Sixth Grade Lessons, Block 5—How to Contact the Lord
Week 24
Prayer and Praising
Reading Reference: Life Lessons, vol. 1, lesson 4; Crucial Truths in the Holy Scriptures, vol. 3, ch. 32; Praising (booklet)
Memory Verse: Unceasingly pray. (1 Thes. 5:17)
Suggested Songs: What a friend we have in Jesus
Scripture Reading: John 4:24; 1 Thes. 5:17; Phil. 4:6; 2 Sam. 7:25; Mark 1:35; Psa. 146:2; 25:8; 100:5
Points to Emphasize:
Prayer
The most important thing for a baby at birth is breathing. In our spiritual life, prayer is breathing and is as crucial to a new believer as breathing is to a newborn babe. Hence, after we believe in the Lord and call upon His name to be saved, we must continue to pray and call on the Lord. Then we can receive the spiritual air, which is the Lord’s Spirit of life, that we may grow and be strong in the spiritual life.
- The significance of prayer
The real significance of prayer is to contact God in our spirit and to absorb God Himself. Prayer is the contact of the human spirit with the Spirit of God, during which man inhales God into himself. Therefore, the emphasis of prayer lies not in asking God for things but in contacting and absorbing God.
- The faculty of prayer
A person needs the proper faculty in whatever he does. We need our eyes in order to see, our ears in order to hear, and our spirit in order to pray. “God is Spirit; and those who worship [including praying to] Him must worship in spirit and reality” (John 4:24). God is Spirit, and to worship and pray to Him, we must be in our spirit, that is, we must use our spirit. Our spirit is the deepest part of our being. To pray in the spirit, or to pray with our spirit, is to use our innermost part to contact God. Therefore, we must pray not merely according to the thoughts in our mind, but according to the sense deep within our spirit.
How to Pray
Concerning any matter, we need to pray. Now let us consider [some examples on] how to pray.
- “Enter into your private room, and shut your door and pray” (Matt. 6:6). We should not pray as a show before others; we should pray honestly before God. We should not allow anything to distract and disrupt our prayer. Even if our circumstances do not allow us to be in a hidden place, we should not allow outside things to affect our concentration in prayer. This is why we close our eyes when we pray.
- “Prayer and petition with thanksgiving” (Phil. 4:6)—Prayer is general, and petition is specific. Sometimes general prayer is not enough, so we need specific petition. In addition to these, we should add thanksgiving. We should thank God for caring for us, giving us the authority to pray, and hearing our prayer.
- “Unceasingly pray” (1 Thes. 5:17). Prayer is as essential for our spiritual life as breathing is for our physical body. It cannot cease. Our spirit of prayer can pray spontaneously at any time in any place. In any situation we can spontaneously pray. Unceasing prayer is like the spontaneous blinking of our eyes.
- “And rising very early in the morning, [while it was still] night, He went out and went away to a deserted place, and there He prayed” (Mark 1:35)—The morning is a quiet time, and our soul is alert, so it is the best time for prayer.
Praising—Psa. 146:2
We should not only pray to God but also learn all the more to praise God. [The word] praise means good speech, good utterance, fine speaking, fine speech, to speak well concerning God.
We need to see the significance of praise at the very beginning of our Christian walk. We must praise God unceasingly.
- You should praise Him simply because He is worthy of praise…God desires His children to praise Him in everything and through every situation.
- If you believe in God, you can tell the Lord in the midst of your problems, “I praise Your name. You are higher than everything. You are stronger than everything. Your lovingkindness endures forever!”
- We have a desire to praise the Lord because He is good (Psa. 25:8; 100:5). We need to always say, “The Lord is good.” Today we have to learn to believe that the Lord is good and that He is never wrong, even though we cannot always understand what He is doing. If we believe, we will praise. Our praises are His glory. To praise is to glorify God. God is worthy of all glory. May God gain abundant praises from His children.