These was a summary of one of my sharing with fellow students. In this sharing, I was talking about successful prayers, and I shared an examples of 2 Old testament character and their successful prayers

Abraham (Gen 18:16-33)
In this bible story, God was about to pronouce his judgement on the city of Sodom and Gomorrah as their sins are great. The Lord was intending to go into the city and to witness the sins for himself. (Gen 18:20)

Abraham then started to intercede for the city, saying  “Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city; would You also destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were in it?  Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Gen 18:23-25)

Therefore God listened to the prayer of Abraham and will spare the city if 50 righteous. We all know that Abraham prayed many times and the conditions were reduced to 45,40,30,20 and 10. Over here i believed that if he continued to 1, he would have won and saved the City (At least Lot is righteous). But he stopped at 10. And the reason is because the household of Lot contains, (Lot, His wife, his 2 daughters, 2 Sons in law )has at least 6 members. Lot being a rich man, should have more then 4 servants.

Therefore, what we can learn from this is
1. Abraham’s prayer are effective, because he caught hold of the nature of God, which is Justice. and he used it to make his point before the Lord. And God being just, will listen.
2. Abraham stopped at 10 (Approx Lots household number). tells us that even as we make our petition known to God, we must know when to stop, or when our request becomes unreasonable. Always remember God is not the Genie in Aladdin’s lamp who will grant whatever wishes to whoever.

Moses (Deut 9:25-29, Ex 32:31-32)

In this incident, the people has sinned against God in mount sinai, and build for themselves a golden calf to replace God. This action made God very angry, as they have taken his glory and turn them into a beast that walked the fields. The worst part of the matter is, the people were unrepentant, and God’s judgement to the people are imminent. He wanted the Moses to move away from the people so that he can destroy them/

At this time, Moses prayed to the Lord, and this is his prayer.
” ‘O Lord GOD, do not destroy Your people and Your inheritance whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not look on the stubbornness of this people, or on their wickedness or their sin, lest the land from which You brought us should say, “Because the LORD was not able to bring them to the land which He promised them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.” Yet they areYour people and Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your mighty power and by Your outstretched arm.’” (Deut 9:26-29)

In another occassion, Moses prayed like this
“Oh, these people have committed a great sin, and have made for themselves a god of gold! 32 Yet now, if You will forgive their sin—but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written.” (Ex 32:31-32)

What we can learn from Moses is this
1. Similar to Abraham, Moses held on to the following nature of God
        a. God is a God who keeps his covenant (When he said, remember Abraham, Issac and Jacob)
        b. God is a God of love (He reminded God that he brought the people out with his mighty hand)
2. As Moses pray, he always puts the glory of God in his mind (He told God how the Egyptians will react should He destroy the people)
3. Moses deep love for the people moved him to tell God to blot his name out of the book of life if he would not forgive the people.

From the 2 examples we can also gather many other points as conclusion
1. As we pray, we should always hold on to Gods nature, which is Love and Justice, as well as the God who keeps promises
2. Intercessory prayers are very important
              a. Abraham intercedes for Sodom because of his love for the people, and for Lot
              b. Moses intercedes for the Israelites, because of his deep love for people, even though they never
                  treated him nicely
3. In our prayers, we must always keep te glory of God in mind. We should always pray that Gods name be spread far and wide, and for his church to be strong.