OLD TESTAMENT PRAYERS

Introduction

We are so glad you are joining us for these daily prayer posts. Over the next few weeks we are going to listen to the prayers we find in the Bible, and some of God’s most faithful saints and servants. Through their prayers, we will learn better how to pray and connect with our heavenly Father.

Each devotion will take less than ten minutes of your time.

1. We will look at an insight from those who know something important about prayer.
2. We will listen to the prayers of people in the Bible—people just like us. And to people who gained a deep measure of spiritual intimacy with God because they prayed.
3. We will reflect, asking the same four questions each day that invites us to look and listen with intent.
4. And we will pray, for it is in praying that we learn to pray. And it is in praying that the Spirit changes our hearts.

We want to encourage you to grab a journal or a notebook – something to write on as you walk through each prayer guide. Yes, it will add a few minutes to the time it takes to do the devotion, and it will also deepen your experience and shape your walk with God for years to come. This journal or notebook will be a keepsake to remind you of God’s faithfulness during this challenging season for all of us.

Look

“When you pray to God, you are talking to someone you can’t see. So, prayer is the purest form of faith, which is described as “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). Yet the faith of prayer is not based on vivid imagination or wishful thinking. It is based on the promises of God found in the Bible.”
– Elizabeth George, Author and Bible Teacher

Listen

Habakkuk was a prophet, but he did not speak to the people, he simply spoke to God. Thus, the entire book that bears his name is actually a record of his personal struggle with God –what we call a lament – a visceral complaint to God and plea for His action. Habakkuk lived in some of the darkest days of Israel’s history. Things were never “good” in his lifetime. And that makes the conclusion to his prayer in chapter three all the more amazing, and all the more needed in our own “dark days.” His is a prayer… of faith…

Habakkuk 3:17-19

17 Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
19 God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.
To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.

Reflect

1. Having read the Word, sit silently for a minute and give God’s Word a moment to settle within you.

2. Re-read the verses slowly and write down some thoughts that resonate with you.

3. Ask the Spirit to help you see the deeper longings, desires or motives in your heart that those thoughts are pointing to. (for example: you may write down, “Habakkuk ends his prayer speaking of God’s sovereignty.” The Spirit can help us see that we desire to know, deep down, that the even if “the worst thing happens” – it does not…it cannot negate God’s faithfulness.)

4. What are some elements of Habakkuk’s prayer of faith that resonate with your own heart where you are today?

Pray

Using this last phrase in Habakkuk’s prayer of lament and faith, allow his words to become your own in your prayer today.

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These devotionals are adapted from various sources, including The Book of Common Prayer, Fenelon: The Seeking Heart, Fellowship Bible Church Nashville, Handbook to Prayer by Kenneth Boa and others.