"Humble yourself before the Lord"

2 Chronicles 7:141 Your prayer life demonstrates the level of your humility. To pray to God and seek his face is to show that you understand that you absolutely need God. That is humility. John 5:19a, 30aJesus understood clearly that he could do nothing without God. If Jesus needed the Father in order to succeed, who are we to think that we can do well without totally depending on God. John 15:5Sometimes we feel, "I've not been praying much but I have still accomplished something." Jesus says that without God we can do nothing at all - and the humble person understands and accepts this. Hebrews 5:7Jesus knew that he could not save himself, but that instead he needed the Father, and that is why he prayed to God daily, passionately and intensely. The humble: -Husband knows that by himself he cannot lead his family or meet his wife's needs…-Wife knows that by herself she cannot support her husband or be a great helper…-Parent knows that by himself/herself, he/she cannot raise her children to be godly…-Single knows that by himself/herself he/she cannot attain or maintain purity, godliness and spiritual maturity…-Leader knows that by himself/herself he/she cannot provide the godly guidance, loving leadership or mature mentoring that will help others grow spiritually and make it to heaven…-Disciple knows that by himself/herself he/she cannot grow spiritually, lead others to Christ, effectively disciple others, obtain the desires of his/her heart, meet personal contribution and other goals, etc.… … and that is why he/she prays to God daily, passionately, specifically and intensely. Q. How is your prayer life? Do you pray daily, passionately, specifically and intensely? Q. Do you have a prayer life that shows great humility and dependence on God or one that reflects a reliance on yourself? The great thing is that we can all be humble and prayerful and experience the wonderful working of God's hand on our lives in many mighty ways. This is what we learn from the rest of the passage that we read at the beginning of this lesson - 2 Chronicles 7:14-16As you humbly pray and seek God's face: -He will forgive your sins. -His eyes will be open to you. -His ears will be attentive to your prayers. -His Name will rest with you. -His eyes and heart will be with you. So, with a dependence on God shown by a truly spiritual prayer life, "Humble [yourself] before the Lord, and he will lift you up." James 4:10This month we want to focus on prayer. God wants his people to be a people of prayer. "If my people, who are caled by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways,"God says in 2 Chronicles 7:14, "then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."POWERFUL AND EFFECTIVE PRAYERSJames 6:16-18The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. The New Living Translation says that this kind of prayer has "great power and wonderful results." When we kneel before the Father we should be seeking power and wonderful results from our prayers. In order to achieve this, let's look at two things that will help us. 1. CONSISTENT AND SPECIFICPsalm 5:1-8We have to consistently get on our knees before the Father. Our prayers must not be out of duty. It needs to be something we look forward to daily. Every morning God is looking forward to hearing from us. Our time in the morning with God is of great importance so we must make it count. Q. Do you consistently present your requests to God? When you lay down a request, you are specific, and so we should be specific before God every time. Q. What plans do you have? What issues do you want resolved - weak situations, family issues, personal Christianity? Be specific and put them before God. Consistent prayer shows how much we depend on God and shows our humility before him. Colossians 4:2We need to be devoted - addicted - to prayer. Luke 18:1-8Persistence also demonstrates consistency. God will not snub our consistent prayers but will answer them. 2. FAITHFUL AND RIGHTEOUSJames 2:5-8If we are going to doubt, then let us not waste time praying. Doubtful requests are never effective. Faithful prayers, though, will move mountains. As you approach God with requests, you must have faith that he will answer. Psalm 34:15-20God is always attentive to our prayers and ready to grant us answers. But we have to maintain righteousness, eliminating pride and all other sins. All disciples, rally together. Pray faithfully, righteously, consistently and specifically, and great answers will follow.GOD IS NEAR WHENEVER WE PRAY TO HIMA prayerful church is a focussed church. We need to be prayerful people as the church of the living God. Deuteronomy 4:5-9It is important that we walk in the ws of God. People will see God in us when we walk as God desires for us to do. v. 7 God was near his people. God will be near us - his people - when we pray to him. We are not only to pray in the morning or evening, but throughout the course of the day. Rather than spending so much time worrying about your problems, pray about them instead. v. 9 Do not let the things that you know slip from your heart. Instead, remain in the Word daily and continue to seek advice and open your life for discipling. 1. DO NOT BE AFRAID TO PRAY1 Samuel 12:20-25Q. We either pray about our sin or persist in committing it - which have you been doing? God does not want to reject anyone, but wants us to be his people. We must equally desire to be his. v. 23 It is sin not to pray for people whom we have agreed to pray for or whose prayer needs we are aware of. Q. Do you pray for other people regularly - others in your ministry, in the church, in your family, etc.? v. 24 Serve God faithfully, not doubtingly. After all, God can change anything quickly and completely. God can fix your financial challenges, health challenges, challenges in finding a disciple to marry, challenges at work, etc - so pray, and do so with faith. 2 Chronicles 7:14-16Praying is part of humbling ourselves. Prayer shows that we recognize that only God can work things out for us and that we cannot succeed on our own strength, talent, intelligence or experience. v. 15 When we are faithful and prayerful, God fixes his attention on responding to us. 2. CLEAR YOUR HEART1 Peter 3:7If you lack harmony in your marriage, it makes your prayers ineffective. It does not work to try to ignore issues in your marriage. Deal with and resolve all and any outstanding issues between you and your spouse, otherwise your prayers will be rendered ineffective. God has great plans for your marriage and for your prayer life. Let us therefore do and be our best for him and for our spouses. Matthew 5:23,24You must resolve issues and situations that exist between you and others. Q. Do you have any people - disciples or others - with whom you have differences or towards whom you have bad attitudes? Resolve those differences and you will be free to pray, and God will be ready to listen to you as you do so