the beginning of your supplication, so now this has been going on for quite a while, at the beginning of your supplication, a word went out. Now where did that word come from? Well, it came from who directs? Gabriel. I'm sure it came from God himself. You go and you do what I'm going to tell you. At the beginning of your supplication, a word went out and I have come to declare that word for you are greatly beloved. And so I want you to consider the word and understand the vision. And so he was going to give him understanding of a prophecy that, you know, would predict even the coming of Jesus Christ. But again, what am I pointing out? Well, he says from the very beginning of your supplication, from the very beginning of your prayer, God was aware of it. God was hearing it. He knew what you were going through, and he sent directive to answer your inquiry because Daniel was wanting to know. It's a fabulous illustration of the fact that God knows when we're praying. Now, of course, we can think about that and say, you know, well, obviously God knows everything. He's almighty. He's everywhere. He knows everything. He is everywhere as far as omnipresent. But see, it pointed out to Daniel that, you know, I'm keenly attuned to the prayers of my beloved people. And so just like we saw with the illustration dealing with Saul, you also see with Daniel the same thing. Let's go back a little bit. This is a pretty obvious one in the book of Exodus because clearly, actually, I guess we can go to Numbers.

You see numerous accounts of Moses praying to God, and of course, some of those, you know, God was directly talking to him. Even face to face, he said. That's what he said about Moses. And again, I'm picking up, you know, major people here, but I hope we can see that well, you know, God is well aware of the prayers of the people that he draws to Jesus Christ.

And so here in Numbers 14, again, a long chapter and one that I will only summarize by saying, well, you know, the children of Israel had spied out the land and the report came back that that's not for us. We can't do it. Joshua and Caleb said, oh, let's go get it.

In verse 10, it says, the glory of the Lord appeared to the tent of meeting, to all the Israelites. The Lord said to Moses, how long will this people despise me? How long will they refuse to believe in me in spite of all the signs that I've done among them? I'm going to strike them with pestilence and disinherit them. I'm going to make of you, Moses, a nation greater and mightier than they. Now, that sounds like a, you know, an interesting observation that God would look and say, I'm just going to scrub this whole mess. I'm going to start over. I'm going to deal with Moses. But of course, Moses, you know, realized that that wouldn't make you look very good. So if he had been really carnally thinking, he would have thought, well, I can be somebody big. And yet God had already trained him in Pharaoh's courts and then later in the sheep fields of Midia. He understood. And no, I'm just the human being that God's happened to be using right now. God happens to be the one who's leading the people. He's the one who brought us out of Egypt. He's the one who got us through the Red Sea. He's the one who's going to give us something to drink. He's the one who's going to give us something to eat. I don't have a shot trying to do that without God. And so Moses says in verse 13, Lord, the Egyptians will hear about it. For in your might you brought us people out from among them and they'll tell the inhabitants of land. They've heard that you, O Lord, are in the midst of the people. For you, O Lord, have seen face to face and your cloud stands over them and you're going in front of them in the pillar of cloud by day, a pillar of fire by night. Now, if you kill all the people at one time, then the nations who have heard about you will say it's because the Lord was unable to bring the people into the land. He swore to give them that he slaughtered them in the wilderness. You know, Moses, you know, he's making quite a bold plea here. And yet it's very obvious that God was interacting with him. He was relating to him as a beloved child of God. And so he appeals, now therefore let the power of the Lord be great in the way that you promised. And verse 19, he says, forgive the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your steadfast love. Just as you have pardoned the people from Egypt, even until now and the Lord said. Verse 20. Okay, Moses, you're right.

See, now Moses was, he was appealing to God. He was expressing a clear respect for God. He said, well, that wouldn't look very good on you. And yet, of course, you know, God was going to relent. He says, I'm going to forgive just as you have asked. Nevertheless, in verse 21, as I live and as all the earth is filled with the glory of the Lord, none of the people who have seen my glory and the signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness and yet have tested me these 10 times that have not obeyed my voice, none of them shall see the land that I swore to give to their ancestors. None of them who despise me shall see it. So, was God listening to what Moses had to say?

