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

“Most all of us go through life trying to be successful at something. The problem is, we pursue the success that our culture has defined for us rather than the success our Maker designed for us.”
Todd Gongwer, Lead for God’s Sake

Listen

Abraham’s servant is on a mission to find a wife for Abraham’s son Isaac from among his master’s relatives in a distant land. He clearly loves his master yet is not willing to rely on his own understanding in achieving Abraham’s request. So he prays and asks God for help with an amazingly specific prayer.

Genesis 24:12-14

12 “Lord, God of my master Abraham,” he prayed, “give me success today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. 13 I am standing here at the spring where the daughters of the men of the town are coming out to draw water. 14 Let the girl to whom I say, ‘Please lower your water jug so that I may drink,’ and who responds, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels also’—let her be the one You have appointed for Your servant Isaac. By this I will know that You have shown kindness to my master.”

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 see the deeper desires, motives or longings in your heart that those thoughts are pointing to. (for example: you might write down, “How do I define success? Am I relying on my own strength or on God’s leading?”) The Spirit can help you understand what God is saying to you in these moments.

4. What are some elements in this “prayer for help” from Abraham’s servant that might guide you today as you seek success?

Pray

We all want to be successful but as Todd Gongwer notes so often we define success by what our culture believes. God blessed the specific request of a servant whose heart was right before Him. Be that servant today and freely and honestly come before your Father asking for His help. “Give me success today Lord, for your glory and for my growth.”

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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.