https://www.christianity.com/bible/commentary.php?com=mhc&b=23&c=62

God’s professing people must be a praying people. He is not displeased with us for being earnest, as men commonly are; he bids us to cry after him, and give him no rest, Luke 11:5,6. It is a sign that God is coming to a people in mercy, when he pours out a spirit of prayer upon them. See how uncertain our creature-comforts are. See also God’s mercy in giving plenty, and peace to enjoy it. Let us delight in attending the courts of the Lord, that we may enjoy the consolations of his Spirit.

He Encourages Constant Communication With Him

http://www.spurgeongems.org/sermon/chs2189.pdf

What a blessed thing to be so familiar with God that you have His ear for your friends and neighbors! Plead with Him for the erring, the unbelieving, the profane. Never hold your peace towards God, for in this case speech is more than golden. By prayer you unlock the treasuries of heaven—keep the golden key in constant motion. Never cease to pray, since intercession is benediction. If the world be asleep, if the church be asleep, hold not your peace by night, and should the church become active and the world be a little awakened, redouble your prayer till the world is won. You spokesmen for God, and spokesmen to God, never hold your peace day or night.

Take no rest from prayer. Be always praying. If not always in the act of prayer, be always in the spirit of prayer. “Pray without ceasing.” Not only reason, but wrestle with God in prayer. Sometimes pray without words, and sometimes with them. Pray alone, and often pray with brethren. There is special prevalence in the prayer of two or three. “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.”

Never rest from prayer because you are weary of it. Whenever prayer becomes distasteful, it should be a loud call to pray all the more. No man has such need to pray as the man who does not care to pray. When you can pray, and long to pray, why then you will pray, but when you cannot pray, and do not wish to pray, why then you must pray, or evil will come of it. He is on the brink of ruin who forgets the mercy seat. When the heart is apathetic towards prayer, the whole man is sickening for a grievous disease. How can we be weary of prayer? It is essential to life. When a man grows weary of breathing, surely he is near to dying, when a man grows weary of praying, surely we ought to pray anxiously for him, for he is in an evil case. Never rest from prayer because you have prayed enough. When has a man prayed enough? The greatest pleaders with God in prayer are the hungriest after more of it. The more a man gets from God, the more he desires from God. Those who have but little, ask but little, but to him that has shall be given, and he shall have abundance. Does anyone say, “I have long been prayerful and watchful, and I shall now take things more easily”?

He Initiates the Relationship

https://www.preaching.com/sermons/prayer-starts-with-god-isaiah-6524-1-john-512-15-romans-826-30/

And who starts the face-to-face conversation? The Lord! John makes that clear in John 4:19, “We love Him because He first loved us.” He is the prime mover in salvation, the gift of faith, and the initiation of prayer. In prayer, He makes known to us what is His will so that we can ask for what He longs to give. He calls us into His presence because He has the answer to our needs and questions. “If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.”

Our assurance that He hears us is that He is the one who asked for the conversation. He would not call us to prayer and then refuse to listen or be inattentive to our prayer. That’s the confidence, boldness, we have: prayer is our response to His call. In the time of face-to-face communion He makes clear what it is that we are to ask for in the needs He has come to us to help us solve.

So when we do ask, it is with the confidence that we are asking for what He is prepared to release for us. “And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.” We know before we ask, because the content of our asking has been guided by Him.

He Wants Us To Pray For What He Desires

https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/The_Priority_of_Prayer_FullArticle

Jesus teaches this very clearly in the Gospels. He tells us to pray, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10 KJV), and He bids us to “ask the Lord of the harvest … to send out workers into his harvest field” (Matt. 9:38).1 By this He means for us to understand and take seriously the fact that our prayer is a major factor in advancing God’s kingdom in this world. Jesus elsewhere encourages prayer in the strongest terms imaginable by saying, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Matt. 7:7). “Have faith in God … whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mark 11:22, 24). “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer” (Matt. 21:22). The clear implication of these and similar passages is that God commands us to pray and promises to answer in power when we do so.

