Sonya A Miller

After meditating on this longer, I believe I have a better understanding. Hezekiah went up into the house of the LORD. The LORD'S house is a house of prayer. The significance? Hezekiah did what was right. He brought the matter to the LORD, his Creator in prayer. The underlying principle is God's free Gift to us (Salvation through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins and eternal life). This includes special favor by God, His provision for us, His continuing support of us, His power, His ability, and His capacity. To God be the glory! Amen!

What is the significance of Hezekiah spreading out the enemy's mesage before the LORD? Hezekiah is showing the LORD that He is being insulted moreso than Hezekiah. It is for the LORD to make response. What is the underlying principle illustrated here? Hezekiah is showing his trust and faith in the LORD. He is not handling the insult on his own. God is being insulted. The battle is the LORD'S. How can we apply this principle to our own lives? We can trust in the LORD'S power to help us fight our battles. What happens when we don't apply this principle? When we don't trust the LORD, we put unnecessary pressure on ourselves. We get discouraged; we give up; we can't handle it.

Q3. Verses 11 and 12 both attribute various characteristics to God, such as glory, honor, and might. How might you begin to mention God's greatness in your own prayers? I like to pray the Psalms adapting them to fit my life and time. Psalms 147-150 are good praise psalms. Where is this kind of praise found by example in the Lord's Prayer? Matthew 6:9b - "Hallowed be thy name." Matthew 6:13b - "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen." What are your favorite songs that point to God's greatness? Wake, Awake, for Night Is Flying; Awake, My Soul, and with the Sun; This Is My Father's World; Crown Him with Many Crowns; Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise; Battle Hymn of the Republic; O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing; All Praise to Thee, My God, This Night; Blessing and Honor and Glory and Power; To God Be the Glory; The Lord Is King!; My God, How Wonderful Thou Art. The following is the last four lines of the Latin hymn At the Lamb's High Feast : Hymns of glory, songs of praise, Father, unto Thee we raise: Risen Lord, all praise to Thee with the Spirit ever be. These are the last four lines of a hymn by Isaac Watts, Jesus Shall Reign : Let every creature rise and bring His grateful honors to our King; Angels descend with songs again, And earth repeat the loud amen!

We call out to God; exaltation arouses a strong emotional response in us and beneficially stimulates us. It raises our minds to a higher level. We get "high" on God. PTL!

Praise exalts God by showing Him honor and respect. It, also, encourages others to praise Him and acknowledges His position as head over all. "Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: that bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity....To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One." Isaiah 40:21-25 Exaltation of God strengthens our faith. We may experience the thrilling sensation of the Holy Spirit. It reveals that we are part of the family of God. PTL! From Proverbs 14:34, Righteousness could exalt our nation. I hope and pray this will be the future of the United States of America. Glory to God in the highest!

This is the sacrifice God will not despise. It involves real repentance, a genuine desire to change, and a real love for God. We resist because we know if we truly love God, we must repent and change.

Q3. Is it possible to have a pure heart? YES! A Resounding (((yes))), (((yes))), (((yes)))!!! PTL! How does God bring about a pure heart? God brings this about through the cleansing blood of Christ. What is our part in this? Like David, we are to call out to Him in a prayer of repentance. It's as simple as A ccept Jesus as your Savior. B elieve in Christ for your salvation. C onfess your sins.

Q2. In his prayer does David seek to minimize his sins? To maximize them? David neither minimizes nor maximizes his sins; he owns up to them fully before God. Why does an authentic prayer for pardon require clear, unvarnished acknowledgement of sin to be effective? We need to own up to our sin and the awfulness of it. We must acknowledge that we've offended God and seek His pardon, then God forgives. From Psalms 130:7 - "hope in the Lord; for he is loving and kind, and comes to us with armloads of salvation."

Q1. In what way do our prayers of praise "bless" God? Our prayers of praise bless His eternalness. They acknowledge His holiness, His wholeness, His headship, His generosity, His greatness, His glory, and His love. Our humility, hands, and voices uplift Him. What do we mere humans have that God desires in a blessing? He desires our contrite and humble spirit. Isaiah 57:15 - "For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." What are prayers like, that don't include blessing God? Prayers that don't include blessing God are discourteous. They forget to greet the One to Whom they are addressed.

