13th March 2024

13th March 2024


Pray (ACts)


Read (1 John 5:14-17 focus v14-15)


Message (Alan Burke)


We at one point were children, that may for some of us be or seem like a long time since we were in nappies but if we can remember back to our childhood and when we were children there were things that we would have only asked of our parent or guardian because of the relationship we had with them. There were thing that we would have talked to them about, came to them with that we wouldn’t have dared talk to anyone else about, well at least that should have been the way although sadly it’s not the kind of relationship that everyone has with their parent or guardian. But you went to your parent and you asked them for something, ok there were times that you knew you were chancing your arm but other times that you knew you weren’t and you went with confidence before them to ask, parents in the main want to do the best for their children. 


For the believer we can come with confidence before the Lord our God, our heavenly Father. And we should be those come with confidence and those who pray with confidence, the word confidence there in v14 literally means boldness. If a child is being bold normally it’s seen as a bad thing but for the believer before our heavenly father we are to be bold, show boldness in what we ask for. For the believer our boldness rests on the Lord Jesus Christ and what he has done for us.


When we pray, and whatever we ask we receive from him but the confidence depends on whether what we are asking is within the will of God and that is hard. The truth is I do not know the reason why God has answered some of my prayers and not others, when I’ve prayed for someone to come to saving faith and they have not, when I’ve prayed for someone to be healed and there has been nothing, I’ve prayed for disobedient sinners to come to repentance and it hasn’t happened but I know that I do not understand the mysteries of God’s will or his ways and as a result I do not pray as I should. But I know that he is working all things according to the counsel of his will for his own glory and for the good of those who love him, and that we, as his people, are submitting to and trusting in the working of his providence. We come not as strangers before the Lord God but as his children through faith


The more time we spend in the word of God and the more we come before him in prayer the more we will be able to pray effectively, according to the council of his will, the more time we spend reading and hearing his word the less self centred we will become and the more we will desire to see God move, his kingdom built. For that is what we are reminded here, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us, his will is crucial in understanding how God answers our payers, just as our parents or guardians said no, wait, why at times our prayers seem that they are falling on deaf ears is that God knows best and our heavenly Father hears us. 


God hears us, what a wonderful comfort to us, that through faith the Lord hears the prayers of his people, it means that we can come with boldness and asks, and if it is in accordance with the will of God, He will answer.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q 92 What is a sacrament?
A sacrament is an holy ordinance instituted by Christ, wherein, by sensible signs, Christ, and the benefits of the new covenant, are represented, sealed, and applied to believers. (Gen. 17:7,10, Exod. 12, 1 Cor. 11:23,26)