Please turn this evening in your Bibles to John 14. John 14. And verse 13 and 14. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. Our Shorter Catechism begins with a section on what we're to believe concerning God, question and answer one through 38, and from there deals with the duty that God requires of man. And that covers from question 39 to the end of the catechism, but it can be broken up into clear parts. So for example, we have a section on the law of God, and then Moving from there, the gospel, our way of escaping God's wrath because none of us by ourselves can fulfill the duty that God requires of man. And so in order that we escape God's wrath and curse due to us for sin, God requires faith in Jesus Christ and repentance. And there's no other way that we can lay hold of God's everlasting salvation. And then having dealt with those things, faith and repentance, we moved on to consider the means of grace. That God has appointed means to apply the salvation that Christ has accomplished through the spirit. And so we've looked at the word of God, the reading, the preaching of the word that the spirit uses to make us wise unto salvation through faith in Christ. And then the sacraments, which are a means of grace, which Christ himself blesses to his people and to apply the benefits of his covenant. Well, the final means of grace and the final section of our catechism is prayer, question 98 through 107. It first introduces what prayer is and then goes on to open up the the prayer that Christ taught his disciples to pray. And so we've come this evening to the beginning of that final section, question and answer 98. What is prayer? Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God for things agreeable to his will in the name of Christ with confession of our sins and thankful acknowledgement of his mercies. Now, we should be aware that prayer is a duty. This is part of the duty that God requires of man, going right back to question and answer 39. But true prayer as it is described here is also one of the key marks of godliness. So if you think of Saul of Tarsus, and there he is converted on the road to Damascus. One of the first evidences that we see of a change in that man's life is recorded in these words. Behold, he prayeth. Now the opposite holds true for the wicked. Many of them are characterized by prayerlessness. Psalm 14, the fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. How does he live? Well, verse four of that Psalm, the wicked call not upon the Lord. They don't pray. we'll take it as read this evening that prayer is a duty. Tonight we want to get into this definition of prayer and as we're unpacking it you should be applying it to every kind of prayer that you engage in. Silent prayer in your heart, secret prayer in your closet, family prayer in your households, public prayer when we gather here, or those ejaculatory prayers that we should up to God, for all of these, this doctrine is our guide. This is what we're doing. This is what we should be doing. Well, then consider, first of all, the desire of prayer. the desire of prayer. The catechism begins its definition of prayer using the scriptural language of sacrifice. Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God. That reminds you that as a Christian, Jesus Christ has made you a priest unto God. Think of 1 Peter 2, verse 5. Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. So we say rightly that sacrifices are no longer to be observed. in the New Testament church, because Jesus has offered one sacrifice for sins forever. But in this sense, sacrifices are to be offered up, spiritual sacrifices, as we will see upon the ground of the finished work of Christ. We are priests unto God to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Well, what do we offer up in prayer? We offer up our desires unto God. So prayer is more than speaking. In fact, prayer need not be speaking at all. Like all worship and service to God, prayer is in the first place an issue of the heart. If you turn to Mark's Gospel, chapter 11, verse 24, you'll find Jesus speaks there of the desire of prayer. Mark 11, verse 24. He's connecting desire to prayer. Now at a basic level, this reminds us that God condemns hypocrisy and mere formality in prayer. Hypocrisy and formality in every aspect of our Christian life, but especially in worship. When we draw near to God with our words, while our hearts are utterly disengaged from what we're saying. we become those whom Jesus spoke of in, or the prophet did, and Jesus referred to in Isaiah 29, verse 13. This people draw near to me with their mouths and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me. Think about that. Many words have been spoken in this meeting this evening in prayer. but we will not be heard merely for our speaking. If the heart is not engaged with true desire, then it's little different than the vain repetitions that the heathen use. And oh, how they use them. About a decade ago or so, I visited China. I got an afternoon to go to a cultural museum. And it had all these different sections of the different tribal groups that were found in Yunnan province. And they had their temples on show displaying their religion. And one of these temples had a huge spinning drum. and it had handles going out the side of it. And as the person was describing what happened, he said that the person would come and every revolution of this great spinning drum courted the favor of that God. And you're like, you shake your head. You think, really? But it's not that different than me giving you a set of rosary beads and saying, hold this bead and say this prayer. And then for the next three beads, say this prayer. And then for the next 10 beads, say this prayer. We will not be heard for our mere engagement in what looks