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.
- We will look at an insight from those who know something important about prayer.
- 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.
- We will reflect, asking the same four questions each day that invites us to look and listen with intent.
- 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
“Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble. But since the power of prayer is in the one who hears it and not in the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference.”
– Max Lucado
Listen
The Apostle Paul prayed some of his most profound prayers for some of his most beloved friends. The people of Colossae, a celebrated city and home to one of Christianity’s earliest churches, were struggling with truth and heresy, faith and doubt. Paul loved them. He prayerfully guided them to truth. And in one of his most powerful prayers marrying truth and relationship, he prays:
Colossians 1:9-14
9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
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 how to apply this template from the Lord to your own prayer life. (For example: you might write down, “Paul prays for strength for his friends – according to God’s glorious might – for endurance and patience, joy and gratitude…“) The Spirit can help you understand what God is saying to you in these moments.
4. Ask the Holy Spirit to speak to your inner being regarding what it means to “live a life worthy of the Lord.”
Pray
Using Paul’s prayer as a template, pray the words of this prayer to your heavenly Father, through Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit – for yourself. And as you have time and someone comes to mind – pray these same words for those for whom the Spirit prompts you.
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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.
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