The Model Prayer

.... It is no accident that this module on prayer follows our modules on the Oracles of God, because now that we’ve learned to hear God's voice it’s time to turn our prayerful perception into a discussion. This means that, through prayer, we will both speak to God and listen to Him in a live, interactive conversation.

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.... As a brief recap, if you have recently become a Christian, then there are some ways in which you’ve heard from the Lord already:

.... "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me."

(John 6:44-45)

.... The challenge in hearing God’s voice is that He uses a special communication method. It may not be in a form of speech that we hear with our ears, nor even in a language of words at all. Instead, we receive impressions that require discernment (1 Corinthians 2:13). We may need time to sort through these impressions and meditate on them in order to interpret them correctly.
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.... Understanding God’s voice becomes easier as we study the Bible, because it allows us to compare those live impressions with applicable Scriptures that He will bring to our mind. Essentially, we will match the impression to another, similar impression in a place where He is already on record. When they do match, our impressions will gain that much more definition, and additional comparisons will define it even further (1 Corinthians 2:13). And in this manner our understanding will take shape.
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.... Eventually we may become quite fluent in this, but in the meantime any clues would be helpful. For example, it would definitely make things easier if we knew in advance what subjects God intended to talk about! And that is something Jesus discussed with us as well:

.... "In this manner, therefore, pray: our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen."

(Matthew 6:9-13)

.... Remember that God doesn’t like rote prayers, so Jesus isn’t asking us to repeat this prayer verbatim. Instead, He is providing us with a prayer model. If we are learning to thoughtfully listen and to discern God’s voice, then think of this in terms of having a prayer meeting with Him, and Jesus has just issued the agenda.
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.... In other words, when we pray, these are the basic topics that God will always want to talk about, though applied to the situations of each day. This also happens to be the order in which He'll want to discuss them. In our private prayer meetings with God, He Himself will be following this agenda, so if we follow it too it will help us discern His voice and stay on subject with Him.

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.... As our prayer progresses and the first subject is finished, the agenda will show us what subject He wants to discuss next, and so forth. Knowing this outline in advance will help us keep up with Him as the topics change. We will continue this discussion in our next posting.

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Daily Bible Reading: Acts 20