like prayer. nor for our much speaking. God is not interested in our mere formality. In fact, God despises it. On the other hand, God commands and loves sincerity. So you may use words and not pray. You can pray without words. But you cannot pray without desire. You cannot pray without desire. It's a matter of the heart. And so we bring our heart's desires unto the Lord, which have been born out of a sense of need and a recognition that he is the only one who can meet that need. Like we sang in Psalm 62 verse eight, it's a pouring out of the heart unto God. And you take a vessel filled with liquid and pour it out, and it doesn't just make a very neat and well-tailored patch on the ground, does it? Splashes go everywhere. It's just the emptying of the vessel. You're to take your heart, your heart's desire, the praises of your heart, the thanksgivings of your heart, and pour out that sincere offering unto God in prayer. We don't go to God in prayer to merely inform him of something that he doesn't know. Too often we have that kind of false idea. We're going to God to tell him something. Well, yes, we are. But prayer is not for him, is it? Prayer is actually for you. He knows all the circumstances of your life. He knows how you process them all, whether you're seeing it clearly or you're not. He knows every emotion that you carry, he knows all of the confusion of your thoughts. He knows every single need. In fact, he has brought those circumstances to create those needs so that you would come to him in prayer within. You're not telling God anything that he doesn't know. You're not giving something to God that he needs. No, it's our need. And that need is the origin of the offering of prayer, whether we silently bring it to God, whether we articulate it in words. And yes, there will be a form to that prayer, but it's not merely formal because that kind of formality starts ultimately prayer. from all of its sincerity. Think of the symbol of prayer in the Old Testament. What was it? It went into the sanctuary and there was incense and the incense ascended unto God. You sang of it earlier in Psalm 141 as incense, let my prayer be directed in thy sight. But what made the incense ascend? What made the incense ascend? It was put on burning coals. It had to first be put on the coals and be burnt in order to rise. What a fitting picture of prayer, this element of desire and sincerity in prayer. It's something that burns in the soul. And then from that burdened and burning heart, we send it forth as a sincere expression unto the Lord. Brethren, that's the kind of prayer that has God's promise. Ye shall seek me and ye shall find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart. Not with a multitude of words. Not trying to impress me by your Bible knowledge, though you should know the Bible. And not trying to be theologically sophisticated in your prayers, though we should know theology. We're offering up Our sincere desires unto God in prayer. The desire of prayer. Secondly, the direction of prayer. We've said words are not enough. The key is the desire of the heart. At the same time, desire or sincerity is not enough either. you can be sincerely wrong. And so the Bible teaches us that we are to desire the right things and direct them in the right way. We've said some people believe that they shall be heard because they speak. But you've met many other people and they think that they will be heard just because they're sincere. Both those things are wrong. That is why what comes next in our catechism answer is vital to understanding prayer. Yes, prayer is born and is essentially an offering up of our desire, but it has to be biblically directed. First of all, prayer is directed to God. Prayer is directed to God. It's an offering up of our desires unto God. And you might think this should go without saying, but it has to be said because there are untold millions of people who pray, but they do not pray to the true God. Scripture forces us to conclude that all prayer that is not offered to the true God is idolatry. that the sacrifice of the wicked in this regard is sin, because there is one true and living God who is the sole object of our worship and the only one who can hear our prayers. We have to be right in this matter. All the prayers of false religions are offered to a God who does not exist and they are an idolatrous provocation to the true God who does exist. Whether it be spinning a drum in China or whether it be someone in some room nearby here in one of these houses on their knees in desperation feeling burdened but yet not praying to the one true and living God. It's idolatry. It's also utter folly because they're calling out in desperation to something that cannot help them. That is one God who is infinite in power and also in mercy. We sang that too. Power belongeth unto God. Mercy also belongeth unto him. And Elijah put the prophets of Beal to a test on Mount Carmel concerning that thing. You build your altar, I'll build mine. You pray to your gods and I'll pray to mine. And the prophets of Beal got busy praying. And there's one thing that you couldn't accuse those men of. You couldn't accuse them of being insincere. What a display of rending garments, crying intensely. When that doesn't work, they afflict their bodies. They cut themselves. And Elijah's watching on, and the response is exactly what he expected. Why? because they cried out unto a God who doesn't exist, who can't answer. So we must come to God knowing who he is. The one true and living God who is Trinity, eternal Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. because he is the only hearer of prayer and therefore it is unto him and to him alone all flesh must come. Prayer is directed to God. But let's take it further. Prayer is directed by God. Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God. Let me speak to you children. I have no doubt there may be many things in this life you desire. Maybe you want a bike. Maybe you want something else. Maybe as you get a little bit older, you become consumed with the idea, I would love a sports car. I would love a Lamborghini. I would love a Porsche. Well, prayer is an offering up of my desires unto God. Therefore, I'm gonna get down on my knees and I'm gonna bring this desire to God because after all, he's gonna answer that desire. But James warns us that we ask and receive not because we ask amiss to consume it upon our lusts. That word lust is very intimately connected to desire. You can have the wrong desire, a selfish desire, a materialistic desire, it doesn't honor God, it doesn't seek his glory, just want stuff. Well, the catechism is very careful to include this little phrase, for things agreeable to his will. For things agreeable to his will. That's what the Apostle John teaches us in 1 John 5, verse 14 and 15. And this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us. And if we know that he hear us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desire of him. So you have to bring Mark 11, 24, John 14, 13 and 14, 1 John 5, 14 and 15, all together to understand what it is that God is holding out to us in prayer. We offer our desires, we have them. We ask anything in the name of Christ, we receive it, but it's anything according to his will. Anything according to his will. So you were to pray and you were to have confidence according to this text that you will be heard when you pray according to his will. But even then, you need care. And you probably understand this because this is a question that perplexes many. How do I know that I'm praying according to the will of God? Well, let's try to offer some help to that conundrum this evening. Well, first of all, when we speak of the will of God, we can refer to his decree. God's decree of will embraces everything. And we're told in Deuteronomy that the secret things belong to the Lord. They don't belong to us. He hasn't given them to us. And if that's the case, that cannot be the basis of your praying. You see that. There are things you don't know. There are things that have not been revealed to you, therefore, how do you know you're praying according to the will of God? You can't. In fact, the decree of God embraces your sins. It embraces everything. God has willed, by permission, to permit your sin. Think about making the decree of God the basis of your prayer. Well, this is the will of God. It was the will of God that I fell into that sin. It's going to lead you into all kinds of wrong conclusions. Now, the decree has been revealed to us, and various aspects of the decree have been revealed to us. That's fine. You can take those things to God, that he's going to gather his elect from all nations under heaven. Christ's going to return at the last day, judge the world. All of that is the unfolding of the decree. Those big things, absolutely. We're to pray for those things and we'll see that as we work through the Lord's Prayer. But those are aspects of the decree that have been revealed to us. When we are told to pray according to the will of God, it's his revealed will. It's what he's told us in his word. It's the things that he has promised to us in Christ. It's everything that he has called good in the Bible. It's all the things that we know display his glory in the world. Pick up your larger catechism and look at this section in it because there are two summary answers. on this issue. We pray for things like the welfare of the church, that God would raise up godly rulers. We pray for our own spiritual needs according to Scripture, our own practical needs, likewise, as they are revealed there, that God would guide us in life, that he would order our steps. Think of 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 3, this is the will of God, even your sanctification. Get on with praying that God would fulfill his will to sanctify you as a Christian. You say, well, I'm not very sanctified. I want to be more sanctified. Open your Bible, put your finger in that text and say, God, you have said this. This is your will. Make me more holy. And 1 John chapter 5 says, you will receive the thing that you ask for. You can have the confidence that you will receive what you ask for when you pray according to God's will. When we don't know what the will of God is, then we bring our need to the Lord. We cast ourselves upon his goodness. We say, you're a father. And you said that a father gives good gifts unto his children. How much more will my father in heaven give good gifts unto his children? Lord, give me this good gift. Give me this good gift. You can make arguments like that, but then you have to submit that on that particular thing, you don't know what the will of God is ultimately. You don't know how God will answer. You don't know when God will answer. You don't know if he'll say yes, no, or not yet. And you submit to it. You cast yourself upon him for strength to follow him faithfully as a Christian. You don't make any of your obedience contingent upon God not giving you the desires of your heart that you don't know are according to his will. the direction of prayer. Thirdly, the dependence of prayer. Prayer is an offering up of our desires to God for things agreeable to his will. Therefore, it is regulated. Further, all true prayer is to be offered in the name of Christ. Otherwise, our prayers will not be heard. So look again at John chapter 14 where we began, but to an earlier verse that you know well, verse six, John chapter 14, verse six, Jesus says unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the father, but by me. Now link that with verse 13. