TOPIC:‌“Continuing a Bridge of Prayer”

                  by Rev. Dr. Reg Dunlap

 

TEXT:‌Philippians 4:6

 

‌‌“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication

‌‌with thanksgiving, let your requests be made know unto God.”

 

‌We come now to our second in a series of three messages on building a bridge of prayer. A bridge that will help us to get across physical pain, emotional strain, and many problems that we as believers must face in this life. In our first message we looked at the path, the principle and the person of prayer. Today we shall consider the prerequisites of prayer, the pattern of prayer and the posture of prayer.

 

I.

 

‌Think, first of all, of the PREREQUISITES of prayer. There are certain requirements laid down by Christ in the New Testament that Christians must fulfill before they can have a fruitful prayer life. Here are the conditions as laid down by God.

 

‌The first condition is: ABIDING in CHRIST. In our Lord's discourse of the vine and the branches in John 15 He declared: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you” (v. 7). Here Christ sets forth the idea of an active fellowship with Him if we want to experience the reality of answered prayer. The Bible scholars will back me, I am certain, if we say that to abide in Christ means to live in union with Him and to rest on Him for strength and sustenance. As branches, and that's what we are as set forth in John 15:5, we must get our complete nourishment and strength from the vine which is Christ. His life must continuously flow into our lives just as the sap of the vine flows into the branches.

 

‌It is doubtful if we shall ever really make a go of prayer unless we begin to realize what it means to be totally dependent upon the power and strength of Christ. Prayer depends upon this very thing - the maintenance of a vital spiritual union with Jesus Christ who is the source of all our strength and wisdom. We must permit Christ to live His life in us and through us. The words of C. I. Scofield are helpful at this point: “To abide in Christ is to have no known sin unjudged and unconfessed, no interest into which He is not brought, no life which He cannot share…the abiding one takes all burdens to Him, and draws all wisdom, life, and strength from Him.” How long is it going to take some of us Christians to have our whole prayer lives revolutionized when we start abiding, yea abounding, in total fellowship with Christ?

 

‌The second condition is: ASKING in CHRIST'S NAME. Jesus declared: . . .