Prayer
CLASS 4 ISSUES
Study Scripture: Genesis 18: 25 – 27; 30 – 32; Luke 18: 9 – 14; 1 John 5: 14 – 15
Background Scripture: Genesis 18: 25 – 27; 30 – 32; Luke 18: 9 – 14; 1 John 5: 14 – 15
Lesson 7 January 17, 2026
Key Verse
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other one: for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one humbles himself will be exalted.
Luke 18:14
INTRODUCTION
Prayer is a most important and significant thing in the life of a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and they must understand it is a part of divine government. It is a feature of God’s governing activity.
Realize and know that prayer is simply conversation with God, and only two people, you and God, and no one else, are represented in this prayer even if there are many people around you and they are in spirit joining with you and supporting your direct conversation between you, a single human being, and God Himself.
So, do you understand that you are talking to the Being that created the universe and your world, and has no limits to His power, knowledge, authority, glory and majesty?
He created you and every living thing, man, animals, the fish in the seas and rivers, plants, and every other life form.
In Him is life, and He gives life as He wills and takes it away as He wills. But his greatness and infinite qualities also include His love for His creation, His holiness, His righteousness, His Justice and fairness, kindness, mercy, and compassion as He creates, guides, preserves and sustains that which He created.
He is a person, and as such He is a personal God and He wants a personal relationship with every living person.
There is no place where He cannot be found. Knowledge that He exists has been built into every human being so that they know who He is. But the Apostle Paul in Romans 1 tell us sadly most people suppress the truths of God in unrighteousness. They do not live to please God but live to please themselves. This attitude and choice to do wrong comes from their unbelief in God, and this leads to all kinds of violence, sexual and other kinds of immorality, abuse of others, and all manner of evil. We therefore understand some of what God is by this famous song:
“O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made,
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God to Thee;
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee:
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
So how do you communicate with Him and know for sure He exists and ha told you what He requires of you?
He has told us through the prophets, through Jesus the Son of God, though the Apostles and the many witnesses to His life and teachings, that He is seeing all things in you and in your life, and He is waiting to hug you, cloth you in fine clothing and giving you a privileged place in His family, and celebrate with you when you come to Him. He is just like the father in the Parable of the Prodigal son.
Though there are many kinds of prayers such as petitioning, intercession, thanksgiving and other forms, fundamentally it is simply a conversation and what we call a dialogue between an individual and God.
The great teaching of Jesus on prayer which is found in the Sermon on the Mount makes it clear what prayer is and that it must be done. He says, When you pray, not “if” you pray for He takes it as a given that in the Christian life YOU PRAY.
Some consider that the first prayer might have been uttered in the Garden of Eden when our parents they were hiding from the Lord after they had sinned and heard Him walking in the Garden and looking for them at the end of the day.
The first words that is then recorded for us between God and man gives us the essential content of prayer. It involves the question from God, Where are you, and in response to the answer from Adam that he was naked and hid himself from God because of fear God responded directly to Adam in a single dialogue which then outlined the history of humanity.
Note the initiative began with God or it was God who called out to man. The greatest truth of who man is must therefore must underlay every prayer from that time. For we can imagine the most awful feeling of Adam and Eve as their heart empties and he held out himself and his wife and his descendants to the hope for eventual salvation Jesus had given them.
Clearly it is not man doing something to God by his prayer for help and hope to be given, for we have to get rid of any idea that in prayer man is rescuing God from man’s predicament.
Prayer is a plea from an individual for help from God who is the only One who can help and rescue him.
When Abraham spoke to God and pleads for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah after God told him He would destroy them for their evil Abraham’s concern was that God was going to destroy the righteous with the wicked. Given that concern Abraham pleaded with God not to execute His wrath and in so doing not destroy the righteous.
But we are to avoid any feeling that Abraham was more compassionate than God for man is never more compassionate than God. One writer comments,
“Compassion is born of God and only shows up in human beings when it is implanted by the Spirit of God”.
The Apostle John therefore makes this plain to us andreminds us in 1 John 4:7
“Beloved let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God”.
