When Not to Pray

In Jeremiah 7, we find that the Lord tells the prophet not to pray for the people.

There comes a time that even sincere prayer to God will fall on deaf ears.

Job's Prayer

Why is Job's prayer immediately followed by a description of his reinstated wealth?

There is not a one-to-one correspondence between sincere prayer and wealth.

The text connects Job's prayer to the sins of his friends, not his wealth.

Nehemiah, Man of Prayer

Whenever Nehemiah faces a challenge, the first thing he does is pray.

He sets a great example.

Ezra's Prayer

Ezra prayed a community prayer of confession.

Sometimes a leader prays publicly over a group's sins to make things right.

Jeroboam, the Man of God, and the Prophet of Bethel

Jeroboam sinned by allowing anyone to become his priest.

A man of God prophesied against Jeroboam.

Jeroboam asked the man of God to pray for him, so God would forgive his sin.

Curiously, an old prophet called the man of God back into town against God's explicit directions. The prophet lied to the Man of God, and as a result, the Man of God was killed by a lion.

Afterwards, the prophet retrieved the man of God's body and buried him in Bethel.

Solomon's Prayer for the Temple

King Solomon prayed special blessings on the Temple, particularly that the Lord would pay special attention to requests directed toward the temple.

This is meta-prayer, a prayer about the efficacy of future prayers meeting a given set of criteria.

Prayer of Revenge

After Samson was pestered into confessing the source of his great strength to Delilah, the Philistines captures him and poked out his eyes.

In response, Samson prayed to be given super-human strength to kill thousands of people, even while killing himself.

Samson

Samson's miraculous birth was announced unsolicited.

But his father, Manoah, prayed for the return of the Lord's angel to ask how to raise their special child.

Moses v. Pharaoh

Moses prays on behalf of Pharaoh several times throughout the plagues.

It is interesting that another early model of prayer is intercessory, not directly from the sinner to God.

Prayer and Fasting

The words prayer and fasting only occur together 8 times in the NIV. That's less than I was expecting.

Nameless Servant

Abraham's head servant prayed for a sign before meeting Rebekah, Isaac's future wife.

First Prayer

I was surprised to find that the word "pray" doesn't appear until Genesis 20.

Abimelech was tricked into taking Abraham's wife, Sarah, into his harem. God appears to Abimelech in a dream and threatens his whole household with death if he doesn't return Sarah to Abraham.

Abimelech agrees to these terms but states his innocence. God agrees, but tells Abimelech that Abraham will pray for his forgiveness.

This places much more of the process of forgiveness on an intermediary than I'd expect.

Forgiveness

One last key theme of John.

Aw, Mom

It's not Jesus' time, but he turns the water into wine anyway.

That's funny. And a pretty cool miracle.

Andrew

It's so cool that the first thing Andrew did after meeting Jesus was go tell his brother, Peter.

Lamb of God

I'm reminded of the scene in The Miracle Maker where Jesus goes to his cousin, John, to be baptized.

Jesus reminds John of their childhood memories playing in the Jordan river.

It's an intriguing thought.

John the Baptist introduces John the Gospel

Followers of Christ redirect attention from themselves to Jesus when they have the right perspective.

Review of John

The thing that stands out most clearly is John's consistent focus on people in his gospel.

Impact

Jesus didn't fill his days with busyness.

He filled his days with purpose, following his Father's plans.

One of my favorite verses...

...is John 21:25.