Good evening, brothers and sisters. I was thinking about how helpful it is to look at the prayers that God has given us in scripture, as far as how they inform our own prayers and how they can encourage us and how they can give us principles to remember in our own prayers. So there's one specific prayer that I wanted to look at from the life of Abraham.

Genesis 18:20-2,32.


So there are just three simple principles that I wanted to extract from this passage to help inform our own prayer lives. 

And the first principle is that we should remember God's patience in prayer; we should remember his patience when praying. Sodom had actually been sinning for quite a while at this time, and we know that this was no light sin of theirs. God had already shown mercy to them some time ago when Abraham had actually rescued Lot and done some good even to them. But evidently, this had done nothing to change their hearts, so we're left with the conclusion that even though they obviously deserved strict judgment and they got it, God delayed. God showed patience in not smiting them as early as we might think he should have.

And so on the basis of remembering the patience of God, the patience that he shows even towards his enemies, we should number one, thank God for his patience when we're praying, remembering that God was patient to us when we were his enemies. He could have killed us and brought us to judgment at any point and yet He was patient towards us. And even now, brothers and sisters, he is still patient towards us, even as regenerate believers in our battles with sin, he is still patient towards us. So our prayers ought to be marked by thankfulness for God's ongoing patience with us.

In addition to that, I think that we are also warranted to beg the Lord to continue to work patience in us, because the same patience that he even extended towards his enemies in this passage, reminds us that we are not nearly so patient as God is. We're not often patient in our parenting, in our witnessing to other people, even perhaps with people at work. It is a fruit of the spirit and we've got to ask the Lord to work it in us.

And then in addition to that, we should also pray that the Lord, in the same way that he was patient towards Sodom, that he would continue to be patient towards us as a nation, because we also as a nation have sinned wickedly against the Lord in many ways and we deserve his justice being poured out all across the land. And so I think this passage gives us warrant to pray that the Lord would continue to be patient towards this nation.

Another principle I think we can draw from this is that we ought to remember God's mercy. Abraham in his conversation and his prayer to God here says, “I am but dust and ashes, and yet I have undertaken to speak to the Lord.” So he recognizes that he doesn't have any right in and of himself to approach the throne. We're dust and ashes. Mercy is our only appeal to God. Mercy is the only appeal that we can make for God to hear us. So from that, I think that this reminds us our prayers should always be marked with humility. It is not a small or a trivial or a rote thing that we come before the King of all the earth in prayer, and our attitude ought to be, “Who am I that I should have the ear of the Almighty?”

Then we also see God's mercy in the fact that he says, “If there are even ten righteous persons in that whole city, if there are even ten,” he says, “I will spare it and I will not destroy it.” So again, I think that gives us further warrant to pray that the Lord would spare our nation for the sake of the righteous who are in it. And in addition to that, that he would, in sparing us, be merciful and save many more.

And then lastly, I think that this teaches us that we should remember his justice when praying. Abraham knows God as the judge of all the earth. He says, “Shall not the judge of all the earth do what is just?” So I think we ought to remember whenever we're perplexed by injustice that we see, and we do see it all around us, we don't have to look far; whenever we see that justice, we should remember that we only have a desire and a thirst for justice in our hearts because we are his image. And so if we are so concerned about justice, is not God all the more concerned with justice, he who is judge of all the earth.

So I think that we should, number one, praise him, think about the cross, praise him that he has maintained his justice even in saving sinners like us. He did not compromise his justice by sending his son to the cross or by saving us. He upheld, he maintained his justice in sending Jesus to the cross, and so we should praise him for his justice in that respect. We should also pray that he will bring about further justice in our land, from small affairs on the county level to large affairs on the national level.

And then we should pray that he will help us trust him that he will bring about justice. That we would not be anxious, but that we would remember that he loves justice more than we do and he is infinitely and eternally just. And then lastly, we should remember, considering his justice, remember that God has appointed Jesus as the judge of all the earth. So whatever justice is not done right now, it will be done when the Lord Jesus returns. He is the judge of all the earth and on the basis of this, we ought to pray, come quickly, Lord Jesus.