The Apostle Paul takes us back to our parents Garden of Eden experience and reminds us of our inadequacy in Romans 8:26 as we are creatures,
“The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we do not know what to pray for as we ought but the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with groaning which cannot be uttered”.
The biblical picture of prayer therefore is clear. Prayer begins with God and so when we have a need or a desire it is because God has implanted in us that desire.
It seems obvious that Adam and Eve met with God habitually and had uninhibited conversations with Him but now that sin had entered, the guilty pair experienced shame, fear, and an unwillingness to come in the presence of God.
These intrusions came into the picture, and so God who knew all things has taken the initiative with His children redeemed by the blood of Jesus to.reverse the effect of shame, fear, and the unwillingness to approach God boldly.
The governing activity of God stretches all over the world and extend to sll men, to the good and to the not do good. Though Romans 8 emphasizes that God forgives those who love Him, the Scripture also tell us that God’s providence does not only extend to His own people but as Matthew 5:45 reminds us God’s “Sun arises on the evil and the good”.
As we Study remember that God is good and in His government His Plan fits His purpose and so God’s Plan has a personal dimension as it cares for those that are His, but as well it addresses contemporary events and structures.
Sometimes without knowing it men who are not of God carry out God’s Plan, as when for example, Csesar Augustus according to Luke 2 called a census and this fulfilled the prophecy that the Messiah Jesus was to be born in Bethlehem.
Remember therefore that sometimes our conscious actions fulfill the divine intentions as in Matthew 26:45
But note God is sovereign in His government and we must be diligent in carrying out the Plan of God that we know. We must therefore be very careful to identify ourselves with God’s government and with His Plan for we are to be committed to be obedient to the command of God.
Our prayers must fit with this plan. Sadly prayer is often made to impress others around us rather than be addressed to God. Be careful how you pray for your long prayers in public might get you into unwarranted trouble when you impress people less than you think you are impressing them.
Psalm 65:2 reminds us,
“O thou who hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come”.
We hopefully are now aware if we did not know it that prayer is initiated by God and He begins the conversation and expects us to know we are in an intimate conversation and should be relaxed and bold. One writer comments how important this is for we face directly with the mighty power who knows all things and from whom we have to be willing to learn,
“If we pray we will learn; if we do not pray we do not learn; we remain in ignorance”.
The great Lesson we can learn “is that true prayer is always grounded on the character of God, not the needs, the wants, and the desires of men. It begins with who God is, and what he wants. That is why the model prayer that is given to us by the Lord himself begins with a threefold petition:
First, “Our Father” (which includes our relationship with God)
Second, “who art in heaven” (which indicates his invisibility to us and yet his present availability to our needs), and
Third, “Hallowed be thy name” ( the greatness and the character of God thst comes from the ground of prayer).
There is a mystery involved in prayer. God saves and will preserve the righteous. But His justice will be carried out only in the fullness of His wrath. So we must remember the character of God as everything we do is to be in line with God as we carry out the Plan of God which is involved with His government. We therefore we can be at rest as we work for God. In 2 Peter:6-10 we read
“For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment
.And spared not the old world but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly:
And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomarrah to ashes He (God) condemned them to extinction and made them an example to those who were to be ungodly:
And he turned righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the wicked
(for that righteous man saw and heard as he lived among them, he was vexed in his righteous soul day after day with their lawless deeds:)
The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment
And especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.
Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, theyare not afraid to speak evil of dignities”.
So note this divinely inspired lesson given by the Apostle. One writer comments on this passage and its importance for us today:
“We may need reassurance from time to time that God really is the kind of God He claims to be, that even in the midst of judgment He honors His promises and redeems His offers to those that lay hold of them”.
There might be a question of what prayer really accomplishes for if prayer has no effect of what happens then it seems God’s plan is fixed in the first place. Given the fact of providence is there a sense that it can be altered or not when someone prays.
Is God going to do what He is going to do then does it matter whether we pray?
