Jesus tells a parable to illustrate what prayer is really like and what it can do!

Then Jesus said to them, 'Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, "Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him."’

-Luke 11:5-6

And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’

-Luke 11:7

I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.

-Luke 11:8

"Moving from light to heavy."

The effective prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

-James 5:16

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

-Romans 8:32

So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

-Luke 11:9-10

Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?

-Luke 11:11

Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?

-Luke 11:12

If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!

-Luke 11:13

First: You will pray simple prayers

  

People who do great things for God pray prayers of unvarnished humanity.

O Lord, is this not what I said while I was in my own country? That’s why I fled to Tarsus at the beginning, for I knew you’re a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and ready to relent from punishing. Now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better to die than to live.

-Jonah 4:2-3

When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, 'It is better for me to die than to live.'

-Jonah 4:8

You’re concerned about this vine, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow. It came into being in a night and perished in a night. Shall I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left and also many animals?

-Jonah 4:10-11

We must lay before God what is in us, not what ought to be in us.

-C. S. Lewis

If we wait to pray until our motives are pure, you’ll be dead and you won’t need to pray!

Pray about whatever concerns you as you wake in the morning, as you go through the day, as you go to sleep at night.

Second: You will pray listening prayers

  

In simple prayer I talk to God about the unvarnished concerns of my heart. In listening prayer, I am listening for God to speak back.

Third: You will pray submissive prayers

  

If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!

-Luke 11:13

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

-Romans 8:26-28

Fourth: You will pray evangelistic prayers

  

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

-Luke 19:10

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