Jesus demonstrated this in His own life and ministry. We are all familiar with how Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit, preached the gospel, fed the hungry, comforted the brokenhearted, healed the sick, cast out demons, gave sight to the blind, and raised the dead. But we sometimes overlook that these powerful deeds were the overflow of a life of prayer, lived in daily communion with God. The Gospels tell us that early in the morning while it was still dark, Jesus would rise and spend time alone with God in prayer (Mark 1:35). And often, even in busy periods of ministry, He would withdraw to solitary places and pray (Luke 5:16). At times He even spent whole nights in prayer (Luke 6:12). By making prayer such a high priority, Jesus was able to maintain constant communion with His Father and draw upon God’s wisdom, guidance, and power to fulfill His mission (John 5:19–20).

https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-6-priority-prayer-1-timothy-21-8

As Paul begins to tell Timothy how to conduct oneself in the local church (3:15), he puts prayer as the first priority (1 Tim 2:1, “First of all”). But Paul is not just talking about the need for prayer in general. He is talking about the need for prayer as it relates to the salvation of the lost. He repeats some words and ideas in 1 Tim 2:1-8 that show what he is driving at: “all men” (1 Tim 2:1); “all” (1 Tim 2:2); “God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved” (1 Tim 2:3, 4); “mediator … between God and men” (1 Tim 2:5); “a ransom for all, the testimony” (1 Tim 2:6); “preacher and … teacher of the Gentiles” (1 Tim 2:7). Paul is talking about men—people—and not just about a certain few, but about all men. And he is talking about the Savior. His concern is that all would be saved. What he is telling us is that,

Prayer that all people may be reached with the gospel should pervade the life of the church.

We should have such a burden for those who are perishing without Christ that we’re driven to entreat God, who is the Savior, that all people might be reached with the good news that there is a Mediator who gave Himself as the ransom for their sins.

God’s Plan Involves All Kinds of Prayer for All Kinds of People

In verse 1 Paul uses four different words for prayer. The words are not altogether distinct in meaning, but there are nuances of difference that reveal different needs that require prayer:

“Entreaties” = prayer stemming from a sense of need. Sensing our lack and God’s sufficiency, our impotence and God’s omnipotence, should move us to pray.

“Prayers” = a general term for prayer to God. One commentator suggests that the word here refers to requests for needs that are always present, in contrast to specific and special needs (William Hendriksen, New Testament Commentary [Baker], p. 92). This would include prayer for more wisdom, godliness, repentance, revival, etc.

“Petitions” = means to converse freely; it pictures someone who can go into the presence of the king and talk freely with him on your behalf. It is used of the intercessory work of the Holy Spirit and of Christ on our behalf (Rom. 8:27, 34; Heb. 7:25). It points to the fact that we can go freely before God at any time or in any place to talk with Him on behalf of others.

“Thanksgivings” = this points to the fact that we must express not only our petitions, but our gratitude to God for His gracious answers.

The point of all these words is that we have different needs at different times. But at all times we need God and, therefore, we need to pray.

https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-1-help-wanted-matthew-935-38

1. H. Spurgeon said that Matt. 9:38 weighed on his heart more than any other text in the Bible! He said that it haunted him perpetually (Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit[Pilgrim Publications], 19:466). So I pray that this simple message will haunt us:

We need to see as Jesus saw and feel as Jesus felt so that we will do as Jesus did.

Jesus saw lost people as distressed. The word means “troubled” or “vexed.” It points to the load of problems that people apart from Christ bear. Do you ever look carefully into people’s faces when you’re in public? If you do, you’ll see a lot of distressed, troubled people.

Jesus saw lost people as dispirited. The word means, “downcast” or “thrown down.” It points to the utterly helpless and forsaken condition of people who are lost in sin without the Savior. Philip Keller, in A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 [Zondervan], describes how sheep can get turned over on their backs and not be able to get up by themselves again. Such sheep are called “cast” or “cast down” sheep (p. 60). These sheep flail at the air with their legs, but they can’t get back on their feet without the aid of the shepherd. Left in this condition, helpless and vulnerable to their enemies, they will die after a few hours or days.