Was he aware of what Moses had to say? Well, obvious. It's obvious that he not only listened, but he obviously complied in this case. He says, well, that makes more sense. And I don't know whether any of us appeal to God in that way, you know, because most of us don't have the standing that Moses had. But the point is still that God does here. He knows when we are praying, and he clearly wants to hear from us, and so we shouldn't neglect. We shouldn't neglect our connection to God. See, sometimes we can decide we'll put it off. Sometimes we forget. Sometimes we are just too lazy. I have to speak for me. Sometimes it's certainly not very effective, and actually, I think we find often when we're sick, when we're ailing, and whenever I'm sick, my prayers don't seem to be very effective. That's why it's right for us to pray for each other. It's right for us to pray for those who we know need to be encouraged or need to be healed or uplifted or in whatever way helped. It's right for us to do that.

So, the first point is simply that God wants to hear from you. He wants to hear from this little son or little daughter that is growing to eventually be a part of his family. The second point I'll make is just clearly the most obvious point in the Bible, that the example of Jesus Christ is that he was praying pretty much all the time. The example that Jesus set. Now, again, you say, well, why would, you know, I'm not exactly Jesus. I'm just Joe. I'm not Jesus. But I want to be like Jesus, or I want to follow his example. I want to follow his pattern. And whenever you read through the illustrations, you see in Hebrews it mentions Jesus offered up prayers and supplication with loud crying and tears to the one who was able to save him from death.

Well, that wasn't just right at the very end when he was being put to death. That was throughout the entirety of his physical existence. You probably see this maybe more directly described in the book of Luke than anywhere else. Now, you have other, Matthew and Mark and John, are all gospels and accounts of Jesus' life, and they do contain prayers of Jesus. But actually, you find Luke recording, and probably in almost every chapter, Jesus praying under just ordinary circumstances. Let's take a look at some of this.

Here in Luke 5. Luke chapter 5. What might Jesus pray about? Well, here in Luke chapter 5, you see Jesus healing a leper down in verse 12. Verse 13, he stretched out his hands and touched him, and he was healed. And in verse 15, now more than ever, the word about Jesus spread abroad. Many crowds would gather to hear him, and they wanted to be cured of their diseases. And yet, in verse 16, Luke says, Jesus would withdraw to a deserted place and pray.

Now, the most incredible individual ever to exist and live here as a human on earth, knew, even though he had plenty of people to help, he also knew that he needed to be close to his heavenly Father in prayer. That he needed to connect. He needed to have that connection at all times, because ultimately, he fully knew who he was. He fully knew where he came from. He fully knew what his mission was. He fully knew where he was going. And he knew that in order to be the perfect Lamb of God, the Lamb of God, that would be offered for the sins of the world, I've got to be sinless. And so, his relationship with the Father is portrayed by these many illustrations of him praying. Here in chapter 6, actually, let me see. Let's back up to chapter 3, verse 21. When all the people were baptized, Jesus also had been baptized. Chapter 3, verse 21, people had come to John the Baptist. They were baptized. Jesus had been baptized, and he was praying. And the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him, and bodily formed like a dove.

Now, again, you see that account in other of the Gospels, but you see Luke pointing out that at that point, when Jesus was going through, in a sense, a ceremonial baptism, not being forgiven, but fulfilling all righteousness, he was clearly praying. Let's jump over to chapter 6, verse 12. Now, during those days, he went out to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God. And when they came, he called his disciples and chose 12 of them, and he called apostles. And so here he was choosing or selecting those who he would designate to be the original 12 apostles.

And, of course, that particular decision was a decision he needed to get right.

Clearly, one of them was going to be a deceiver. One of them was going to be a traitor and betray him. He knew that. But, see, he was wanting to be close to the Father, and so you see those accounts in Matthew and Mark about listing of the disciples. But here, you see, Luke was saying he prayed all night about that decision. He gave, you know, he was seeking guidance from God. Here in chapter 9, Luke chapter 9, in verse, actually, you see Jesus feeding the 5,000 here beginning in verse 10.

And he was going to give them something to eat.

