•We desire to be in God’s favor, we are reminded that we achieve this through prayer as we talked about last week. This week we will be discussing God’s direction through our prayer life with Him.

•God’s word is the best way for us to gain an understanding of God’s direction. There are many examples from God’s people of taking God’s direction and twisting it into a bias that goes against His word. God gives us what we need to commit ourselves solid and consistent in our obedience to Him.

• In 2 Corinthians 15:1 we see a full commitment to obey God’s direction being submitted to through Paul as he brings the message of Christ to Corinth, even in the face of discouragement. He still followed through with His calling biblically.

•Jim Elliott once said, “wherever you are, be all there.” this idea reminds us to always remember to live lives of true fulfillment, allowing our entire selves be in tune with the will of God allows us to be “all there.” This is biblical. We do this through prayer as well in our devotion to Him just like Paul did, without wavering.

•We must continually touch base with the Lord to understand His plan for us.  James 2:14-17

•We can see this example through Christ throughout His entire ministry, and He made it clear that this is the way to live numerous times. One of the strongest examples we see this is in Luke 22:42.

•Be careful not to allow your own feelings to dictate your plans. This is a slippery slope that forces us off the narrow path we walk with Christ.

•In prayer we are able to be committed to God in mind, body and spirit. Colossians 4:4.

•Going back to Luke 22, for the benefit of our own personal discipline, Christ reminds His disciples to stay alert and to pray alongside Him so we may not fall away into temptation.

•There are many ways scripture opens up opportunities to devote ourselves to God through prayer, do we consider any of them? Do we fast, sacrifice, communicate to others that this is our priority? Moreover do we consider prayer as a key role in the process of our confession and repentance? We may have admitted the wrong we have done, but in our repentance do we allow ourselves to die to self so we may be further in tune with God’s direction for us?

•Part of the reason we do not repent is because we are out of practice in true repentance. We have not actually participated fully in that spiritual battle of forgiveness. Yet it is part of our nature to understand this aspect of our relationship with god fundamentally. 

•God, as our Father, deeply understands to pain involved in repentance, yet it is a necessary pain to endure as we gain discipline to keep from making the same mistakes time and time again. Additionally we have the example of Christ, who endured much worse than we ever may fathom as He alone took upon the burden of those mistakes innocently. We gain strength as we obey and submit to the example and standard He has set.

•The dark will never extinguish the light John 1:5.

QUESTIONS:

1. What are your expectations in prayer and gods promises?
2. What are some things you can do that will allow you to be more devoted to prayer?
3. How do confession and repentance play a part in your devotion?