One commentator instructs:
“The answer to this takes us to the larger issue of the relationship between effort and divine providence. But note
- Scripture teaches that plan is definite and fixed- not subject to revision, and
- We are commanded to pray and taught that prayer has value (James 5:16).
It appears from Scripture in many cases God works in a sort of partnership with man. Thus when Jesus ministered in his hometown of Nazareth, he did not perform any major miracles. He only healed a few sick people. Jesus marvelled because of their unbelief (Mark 6:6). So it seems people did not bring their needy ones to Him for healing. It seems the act of faith is necessary for God to act and such faith was lacking in Nazareth.
Also in Matthew 14:22-33 Peter asked to join Jesus on the water and Jesus enabled him to come as he asked.
The centurion bringing a request to heal the servant (Matthew 8:5-6) and the woman with the issue (hemorrhage), Matthew 9:18-22 clinging to Jesus’ garment are examples of faith demonstrated in petitions resulting in God’s working.
When God wills the end (in this case healing), he also wills the means, which includes a request to be healed which in turn presupposes faith.
It seems God wills the healing in part by willing that those in need should bring their entreaties
Thus prayer does not change what he has purposed to do. It is the means by which God accomplishes His ends.
It is vital then, that a prayer be uttered, for without it the desired result will not come to pass.
Hence prayer is more than self- stimulation.
It is not a means of creating a positive mental attitude in ourselves so that we are able to do what we have been asked to be done.
Rather, prayer is in large part a matter of creating in ourselves a right attitude with respect to God’s will.
Prayer is not so much getting God to do our will as it is demonstrating that we are as concerned as is God that His will be done”.
THE TEXT
Genesis 18: 25 – 27; 30 – 32
Verse 25. The confidence we have in God is in this statement; Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?
God does not see the word the way that man does. He is not fooled by man as other men are, as He can see into the hearts of man, and knows His creation.
From earlier verses in Genesis 18, it mentions that God is aware of the situation in Sodom; the sins and sinners in the land are so great that a cry has reach heaven pleading for vengeance.
It also mentions that I will go down now, and see, so God is actively looking at this situation.
Setting the context is important, because the goal here is to consider that communion with God is kept up by the word and by prayer. God was speaking with Abraham about Sodom. Abraham was pleading with those who showed up that God is just and would not destroy if at this point twenty five righteous were in Sodom (verse 24) down from fifty.
Abraham knew these were men of God, however, it is commonly held that two of the men were angels and the third person in the party was actually the LORD Himself.
The focus on this Lesson is prayer. In this case it manifests a man of God, pleading and petitioning to God for the exercising mercy, where there is a clear injustice against God. But for the sake of any righteous that might be there in the land, Abraham pleads with God.
This shows how as Children of God, we need to put ourselves in a position to bold moves before the LORD our God, and act as a intercessor for those that have strayed from doing God’s will and even for God’s own people who could be doing His will.
Abraham put forward to God, based on His promise to His people and the world, “Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked”.
Abraham is discussing with God whether He intends to destroy Sodom if any righteous is present in the land. In doing so, he reminds his God, the LORD, of His own nature and principles. Abraham was reminding God that as a righteous Judge, He couldn’t and wouldn’t punish the innocent in the same way as the guilty.
Effective prayer speaks knowing who God is, and how God works in a particular situation. Abraham knew that the people in Sodom were not righteous as a whole, but some righteous may unwisely be among them, and still have not succumb to the sins in the land.
Effective prayer is demonstrated in this case as something that acts as if it must actually remind God in prayer who He is and the promises that He keeps. God’s people show the strength of their belief and character by showing compassion for the wicked, not blindly, but knowing the wrath of the Lord God Almighty. This is the first solemn prayer we have seen record of in the Bible to this point, and is a prayer for sparing of Sodom.
Verse 26. God’s response is simple, when Abraham has done something that God expects from His children, because this is how God Himself has acted from before the foundations of the world, He has to demonstrate mercy, compassion and kindness to those that do not deserve such treatment, but His grace is sufficient and great enough for all. God said He would spare the city if fifty righteous were there.
