Some of you are probably familiar with the story of George Muller. An evangelist, who lived in the 1800’s in England, is remembered for the numerous orphanages he opened in England and also for his fervor in prayer. The most famous line about him is that he received the equivalent of $7.2 million without ever asking a person for a penny, instead he simply prayed for the Lord to provide for his needs and God was faithful in answering those prayers.

If you’re like me when you hear this story you start to wonder about your own prayer life don’t you? There’s no way I could ever pray that powerfully or have the kind of faith that this guy had. I think this is the normal state of mind of most people today. Or maybe you fall into the category that is a dirty secret in church circles. You’ve prayed, asking God to heal you or someone you care about, to fix a relationship, or to work in some other critical capacity in your life and the return answer or response from the Lord has been mute. What are we to do with that?

The answer to that question and the question of what it takes to obtain a revitalized prayer life come directly from Jesus. Luke’s gospel is often called the praying gospel because it has so many examples of Jesus praying, and chapter 11 is no different. Let me set the scene for a second, Jesus has just come out of a time alone in prayer with the Father, and upon seeing him return one of the disciples asks Jesus to teach them to pray the way he does. There was something they saw in Jesus’ prayer life that they wanted to imitate; the fellowship with the Father was so close it was a contagious fire they wanted to catch hold of. So Jesus walks through the familiar prayer we’ve all heard so often. The Lord’s prayer is unique because it is full of requests, requests that are centered solely on the desires of the Lord not our own desires. Once we are in a place where we are weeding out the selfishness in our prayer lives, we are ready to follow Jesus’ instruction on approaching the Father with requests. He paints a picture with a story so that we understand how the Lord responds to prayer and how we are to react with our prayer lives.

 “We prevail with men by persistence because they are displeased with it, but with God because he is pleased with it.” – Matthew Henry 

ASK – Petition

Throughout the Bible we are told to ask God for things, this sounds backwards to everything we learned last week but watch how it’s done in a God-centered manner.
John 16:24 – Ask and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
James 4:2-3 – You do no have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

SEEK – Pursue

This takes work, you have to search Scripture to get to know the character of God more. Understand his greater plan so that you can see where your requests fit in his works. Back to our friend Muller, he had two basic prayer principles that helped him pursue the Lord’s will in prayer. 1) Searched the Bible for a promise from the Lord that related to his request. It was said that he always prayed with an open Bible before him. 2) After meditating on a Scripture he was able to have a more meaningful prayer time.

I’ll add two general rules that can help you understand God’s will. In your personal life he wants you to become like Jesus, develop a greater trust in him daily. On a grander scale he wants others to be know about him. His greater mission is to seek and save the lost, meaning it’s not all about just my personal relationship with Jesus, it’s about others learning and getting to know him so that in the end God is glorified above all else.

KNOCK – Persist

Don’t quit when the Lord doesn’t answer a prayer, don’t lose hope when he says no or not yet. Ephesians 6:18 – Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere. You’ll persist in the prayers that you are most passionate about. If you really want God to move and change the way something is you’ll persist because you see the value of it, you care it about it deeply.