Sermon Details
Prayer Of A Righteous
Prayer of a Righteous
- The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
- Prayers of Jesus, Moses, David, Daniel and Paul, populate the pages in the Bible
- But few look to the ancient book of Job for guidance in prayer.
Job 1: 1-5
Job's Background
- He was righteous and rich! God called him "blameless."
- He was concerned about the spiritual welfare of his children.
- Job purified his children by a sacrifice after each of the feasts
- Something bad is happening in your life and you cannot understand why God is allowing it to happen?
- You pray and it seems that God is not answering or not giving the answer you deserve?
Job 1: 13-15
- 500 yoke of oxen and 500 donkeys
- Most of his wealth was in camels and sheep, not oxen and donkeys.
- So his wealth was still intact.
Job 1: 16-17
- 7,000 sheep and 3,000 camels
- He was ruined financially
- ”Raiders" were a common problem. Fire coming from heaven was not. This made the second disaster look like a punishment from God
Job 1: 18-19
- Job's children, all ten of them, are killed during a feast at the eldest son's home.
- This was the time when he was most concerned about their spiritual welfare
- What would your frame of mind be if this series of disasters happened to you?
- What kind of prayer would you pray?
- Let’s look at Job’s prayer
1. Honest Prayer
- Job was very direct with God.
- "I am disgusted with my life. Let me complain freely. My bitter soul must complain.(Job10:1)
- He prayed, “Stop frightening me with your terrors” (Job 13:21).
- He complained, “Surely, O God, you have worn me out” (Job 16:7).
- So pray like Job. Pray your true thoughts and feelings.
- God sees and knows those things anyway,
- We must learn to “lay before Him what is in us, not what ought to be in us”
2. Listen to God.
- Job repeatedly asked God to speak
- “Tell me what charges you have against me”
- “Show me my offense” (Job 13:23, NIV).
- Too often in prayer we do all the talking
- We want God to listen to us but we seldom or never listen to Him and miss so much - not only correction but also affirmation and guidance, among other things
Isaiah 50:4-5
4 The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of disciples, That I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.
5 The Lord GOD has opened My ear; And I was not disobedient Nor did I turn back.
3. Keep asking.
- Job recorded much back-and-forth between him and - God and between him and his friends.
- The beauty of the story and the poetry is Job’s persistence.
- He becomes more desperate as the story progresses, but he never gives up.
- Prayer is never too much.
- No one ever comes to the end of their life saying, ”I prayed too much”. But many come to the end of their lives saying, ”I prayed too little.”
“ I generally pray for two hours a day, except on a very busy days. On those days I pray three”.
- Martin Luther
- It is the approach Jesus urges in prayer: “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for” (Matthew 7:7).
- So pray like Job.
- Keep asking.
4. Wait
- In the midst of his gut-wrenching, life-changing trial, Job’s wife encouraged him to “curse God and die” (Job 2:9).
- For 40 more chapters, he cried out to God, complained to God and even got annoyed with God. But he waited and he endured.
- “Men do not enjoy waiting for anything, or anyone, including God.
- Noah waited a good 100 years or so for the flood to come upon the earth
- Abraham and Sarah waited 25 years for the birth of the son God had promised them
- God’s promises never come too late; in truth, they are never “late” at all.
- Jeremiah prophesied that Judah would be expelled from the land and held captive in Babylon for 70 years
- The birth of the Lord Jesus came about exactly on schedule
- And eventually, the Bible says, “The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the first” (Job 42:12).
- Remember that God’s time zone is different than yours.
- He may not show up according to your schedule, because sometimes the waiting is as much a part of His plan for you as the destination.
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