Prayer, petition is successful when we are working in a way that honours God’s promises.
Verse 27. Here is how we also learn how to pray. Prayer should be done with specific intention. Our faith should not exhibit any doubts. Not knowing some should not inhibit our faith. When we pray however, there should not be any doubts about what we are asking God for, nor should we be vague in our petition to God.
In the opening part of their discussion, Abraham established a principle, that being, that God would not destroy the righteous with the wicked. With that principle established, the question that Abraham had to know was how many righteous people would God spare the city for?
Abraham’s intercession was effective because it was specific. He was not vague, talking about the world, he talked about the city God was moving to judge, and specific numbers that would be used to give more people a chance to repent.
Often times when children of God go into prayer, our prayers are not effective and I would say it is because we really do not ask the LORD to do anything specific, the requests are not clearly made.
Abraham knows his purpose in life and as a child of God. He also uses his knowledge of God to ask God for mercy for himself, for the people in the land around him, for the world there and to come. This he does by understanding God and knowing that he is nothing without God.
We have an unlimited access to the throne of grace, and the freedom of speech to petition involving anything from our Father in heaven.
We should still remember that when we draw near to God it is upon us to reverently acknowledge the vast distance that there is between us and God. He is the Lord of glory, and as mentioned we are but dust and despite the past before are now in His presence.
Verse 30 – 32. These verse deal with the persistence of Abraham in the work of intercession. Abraham continued in his role as an intercessor for the people; knowing who he is and who the LORD was, he continued in a way to honour God, and give the people of Sodom the best and greatest chance for redemption even if they do not know that for themselves yet.
We can see the heart of Abraham. This was not his people, meaning those who had a heart to serve God, but still his intercessory prayer had continued. There was purpose to it, and it showed the maturity and character of Abraham, and let us, as readers today understand what a child of God is like and how we should continue to behave.
Abraham’s heart was such that he cared for people made in the image of God so that he worked hard to intercede on behalf of a city that deserved judgment. It is this heart that God continues to mold in His children today.
We today are aware of the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, and Abraham must have thought that this might be a losing battle, but still he persisted. God knew how many righteous there were in the city, that being four. But it was not only about Sodom and Gomorrah, but this situation was about Abraham. God purpose in this case was many. He had revealed the fate of those cities to Abraham, but He had done that to draw out of him an intercessor’s heart of love, so even before the time of Jesus, all children of God could witness how not just Abraham, but we today should be conformed into the image of His Son (Romans 8:29) who is Himself an intercessor (Hebrews 7:25).
Luke 18: 9 – 14
Verse 9. The Lesson to be learned from this parable deals with the conviction of the hearts of those who are repentant. Some individuals trust in themselves thinking their works, prayers or whatever it may be, or their station in life provides proof that they are holier than others. That is not true. Those that trust in God, no matter their position in life know that they or we are in a position far below where God is.
We are grateful to God for recognizing that we are small but are important to Him nonetheless.
We, as children of God should never put ourselves in a position where we look down on another person and despise their existence. God does not look or act to man in that way, so neither should we.
Verse 10. It tells the reader in this verse that two men went up to pray. It does not indicate that this was a time of public prayer, so most likely these men went up to pray to offer up their personal devotions, as was usual with good people at that time. It names the people, not by actual name but station in life. One, was a Pharisee and the other a publican. Both went up to the Temple to pray. In the Temple or Church here on earth, there is a mixture of good and bad, some that will be accepted of God and some that will not be accepted of God.
Verse 11 & 12. First let’s address the Pharisee. He was a proud man; one saving attribute for him is that he came up to the Temple for prayer.
Part of the words that was spoken and written in the verse indicated that the Pharisee spoke with himself, not with God, repeating the words many times, stating what he has done. There was no real reference to God’s guidance in his life.
I cannot tell you that a long prayer or a short prayer is a good thing. I can say that God should always be the focus of a child of God’s prayer, He should be first, last and in-between, there should be no self.
We see the Pharisee addressing God at times, but really praying to himself, because the focus is on himself, not on God. He acted in a way where he said his will shall be done, not Thy (God’s) will be done. The man was full of praise, for himself and did not leave any for God.
