What Jesus Taught About Prayer

How would you like to have had a billionaire as your father? Interesting thought, isn't it. How would your life be different than it is today, if you were the heir of a billionaire? Forbes magazine lists just over 1000 billionaires in the world today. Topping the list in 2008 was investor Warren Buffet with a fortune of $62 billion dollars. If you had a billionaire father, you might think you wouldn't have to worry about anything. Any need you had, you'd just ask and what you needed would be given. If you had a billionaire father, they could give you anything that money could buy.  However, there's more to life than just money, isn't there? And there's a better father to have than a billionaire.

As a believer, you have a heavenly father who has all the wealth in the world at his disposal. 1 Chronicles 29:11 (NIV) Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.  Not only does our heavenly Father have unlimited wealth, but He has unlimited power. Your heavenly Father can change the course of events, heal incurable diseases, persuade world leaders. Nothing is impossible for your heavenly Father. In order to tap into the resources of your heavenly Father, you've got to communicate with Him. Communicating with God is called prayer. If you had a billionaire father, you'd surely be communicating with him a lot. How much more should we communicate with our heavenly Father.

Today, my message topic is "What Jesus Taught About Prayer." We're going to look at some basic principles that Jesus taught about prayer that will help you grow in your prayer life. But first, let's look at some problems people have with prayer. Many people don't communicate much with their heavenly Father, they don't pray much. Why not? Many people will only pray when they've tried everything else to solve a problem, but nothing has worked. Well, I guess all we can do now is pray. Ever heard that before?

Here's two more reasons why people don't pray more. They don't know how to pray. They don't know what to say, how to say it, when to say it. No one has ever taught them to pray. The disciples didn't know how to pray so they said, Luke 11:1 (NIV) One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples." God wants to teach you how to pray. A second reason that people don't pray more is that they don't really see the value in prayer. They don't believe that God can or will answer their prayers, so what's the point. If you don't see the value in prayer, you're not going to pray just because I said you should. If you don't ask, you won't receive anything. John 16:24 (NIV) Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.  There is great value in prayer. Today, we're going to learn what Jesus taught about prayer in Matthew 7.

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