What to Pray to God About

As I've mentioned to you before, as a teenager, I had the privilege to be called by God and entering the church. And one of the things that I learned I had been doing wrong was how to pray to God. As a Catholic at that time, I had been taught to recite the Lord's Prayer and also the Hail Mary. And we had rosaries. Each bead meant either the Hail Mary or the Lord's Prayer. The big bead was for the Lord's Prayer and there were like seven for Hail Mary and you're supposed to just recite this. And somehow, if you did this, then your prayers would be heard. There would be a lot more power because you've just been repeating this. You can imagine my surprise when I looked in the Bible how God wants us to pray. And I realized I was doing it all wrong. I had to start anew and it was very important in my life to learn the biblical way of praying, which is very different. Very few, even in Protestant or evangelical world, know how to pray in the proper manner.

How many of you have a problem with prayer, doing it regularly? Do you sometimes don't know what to pray about? Or it's just a quick prayer. Just want to get it over with and go on to the next activity. I know we have all struggled at times. It's not easy to be doing the proper way God asked us to do with prayer. And so I want to share with you the principles of what to pray about according to God's will. I believe it was one of the key features in my conversion. From that early time on, I don't think I would have made it this far without learning how to pray properly, what to pray about. And it has been one of the most important things, I believe, in growing spiritually. Besides applying God's laws to your life, this is one of the most important things that we can do. The purpose of this message is to go over how we can be more effective at prayer, what to pray about according to God's will, and how this is going to help strengthen our faith. I know it's something vital to all of our lives. If we really want to overcome, make breakthroughs in our life, prayer has to be a very important element. Not just praying, but the way God asks us to, according to the biblical manner.

First, I'd like to go into what is prayer. Actually, the word prayer comes from the Latin word praecari, which means to come forward and ask a petition. In the Greek, in the New Testament, the term is prosukome, which is to present a desire or petition. So, very similar between the Greek and the Latin. Presenting a petition, asking something from God in a proper way. Let's turn to Matthew 7. Here we see the importance of coming before God. Matthew 7, verse 7, it says, And then he goes on to say, That's a principle. We have to ask. God, like a loving father, knows what we need, but he wants us to express it. Isn't that what we do with our children? Sometimes a child is desirous or something, but doesn't say anything about it. But when he goes before the parents and asks for it, it's much more effective. I had a sort of a funny story when I visited my daughter and son-in-law over in Boise, and the two boys and the girl, that they wanted one of these trampolines. But the parents said, no, it can be dangerous. No, we can't do it. So what did the younger boy and the girl do? They had a PowerPoint presentation on how this was going to really help out and how they were going to take care of it and that it was safe. And so I saw that PowerPoint presentation that they did. And of course, the parents felt pretty bad if they were going to say no to such a presentation. So guess what? They have a very nice trampoline there, and they use it every day. It's amazing. All the kids from the neighborhood show up, and then they just jump up and down. They talk. They do everything together. It's like a little social center. But it wouldn't have happened, probably, if they hadn't asked about it and really made a good presentation. In the same way, God wants to hear us, not because He doesn't know our needs, but He wants us to make the effort to go before Him, to not take it for granted. And just said, well, God knows my needs. I don't have to ask Him, because He wants us to learn to make that habit of going before Him, doing our part so He can do His part. Notice in Luke 18, verse 1, Jesus says, Then He spoke a parable to them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart. This is the parable of the persistent widow. Again, you want to see a person do their part, because God can do His part. No problem about that. But will we put the effort? Will we be strengthened spiritually if we don't go to God for that? Notice in Ephesians chapter 3, verse 14, Paul talks about one of his prayers right here. He says in verse 14, Ephesians 3, For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. God has a family, and that family is increasing, that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man. How to be strengthened? We need to strengthen that inner man. That He grant us, if we're not asking, if we're not doing our part to say, Father, we need this. Help us. He wants to hear that from His children. In Ephesians 6, in verse 10, these are just preliminary scriptures, because I want to get into the issue of how to pray to God about things. In Ephesians 6, verse 10, it says, Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Then, after describing that spiritual armor, he says, in verse 18, So, we should never underestimate the power of prayer.

Why does God intervene in this way? Why is it so important? I've mentioned a couple of reasons. Here's another one. In James chapter 4, verse 8, it says, Notice, we have to go before Him. He has the Holy Spirit. He is the power that can be given to us. He owns that power. But we have to go. It's almost like recharging a cell phone. You basically have to do it every day. It's the same way here. We need to recharge our spiritual batteries. It is so essential, especially as times get worsened, as people become more and more secular, as you see society careening down this hill. It's going to end up in a crash. But it's so important to draw close to God. Stay close to God, because that's the way we recharge. Our spiritual batteries. In a way, this is saying that God's not going to draw near to you unless you make the effort first. It doesn't say God's just going to automatically draw close to you and recharge your spiritual batteries. Draw close to Him, and He will draw close to you.

