God-centered prayer

Acts4:23-31

Acts3:6: Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.

Acts4:19-20: Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we can not help speaking about what we have seen and heard.

Acts4:29-30: Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.

First, they were deeply unified in their prayer in V.24: “When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God”.

“together” means “with one mind or purpose.”

Matthew18:19-20: Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or tree gather in my name, there am I with them.

Second, they began their prayer with adoration of God in V.24b:” Sovereign Lord, they said, you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them”.

Third, they turned to God’s Word to guide them in Vv.25-26:” You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David’ Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed one’”.

Fourth, they understood that God was fully in control in Vv27-28:” Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen” .

Fifth, their prayer requests were God-centered rather than self-centered in Vv.29-30:” Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus”.

Sixth, look at how God responded to their prayer in V.31:” After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly”.

Romans12:1: Offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God.

What are we thinking every day? What do we pray every day?Are our prayers God-centered or self-centered?How do we serve God? Does we serve God from self-centeredness to God-centeredness?How do we prepare ourselves to have a good prayer life in the Lord and pray together with other believers?

God-centered prayer

Acts4:23-31