Lesson 20 Warring Against Our Flesh - Pray!
Questions 5 and 6
A Model for Prayer
The man in the above story got what he needed not because the man was his friend, but rather because he had the audacity to persist in asking in spite of the late hour.
If you are to get free from drunkenness or drugs or smoking, you will need to bang on God’s door and keep pleading until He answers. Keep begging Him to give you a plan that is effective and powerful in your life.
“Ask and keep on asking and it will be given to you; seek and keep on seeking and you will find; knock and keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you.”
Matthew 7:7 Amplified Bible - AMP
Even if you have weak faith, and cannot see yourself as God’s friend; or even if you feel yourself to be God's enemy in your mind because of your evil behavior, just keep on asking God, knocking on His door and crying out to Him. Beg Him to tell you what you need to do to be free and to give you the grace to do it! After all, God first gives a “spirit of supplication” (spirit of praying to Him), then He shows us the pierced Son (the death of Jesus on the cross), then He grants us godly sorrow and repentance (wholehearted turning away from substances). See Zechariah 12:10-11 for this order.
In Matthew 15:21-28, we read of a Canaanite woman who came to Jesus asking His help with her daughter who was demon-possessed. Jesus was silent. She asked Him again. He told her He wasn’t sent to the Canaanite people. She persisted. The disciples urged Jesus to send the woman away. She kept begging for help. Jesus said, “It’s not right to throw the children’s bread to the dogs.” She responded, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat crumbs from the master’s table.” She’s taking a humble place, but she is unrelenting! She’s refused to take “no” for an answer.
Question 5. What do you learn from this Canaanite woman’s encounter with Jesus?
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Do you see this is how to get what you need from Jesus? Do you see this is the model? Nothing less will do. To get free, you will have to take the humble place, and you will have to keep coming at Jesus, taking any rebukes He gives you, and keep asking. Persist through any difficulty and any danger and keep assailing Him with your prayers, your tears, and your cries. Refuse to take no for an answer!
Friend, you know that involvement with substances promotes selfish and sinful thinking. It lies and lures us with thoughts of drowning our guilt in alcohol or living in the fantasy world that drugs provide, or the calming effect of Nicotine. This is all instant gratification; doesn't ask us to love, serve or minister. It fosters self-centered and self-indulgent thinking and actions. This is the thinking that all sin inspires, and this is what has to change!
When it comes to finding freedom from drunkenness, drug use, or smoking, God has some things to teach us along the way. We learn patient endurance and persistence in prayer. If the answer doesn’t come immediately, we don’t give up. We simply realize God is changing us, remaking us into His image, and this takes time. God is drawing out our faith by not responding immediately as He did with the Canaanite woman in the story above.
The Ground for our Prayer
As we close, I want to encourage you as to why you can come to God like this, with boldness, tenacity, perseverance, and audacity.
Consider for a moment that the place where you are meeting with God is a throne of grace.
“Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
Hebrews 4:16
Question 6. What does God promise us when we go to His throne of grace?
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