Christ gave us the most important framework of prayer. He gave us what we call an outline prayer, which has the seven main categories. Then He says, you can fill out the rest. You go ahead and fill in. I'm just giving you the main categories. I found this to be so useful, because then your prayer can have order, organization.

It doesn't have to be the same exactly every time, but at least it has a certain order to it. As you go through, it's quite thorough of what God wants us to pray about. Let's go to Matthew 6 and verse 5. Jesus speaks about how to pray and how not to pray. He didn't endorse the way the prayers were given by the Pharisees and others at that time.

They had gone overboard. Their prayers were not very effective. He explains this in Matthew 6 verse 5. He says, and when you pray, notice He didn't say, if you pray, when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites, these religious actors. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets that they may be seen by men.

Surely, I say to you, they have their reward. They have their reward before men. Men are going to look up and admire them, but they're not going to be admired by God. What happened was that the Pharisees and others, as He brings up here, had made a cult to prayer. Basically, a typical Jew's life had to give three prayers at least every day. That was in the morning, midday, and afternoon. It's called a Shema, which was three scriptures that they had to repeat every day three times.

Then they had 18 other prayers that they should recite during the day. What happened? People lost the notion of what it all meant. If you're repeating it day in, day out, and unfortunately, the Muslim people do the same. They just repeat. This is what I learned as a Catholic. That's why you recite a prayer. You don't give a prayer.

Recite. You're repeating. That's what Christ prohibits. He goes on to say, But when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father, who is in the secret place, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

This idea that it should be private, should be between you and God. Now, there are times when, of course, we open with prayer, close with prayer, but this is talking about our daily life. How it should be that we shouldn't go out here on the street and stand up like the Pharisees did with their palms up and pray in a loud voice so everybody can see that they're praying. No, it should be something private. It should be something personal. And it's you and God conversing. The best way to do it is with the Bible close by.

They say, when you pray, you're speaking to God. When you read your Bible, God is talking to you. And so there are many times when you are there and some thoughts come into, oh yes, what I'm praying about, there's this part in the Bible. And you can come up with a lot of thoughts to meditate and even new ideas that come into your mind. The majority of the prayers I have, some will be based on a thought that comes out of prayer that becomes a sermon.

That's the typical thing is through prayer, and I've mentioned this to the man speaking, that some of the best messages are prepared on your knees. They come from God, talking to God, meditating, studying His Word while you're actively involved in this way. I cannot tell you how many messages are that way, including this one. I didn't know what I was going to speak about until this week, but it just happened that this was something that came to my mind. Jesus goes on to say, verse 7, And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do, the unconverted, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.

So they say, well, if you keep repeating this liturgy, this prepared prayer, somehow God is going to be impressed and He will reward you. And Jesus Christ is saying, don't do that! I wouldn't like it for my daughters to speak to me and just be repeating the same thing over and over. I would say, I heard you the first time. God hears us much better than any of us could ever do. So He says, don't repeat. Don't use these packaged prayers, prepared prayers.

He says, Therefore do not be like them, for your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. Christ said that He has the hairs on our heads counted. He knows our needs, but He still wants us to come before Him, but not be repeating endlessly the same thing.

And then this is what He says, and He gives us again this outline prayer. In this manner, therefore, pray. So He gives us the priorities in prayer. And the first one, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

So the first part of our prayer is to honor and glorify the Father. Notice it says, our Father, He doesn't say, my Father. And the prayer, as you will see, doesn't have any place where it's I, or me, or mine. Give me. I want this to be mine. So many people ask just to receive from God, me, me, me. It's not that way at all. It's first to honor Him, present ourselves before His throne of mercy and grace and love. Thank God for what He and His Son Christ are.

They love us. They created all of this that we see around us. And they have a great destiny, a great future, despite all the difficulties we have. What wonderful news, what a wonderful understanding we have, that it is God and Jesus Christ who are in charge of this universe. And we are in good hands. And they're carrying things out for our good. Remember, this life was not meant to just be entertaining and to eat and drink and be merry. No, this life is a life of training. He is training us through our experiences to be more and more like Jesus Christ. We should marvel at His works. Bring up a lot of things that we see. Thank you, Father, for the beauty that we see, for that little hummingbird that comes out and just marvels and bedazzles us and amazes us. You created not for the sake of the hummingbird, you created the hummingbird for our sake.

And everything like this is we should marvel and not take it for granted.

We should thank God about the plan of salvation, how He is carrying it out. I have wonderful conversations with John here and also Corwin. John always has good questions. And a lot of it has to do with the plan of God, how it's being carried out and how God, being a righteous God, He's going to apply love and justice in this plan. He's carrying it out. Also, thank God for the wonderful truths He has given us. That we are not blinded by the God of this world.

