What Does the BiBle s
ay?
A weekly column of the Robison Street Church of Christ, 301 Robison Street. Send your questions to P.O. Box 846, Edna, Texas 77957.
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Prayer
“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” (Acts 2:42, ESV)
Jesus prayed a lot and taught a lot on prayer. As you can see from this verse, the early Christians followed His example. They devoted themselves to prayer. What is prayer? Why did they think it was so important?
Prayer is an important part of a Christian’s life. Some have said that prayer should be so much a part of the life of a disciple that it is like breathing. It just happens. But what is prayer?
From a technical standpoint, this word means a “petition addressed to deity” (Rev. 5:8; 1 Pet. 3:7). But prayers are more than just petitioning God. They often involve praise and adoration (Ps. 144-150; Luke 1:46-55). Or at times, confession of sin (Ps. 51; Luke 18:13). And they involve thanksgiving too (Ps. 75; 1 Thess. 1:2). They also include supplication, hymns, and even lament in Scripture.
Practically speaking, when we speak of prayer, we are talking about communication with God. We are talking about making our needs known to God and asking Him to intervene in our lives or the lives of others. And why would anyone do that? Why would anyone engage in talking to God, to a being no one has seen?
Well, Scripture tells us that God hears and answers prayer (Ps. 65:2; 1 Pet. 5:7; Jas. 5:16). And for the early Christians, not only did they have the testimony of the Old Testament, but they also had the teaching and example of Jesus (Luke 11:2-13). Of course, it is only through Jesus that one can approach God in prayer (Heb. 4:1416; 10:18-25; Eph. 3:12). Are you able to go to God in prayer?
– Phillip Stuckey – [email protected] “Come and see. Come and hear the good news of the Gospel. We meet at the corner of Robison and Church Streets on Sunday at 9:30 AM for Bible classes for all ages and 10:30 AM for worship and again at 6:00 PM for worship. We also meet on Wednesday at 7:00 PM for Bible classes for all ages.”