Q1. In what way does a prayer for pardon require faith? One would need to believe in the Lord, know one is a sinner, and desire a restored relationship with God to feel the need for a prayer of pardon. What is that faith based on? Romans 10:17 - "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." How does a person gain the faith to pray this prayer in confidence? Through Christ Jesus our Lord in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by our faith in Him. (Ephesians 3:11-12)

Q4. In what way does Abraham show persistence? He continued to importune God regarding any righteous people who may be living in Sodom. Why is persistence necessary in prayer? In scripture we are told that God will do what needs to be done, if His chosen ones continue to beseech Him day and night. Have you ever experienced "praying through"? What was it like? From personal experience, be careful what you pray for. You may get it, but it may not be in a way you like.

Q3. Do you think Abraham's boldness pleased God? Why or why not? By confiding in Abraham, God had set up a relationship based on trust and intimacy. God was pleased with Abraham's response and expected his honest feedback. What might cause God to take delight in your prayers to Him? His love for us might cause Him to take delight in our prayers to Him. God longs to respond to our prayers. We are His children, and He wants to bless us because of His Son, Jesus.

Q2. How did Abraham demonstrate his humility before God? Abraham did muster up the courage to speak to God. When he did, he showed God that he knew his place in the hierarchy of life by expressing "though I am nothing but dust and ashes". Why must boldness be tempered with humility? To be bold without humility would not be acting in the Spirit. It would be overstepping what is proper behavior towards God.

Q1. What is the basis of Abraham's argument that God should spare Sodom? How does it relate to God's character? Abraham feels an obligation to his nephew Lot, so he asks the LORD to spare Sodom if even only ten righteous people live there. God is righteous, and Abraham expects Him to do what is right.

Q4. How can prayer change God's mind without conflicting with the doctrine of the Immutability of God? As stated in the lesson, "The doctrine of God's Immutability does not restrict God's action. It means that God's character, desire, and purpose do not change." Prayer may ask God to consider a Plan B, instead of His Plan A. Can God answer a prayer for something outside of the scope of His will? This question brings to my mind Jesus praying on the mount of Olives: "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." (Luke 22:42) If we are truly one with God, then we'll desire His will to be done. p.s. Chenista, awesome answer!

Q3. How can a wrong understanding oif determinism and predestination keep us from the kind of gutsy prayer that Moses prayed? Isn't determinism predestination? If we don't believe that prayer can change God's mind, then why bother praying? We'd pray wimpy prayers, and just say, "God's will be done." What do you call a belief that our prayers make no difference to God's response? Fatalism: a doctrine that events are fixed in advance so that human beings are powerless to change them; a belief in or attitude determined by this doctrine.

Q2. What aspects of Moses' prayer of intercession should we emulate in our own prayers? Pray for God's people, mention His reputation, promises, character, and mercy. Upon what logical grounds does Moses offer this bold appeal to God? Basically, upon his view of God, his knowledge of God. What do you think it means to "pray the promises of God"? To pray scripture is to pray in the Spirit. How does knowing the Bible help you get your prayers answered? To know the Bible is to have understanding of omnipotence which gives us access to God's unlimited power, authority, and influence. W-O-W! How does this help our prayers be within God's will? We pray within the parameters of the Word of God. These are God answers. PTL!

Q1.What had the people done that was so bad? They utterly rebelled against God by substituting idols for Him, and attributed God's salvation to these idols. How can a loving God be angry? He is a loving God, and He is an holy God. He hates sin. God challenges unrighteousness. Is God's sentence to destroy Israel and raise up a new nation through Moses justified? Yes, The Israelites had rebelled against God. During this time, Moses was with God forty days and nights receiving instructions for the people of Israel concerning God's Kingdom.

