Three Legged Stool Prayer

Today I am going share an interesting concept of three legged stool prayer in Rev. David Ravenhill's sermon at BBTC. Also, a bible verse that stands out to me.

A successful prayer consist of 3 elements, Passion(Love), Power, Present. All three need to be fulfilled, just like a three legged stool. Suppose you are lost in a dark alley. And a thug is coming for you. You want to call out for help. You thought of a close friend (Passion? checked) who is much bigger and taller (Power? checked) than the thug but he can't come in time to save you if u call him on your cellphone(Present? not). A call (i.e.. Prayer) to this friend will not save you. Suppose, you turn your head and saw a big burly(Power? checked) passerby nearby (Present? checked), but he is not interested to get involve and walked away(Passion? not). Similarly, a call for help to this burly guy will not save you. Suppose, you turn your head again and you saw another friend standing across the street (Present? checked), he is willing to help you (Passion? checked) but he is half your height and scrawny (Power? not). You know the answer... this scrawny friend not matter how passionate enough to help u will not be able to defeat the thug.

Likewise, a prayer lacking in Passion (i.e. you believe that you are undeserving of God's love or that God don't love you enough to listen to your prayer), Power (i.e. you have prayed many times and you doubt in God's ability that He can change your life or sinful nature), Present (i.e. you feel God is far away, he can't hear your prayers. Or that void that you have after not plugged in to a church body for a long time) will be a prayer that lacks conviction.

Also, Sin affects the level of conviction in our prayer. We would need to come to Jesus with a clean heart which take me to the next part of my sharing, 1 Peter 3:7:

"Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered."

Do you have some anger or resentment in your heart? These are seeds that fester in our hearts that cloud and hinder our prayers. Imagine, how would a couple pray if they still hold their grudges towards each other? Not good right? because, they will be too focus on the past quarrels they had. That is why the Lord's prayer is so apt, "...To forgive our transgressions as we have forgive those that transgressed against us..." God knows, He knows we are imperfect human, we are bound to offend each other. Learning to forgive each other is also freeing us from grudges so that our prayers may not be hindered.

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#prayer #lordsprayer #conviction #bbtc