He only saw the outward appearance of man, to signal to himself that he was worthy, and so could not see the mote in his eye and understand the wrong he was doing.
When you compare yourself to man, you may end up with high praise for yourself, but it is clear that when you compare yourself to God, or let’s say Jesus, you will or should recognize your error, your sin.
He compares his outward appearance to the outward appearance of the publican and determines he is great. He could only see the outward appearance of a person, however God does not look at man that way He is capable of seeing the heart of man.
Verse 13. Knowing you are not a great person is one thing when compared with other men, however, that assessment of self does not hold any worth. It is understanding who you are through God’s lens that provides man with the truest assessment of their character.
From what it mentioned for the publican, it says that he wouldn’t even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Just as Abraham understood who he was in comparison to God, so this publican understood his position to God.
The tax collector was only relying on the mercy and compassion of God. He recognized that he was a sinner who needed the mercy of God. The publican displayed humbleness. He couldn’t find himself even worthy of being in the Temple putting his petition to God, but he did that it anyway as mentioned relying on the mercy of God.
This address to God was the reverse of the Pharisee’s. It was full of humility and humiliation. It was full of repentance for sin, and desire towards God.
He stood afar off; understanding that God could see the repentance of his heart far away. He stood far away because he thought himself unworthy to be any closer to God, but knew he must approach God and ask for forgiveness.
The weight of his failure to God manifested itself in him not being able to even lift his hands in prayer which is customary in such situations. As he smote his breasts it showed true remorse in how he lived his life before God, in a manner he knew was not pleasing, but wished to do better, by coming to express his regret to God. He did not waste time in doing this. His prayer was short. He clearly did not want to bring more shame upon himself by doing more wrong. No justifications for his actions were said, just that he was not worthy, that he was a sinner by nature, by practice, and guilty before God.
Verse 14. For all these, it was a great favour that God was pleased to usher him into salvation’s embrace.
God has blessed us with an answer to the prayer of the publican so that we may understand to a small degree what God desires from us.
Our God, our Lord Jesus, to whom all hearts are open, all desires are known, and to who no secrets are hid, and who is perfectly acquainted with all proceedings in the court of heaven, sends the assurance to us that this poor, penitent, broken-hearted publican went to his house justified, and not the other.
The proud Pharisee goes away, rejected of God, in part because his thanksgivings are so far from being accepted that they are an abomination.
He is not justified, his sins are not pardoned, nor is he delivered from condemnation. He is not accepted as righteous in God’s sight, because he is so righteous in his own sight. This attitude can be seen in the heart of Cain, and both were met with the same reward.
The publican, upon this humble address to Heaven, obtains the remission of his sins. The reason given for this is because God’s glory is to resist the proud, and give grace to the humble.
Proud men, who exalt themselves, are rivals with God, and therefore they shall certainly be abased. God, in his discourse with Job, appeals to this proof that he is God, that he looks upon every one that is proud, and brings him low, Job 40:12.
Humble men, who abase themselves, are subject to God, and they shall be exalted. God has preferment in store for those that will take it as a favour, not for those that demand it as a debt. He shall be exalted into the love of God, and communion with him, shall be exalted into a satisfaction in himself, and exalted at last as high as heaven. [Matthew Henry]
1 John 5: 14 – 15
Verses 14 & 15. Strangely enough, verse 13 is very important in understanding what verses 14 and 15 have to say.
The highlights of this particular verse, and as John himself believes as a child of God, tells every believer that we should strive to ensure that we believe.
But Believe what?
That God has given to His children eternal life, and that comes by His Son, Jesus Christ. Thus, he who has the Son has life.
If we believe, we should know with our whole heart that we have eternal life.
John refers to this as an assurance, especially in the promises of God. With this assurance we should have the knowledge and strength to continue to believe in Jesus and what God is continuing to do for us in our lives, until we are all together in the Kingdom of God.
The Gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ does not end once one embraces the Gospel, but it is an ever growing progression of growth in the children of God.