What a picture of sinners apart from the Good Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ! Outwardly, they may look calm and comfortable. They may be successful in worldly terms. But Jesus sees their hearts before God. They’re “legs up,” unable to extricate themselves from their sin. They are downcast or dispirited. They may look normal outwardly, but inwardly they are, as Paul describes them (Eph. 2:12), without “hope and without God in the world.”

Jesus saw lost people as sheep without a shepherd. The Jewish religious leaders should have been shepherding these people, pointing them to God. But instead they were self-righteous and self-seeking…

So to be like our Savior, we need to see as Jesus saw: the great need of lost people; the great harvest of lost people; and, the great need for more workers in the harvest of lost people.

Chapter 19 Questions

1. Pg 140: “ He even tells them to give Him no rest until He does what He has promised to do “ (see Isaiah 62:7). What in your prayer life have you not given any rest to God until He answers. Share examples.
2. What promises are you praying for today ? Look up these verses and share which one is on your heart.  Or share one of your own
   • Psa 9:10, Psa 32:8, Psa 33:4 , 37:4 , 119:105 , 119:90
   • Gen 28:15
   • Joshua 1:9
   • Prov 3:6,16:
   • 2 Chron 30:9
   • Isa 30:21 , Isa 41:3 , Isa 58 :11, Isa 54:10
   • John 10:3-4
   • Hebrews 10:23
   • 2 Thess 3:3
3. How can we ensure that we make prayer a priority in our lives ?  Discuss
4. Pg 142: ” The usual method of God accomplishing His work is to place a prayer burden on the disciples heart ?  (Thrasher). How can we become more sensitive to the needs of others?
5. Pg 145-146: Have you ever asked the Lord to teach you how to pray ? Share results, process.

https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/draw-near-confidence

But our sin and covenant unfaithfulness must not make us stay away from Christ. Instead we must draw near to His throne. Christ has opened up the Holy of Holies to us through His death on the cross. We do not send Aaron into the holy place in our stead anymore. We can go in ourselves if we have been covered by the blood of Christ.

Not only must we draw near to Christ, we must draw near to Him in confidence. This does not mean that we come arrogantly demanding forgiveness as a right. We draw near in confidence not because of our own “rights” but because of the person and work of Christ. We are confident because God, who was not obligated to redeem us, nonetheless promises to forgive us if we submit to Christ. Drawing near in confidence means that we firmly believe God’s promise of grace in Christ.

https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/draw-near-to-the-throne-of-grace-with-confidence

Because he is alive, and in the presence of God with the sacrifice of the blood of the Son of God, and full of sympathy for his people, therefore two things:

1. 1. Verse 14b: “Let us hold fast our confession.”
   2. Verse 16: “Let us come draw near with confidence to the throne of grace.”

The confession is simply our unshakable hope (Hebrews 10:23) that God is for us and will work to bring us into his final rest and joy. Hold fast to that because you have a great High Priest.

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/confidence-to-approach-god-together

So what accounts for this confidence? How is it that people who sin in word and deed can be said to have objective confidence to enter the holy places, a confidence that doesn’t dissipate in the wake of personal sin and in the contemplation of the God who is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29)? The writer answers this question for us: “We have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh” (Hebrews 10:19-20). Our confidence to enter is not based upon what we’ve done or not done but upon what Christ has done through the shedding of his own blood. Our confidence is based upon the work of Christ. It is Christ who “entered once for all time into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:12).

Pg 34 Mercy and Grace

https://www.christianity.com/wiki/christian-terms/what-is-the-difference-between-grace-and-mercy.html

Mercy and grace are the utmost attributes of love. The essence of the Bible is loving God and loving people through the lens of Jesus Christ. Two grand works of God have displayed His all-powerful, gracious, and merciful nature: creation and redemption.

Mercy is the act of withholding deserved punishment, while grace is the act of endowing unmerited favor. In His mercy, God does not give us punishment we deserve, namely hell; while in His grace, God gives us the gift we do not deserve, namely heaven.