That we're able to meet on the right day of the week, the seventh day. We know His plan with the wonderful truths. I remember one time where I gave it to you too. It was a graphic with one was a tree of life and the other one was a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And in this graphic, it showed those that were of the tree of life. And this tree had five roots that held that trunk of the tree. And those five truths are we know what God is. He is not a Trinity. He is a growing family.

We know when to worship God on His Sabbath and Holy Days. And then we know what man is. He's not an immortal soul, but he is a physical soul. But with a right to a resurrection and to be able to have eternal life. We also know that man's destiny is not to go either to heaven or hell.

But it has to do with God's kingdom or that lake of fire. If somebody doesn't want to follow God, if they refuse God's forgiveness, they will eventually end up. And we also know about the spirit in man that God has given us to make us humans. That we have a reasoning ability that no animal ever has. So the doctrine of evolution is wrong. We know God created us different than the rest of animals. So these are things we can thank God about that we know.

Then the next part is very encouraging, which is, Your kingdom come. And we need it more than ever. Things are spiraling out of control. We are getting ourselves so indebted. Inflation is not going to just be here around the corner. It's just like a dyke. They just see a little couple of cracks. It's going to be okay. We'll patch it up. But behind that dyke is an amount of world debt that is not going to be held back forever. Don't believe anybody.

Remember, economics is based on mathematics. And although they say, we don't have to worry about that, yes you do. Because you use that money and there's no backing for it. And somebody's going to pay the price. And who is it? Us. Because government officials, they have a nice salary. They'll survive somehow. But so many people, common people, are going to suffer the consequences. And so when it says, Your kingdom come, we should remember. And I mentioned before and wrote an article in Beyond Today magazine back in September, October. of 2019. And it gave 12 things to yearn for about God's kingdom. You can look it up. I'm not going to go into all the detail.

But just remember that, thy kingdom come means, first of all, this is our central goal to be part of God's kingdom. So that is our goal. It is also our hope.

That's what we're hoping on. Not that man's going to reform and create paradise on this earth. Not at all. We're not creating paradise. We're creating a hell on this earth more than anything before. Then it's also what gives us faith, walking in faith toward that kingdom. It gives us meaning in life because we know there is a purpose that God has designed for us here.

And that life is not meaningless. It is also a kingdom that's going to give us satisfaction. Because all the people that thought they got away with things in this life, they're not going to do so. They will have to pay the consequences. There will be satisfaction of the victims that God is going to bring about, that justice. It also gives us motivation to wake up in the morning. That coming kingdom is worth it to do all our part to be faithful. It also gives us perseverance not to give up, to run our race, like the Apostle Paul said, to finish the course, cross the finish line.

It's also a kingdom of love, of joy, of peace, of abundance, and righteousness. Remember, it says that that kingdom is where righteousness will dwell. And so we should remember why we should ask for God's kingdom to come. Thirdly, it tells us, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So this is the third category. After honoring God, asking for his kingdom to come, the third is your will be done. That will be carried out.

Now, where is God's will being done on this earth? Not in the Capitol building, not in the presidential offices in this world. It is being done in God's church, and God's work is being carried out. And we are part of this body of Christ. We are the members that have been inserted into this body to do a work, to support and to carry it out to the best of our abilities. Now, we don't think we are the only church of God that's doing this, but we know we are part of that.

And God will have to judge everybody else, but I'm going to be judged by what I am doing here in this church, helping to carry out his work and feeding God's flock.

That means, of course, praying for those who have the highest responsibilities. That means the president, Victor Kubik, the different operational managers like Peter Eddington, Mark Welch, Rick Shaby, who's in charge of the finances, those working in the home office, those carrying out the Beyond Today program.

Here we have Darris McNeely, Carrie Petty, and then we have Steve Myers. Also, the publications of the church. Pray for Scott Ashley and all the writers under him. It's part of getting the gospel out. Also, remember all the international pastors, regional pastors, local pastors, ministers in the different areas, deacons and deaconesses, members and those who haven't been baptized yet but want to be part of God's work. Those that we call prospective members and also co-workers who just send funds. This is part of doing God's will, doing God's work. That takes us to the final one, the category here, the fourth, that we're going to cover. God willing, the next time I speak, we'll be covering part two of the sermon on what to pray to God about. The fourth one, and I should mention before going to the fourth one, before the third one about doing God's will, remember to pray that God opens the doors to get the gospel out and close the doors that are not effective. Also, to support and sustain the income so it can be done. That's all following God's will. The fourth says, give us today our daily bread. Now, there are two parts to this because we not only need physical bread, which is symbolic of all the physical things we need, but also the spiritual bread that we need, which has to do with God's Holy Spirit.