Actually, in this illustration, you see the people being hungry. Chapter 9, verse 14, there were about 5,000 men. He said to the disciples, make them sit down in groups of about 50 each. He did so, made them sit down, took the five loaves of the two fish. He looked up to heaven. He prayed. He blessed and broke the bread and the fish and gave them to the disciples to step before the crowd. Now, again, that's obviously an example of praying before you eat, but in this case, this was praying for a miracle from God, a miracle from his father. And so, again, you see this repeated over and over and over again. Let's drop down to verse 18. Once, when Jesus was praying alone with only the disciples near him, he asked them, who do the crowds say that I am? And so, other accounts, of course, point out that interaction, asking the disciples who the people say I am. But Luke points out that when Jesus was out praying alone and only his disciples were near him, see, the disciples had real quandary. You know, they were here, they were coming to believe who Jesus was, that he was actually the Son of God, that he was the Messiah, that he was an anointed one that they had read about, and yet, and they could see his example, they could see, and we've already read several incidents that he was out praying. You know, what about chapter 11, verse 1? Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said, Lord, here you are, you're out teaching, or you are out praying to your Father, and we know that that's what you do. We see you do that all the time. You seem to know something that we don't. He said, teach us to pray.

And that, of course, is when he gave a model of prayer for them to try to learn how to pray. But, see, obviously, Jesus was not only familiar with praying, but he was, he understood the fact that prayer allows me to have a connection with my Father that is imperative. See, do I look at it that way? Do I realize that when I commit myself to bending my knees and bowing my head before God, that I need that connection? Desperately, do I need that connection? Jesus clearly understood that.

In chapter 18, I'm skipping over a lot of them here, but in chapter 18, verse 1, actually this is just a number of parables that Jesus gave. Several of them are about praying. But in verse 1, Luke says Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always, and not to lose heart. Here, you know, it's pretty obvious he was going to give this parable, and it's about prayer, but, you know, what was Jesus teaching in that parable? Well, we need to pray always. And of course, down in verse 9, you see the illustration of the difference between the vain and the obnoxious Pharisee praying and his prayer not getting above the roof, and the publican praying, saying, Father, forgive me, I just need help. And Jesus said the publican was the one who went down forgiven. And so Jesus had a lot to say about prayer, but his example is so incredible. Obviously, he was praying as he was approaching the crucifixion here toward the end of Luke. In Luke 21, verse 36, or verse 34, I guess, we could say, Be on good or be on guard so that your hearts are not weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that that day, talking about the day when Christ would return, that that day would catch you unexpectedly like a trap. But it will come upon all who live on the face of the earth. Be alert! In verse 36, be alert at all times, praying, that you may have the strength to escape all these things, and that will take place and to stand before the Son of Man.

The many, many illustrations, not only that Jesus was talking about praying and the need to pray, but that he personified that. That was his manner. That was the way he was.

You know, how does God want us to be? Does he want us to be joint heirs with Christ? Does he want us to have the permanence of eternal life? Well, he does, but he also wants us to be praying and to be not just obliged to pray, but to do it because we cannot live without that connection. We cannot live without that closeness to our Heavenly Father, just as we see. You see Jesus, I'm skipping over a number of things here, but you see Jesus, you know, all kinds of examples. He's praying over eating. You know, the illustration that we often read regarding little children and, you know, a blessing of little children. What was going on there? Well, little children being brought to Jesus so that he might lay his hands on them and pray for them. You know, that was a part of what he did. Not only did he heal people, but he would pray for them. You see Jesus, numerous times, thanking the Father. He said, I thank you, Father, that you always hear me. He said, I thank you for drawing these people to me, and yet you haven't drawn the wise and the prudent of the world. You've drawn us. You've drawn, as he was looking at the disciples, you've drawn the infants, the babes, the people that you wouldn't think would be the wise. And Jesus said, I thank you, Father, for doing it that way. Many, many times you see Jesus praying and asking or thanking the Father for what he had done. Now, the other thing that I will point out here regarding Jesus is what he told the disciples here in John 16. See, here in John 14 and 15 and 16 and 17, you know this section well. He was talking to them because, you know, he was going to be gone. He had been with them. He had been holding their hand. He had been, in a sense, guiding them along. If they followed wells, sometimes they didn't. Sometimes they had to be corrected. Sometimes they needed to be taught. Sometimes he just let them go. And, of course, he always responded correctly. But he said, I've been here for three and a half years. You've been following me, but I'm going to be gone. And, of course, he assured them, I'm going to send you the Holy Spirit. I'm going to be with you. The Father and I will be with you through the aid of the Holy Spirit.

But, see, what is it that he says here in John 16?

