Prayer: The Heartbeat of Faith and Worship

It helps to understand what prayer is. John Calvin famously said that "prayer is the chief exercise of faith." Prayer is faith expressing itself, and it is the primary way in which faith expresses itself. Now, if that is true, what will help prayer? Well, what creates faith? Romans 10, "Faith comes from hearing the Word of God." And so, it is the Word of God that is the fuel that creates faith, which expresses itself in prayer, and therefore the primary way to make people voluntarily, willingly, enrich and deepen and prolong their prayer lives is to soak them in Scripture. [00:05:47]

Scripture reading and prayer always go together. One will always be the fuel for the other. So, give your people a vision of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, shown in the Word of Christ, His Scriptures, and their faith will grow, and prayer will simply flow out of that. [00:01:19]

Modeling prayer is such an important component of our engagement and fellowship with one another. I, too, remember my father and my mother praying. And if the encouragement to our children is that we want them to pray, unfortunately, telling them to pray doesn't seem to work very well in my family. What often seems to happen is when dads and moms do pray, in dependence, in recognition of their sinfulness as well as their helplessness, those are the things that are caught and not necessarily taught. [00:04:00]

If the question is about our family in our local churches, modeling prayer is such an important component of our engagement and fellowship with one another. I, too, remember my father and my mother praying. And if the encouragement to our children is that we want them to pray, unfortunately, telling them to pray doesn't seem to work very well in my family. [00:04:00]

Prayer is not to change the will of God, and it is not to inform God, to render an account of what is happening on earth, because He knows those things even better than we do. So, why do we pray? Well, again, we pray, number one, because we are commanded to pray, and that would be enough. Number two, we pray to enter into the purpose of God, just like Christ did at Gethsemane, so that I may be prepared for the experiences of events ahead of me. [00:13:25]

In prayer, we're being drawn into the life of Christ. We're getting to share His concerns for the world, which is why as you grow in your prayer life, your prayer life should slowly become less egocentric, all about my worldly concerns, and increasingly, your prayers are shaped by "I want to see the glory of God. Lord, let Your glory shine over all the world," and I am praying for things to that end. [00:12:15]

You need to know God's absolute sovereign ability to steer his creation any way He will. That every molecule moves at His command. Therefore, He is able to answer prayer. Secondly, He is not only completely able, He is a kind Father who is willing, eager to hear the prayers of His children. Now, if you don't know both of those, why would you go to Him? [00:08:51]

True, healthy study of theology must lead you to say, "He must increase; I must decrease." [00:29:07]

The more you come to know who God is in the Word, one cannot help but to end up where Isaiah ended up, recognizing the perfection and the holiness of God and recognizing, in turn, how sinful and depraved our minds and hearts are, and to prostrate himself before Him. There is worship that ends up. [00:24:48]

If we study theology to gain knowledge, that, that is where the problem begins. If we study theology to get to know the character of God, the more you know Him, the more you love Him. The more you love Him, the more you obey Him. The more you obey Him, the more you glorify Him. And that's what life is all about, about glorifying Him. [00:31:00]

The only person who can illuminate our minds to truly comprehend God and His Word is the Spirit through our prayers. And this is where I think for many of us, in order that this doesn't become simply an intellectual exercise for us, we come to the Lord in prayer, even as we read, even as we study theology, and as we study God in His Word, we come deeper into understanding who He is, and it cannot but lead to worship and evermore dependence upon all of us who are approaching Him in His Word. [00:27:06]

The question, I think, to guide how to do theology healthily is, "Am I glorifying God or glorifying myself?" If you are studying so that people marvel at how clever and educated you are, not so that people see the glory of God, you are taking the part of the God of this world who does not want people to see the glory of God, but blinds them. [00:28:18]