A Confident Prayer

A little boy took a tour of a fudge factory. As he walked in the door and the wonderful odors surrounded him, he began praying: 
“God, at the end of my visit, please let them give me just one piece of fudge. 
That’s all I ask for. Just one little piece of fudge.”

He’s watching them make the fudge in huge vats.  Finally he’s at one of the cooling vats where it’s just getting ready to be poured out. He slips and falls over the railing and falls into the vat of fudge. He’s sort of swimming around in there and he prays another prayer:

“God, please let my capacity be equal to this opportunity.”

“You want what you don’t have,                               
so you scheme and kill to get it.                          
 You are jealous of what others have,                   
but you can’t get it,                                                      
so you fight and wage war                                              
to take it away from them.                                      
Yet you don’t have what you want                      
because you don’t ask God for it.”                   
James 4:2

There is an old story about a church that was facing difficulty and they had exhausted every possible option.  As they were sitting around discouraged, an old Saint suggested, "Perhaps we should pray about it".  The pastor through up his hands and muttered, "Has it finally come down to that?" 

Here is a SNEAK PEEK at my sermon notes (rough draft) for this upcoming Sunday. 

“Who am I before God?” series
Study of the Book of Ephesians
“How To Be Confident In Your Faith”
Ephesians 3:14-21

The goal of Paul’s prayer is NOT that we would KNOW but that we would DO

The heart of Paul’s prayer is that we would experience verse 20:
"Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think."

 STEP #1:  Pray Specifically   (3:14)

·        “When I think of all this….” (3:13)  is a prayer for encouragement

·        Paul is praying for stronger faith
·        Prayer MUST be our 1^st Response NOT our LAST Resort

STEP #2:  Prayerful Attitude (3:14)

·        “I fall on my knees…”

·        the attitude where we recognize the GREATNESS of  God
·        In the Bible ~ Kneeling expresses intensity &  humility
·        Kneeling ~ I recognize that I am below God ~ I am subordinate

STEP #3: Pray with FOCUS (3:14b)

·        FOCUS must be on WHO we pray to

·        Focus is NOT on our requests
·        God does command us to tell Him everything we need
·        The real focus is on the God who can meet every need in my life
Recognize that you are talking to somebody who can do anything and everything and He’s the Father who loves me and cares about you

(there is more to come but after this my notes don't flow very well)