ALONE WITH GOD

The Power and Passion of Prayer

JOHN MacARTHUR, JR.

While this book is intended for the reader’s personal enjoyment and profit, it is also designed for group study. A personal and group study guide is included at the end of this text.

MacArthur Study Series Titles

Alone with God

Anxiety Attacked

Different by Design

First Love

God: Coming Face to Face with His Majesty

How to Meet the Enemy

The Power of Suffering

Saved without a Doubt

All Scripture is from the New American Standard Bible, the Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977.

Editor: Barbara Williams

Designer: Andrea Boven

Cover Photo: Tony Stone Images

ISBN: 1–56476–488–5

Suggested Subject Heading: PRAYER

©1995 by John MacArthur, Jr. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Printing/Year 99 98 97 96 95

No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission, except for brief quotations in books and critical reviews. For information, write Victor Books, 1825 College Avenue, Wheaton, Illinois 60187.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

PART ONE: THE ATTITUDE OF PRAYER

1. A Heart Set on God

2. Seeking the Lord in Secret

PART TWO: THE PATTERN OF PRAYER

3. “Our Father”

4. “Hallowed Be Thy Name”

5. “Thy Kingdom Come”

6. “Thy Will Be Done”

7. “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread”

8. “Forgive Us Our Debts”

9. “Deliver Us from Evil”

PART THREE: PRAYER IN ACTION

10. Praying for the Right Things

11. Praying for the Lost

Personal and Group Study Guide

INTRODUCTION

Martyn Lloyd-Jones once wrote: “Prayer is beyond any question the highest activity of the human soul. Man is at his greatest and highest when upon his knees he comes face to face with God” (Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 2 vols. [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979], 2:45). Commentator J. Oswald Sanders adds this lofty view of prayer:

No spiritual exercise is such a blending of complexity and simplicity. It is the simplest form of speech that infant lips can try, yet the sublimest strains that reach the Majesty on high. It is as appropriate to the aged philosopher as to the little child. It is the ejaculation of a moment and the attitude of a lifetime. It is the expression of the rest of faith and of the fight of faith. It is an agony and an ecstasy. It is submissive and yet importunate. In the one moment it lays hold of God and binds the devil. It can be focused on a single objective and it can roam the world. It can be abject confession and rapt adoration. It invests puny man with a sort of omnipotence (Effective Prayer [Chicago: Moody, 1969], 7).

The essence of prayer is simply talking to God as you would to a beloved friend—without pretense or flippancy. Yet it is in that very attitude toward prayer so many believers have trouble.

Because communion with God is so vital and prayer so effective in the fulfillment of God’s plan, the enemy attempts constantly to introduce errors into our understanding of and commitment to prayer. ...