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(weekly I write a five minute “doctrine talk” based on the doctrine in the passage of scripture we are studying in “People of the Promised Land 1 – Bible Study Fellowship” )
Joshua 10:1-14
The five kings of the Amorites joined forces with the plan to attack Gibeon. The Gibeonites whined to Joshua to protect them. So Joshua responded with his entire army, including his best fighting men. The Lord gave them the go-ahead saying vs.8 “Don’t be afraid, you got this!” God causes confusion and vs 11 “hurled large hailstones down on them from the sky, and more of them died from the hailstones than were killed by the swords of the Israelites.” That day… vs 12 “Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel” (basically) “sun stand still, we need more time to wipe them out”. Vs 13b-14 “The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a man. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!”
God answered Joshua’s prayer by causing the sun to stand still.
What is prayer?
It is talking with our Triune God. We pray to God the Father, through Jesus – on the basis of His atonement we can come, and in the Holy Spirit.
Using Paul as an example of prayer involving each person of the Trinity:
We pray to God the Father: his prayer for the Ephesians 3:14 “For this reason I kneel before the Father” Through Jesus: Paul says in Romans 1:8 in his letter to the church in Rome “I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you…” In the Spirit: Eph. 6:18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.
How do we pray? We recognize it is possible to commune with this holy God because Jesus removed our sin, which prevented fellowship with Him.
Why do we pray? As the response to the invitation to intimacy with Him. When I don’t believe this is true I can become something I schedule as a duty or good luck ritual.
Two truths about prayer to consider….
God hears and answers all the prayers of every believer
God changes us when we pray
No greater time than my worst times did I see how this last point was made evident in my life. (story of when James left, how I dealt with the 7 years of “praying him home” from adultery and abandonment and how God was really changing my heart to unconditionally love him, see His abundant grace and actually pray James HOME to heaven.)