How to Pray
Let me start with a confession about prayer…I tend to enjoy reading about prayer more than I actually find myself praying. Over the years I make commitments to pray more, I get up earlier, I get ready, but while prayer is the work…it is work.
Don Whitney’s book Praying the Bible is a great resource. He asks why people would become bored when talking with God…is it because we don’t love God, is it because, deep down, we care nothing for the people or matters we pray about? I love what Don says, “No. Rather, if this mind wandering boredom describes your experience in prayer, I would argue that if you are indwelled by the Holy Spirit—if you are born again—then the problem is not you; its your method.”
In the book he shows you how to pray the Scriptures. Years ago, I was in China, and I woke up in a hotel, in a huge city, and as I opened the window and listened to the sounds of that city I felt an overwhelming desire to pray.
That morning, I had read from Ephesians in my daily Bible reading, and so as I knelt before God, I opened my Bible to Ephesians and began to pray through the book…praying for my family at home on the other side of the world, and for those whom I was meeting with in that city.
The experience was incredible. I had not read Don’s book at that time, I’m not sure it had been published yet, but I found the secret to praying. Not just the prayers of Paul, not just the Psalms, but the entire Bible is a resource for communication with our God.
Look at Ephesians 1 for a moment, in verse 3 we find, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. How can you pray that?
First, it is a praise, “I bless you my God and Father, I bless you my Lord Jesus Christ…you have blessed me with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Father, what a statement of fact…every spiritual blessing the heavenly places…mine in you. Help me to live out of these blessings. Help me to walk in that truth.
Verse 4 says, “even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him…”. Father, I don’t totally understand it, but you chose me before you made the world. I was on your heart and in your mind before one word of Genesis 1 came into being. Thank you for choosing me because I’m pretty sure that in my sinfulness I would have never chosen you. You desire for me to be holy and blameless, but I have to confess I am not.
At that time, I would invite the Holy Spirit to show me where I have sinned and spend time in confession and repentance, but do you see how this works? We could spend hours in prayer doing this. We would never run out of things to say. If you can’t, for some reason, find something to pray…maybe you are in the genealogies, skip ahead and pray the next section, but pray!!
Don Whitney’s book Praying the Bible is a great resource. He asks why people would become bored when talking with God…is it because we don’t love God, is it because, deep down, we care nothing for the people or matters we pray about? I love what Don says, “No. Rather, if this mind wandering boredom describes your experience in prayer, I would argue that if you are indwelled by the Holy Spirit—if you are born again—then the problem is not you; its your method.”
In the book he shows you how to pray the Scriptures. Years ago, I was in China, and I woke up in a hotel, in a huge city, and as I opened the window and listened to the sounds of that city I felt an overwhelming desire to pray.
That morning, I had read from Ephesians in my daily Bible reading, and so as I knelt before God, I opened my Bible to Ephesians and began to pray through the book…praying for my family at home on the other side of the world, and for those whom I was meeting with in that city.
The experience was incredible. I had not read Don’s book at that time, I’m not sure it had been published yet, but I found the secret to praying. Not just the prayers of Paul, not just the Psalms, but the entire Bible is a resource for communication with our God.
Look at Ephesians 1 for a moment, in verse 3 we find, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. How can you pray that?
First, it is a praise, “I bless you my God and Father, I bless you my Lord Jesus Christ…you have blessed me with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Father, what a statement of fact…every spiritual blessing the heavenly places…mine in you. Help me to live out of these blessings. Help me to walk in that truth.
Verse 4 says, “even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him…”. Father, I don’t totally understand it, but you chose me before you made the world. I was on your heart and in your mind before one word of Genesis 1 came into being. Thank you for choosing me because I’m pretty sure that in my sinfulness I would have never chosen you. You desire for me to be holy and blameless, but I have to confess I am not.
At that time, I would invite the Holy Spirit to show me where I have sinned and spend time in confession and repentance, but do you see how this works? We could spend hours in prayer doing this. We would never run out of things to say. If you can’t, for some reason, find something to pray…maybe you are in the genealogies, skip ahead and pray the next section, but pray!!
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Rungs in the ladder of prayerThe Rung of ResidenceThe Prayer Rung of ComprehensionThe Rung of FullnessCommitment to PrayerChristlike in PrayerPrayer is the WorkHow to PrayPraying the ArmorHow to pray without ceasingPraying the PsalmsThree Kinds of PrayerWrite it DownGood Friday PrayerPraying with TozerPraying with Tozer part 2Praying with Tozer part 3
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