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Lord, Teach Me to Pray

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This book by MacArthur hit the spot just right for anyone seeking to know more about prayer. I highly recommend this book. It is said by many that...Prayer is a way of life for true believers. In fact it is how we breathe.

Take my word for it, this book of 141 pages will be one of those books you come back to read... and come back to read... and come back to read. It is truly a book worth checking out.

Tripp

Lord teach me to pray an invitation to intimate prayer written by John Macarthur is a short book about verbal communication with God. Prayer can become routine, repetitive, and ritualistic. It also may become a mere emotional expression of feelings about ones own trials. Prayer may be reflective and calm, but be a mere expression of one's own wants and desires. These wants may include those you know or a situation you identify with. One may pray for the local church, thank Jesus for His death on the cross and marvel at some part of God's creation. This book is a plea for a more complete prayer life. To have a prayer life more focused into God's plan.

Individual prayers of the Christian tend to focus of the self. Christians certainly are to bring their needs to the Lord. The saved are to pray that their deeds and thoughts are upon God's kingdom; to be continually conscious of God. God's elect should feel free to speak constantly with their Lord. Sure bring your anxiety or troubles to Him, but also have a time to express thoughts about God and His kingdom. The individual saved by grace should express all temptations to his Savior, but all deeds, thoughts and circumstances can be expressed to God. The author pleas for the Christian to have an unbroken communion with God, he asks one to pray throughout the day. John Macarthur also states that Jesus used great strength and emotion in his prayers- not in His miracles. An individual should have a constant alertness that God perceives you and who God is.

Another way prayer focuses on oneself is repentance. John Macarthur states what it means to believe, therefore repent and accept Jesus ones Savior. God's justification takes care of past, present and future sins. The focus is on the Christian prayer, the focus is on the one who has already converted to Christianity. Repentance for this individual is not to keep salvation, but to have fellowship with his Savior. An acknowledgement who God is, God's authority in one's life, and an understanding when one has gone against that authority is important to the Christian walk. It is important to recognize one deserves punishment for one's misdeeds. What is the object of making a verbal acknowledgement of one's action or thought that is against the Will of God? To bring expression that Your Creator knows one's thoughts and deeds. Do you perceive your thoughts and behavior properly? When you are not in accordance to God's Will, do you as a Christian come to acknowledge it with God. Repentance is an expression of the right view of the self, the right view of sin and the right view of God. Confession may lesson earthly punishment, but not a Biblical promise nor the reason to repent. To be in right fellowship with God is.

A person needs to humble oneself to repent; proud people do not praise God. One cannot be consumed about oneself and give God praise. John Macarthur lists three way people praise God: naming God's attributes, naming God's works and offering thanks. The author makes clear a person cannot praise God without knowledge who God is: proper understanding and perspective who God is. Praise is an expression who God is and the nature of God's being. Giving thanks is an acknowledgement how God effects your daily life. Foremost is the forgiveness of sins and what God did to make happen. Do you praise God as a source of entertainment or acknowledgement who God is and works he provides.

Philippians 4:6 states that Christians are to come to Christ with timidity the desires of their own heart. Yes this includes physical needs and those one knows, but what about the spiritual health of the person. Has the person converted to Christ? Is the person walking with the Lord? John Macarthur believes the Christian's heart should be on furthering God's Kingdom. Prayer life should not be exclusive to what the Christian is well acquainted, but those he does not really know. Yes one should want ones local church to flourish but he should be just as happy if God chooses another congregant of believers to bring people to saving grace and further knowledge of God. The fellow Christian should be just as please in the small tasks or responsibilities as if he were called to preach to thousands. It is all about how God chooses to use His power in your life to Further His Kingdom, not your exploits, to bring about the Hope of God's calling and the riches of God's inheritance.

John Macarthur also elaborates on the hindrances of Prayer in the Christian walk: carnality and unconcern, an unforgiving spirit, strife at home and doubt. Why do Christians find it difficult to pray? All Christians struggle with sin. Sometimes Christians do not forgive as they should, grudges are held. What in the home is a distraction or in disobedience to God's will. Sometimes the Christian doubts God's word.

This is the best book on Pray by John MacArthur.
Very understandable for everyone that wants to really learn how to have an intimate relationship with the Lord. I have been a Christian for over 60 years and have learned much from this little book. My husband and I have given it to someone who is a new Christian and wanting to learn how to pray, and what to say. I highly recommend this book to everyone.

He explains stuff really well, I like Johnny McArthur, he is level headed about the Bible and hasn't been blown back and forth by every wind of doctrine. When you are done reading the book it'd be a good gift for someone, because it's actually really pretty looking LOL