John 16. How is it that we are to pray? Why is it that we pray, and we did this this afternoon at the beginning of our service, we pray in the name of Jesus. We pray to the Father. We relate to the Father. We connect to the Father. But we pray in the name of Jesus. He's the one who gives us that access. He's the one who gives us. He is our high priest. He is the one at the right hand of God. He is the one who extends forgiveness and mercy and help to us.

And yet, here in Chapter 16, as he was concluding what he was going to be saying to his disciples, here in verse 23, he says, on that day you will ask nothing of me, but barely I tell you if you ask anything of the Father in my name. He will give it to you, and until, verse 24, now, until now, you have not asked anything in my name, but I direct you to ask, and you will receive so that your joy may be complete.

See, that's one of the several places that you can read where it is in the name of Jesus that we approach the Father. You know, we couldn't have or shouldn't have the audacity to think that we can just approach the Father on our own. We can approach the Father, but we do that through our mediator, our high priest, and we do it in his name and by his authority, by his directive, that we approach the Father for the things that we need, and that we can actually relate to the Father in the way that he wants us to relate to Him.

He loves us. He's more concerned about us. Mr. Hudson explained a great deal about the love of God, about how incredible that is, about how far-reaching that is, how concerned he is about mankind, and of course, he is not trying to rescue all of us today. Not everybody on earth, you know, he's going to allow a good, sizable portion of the people on earth today to die, and then he's going to start over reclaiming. The world, reclaiming the earth, and yet he does that out of love. He does that knowing that there's an order to what I'm doing.

There's an agreement that we're following, and it's going to be achieved in my time and in my way. But you see that Jesus directs, that we pray, that we do that through our high priest. He said we seek another place. He talks about praying and asking for what we need according to his will. They often we pray according to our will, according to what we need, what we want, what we hope is going to be the case, and of course, I think that's very human and somewhat common for all of us, and that's even a part of that.

He says to pray for the things that you need, the things that you are obviously lacking, and yet we want to pray according to God's will. We pray that he will provide, and sometimes we need to do that simply in faith, knowing that he will provide, but not knowing exactly how he might do that.

See, what did the Israelites maybe not learn, but what did they experience? Well, God said he would provide water. They might not have liked muddy water that came out of the rock. They might not have liked that, but that's what God provided. I don't know how good manna or quail is after about three weeks.

You might just not like that too much after a while, and certainly after numbers of years, you know, they just were sick of manna and quail. But that's what God provided, and that's how he sustained them. And so, you know, we want to ask, following the example of Jesus, but asking in a relationship with the Father, asking in his name for the things that we need. The final thing I'll mention, the third thing is simply that our prayers allow us to submit ourselves to God.

Our prayers allow us to submit ourselves to God. Now, again, we may not think about that whenever we are bending our knees, bowing our head. I have to say, I pray a lot of times in the car.

I believe that can be done. I'm not on my knees. I'm not bowing my head, hopefully. I'm hopefully paying attention to what I'm doing, but, you know, if I'm praying, I'm thinking about the fact that I am addressing the ruler of the universe, and there are times when I should be every day on my knees and bending my head, and yet, what does it tell us here in James chapter 4?

James chapter 4 gives an incredible illustration here, and, of course, I think it can be applicable to prayer that we pray, because it says in verse 6 that God opposes the proud, but He gives grace unto them.

He opposes those who are prideful or independent. He just, we're not reading all of James 4 here, he just explained how that all the chaos in the world comes because people demand their own way.

They're independent, they're defiant, they're resistive, they're rebellious. Why do you have war? Well, that's because that's the nature of man.

But He says God resists the proud, and He gives grace unto the humble, and in verse 7 He says, therefore submit yourself to God. A very simple statement, but do we really think about that when we are praying to our Father, when we're seeking His guidance and His direction and His forgiveness and His mercy and His love? We need to think about the fact that I'm submitting myself.

To my heavenly Father. He says resist the devil, and he will flee. So He gives several directives here. Submit yourself to God, resist the devil, and he will flee. Draw close to God, and God will draw close to you. Now that's an amazing, that's an easy to remember even statement. But it's much harder to do because it involves submitting yourself to God, yielding to God.

Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. He goes ahead to say, take a look at your actions, cleanse your hands, you sinners. Take a look at your heart. Purify your heart, you double-minded. And mourn and weep. Verse 9, let your laughter return to mourning, your joy, to dejection. Verse 10, humble yourself before God, and He will lift you up.

Now that tells us that a relationship with God is not going to be born out of resistance. It's not going to be born out of a failure to be repentant. It's not going to be born out of a failure to be repentant. It's not going to be born out of a failure to be repentant. It's not going to be born out of a failure to be repentant. It's going to be born out of being in submission to God, and of course to His Son, because it is through His Son that we have access to the Father. So it's amazing as you take a look at the many examples that you have in the Bible that God has provided us with a wealth of material to be able to know that, well, not only should we pray, He gives us all kinds of reasons to do it. He tells us. He wants to hear from us.

He wants. He knows whether or not I'm praying. He wants me to follow Jesus' example and to pray in Jesus' name, and He wants me to submit myself to God. And whenever we do that, then we fulfill what He tells us to do as His children. See, Jesus' perfect example of this is also in John 16, a little further down from where we were a while ago. So in John 16, Jesus says in verse 27, the Father Himself loves you.

John 16 verse 27, the Father Himself loves you because you have loved me and you have believed that I have come from God. See, that's what He really wanted them to understand anyway. He wanted them to understand who He was.

He says, I came down from the Father and I've come into the world and I'm leaving the world and I'm going to the Father. He knew who He was. He knew what His purpose was. He knew where He was heading. He knew what it would require. And the disciples, verse 29, seemed to catch on a little bit. Oh, now we understand what He's talking about. And then He would say, well, no, you really don't.

Because in verse 31, Jesus answered, do you now believe the hour is coming indeed? It has come when all of you will be scattered, every one of you, to your own home and you'll leave me alone. You're going to flee and hide because things are going to be so bad. But, of course, that didn't bother Jesus. He understood how limited they were. He understood how needy they were. He understood how physical they were, just like us. And He says, all of you are going to flee yet. In verse 32, I am not alone because the Father is with me.

See, He absolutely knew and had an extraordinary closeness to the Father that you could say is unparalleled, although it is the perfect example for us to seek, for us to desire, for us to want to have. And yet, I would say that Jesus had a feeling of being nurtured and protected and incredibly secure, very confident and peace with His Father.

See, sometimes we don't feel that way. We don't feel secure. We feel rattled. We feel unsettled.

But He also tells us that in Peter that, well, you're going to go through that and eventually I'm going to help you. I'm going to secure you. I'm going to stabilize you. And yet, that's the example that Jesus set. And finally, again, to tie it in with what Mr. Hudson said about the love of God. See, here in Luke 10, we'll read the same section. Luke 10.

When Jesus was asked by the Pharisees a lawyer in verse 25, asking, well, teacher, what do we have to do to have eternal life? And Jesus said, well, what do you think? What's written in the law? He said in verse 27, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. He said, that's the right answer. Just simply do it. See, what is it that we are to benefit whenever we recognize that God wants to hear from us? When he expects us to be communing with him and relating to him in prayer, that he shows us, in a sense, glaringly, the example of Jesus, that that's how he succeeded. That's how he was victorious over the spirit domination of the world. By the God of this world, he was able to overcome the devil even as a human being. He took on that form of a servant, and yet he had access to the Father and he knew it. It wasn't a guess. It wasn't iffy. It was absolutely sure.

And he was willing to fully submit himself to the will of the Father. Brethren, that's what we have the privilege of doing. That's what we have a blessing of doing by praying every day. That's why he gave, as he did to the disciples and as he does to us, the model prayer that tells us to hallow the name of our Father and to pray for your kingdom to come. See, we have an awareness of an entire solution, an entire system that is going to overwhelm this world.

And he's actually preparing us for service in that kingdom.

But one of the things that he wants us to do, one of the things that he doesn't want us to do because we have to, or he doesn't want us to do because we think it might help, he wants us to do because we absolutely know that we love our Heavenly Father and that we want to pray to him every day.

And whenever we do that, then our prayers are going to have more life. They're going to have more zest. They're going to be more meaningful, and amazingly, they are going to produce the fruit of righteousness in our lives.

So, prayer is to be a connection, not an obligation, but a connection to our Heavenly Father.