CAC Living Water Daily Devotional For May 11, 2024 : Topic – KEYS TO ANSWERED PRAYER (III)
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CHRIST APOSTOLIC CHURCH THE LIVING WATER (January-December, 2024)
DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE
DATE: Saturday, May 11, 2024
TOPIC: KEYS TO ANSWERED PRAYER (III)
MEMORISE : You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures (James 4:3).
READ : James 4:1-6
[1]. Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?
[2]. You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.
[3]. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
[4]. Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
[5]. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?
[6]. But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
EXPOSITION
The Bible raises the issue of praying amiss in James 4:3. God cannot be mocked; whatsoever. a man sows, he reaps (Gal. 6:7). Another serious impediment to prayers is praying amiss. What does it mean to pray amiss? It is like an arrow that misses the target. Our prayers are like ballistic weapons that should bring us results, but most of the time, they are misfired. Prayer that is not rendered according to the will of God is amiss and is unanswered. The only time our prayers go directly to God without hitting brick walls is when they are rightly channelled. God would not respond, if you intend to use the fulfilment of your prayer for selfish purposes.
The focus of our prayer should be God, His glory and praise (Matt. 6:9-10). When you glorify God in your prayers, He takes care of your needs as well. God immediately answered the prayer of the apostles of Jesus Christ in Acts 4 because it was gospel-centred and God-glorifying. Another example is the prayer made in Shiloh to ask God for Samuel. That timely prayer, supported by a vow, satisfied God’s need for a true prophet for His people (1 Sam. 1:18-28). There is no way it wouldn’t have received a prompt response. God can tell when your prayers are selfish and will never respond to them, so stop praying amiss now!
PRAYER POINTS
1. Help me, oh Lord, to pray to You with genuineness, and sincerity of heart.
2. Lord, help me not to be too self-conscious in my prayer, and give me the consciousness to seek Your glory, praise and the welfare of others, as I pray.
3. Lord, help us to cease from raising unscriptural prayers, and too much self-centred prayers in our churches and mountains of prayer.
SUGGESTED HYMN FOR TODAY:
CAC GHB: 577
1. Sweet hour of prayer! Sweet hour of prayer!
That calls me from a world of care,
And bids me at my Father’s throne
Make all my wants and wishes known;
In seasons of distress and grief,
My soul has often found relief,
And oft escaped the tempter’s snare
By thy return, sweet hour of prayer.
2. Sweet hour of prayer! Sweet hour of prayer!
Thy wings shall my petition bear
To Him whose truth and faithfulness
Engage the waiting soul to bless;
And since He bids me seek His face,
Believe His word and trust His grace,
I’ll cast on Him my every care,
And wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer.
3. Sweet hour of prayer! Sweet hour of prayer!
May I thy consolation share,
Till, from Mount Pisgah’s lofty height,
I view my home, and take my flight:
This robe of flesh I’ll drop, and rise
To seize the everlasting prize;
And shout, while passing through the air,
Farewell, farewell, sweet hour of prayer.
Amen.
EXTRA READING FOR TODAY:
2 Chronicles 26, 27, 28