Mercy is a compassionate love to the weak, and grace is a generous love to the unworthy. Humans are weak and unworthy – we all need God’s mercy and grace. Mercy takes us to the path of forgiveness, while grace leads us to reconciliation.

https://www.compellingtruth.org/mercy-grace.html

Both perfect mercy and perfect grace are found in Jesus Christ. Through His sacrifice on the cross, He has provided a way of escape or mercy from the consequences of sin (John 3:16, Romans 5:8). God has extended grace by providing salvation and proclaiming salvation to us through the Son, His teaching in Scripture, and through the Spirit of God at work among us. Hebrews 4:16 blends these two ideas in one powerful statement, teaching, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

https://bible.org/article/be-gracious

God’s grace and compassion are cited as of great importance in the Minor Prophets. Thus Joel in Joel 2:12-13 instructs his people to have “a total re commitment on the part of the whole populace … is reassuring for the believer to understand something of God’s character so as to be able to rely on his perfect response to any situation. God is consistent in his character: he is gracious and merciful, not easily angered, and full of kindness.”

May we, then, ourselves likewise follow the reassurance of Hosea’s charge to his people, “Say to him: ‘forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips’” (Hos 14:2). Thus Israel “was to come into God’s presence with heartfelt confession on their lips” … and “having repented and come to God with proper intentions, they were to petition God for forgiveness of their sins and guilt.”

Pg 36 Walk in the Light / Honesty

https://www.gotquestions.org/walk-in-the-light.html

To “walk” is, in short, to live one’s life. One’s lifestyle or way of life can be considered a “walk.” The word also indicates progress. Walking is related to growth; it is taking steps toward maturity. “Light” in the Bible can be a metaphor for life, happiness, righteousness, or understanding. The Bible is clear that light comes from the Lord God, the “Father of the heavenly lights” (James 1:17). He is the opposite of evil. Putting it all together, “walking in the light” means “growing in holiness and maturing in the faith as we follow Jesus.”

https://bible.org/seriespage/19-walking-light-ephesians-57-14

Becoming a Christian is not so much a matter of adding Christ to your life as it is abandoning your life to find true life in Christ. And when one thus trusts in the person and work of Jesus Christ, the change is not small. It is a radical transformation. It is a change from death to life, from darkness to light. Paul’s words indicate that our calling as Christians should have a radical impact on our conduct. We will never be the same again. We should never think or act the same. Our thinking and our behavior after our conversion should compare to our former “walk” as though it were night and day. Anyone who thinks of salvation differently would seem to do a disservice to the teaching of our Lord, and of the Old and New Testament writers.

https://christiantoday.com/article/the-importance-of-being-honest-with-god/82093.htm

But without being honest with people, we prohibit ourselves from pursuing authentic relationships with others and with God. In the same way that we avoid being truthful with our friends, family members and any other people we engage with, because we’re afraid of any number of possible consequences of our openness, so too can we avoid being honest with God.  Sometimes we worry about fully opening up to God because we think he’ll get mad at us or we’re mad at him but we think we shouldn’t be so we try to steer clear of discussing it as this means we’ll have to accept and confront our emotions.

Our most powerful relationships are built upon trust, and it’s no different when we consider the one that we have with God. Often, a reluctance to speak honestly with God points to a lack of trust in him. We can fail to trust him to be just, to be forgiving or to be helpful when in fact he is all of these things. God wants us to come to him with everything that’s on our minds and even though we might not be able to see a way through, he always can. “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know” (Jeremiah 33:3).

Chapter 3 Questions

Pg 34 The author poses this question……. “ How do I come to God with confidence when I am thinking the wrong things and I know I have the wrong attitude? “ What do we do?

Pg 35 “ How has God used the past and present difficulties of your life to lead you into a life of prayer?

Pg 36 Agree or disagree /discuss …. “Temptations are an appeal to meet righteous needs in an unrighteous way . “

Pg 38 How will you “ walk in the light” with each temptation of your life?

“ Purpose to let every point of temptation lead you into a conversation with God and trust Him to meet the deepest thirsts of your heart . “  – Bill Thrasher