Fundamentals of Prayer | Matthew 20:32-33

[00:00:00] Real Truth Daily This is Daily Truths with Dave Ahlman.

[00:00:08] Hi everybody, welcome back to Daily Truths.

[00:00:10] What are three irrefutable fundamental principles about prayer?

[00:00:15] We're in the book of Matthew chapter 20 and remember there's these two guys that are

[00:00:19] blind on the side of the road who've heard about Jesus of Nazareth.

[00:00:22] He's just come out of Jericho.

[00:00:24] There's huge crowds following him and they call upon Jesus knowing indeed that he can

[00:00:29] take away their blindness.

[00:00:31] Now we pick up verse 31 and this is what it says, the crowd rebuked them.

[00:00:36] We talked about that yesterday telling them to be silent but they cried out all the

[00:00:41] more.

[00:00:42] Lord have mercy on us son of David and stopping Jesus called them and said, what do you

[00:00:48] want me to do for you?

[00:00:50] They said to him, Lord let our eyes be open.

[00:00:54] Now there's three things I want to talk about.

[00:00:57] First of all, Jesus knew what these guys needed.

[00:01:00] Some people would say, well he was in the state of familiar and he didn't always choose

[00:01:04] to use the power he had as God and maybe because according to his human nature he really

[00:01:08] didn't know.

[00:01:09] Well, he probably did.

[00:01:11] Now remember this is a little footnote to that.

[00:01:14] We talk about the two natures of Christ.

[00:01:16] He's both God and man and when he walked the face of this earth, he didn't always use the

[00:01:21] power that he had as God.

[00:01:23] Is this one of those times?

[00:01:24] Could have been.

[00:01:25] So did he know he probably did?

[00:01:28] Secondly, they were specific and asking what they wanted and Jesus tells us, be sure

[00:01:34] that you ask.

[00:01:35] Jesus says here, what would you like me to do for you?

[00:01:37] In other words, he wanted them to ask and thirdly, they were specific in what they asked.

[00:01:44] Now think about that.

[00:01:46] Here's three fundamental principles we need to understand about prayer.

[00:01:50] Number one, God knows Jesus knows what we need before we even ask it.

[00:01:56] But he still encourages us, principle number two, to ask what we need in life, whether

[00:02:02] it's material, relational, financial, spiritual, whatever it is to be specific about it and

[00:02:08] number three, to come before him as we said in number two to come before him and ask

[00:02:12] and number three to be specific about what you're asking in prayer.

[00:02:17] These guys in this text were very specific.

[00:02:20] They didn't talk about the weather.

[00:02:21] They didn't talk about their family.

[00:02:23] They didn't talk about their leprosy or whatever it is that they might have otherwise had

[00:02:27] and we have no evidence that that was the case.

[00:02:29] They were very specific.

[00:02:31] They wanted to see.

[00:02:32] And so they said, Lord, we want to see.

[00:02:34] And remember, they were just bombarding the throne of Jesus basically.

[00:02:39] And remember the crowd was saying, shut up, shut up, shut up, leave him alone.

[00:02:42] And they said, no, we're going to be persistent in prayer.

[00:02:46] And that's exactly what they did.

[00:02:48] Now, here's those three principles applied to your life.

[00:02:52] Number one, Jesus probably knows what you need before you even ask.

[00:02:57] But number two, be sure to ask.

[00:03:00] Even though he knows he wants you to ask.

[00:03:03] It's interesting here that Jesus said to these guys, what do you want me to do for you?

[00:03:06] And I love that.

[00:03:07] It's not like he said, what do you want me to do for you?

[00:03:10] What do you want me to do for you?

[00:03:11] I'm here to help.

[00:03:12] That's the way we can approach Jesus.

[00:03:15] He's all ears.

[00:03:16] He wants to listen.

[00:03:17] He already knows what we need, but he wants us to ask.

[00:03:21] And finally, number three, be specific regarding your request to the Lord Jesus.

[00:03:27] What is it exactly that you need?

[00:03:29] Now let me give you an example of that.

[00:03:31] As many of you know, I'm a part-time permanent pastor in Mount Hope, Lutheran Church, in Boulder,

[00:03:37] Colorado.

[00:03:38] And every Sunday morning on my way to church, I pray it's a 30-minute drive.

[00:03:43] I pray for specific things about the service.

[00:03:46] First of all, I pray that the people would be receptive to the message.

[00:03:50] Secondly, I pray that everybody would get there safely.

[00:03:53] Thirdly, I pray and I'm sure you do to your church, I pray for our technology.

[00:03:58] Everything would work.

[00:04:00] I pray that the Lord would bless our praise team and use them mightily to facilitate

[00:04:05] worship.

[00:04:06] I pray that the Lord would bless my message in that I'd have the ability to think clearly

[00:04:11] of what I've written down and what's in my outline.

[00:04:14] And I have a tendency to get tongue tied, that I don't get tongue tied too much.

[00:04:18] I do it every service.

[00:04:20] But I don't get to tongue tied.

[00:04:23] That I don't get in the way of what the Lord wants to speak through me, that people would

[00:04:27] be receptive to that message and would apply it to their lives and carry out what the

[00:04:31] Lord is saying through his word.

[00:04:33] These are specific things I pray on my way to church.

[00:04:36] So here's a point, be specific about what you are asking the Lord to do.

[00:04:41] Don't just say, Lord, bless my day.

[00:04:44] Talk about your day with the Lord.

[00:04:45] What are you going to be doing?

[00:04:46] Are you going to have a tough meeting?

[00:04:48] Are you going to watch your kids ball game?

[00:04:52] Do you and your husband or wife need to have a kind of a frank discussion about things

[00:04:57] going on in your life?

[00:04:58] Pray about the specifics of your day.

[00:05:00] That's what the Lord wants us to do.

[00:05:02] Now remember these guys said we want to see they were very specific.

[00:05:06] And Jesus humbly asks them what do you want me to do for you?

[00:05:10] He does the very same thing for you guys in prayer.

[00:05:13] So know that he already knows, don't hesitate to ask and be specific in your prayer life.

[00:05:20] Okay?

[00:05:21] So there's some homework for you to do regarding your prayer life.

[00:05:24] I hope this was helpful.

[00:05:25] Have a great day in the Lord Jesus Christ.

[00:05:28] And that is today's daily truth.

[00:05:31] Thank you for tuning in to daily truths with Dave Olman.

[00:05:33] Pastor Dave Olman is the pastor of Mount Hope Church in Boulder, Colorado.

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