The Necessity of Prayer – Lesson VI, Prayer and Faith

Hebrews 3:12 says we are to: "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God."

So in this matter of prayer we must guard against unbelief as we would guard against an enemy.

A Christian that is growing is a Christian that is growing in faith.

A growing Christian has an increasing faith.

Listen to this spiritual wisdom written long ago by an unknown author.

God will answer your petition but be prepared to get into His word.

For faith grows by reading, studying, and meditating upon the Word of God.

And faith is watered by prayer.

Each of us should examine ourselves and seriously ask, Do I have faith in God?

Paul told the Corinthians in II Cor. 13:2. Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves.

And this important truth of II Tim. 2:15, Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Study reveals God’s indicators of faith.

Study produces real facts about your faith level and gets it away from an emotional evaluation about your faith.

Everyone thinks they have faith but what is the reality of your faith?

Have I real faith about the things of earth and the things of heaven which keeps me in perfect peace?

Can you really have faith or believe God if you don’t know what God says?

Do I really pray to God so that He hears me and answers my prayers and is my prayer built upon knowledge of Him?

And do I truly pray unto God so that I get direct from God the things I ask of Him?"

Or do I just go though the motions of the day not expecting anything from God, choosing to do all for myself?

Are you self reliant or are you God reliant?

Oh, how we need to forsake praylessness in our lives and be a prayerful people in Grace Bible Church.

We are not to be forgetful of God, we are not to be empty of faith, we are not to be prayerless, we are not to be self reliant people, but we are to be people who habitually pray, people who believe in God and remember Him and do his will.

The mission of the our pastor is not just to get people in the church, but to get those that are in to pray, to trust God, and to keep God ever before their eyes, that they may not sin against him.

The work of the ministry is to change unbelieving sinners into praying and believing saints.

We know of the tremendous importance of faith and of the great value God has set upon it, when we remember that He has made it the one essential condition of being saved.

"By grace are ye saved, through faith."

Paul declared that the life he lived, he lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved him and gave Himself for him.

The Bible declares that the just shall live by faith.

God sees to it that his children live by faith.

And prayer is absolutely dependent upon faith.

It has no existence apart from it, and will accomplish nothing without it.

Faith makes prayer effectual, and in an important sense always precedes it.

Heb 11:6, "For he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him."

Before prayer ever starts toward God; before its requests are made known — faith has journeyed ahead.

Faith knocks on the door of God and God only opens the door when faith knocks.

Without faith the doors stay shut.

They do not open to emotional appeals from the ungodly, they do not open to the casual seeker who seeks for selfish reasons.

Faith agrees that "God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him."

Faith is the starter in the engine of prayer.

It provides clearance to the mercy-seat of God.

It gives assurance that there is a mercy - seat, and that there, the High Priest awaits the pray-ers and the prayers.

Faith opens the way for prayer to approach God.

It accompanies prayer at every step she takes.

It is faith which turns the asking into receiving.

And prayer follows faith, since the spiritual life into which a believer is led by prayer, is a life of faith.

Faith gives strength to prayer and gives prayer patience to wait on God for the answer.

Faith is never in a hurry and faith never rushes God for faith itself knows that God will always answer at the right time and in the right way.

Faith believes that God is a rewarder.

Go to the closet and find this out for God says that: "He that seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly,"

God loves to listen to those of faith speak to him from the closet.

God loves to reward faith.

But faith also tells us that God will not reward everybody.

Faith tells us that God will not reward all who pray.

But faith tells us that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.

Prayer and diligently seeking Him are not the same thing.

It takes two words in the English to replace the one Greek word used here.

The word ek-zay-teh'-o means diligently seek.

Diligently seek means to search out, to investigate, to crave, to demand, to worship, to seek after carefully.

The diligence used here does not mean intensity or length of prayer, or habits of prayer, or the amount of emotionalism displayed in prayer.

It has nothing to do with tears shed in prayer.

It does not mean how much you can get into prayer on an emotional level.