Daily Prayers, Day 19: Friday – Praying to Teach

by | May 15, 2020 | Prayer Blog, Uncategorized

NEW 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

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”
– The Prophet Moses, Deuteronomy 5

Listen

The situation was grim and the sisters were grieving and angry. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died,” one charges Jesus when He arrives. Jesus weeps for his friend, goes to Lazarus’s tomb, and prays:

John 11:41-44

And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

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 Holy Spirit to help you reflect on some times you might have turned to praying aloud, not just for your sake, not to appear sanctimonious, but for the good of those around. (For example: you might write down, “Jesus prays aloud for the benefit of the people standing around. What situations have I faced when I should have prayed aloud to show my dependence and to exemplify my faith in prayer?“) The Spirit can help you understand what God is saying to you in these moments.

4. Ask the Holy Spirit to remind you in the future that times of stress, times when you’ve made a mistake, times of anger or argument will be the perfect time to ask our loving Father to enter into that moment and into the hearts of all who hear.

Pray

Father, you know just what I need for every situation. Please prompt me through the Holy Spirit to turn to you in prayer. You know what I need, but help me, like Jesus, to use my prayers and my dependence on you to guide me and instruct those around. Help strengthen my prayers and help me remember to invite you to enter in the toughest situations; the heated moments; the arguments and mistaken communications; the unfortunate slips of my tongue and hurts my ego has caused for which I need repent. I need the love and calm you bring, the assurance to all that you are in control and that there is no situation you cannot bear to enter. I ask forgivness for those times I’ve felt too busy or too angry to pray, to invite you in. I pray to be prompted to pray in the future and to be reminded that you’re my loving Father, ready to bear any burden for and to help instruct your beloved children. Amen.

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