Practical Prayer

Read for This Week’s Study

1 Kings 19:1–18; Matt. 6:5–8; Luke 11:2–4; Matt. 6:5–15; Dan. 9:4–19; Rom. 8:26, 27.

Memory Text:

“Trust in Him at all times, you people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us” (Psalm 62:8, NKJV).

Also, do you find yourself offering a prayer in the morning before you eat and perhaps partway through your busy day? Perhaps you’ve been part of a regular prayer group or even experienced what it’s like to pray around the clock. Have you experienced the power and presence of God through prayer that changes everything in your life?

Prayer is the constant connection between us (the branches) and Jesus (the Vine). “If we would grow and flourish, we must continually draw sap and nourishment from the Living Vine; for separated from the Vine we have no strength.”—Ellen G. White, Early Writings, p. 73. This is the blessing of abiding prayer. God hears us, and He always answers in His time and in His perfect way—though not always in the way we might expect.

This week let’s study other praying individuals in the Bible and consider practical ways to strengthen prayer in our daily lives.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, May 16.

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Additional Reading: Selected Quotes from Ellen G. White

A deep sense of our need and a great desire for the things for which we ask must characterize our prayers, else they will not be heard. But we are not to become weary and cease our petitions because the answer is not immediately received. “The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force” (Matthew 11:12). The violence here meant is a holy earnestness, such as Jacob manifested. We need not try to work ourselves up into an intense feeling, but calmly, persistently, we are to press our petitions at the throne of grace. Our work is to humble our souls before God, confessing our sins, and in faith drawing nigh unto God. . . . It is the design of God to reveal Himself in His providence and in His grace. The object of our prayers must be the glory of God, not the glorification of ourselves. . . .
God has honored us by showing how greatly He values us. We are bought with a price, even the precious blood of the Son of God. When His heritage shall conscientiously follow the Word of the Lord, His blessing will rest upon them in answer to their prayers. “Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness” (Joel 2:12, 13).
In secret prayer the soul should be laid bare to the inspecting eye of God. . . . How precious is secret prayer—the soul communing with God! Secret prayer is to be heard only by the prayer-hearing God. No curious ear is to receive the burden of petitions. Calmly, yet fervently, the soul is to reach out after God; and sweet and abiding will be the influence emanating from Him who sees in secret, whose ear is open to the prayer arising from the heart. He who in simple faith holds communion with God will gather to himself divine rays of light to strengthen and sustain him in the conflict with Satan.—That I May Know Him, p. 272.

Family prayer and public prayer have their place; but it is secret communion with God that sustains the soul-life. It was in the mount with God that Moses beheld the pattern of that wonderful building which was to be the abiding-place of His glory. It is in the mount with God—the secret place of communion—that we are to contemplate His glorious ideal for humanity. Thus we shall be enabled so to fashion our character-building that to us may be fulfilled the promise, “I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” [2 Corinthians 6:16.]. . . .
Prayer is the breath of the soul. It is the secret of spiritual power. No other means of grace can be substituted, and the health of the soul be preserved. Prayer brings the heart into immediate contact with the Well-spring of life, and strengthens the sinew and muscle of the religious experience. Neglect the exercise of prayer, or engage in prayer spasmodically, now and then, as seems convenient, and you lose your hold on God. The spiritual faculties lose their vitality, the religious experience lacks health and vigor.—Gospel Workers, p. 254.