We will continue to understand how our salvation rests in Jesus, and not in our own performance.
This means in the good times we see, hear, obey and trust in God.
In the bad times we can always see, hear, obey and trust in God. The purpose of it all is to align our will with that of God.
In doing so, more understanding about God will be achieved and that will lead us to a better and higher level communion with God the Father, how we tend to ask for anything.
Understanding this confidence that we can and should have in God, John then tells us that this confidence is directly connected to prayer.
When we ask of the Father anything, He will hear us. That is the confidence we have, and this is the purpose of prayer and the secret of power in prayer. With our confidence and growing knowledge of God, we can ask anything, but understanding that we will be asking anything in accordance with His will, and once asked, we can be assured that He hears us.
As young Christians or ones who have doubts, prayer fails because it never asks for that anything of God. We need to appreciate and believe that God is a loving God, because He is, and He is a generous give. He wants us to ask of Him.
With confidence to ask, and trust that He hears us, does not mean anything we ask will be granted. Now, we should understand from all the teachings of the Bible what will and could happen.
First, anything in the sense we can and should pray about, pray about everything. It means we can and should freely go to God with our hearts desire. God cares about our whole life, and nothing is too small or too large to pray about (Philippians 4:6).
We should with each day be learning about how to ask for things according to His will.
Most times Christians of all levels of maturity ask for things according to their own will.
As we grow closer to God and align our wills with His, we can then understand how, when, and what to ask for that lines up with His will.
Therefore, God wants us to see and discern His will though His Word, and to pray Hs will into action.
Now we might be asking, if something is God’s will, then why doesn’t He just do it?
Why the need for prayers that come from us?
Why would He wait to accomplish His will until we pray?
This is already answered in 2 Corinthians 6:1, where it mentions that as believers, we are workers together with Him. God has appointed us to work with Him, which means our will and agenda is to move into alignment with His. He wants us to care about the things He cares about, and He wants us to care about them enough to pray passionately about them.
When we ask according to God’s will, when we pray the promises of God, we have this confidence, this means we pray with real and definite faith.
Our prayer is rooted in understanding God’s will and promises to His Word, and also praying those promises into action.
From His Word, understanding how it aligns with His will is important, and so for us all, when we pray we should always have this thought it mind,
What possible reason do I have to think that God will answer this prayer?
It is our check against ourselves to see that we are always moving in God’s will and that self hasn’t taken the lead in our lives.
The most powerful prayers in our lives and in the Bible are always going to be those that understand the will of God, and ask Him how to perform it.
Our God and our Father will always delight in His children asking for things based on His promises, as it shows an alignment with His will, a dependence on Him, and that we and growing in Him and taking His Word seriously.
Lastly, it is not necessarily wrong to ask for something that God has not promised, however we should realize that we are not approaching God on the basis of a specific promise, so this is where asking and maturity will allow us to trust God to grant it to us or not, and we will and should be able to accept the answer.
CONCLUSION
The believer is to pray confidently, knowing we have a wise and good God and He will give us what is best. He might not give us what we ask for but He will give us what is best.
Psalm 84:11 states when it tells us a day in the courts of God is better than a thousand, than to dwell in the tens of wickedness:
“For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory:
No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly”.
Here is a good idea for you to remember. The secret of prayer is not our strength but His. So here is great advice from one experienced Pastor:
“You overcome not by inward struggle but by upward look.
Any battle for victory, power, and deliverance from ourselves and from sin—which is not based constantly upon the gazing and the beholding of the Lord Jesus, with the heart and life lifted up to him, is doomed to failure.
There are, of course, normal activities that we are to fulfill after we pray, but even then our confidence is to be that God intends to act and that he can act “”above and beyond whatever we ask or think” Ephesians 3:20.
Jacob limped the rest of his life, as a constant reminder to him. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if God would cause us to limp? Some of us do, don’t we?
Psychologically, we limp. We feel the scars of past defeats to remind us how essential it is to trust that the God we pray to is able to act on our behalf!
So keep on praying!