OPEN HEAVENS DEVOTIONAL-THURSDAY-21/07/2016-VITAL INGREDIENTS OF PRAYER-BY PASTOR E.A. ADEBOYE
VITAL INGREDIENTS OF PRAYER
Memorise
And
when ye stand praying, forgive if ye have ought against any: that your Father
also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
Mark 11:25
Read
Mark 11:22-26,
22 And
Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.
23 For
verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou
removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but
shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall
have whatsoever he saith.
24 Therefore I say unto you, what things so ever
ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
25 And
when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father
also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
26 But
if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your
trespasses.
KJV
MESSAGE
Our Lord Jesus Christ did not only give us
an outline for prayer in what is popularly called “The Lord’s Prayer” (Luke 11:2-4), He also gave us some
vital ingredients of prayer. The first in our consideration is faith. The
Almighty God demands that we have faith in Him. A man that prays without faith
cannot get anything substantial from the spiritual exercise of prayer. When we
pray, we should be assured that God is capable of doing whatever our desires
are. Doubt is a grievous offence before the Almighty God. The children of
Israel that doubted the capability of God were consumed by the fiery anger of
the God who had been erstwhile benevolent to them, however, as many as believed
in His Almightiness received great recompense for their faith.
“But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he
that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For
let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.”
James 1:6-7
Another vital
ingredient of the prayer that God will answer is forgiveness. This is a
two-edged sword. Blessed is he that is forgiven, sin a hindrance to prayer.
Unless we are forgiven, our prayer cannot be answered. This is why our Lord
Jesus put an aspect of confession of sin in the prayer outline (Luke 11:4).
No matter how old we may be in the Lord, if we discover any sin ranging from
lying, outburst if unwarranted anger etc. in our lives while we are getting set
to pray, we must confess that sin first. The Bible says:
“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,
and the truth is not us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
1st John 1:8-9
On the other
hand, our Lord Jesus Christ said:
“And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught
against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your
trespasses.
Mark 11:25
Many of us
come to the throne of mercy without the milk of mercy in our hearts. We come
for mercy while we are not merciful; we come for forgiveness and we are not
forgiving. What an irony? In Matthew 18:32-35, our Lord told the parable
of the wicked servant who jailed his fellow worker that owed him a little after
he himself had received pardon for a greater debt. His forgiving spirit made
him forfeit the pardon for the debt he earlier received. Beloved, let us
cultivate the habit of forgiving one another, at least for the fact that our
Father in Heaven forgives every of our sins.
Prayer Point
Father, please increase my faith and put in me the spirit that freely
forgive.
Bible in one year
Galatians 4-6, Psalms 18:1-19
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