Worry and Prayer

To oversimplify things, there are four types of prayer:

1.     Adoration – offering glory, honor and praise for who God is, focusing on His attributes

2.     Confession – acknowledging the sin you have committed, and/or omitted, in our four main relationships with: God, self, others and creation.

3.     Thanksgiving – stating your heartfelt gratitude for God’s actions & provisions

4.     Supplication/Intercession – asking the Lord to work on your behalf or for that of others

-Are our prayers balanced? In other words, do we pray all four (or more!) types of prayer?

-If not, where do we most often camp out? Why?

Big Idea: Too often our lives are stunted by fear, when God calls us to live by faith. Prayer is to be rooted in God’s omniscient sovereignty.

~ Matthew 6:25-34 & Ephesians 1:15-23~

“Worry is practical atheism and an affront to God” (Robert Mounce, Matthew, 61).

Matthew 6:25-27 – what three common things does Jesus say we worry about?

1.      

2.      

3.      

-How does that prove true in our own lives, especially in our prayer lives?

-Jesus is using a common form of teaching common to the Rabbis where he asks, “how much more…” and so, in the natural world, what does Jesus compare us to? _________ & __________

-Finish my sentence, “if only I had more_time_...” What does Jesus say about this?

“Anxiety brings on old age too soon” (Sirach 30:24, RSV).

-“O you of little faith” (6:30) is also found during the storm that Jesus calmed (8:26) and when Peter began to sink while walking on the water (Mt. 14:31). Why are we so often like “the pagans” when deep down we know our “Heavenly Father knows” we need these things?

“Face the actual problem of living in the present instead of crippling the present by fear of the imagined future” (Floyd Filson, The Gospel According to Matthew, 99).

-What is Jesus’ antidote to our worry? “_____ first his kingdom and his _______________”

-How? It can start with prayer:

Trust His promises - “Give us today our daily bread…” (Mt. 6:11).

Boldly come – “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:15-16).

Ask for wisdom – “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better” (Eph. 1:17).

And remember…  “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Mt. 6:10).