PRAYER
Scripture Reading - Philippians 4:4-7
4 Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.
5 Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.
6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. KJV
Since we all need to pray about different things going on in our life let us examine some "prayer" guidelines from the Word of God. According to verse 4 we should always have a reason to rejoice. This simply means it is always the right time to praise the Lord Jesus and our Heavenly Father. We don’t praise God for what is coming against us but simply worship Him for who He is and His goodness toward us. Verse 5 reminds us that our Lord is always with us as Christians on the earth. Verse 6 tells us to be careful for nothing. This part is where a lot of prayers go astray. If a person is worried about the results that could happen they are really in doubt of God’s Promise. This is clearly instructing us not to worry, if you or someone you know is full of worry or anxiety about a particular situation facing them, they are not in the correct position for prayer. Help them to understand that they can trust God’s Word so that they can be stable after you leave their presence. It may take sometime to teach them the principles of God’s Word but if they get the correct answer to their "prayer", it is worth it. They need to be focused on the answer according to God’s Word instead of the problem. If they don’t know an answer according to God’s Word they need to worship God and read the Word of God so that the Spirit of God can lead them unto the scripture(s) to stand on. After obtaining a foundational scripture (an answer, some instruction) then we must remember to bring that verse back up to God with thanksgiving. Verse 6 also teaches us to give thanks to God with our "prayer". This thanksgiving is a confession of our faith that we believe God’s Word to be true for our life. God will answer this request because we followed His guidelines and we will sense the Peace of God as a witness to His approval as described in verse 7. Our Heavenly Father is not a legalist but He is a God of order and structure, following the prescribed Way of His Word insures us of victory. The Lord Jesus and Our Heavenly Father loves us very much, when we follow their plan for our life we can have guaranteed success in the Wonderful Name of Jesus. Amen!