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, That will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son." Now, even the children here this evening, the very youngest of the children, are familiar with this phrase. We ask all these things in Jesus' name. In fact, that's not something that you have probably taught your children. Your children have just picked that up, listening to you pray at home, listening to ministers pray here from this pulpit. But just as speaking in a form of prayer is not necessarily prayer, so using this phrase at the end of a prayer does not necessarily mean that you're praying in Jesus' name. It's not a grammatical expression that we end our prayers with. It's not an incantation or the last words of a spell whereby we have power to invoke God. It's not that. What is it? To pray in Jesus' name is to recognize that there is one mediator by which we may come to God. We mentioned people across the world. They're praying to a God, but they're not praying to the true God. Nor do they have the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Then there are others who claim to have the knowledge of Jesus Christ and worship the true God. but dare to approach God by different mediators. The Roman Catholic Church elevates Mary, the saints, the angels, to the status of mediators. They think Mary can curry us some favor with Christ or with God, and therefore they pray directly to her Or they attempt to pray to God through her. Well, you see, that's idolatry again, isn't it? 1 Timothy 2, verse 5, there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And as we saw before, it's not just idolatry, it's folly. Because Jesus Christ, by His life and death, has opened up the way to God so that you can come with boldness and full assurance. Why would you hang back? Why would you allow anybody else to stand in your way? Why would you put Mary before Christ or in the place of Christ before God? Are we crazy? Who is Christ? What has Christ done? Do we need anything other than Christ? Why would we even think to add a host of mediators and layers and try to come to God in a roundabout way when he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. And we think of that text evangelistically, as we should. But brethren, we ought to think of it prayerfully. There is no occasion when you get down on your knees to pray, or come here to pray, where that verse of Scripture doesn't apply. There is no other way unto the Father, but by Christ. None. We need to be convinced of that. To pray in Jesus' name is to recognize that there is one mediator by which to come to God. But it's more than that. To pray in Jesus' name is to depend on that one mediator when we come to God. That means we might say the words in Jesus' name, or we might not. And yet we can still be praying in Jesus' name. The point is this, we come to God in prayer, leaning upon our beloved. That's it. Leaning upon our beloved. Because we know that God is infinitely holy, and we are miserably sinful, and our sinful prayers, even as Christians, are contaminated And here we are coming to approach this holy God of heaven and earth the only way that we can, standing upon the ground of Christ's atonement in faith, laying hold of the fact that we have an advocate with the Father, representing us in the holy place. You can have all the desire in the world. You can have the greatest sense of need that a human being has ever had, but Jesus Christ is the only one who can bring you near to God. No saint, no angel, No one else in this congregation, when we stand praying supposedly together, if you're not resting and trusting in Christ, you've no access to God in prayer. Men in the professing church, of Christ violate this not only coming in the names of other mediators but just having the audacity to come to God in their own stinking pride. You see pride says Never mind angels and saints and Mary. Pride says, I can come to God in my own name. I can come to God without relying on Jesus Christ. And he's going to hear me. Oh, foolish pride. That God is somehow going to hear you for your own sake. The ears of God are shut against you eternally if you will not come to Christ. But up the Pharisee goes to the temple to pray. The word of God tells us he prayed with himself. He prayed with himself. Why? because his sin and his stinking pride barred his prayers from heaven. We use the language of the true God. I thank thee, Lord. Oh, what are you thankful for? I'm thankful that I'm not like other men. Listen to all the things that I do, Lord. And isn't it wonderful, Lord, that I'm not like this despicable publican? His prayers ascended no further than the temple roof. He prayed with himself because he prayed in his own name. But to pray in Christ's name is seen in the publican, and yet he doesn't even mention the name of Jesus. What does he do? He will not lift up his eyes onto heaven. He will beat upon his breast and use the evangelical language of the need to be propitiated by blood. God be merciful to me, the sinner. He's thinking in Old Testament categories. Sacrifice, blood shedding, mercy seat. We have it all revealed in Christ. It's the same thing. Our dependence on prayer is Jesus Christ alone. And Jesus Christ alone every single time we offer one of our desires unto God. You don't have any other argument. There's no other plea that you can bring to God that will open his ear to you. but Jesus Christ the way, the truth, the life. Fourthly, the divisions of prayer. Everything we've looked at up to this point has been dealing with what we could call petition or supplication. But yet when we look at scripture, we see that there are clearly other parts or other divisions of prayer. The catechism here mentions two, confession and thanksgiving. When you get in to look at the