Q4. Why should we continually ask forgiveness? How can unforgiveness on our part block God's blessing? How can unforgiveness block God's forgiveness?a) Because we are imperfect sinners, and Jesus tells us to ask forgiveness. By putting a curse of unforgiveness upon ourselves. c) Because if we don't forgive others, God cannot forgive us.

a) It's viewed as weakness to ask for help. It's viewed as failure to ask for help. We are taught to make our own way. Life is rough. It's hard to trust. We desire to be self-sufficient, but this can lead to pride in our own ability. We want to be free of moral restraints. We have a "whatever feels good" mentality: We want to do what we want to do, when we want to do it. We don't want to have to answer to anyone. We want to be free, not controlled by God or anyone else. c) God gives us the ability and strength to make a living. That's why we should ask Him to "give" us our daily bread.

I realized a while back that the most powerful part of prayer (at least from the human perspective) is really "petition." We're told "ask and you shall receive" and it's easy to take that promise at face value and go along praying for health, wealth, and happiness or whatever. But it doesn't really work like that: the promise is more accurately "ask for something that's in the will of God and you shall receive." So ideally when you pray, you should be praying for things that are in God's will. The catch is that there are very few things we can be absolutely certain are in the will of God. Makes it real difficult to know what to pray for and how it feels to be praying in the will of God. So what's important about "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done" is that it consists entirely of things that we're absolutlely certain are God's will. There is absolutely no doubt whatesoever that God's intention is that His kingdom will come. No doubt that His will will be done. Even if we don't understand the details of God's will the way we understand more concrete things, when we pray this prayer we are 100% in synch with God. I know this is skipping ahead, but I think I'd be willing to say the same thing about the rest of the Lord's Prayer as well. "Give us this day our daily bread" is a statement of complete reliance on God for sustenance of all kinds -- definitely God's will. Ditto for forgiveness both for ourselves and from us towards others. Reciting this prayer ought to be one of the most ecstatic things one can do, but unfortunately most of the time people rise once a week, recite the words when they're told, then sit back down and go on to the next thing in the service. I mentioned in passing above that we probably understand "more concrete things" better than we understand the will of God. Asking for help paying the rent or healing for a parent does seem pretty concrete. But I've found that it's not really concrete at all. God's will may be that His idea of "help paying the rent" means that you're going to have to move to a less expensive place. God's idea of healing for your parent may be to bring him/her home quickly. Yes, our prayer was answered, but we have to be entirely ready to notice the answer and recognize it as a blessing even when it's nothing like what we expected. And my experience has been that most of the time it will be nothing like what we expected. So it doesn't really matter whether we understand what sense we're asking the Father's kingdom to come or exactly what it means for His will to be done here on earth. The point is to ask and to know that when you DO ask you are absolutely in sync with God's will and there is no doubt that what you ask will come to be. The catch is that there are very few things we can be absolutely certain are in the will of God. Makes it real difficult to know what to pray for and how it feels to be praying in the will of God. We can know much about the will of God by reading and studying the Bible. It's, also, good to pray scripture. I, especially, like to pray the Psalms. You can adapt them to your special circumstance. In Christ, SAM

First of all, this makes us conscious of God's kingdom. We ask for His will to be done here on earth because this is the example Christ gave us. This helps pull us into oneness with God. We now share the same goals and future. God's Spirit guides and equips us to assist God in working towards our goals which are His goals. All for One, and one for all.

Our prayer life, our worship (singing hymns to our Father), respectfully waiting on the Lord, praising Him with adoration, being an example of the Christian life, our good works are all ways of hallowing the name of our Father. We desecrate and besmirch His name when we use it in vain and by our sin. We hallow Him with words, song, waiting, silence, and agreement.

On my way to the Forum... Greetings in Jesus' Name, My husband and I were saved in the early 1970's. We are, definitely, new creatures in Christ. We have trained up two children (a boy and a girl) in the way they should go. We have been blessed with three grandsons, two grandcats, and two grandpups. Years ago, I completed an extensive two-year Bible study course. I was told the training would be acceptable to Mission to the World. My husband and I have been trained in Evangelism. I, currently, co-lead a Bible study. We, also, plan on studying prayer at that study. May the Lord bless this study and all who participate. In Christ, SAM Proverbs 27:17 "A friendly discussion is as stimulating as the sparks that fly when iron strikes iron." (LAB) p.s. Oh, by the way, I'm one of those rare creatures - a Florida native!