The physical is for God to provide the food, the substance, and the protection of God's people around the world. I just had a chance to have a Zoom meeting with a Bolivian brethren last night. They're still isolated, and we are doing what we can so at least the families with children can get together and be able to listen to the Zoom broadcast during the Feast of Tabernacles because they've been stuck in their homes. A lot of these areas, they haven't had access to many vaccinations. COVID with this variant that I've mentioned is still causing a lot of havoc in these places. In Africa, it's beginning also to pick up. And so we need to pray that God provides the sustenance and the protection. Pray that God's holy and powerful angels will protect people. I even have added, please help people not drive so fast to protect them from terrible accidents. Now, God can do his part, but if we're reckless, maybe he'll want us to learn a lesson or two. To be careful when we're driving. That's one of the greatest dangers any human being can have.

And, of course, to provide healing for those that are sick. We know we're just physical beings, and sooner or later we will get hit with a disease, as it mentions there about Elijah. It said he had healed people, done tremendous miracles, but in the Scriptures it says, and Elijah became sick with the sickness of which he would die. So sooner or later we're going to get one. We're not going to be able to dodge all the bullets. But before that time, God can intervene, and many times he has done so. So let's remember to heal, ask for healing for the brethren. Certainly I've seen God's miracles time and time again, and so we should never lose hope. We should never give in, but at the same time, let's do our part. God does not just provide us with a check at the end of the month that an angel brings. He expects us to work. He expects us to do our part. In the same way, we have to take care of our bodies to the best of our ability. God will provide what is lacking. And then it's not only this physical bread that comprises of food, sustenance, protection, healing, but it also has to do with the spiritual bread. Notice in Luke 11, Luke 11, verse 11.

It says, if a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? So God wants us to ask, to provide us with more of His Holy Spirit. To produce what? The fruits of God's Spirit. Galatians 5, verse 22. Galatians 5, verse 22.

It says, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Those are the fruits of God's Spirit that we need more in our lives. But we need a larger portion of God's Spirit as God for that. We all need to do that.

Of course, as we begin to analyze the importance of prayer, the most important prayer should be the morning prayer, because that's the one that gets us started. We put on our spiritual armor, hopefully before anything else disrupts us. Because many times we'll say, I'll do it later. I'll do it later. And guess what? The devil says, oh yeah, I'm going to put all kinds of distractions, and all of a sudden people don't have time. They say, where has time gone? And sometimes they get caught off guard. Satan will be able to do a lot more damage. Notice in Mark chapter 1, Mark chapter 1 verse 35, mentions here about Jesus Christ when he prayed. Mark 1.35, it says, Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place, and there He prayed.

And Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him. When they found Him, they said to Him, everyone is looking for You. But He said to them, let us go into the next towns that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth. So all His disciples were asleep, but He made sure He found the time to come before God the Father, strengthen Himself spiritually before all of the other distractions would take place.

I realize there are people that have different schedules, but it's good to have an idea. When is it that I have that time when I can go before God? And what you're doing is you're putting on that spiritual armor. You're preparing to overcome life's temptations on that day. And believe me, if we don't charge ourselves, it's just like a weak battery. We're not going to have the same amount of resistance toward this world. It's going to be a lot easier to buckle and yield to the temptations of Satan and this world in our own human nature. Haven't you found that to be true? I certainly have. Remember, we all have 24-7 amount of hours. We all have 24 hours a day. So this idea, oh, I'm so busy. Oh, I just can't find time for prayer. Well, you got 24 hours. You sleep and the rest. Can't we just have a little place there dedicated to prayer in our lives?

So there's no excuse for putting it off.

So let's go to the final scripture in James 5, verse 14. And I hope this has helped to help us put that spiritual armor every day. James 5, verse 14.

It says, Is anyone among you sick? What does the Bible say? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. That's why ministers always carry a little flask of oil with them, ready to anoint a person that is sick.

And the prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise them up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. So God wants to heal. Again, we have to remember in 1 John what it tells us here in 1 John, chapter 5, verse 14. It says, Now this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. So not every time we're anointed, is that going to be just an automatic healing? Because God has his will to be carried out. But he's saying, have faith. God is all-powerful. There's not a doubt about that. And then he goes on to say, verse 16, Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. We do that. We ask people to pray for each other, whatever has been the cause of the disease. He says, then this is a very important part. The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Sometimes it's just that person that happened to pray. And that opens the windows of heaven for God to intervene. And he uses the example of Elijah. Nobody else was praying quite like Elijah. But Elijah's prayer made a difference. It says in verse 17, Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. Yeah, he had human nature. He had flaws. He wasn't perfect. And he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit. So that's the power of prayer. That is the hope of prayer. That our prayers will make a difference. And God willing, next time we'll cover the last three of that framework of Christ's model prayer.