Lord's Prayer, you'll see there's also adoration. But we have petition, we're asking for things, confessing, we're telling God things, thanksgiving, we're praising God for things. We'll consider here, first of all, that prayer includes confession of sin. The Christian life is actually born in prayer in this regard. G.I. Williamson comments in his commentary in the catechism that it is fitting that prayer comes at the end of the catechism after the law has been opened to us and the gospel explained. Why? Because the Christian life begins with the heart cry of a sinner to God for mercy. God be merciful to me, the sinner. What's he doing? He's confessing. He's confessing to God who he is. Maybe that's what was so notable about the change in Saul of Tarsus. The man comments, behold, he prayeth. It's not the first time that Saul of Tarsus had ever been seen praying. He was in Hebrew of the Hebrews as touching the law He was a Pharisee. He would be regularly in the posture and in the form of prayer. But yet when he was converted to faith in Christ, something different happened. Behold, this man's praying. He's no longer praying like a self-righteous Pharisee. but as a sinner confessing his sins unto God. In a sense, the Pharisee has become the publican in Saul of Tarsus. He's not up front praying with himself, boasting before God. He's on his face, confessing his sins, crying unto God for mercy. That's where the Christian life begins, brethren. But that's how the Christian life continues. Because as long as you are a Christian, you will be a sinner. And as God will not hear the wicked who come to him, who do not repent of their sins and confess before him. The Bible also tells us that if we as Christians regard iniquity in our hearts, the Lord will not hear us. Unconfessed sin shuts the ear of God. You understand then that confession is essential to prayer. How dominant is confession in your own prayer life? Our brother led us this evening, and he went through category after category of confession of sin. And in many a contemporary Christian mind, people would be thinking, what on earth? What are we doing? We're doing exactly what we should be doing. Confessing our sins to God. You say, well, I find that hard. You need to sit down and think. And when you do, you will not be stuck for sins to confess to God. Begin with your original sin, the fact that you fell in Adam and were born into this world, depraved and corrupt. Confess that to God. Confess the fruit of it in all of your actual transgressions. then break them down into categories. Sins that I commit by not doing things that God tells me to do. Like your prayerlessness, like your lack of love, like your lack of diligence. And then turn it round to things that you've done when God has told you not to do them. Like your idolatries and your light use of worship and your sinful anger and your jealousies. The sins that you commit in your thoughts that no one else in this world knows about God. The sins that are behind our smile and God sees them. The sins of speech, your harsh words, all of your subtle little slanders, all of your murmuring and your complaining. Why is it we find it so easy to complain and so difficult to use our tongue for good? We need to confess those things before the Lord. Your sins of action, stealing, lying, whatever else it is. We could go on and on and on this evening. Everything that you know to be sin in your life, confess it unto God. And when we get to the Lord's Prayer, we'll be able to see this in more detail. But this aspect of confession, does it not expose again our modern religion? Why is there so little confession of sin in our closet and in our churches? Well, could it be because our approach to God in prayer really comes with the thought that God is useful? God is useful. What do I mean by that? That's when we go to Him, when we need something, when we need help. Oh, now I need to pray. God is useful. God is glorious, brethren. God is holy. God is righteous. When those things seep down into our soul, we'll be stuck at the throne of grace with a very real sense of who God is and who we are. And it won't be an oppressive thing to us. It won't be oppressive. We will delight to confess our sins unto a holy God who is merciful unto sinners in Christ. We want to do it as Christians. Prayer includes thanksgiving finally. This should be obvious too when we've considered ourselves as sinners and what we deserve and yet what God gives us in spite of who we are. It's all mercy. It's all mercy that flows to us from the Father of mercies. Do you not find, though, that you receive so much from God's hand and you take it for granted? And yet sometimes in your life, you do the littlest puny thing for somebody else, but you think it's a huge big deal. You know, I've done this for this person, and the other person doesn't acknowledge it, and you're ready to poke their eyes out. How dare they not acknowledge me? And yet day after day after day after day, God loads you with benefit, and you barely return to say one word of thanks to him. Well, it's the same with thanksgiving. Just like confession, when we step back and truly think about who we are before God and all of our sins, confession will flow out of us. Likewise, when we consider all of the things that God has blessed with us, we will be absolutely dominated by reasons to thank God. All of your temporal and practical needs are met by God. Do you believe that? Does it look like you believe it in prayer? The very fact that you have life is because God has kindly given it to you. The fact that you have health, though you may complain your health is not as good as you would like it to be, God is the one who has given you life and health in the first place. You have a home. You have food. You have work. You have