Week 7 - Day 1

EAT! - Week 7
SEEK GOD

Know God through Prayer

Objective: To seek to know God through intercessory prayer,
petitions, and faith.

Key Verse: And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds
of prayers and requests. Eph. 6:18

In 2007, my (Amy) prayer life took a huge turn for the good. I had
been walking with God for nearly 20 years, the trouble was that I
had become a professional (or so I thought) Christian. God was in
a neat and tidy box that I had made out of “good” theology. Please
don’t misunderstand. If God’s Word could be called “the box,”
then that is “THE BOX” we all can safely abide in. My “box”
forgot, left out, or misplaced the truth that our prayers can, by
faith, move mountains! Also, I rediscovered that person abiding
in Christ and living out of His righteousness, has an advantage.
James 5 tells us “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and
effective.” All Christians are positionally righteous, but not all
live out of that righteousness. Can anyone say “amen?” Basically,
my “box” blew up! I took the limits off God in my life and He
became infinitely greater to me! And I am more acutely aware of
His power working in and through me!

Prayer is one of the greatest privileges a believer has on this earth.
Through prayer we gain access to the Greatest Power Source (God
Almighty) known to man. You have an opportunity now to read,
look closely at, soak in, take seriously, receive and believe the
following scriptures. Do you want to become a person of prayer
and faith? Better yet, do you want to have effective and powerful
prayers? If you give yourself to the quest of seeking to better
understand prayer, this will be a faith-building, life-changing time
for you! Ask the Holy Spirit to teach and guide you as you study.

You may want to order and begin reading a book I (Amy) highly
recommend (The Kneeling Christian by An Unknown Author,
published by Zondervan) on prayer. My desire is that you will
know God intimately through prayer and rest in Him, and believe
like you’ve never believed before, that “With God all things are
possible”!

DAY 1 –
There are 7 days of assignments this week! You may want to
spend the next 2 weeks studying and meditating on these
passages.

Here are some ideas for your study time: Read, read and read the
Scriptures. Document in your SOAR notebook all that stands out
to you. You will see how closely prayer and faith are related.
Faith comes from hearing and hearing the word of God. Rom.
10:17

Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy?
Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should
call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him
with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith
will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he
has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to
each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.
The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Elijah
was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain,
and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again
he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its
crops. James 5:13-18

• Do you confess your sins to one another?
All sins were paid for on the cross. However, when you are
living in a way that is not obedient or doesn’t honor God, the
Holy Spirit will convict you of this. If you continue to live in
sin as a believer, you leave a door open to the enemy to come
in and attack and you live outside the umbrella of protection
God has set out for you. Confess your sins quickly to one
another because a sin in the dark has power over you, but a sin
brought into the light can set you free!

If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives
generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who
doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord;
he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does. James 1:5-8
KJV

Have you ever felt like “…a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by
the wind”? I know I (Sheri) have! I remember when there was no
peace in my life. I would ask God for something, but if I were
honest with you, I didn’t really believe that He would do it.

Pray the Eph. 1:17-23 prayer from week 5 and ask God to give
you a spirit of wisdom and revelation. I have prayed this prayer
for over four years. I can testify to how God has truly flooded the
eyes of my heart to understand and believe His word.

Now He (Jesus) was telling them a parable to show that at all
times they ought to pray and not to lose heart, saying, "There was
in a certain city a judge who did not fear God, and did not respect
man.” And there was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to
him, saying, 'Give me legal protection from my opponent.' "And
for a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself,
'Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, yet because this
widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, lest by
continually coming she wear me out.' " And the Lord said, "Hear
what the unrighteous judge said; now shall not God bring about
justice for His elect, who cry to Him day and night, and will He
delay long over them? "I tell you that He will bring about justice
for them speedily. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He
find faith on the earth?"

And He also told this parable to certain ones who trusted in
themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with
contempt: "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a
Pharisee, and the other a tax-gatherer.” The Pharisee stood and
was praying thus to himself, 'God, I thank Thee that I am not like
other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this taxgatherer.
'I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.' "But
the tax-gatherer, standing some distance away, was even
unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast,
saying, 'God, be merciful to me, the sinner!' "I tell you, this man
went down to his house justified rather than the other; for
everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who
humbles himself shall be exalted." And they were bringing even
their babies to Him so that He might touch them, but when the
disciples saw it, they began rebuking them. But Jesus called for
them, saying, "Permit the children to come to Me, and do not
hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”
Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God
like a child shall not enter it at all." Luke 18:1-17 NASB

According to this passage, what should your attitude be like when
you prayer?