God’s Approach to Prayer

Christ Restoration Church Sermons

Psalm 116
September 1, 2024
preached by Pastor Doug Cooper
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Time of Reflection Quotations

“The Bible does not present an art of prayer; it presents the God of prayer.”

~ Edmund P. Clowney ( 1917-2005), American pastor and professor

“For me, in my Christian belief, prayer is not an opportunity to manipulate God into doing what you want him to. Prayer is an opportunity to have a conversation with God to try to get in tune with what his will is.”

~ Francis Collins (1950-present), American physician-scientist

“Sometimes when we say ‘God is silent,’ what’s really going on is that he hasn’t told the story the way we wanted it told. He will be silent when we want him to fill in the blanks of the story we are creating. But with his own stories, the ones we live in, he is seldom silent.”

“Self-will and prayer are both ways of getting things done. At the center of self-will is me, carving a world in my image, but at the center of prayer is God, carving me in his Son’s image.”

“The persistent widow and the friend at midnight get access, not because they are strong but because they are desperate. Learned desperation is at the heart of a praying life.”

~ Paul E. Miller, contemporary author

“Then comes intercession, the hardest work in the world–the giving of one’s self, time, strength, energy, and attention to the needs of others in a way that no one but God sees, no one but God will do anything about, and no one but God will ever reward you for.”

~ Elisabeth Elliot (1926-2015), Missionary, author, and speaker

“We must not conceive of prayer as overcoming God’s reluctance but as laying hold of His highest willingness.”

~ Richard Trench (1807-1886) Irish minister and poet

“Our prayers are heard, not because we are in earnest, not because we suffer, but because Jesus suffered.”

~ Oswald Chambers (1874-1917), Scottish minister and writer

Sermon Passage

Psalm 116 (ESV)

¹ I love the Lord, because he has heard
my voice and my pleas for mercy.
² Because he inclined his ear to me,
therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
³ The snares of death encompassed me;
the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
I suffered distress and anguish.
⁴ Then I called on the name of the Lord:
“O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!”

⁵ Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
our God is merciful.
⁶ The Lord preserves the simple;
when I was brought low, he saved me.
⁷ Return, O my soul, to your rest;
for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.

⁸ For you have delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling;
⁹ I will walk before the Lord
in the land of the living.

¹⁰ I believed, even when I spoke:
“I am greatly afflicted”;
¹¹ I said in my alarm,
“All mankind are liars.”

¹² What shall I render to the Lord
for all his benefits to me?
¹³ I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the Lord,
¹⁴ I will pay my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all his people.

¹⁵ Precious in the sight of the Lord
is the death of his saints.
¹⁶ O Lord, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the son of your maidservant.
You have loosed my bonds.
¹⁷ I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving
and call on the name of the Lord.
¹⁸ I will pay my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all his people,
¹⁹ in the courts of the house of the Lord,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Praise the Lord!