soundness of mind. You have family. You have friends. You have education. You have money in your bank. You have opportunities to work and labor. You've 10,000 reasons to give thanks to God only for the temporal and practical needs that he has met. And then you amplify that by considering the spiritual and eternal needs that are met by God. And you ought to come with greater thanks. We could get down on our knees right now and just list all of these things and spend an hour in thanksgiving to God. He has given us His Son. In His Son, He has forgiven all of our sins. With His Son, He has given to us His Holy Spirit. In His Son, He brings us into the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. He gives us His Word. He gives us His sacraments. He gives us prayer. He gives us all the promises of the covenant. And you can parse those out. Promises for times of affliction. Promises for doubt and lack of assurance. Promises to live with. Promises to die with. For all of your growth and grace from the first moment you've been a Christian. Sometimes you're just, you're so obsessed with yourself and you think, I'm hanging on for dear life, you know, white knuckle ride. There's a sense in which that's what it feels like in your Christian life. Hold on a minute, you're still here, right? How? It's not because of your white knuckles. It's because of God's grace. God's grace. I'm here another day in this life as a Christian, Are you flourishing? Well, I'd like to be flourishing more. Okay, are you still putting one foot in front of the other? You say, well, I'm doing that. Give thanks unto the Lord. Give thanks unto the Lord. He who has begun a good work in you is performing it, will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. Our prayers should tell God and reveal to us that we are a thankful people. We are a thankful people. Or let's turn that around and consider the fact that maybe the absence of thankfulness in our prayers is one reason why we don't obtain our petitions. A number of places brings prayer and thanksgiving together. Psalm 116 verse 17, I will offer unto thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call upon the name of the Lord. Philippians 4 verse 6, be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, 17 through 18, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks for this is the will of Christ Jesus concerning you. We live in a broken age, a depressed culture, And one of the key symptoms of that brokenness and darkness is self-obsession. People go in on themselves. They focus upon themselves, their thoughts. When therapists document it, they even do studies of the percentage, how much they talk about themselves. And yet they're talking about their brokenness. They're not in boasting about stuff. It's just me, myself, and I. And it's misery. And even secular therapists try to help people with depression, and they'll do this. Get your focus off yourself. Get your focus onto something else. Get your focus to another person. Go and help that other person. What I want you to see is as a Christian you actually have the best avenue to do that when you draw near unto God and start thinking about God and start thanking God for everything that he is and for everything that he has done and start getting your heart in line with his glory. and offer up the praises and thanksgivings of your soul. That helps us out of spiritual depression. Now we're considering something that's so glorious, so much bigger than us, so much better than us, so much able to sustain us in this life. So add this to confession and petition, thanksgiving. and learn that prayer is an offering up of our desires to God for things agreeable to his will in the name of Christ with confession of our sins and thankful acknowledgement of his mercies. But knowing this, brethren, is not enough. The knowledge is to make us increasingly a people given unto prayer. Let's stand to pray. O Lord, our God, We give thanks for your word to us this evening. We pray that you would set yourself before us in your glory. That we would see all of your goodness as Moses did, passing before us as you declare the name of the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth. That our souls would be satisfied in thee, that we would look around and consider thy mercy toward us, and all of the blessings that are bestowed upon us, both temporal and especially spiritual. For all sufficient grace in Christ, so that we shall lack nothing. For the shepherd who leads us by still waters and into green pastures, and even when he takes us into the valley of the shadow, into that dark place, yet he's with us there. We fear no evil because his rod and his staff comforts us. Lord, our table is furnished, our cup overflows. Whatever our circumstances, nothing can contradict the truth that goodness and mercy has and is and will follow us all the days of our life and we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever because you have given your son for your people. and he has taken those people to himself, and he will never leave them nor forsake them, neither shall anything pluck them out of his hand. O God, grant that we would run to the place of prayer, that we would seek thy face, that we would know how good it is to draw near to God, Give us the things that we have considered this evening. May we love to confess our sins, though we hear our sins themselves. Lord, may we run to the throne of grace to obtain mercy, to receive the promised forgiveness and the peace of God that passeth all understanding. Lord, hear our cries. Give us the Holy Spirit. We've considered that this evening. You are a good father. Fathers don't withhold good gifts from their children. How much more, our Father? Give us the Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.