God shapes the world by prayer. The more praying there is in the world the better the world will be, the mightier the forces against evil.
— E.M. Bounds
Many years ago I began to develop a longing for a deeper and richer prayer life, to figure out what it meant to be a prayer warrior. An acquaintance of the time (a missionary who had a heart to build up others) gave me a little prayer book that helped guide my time in prayer and became a part of regular time with God.
There is no doubt that prayer is powerful, but many times when we sit down to pray, we can feel at a loss for words. How do I pray through this situation? How does prayer not become rote or surface level? How can I enrich my prayer life and make it a rich experience in God’s presence, drawing closer to Him and truly approaching the throne with confidence?
There are many prayers recorded throughout the scriptures that can guide us in our prayers and by using these scriptures, we can be confident that what we ask in prayer is within the will of God.
It is my hope to develop a prayer plan based upon praying through the scriptures and a template of what to pray for throughout the week. This type of scripture prayer plan has helped guide my prayer life for over 20 years and it has given my prayers a powerful focus on the promises of God in scripture and the ability to form prayers when I couldn’t articulate what I ought to pray for. But the first place to start when thinking about how to pray is with the Lord’s prayer, Jesus’ instruction to us about prayer.
Matthew 6:9-11
“This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
Worship of our mighty and holy God takes the first place in our prayer life. We see this example in many psalms where the author repeats God’s character traits and His actions over and over again to remind the author of who God is. Begin each time of prayer with a focus on God’s attributes and honor Him in adoration.
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
When we pray for God’s will to be done and His kingdom to advance, we are praying for God’s truths to come alive in us. We are asking God to bring alive His promises and His Word in our experience.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
We have been called to walk in the light as He is in the light. This means we no longer hide our inadequacies, our sinful tendencies and temptations, but openly and honestly confess sin regularly receiving His grace and forgiveness (1 John 1:7-9).
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
The key elements in the Lord’s prayer include worshiping God in His holiness, seeking to walk out His will in our lives, and humbling ourselves in a repentant mindset. Another crucial part of prayer, truly the foundation, isa deep understanding of the purpose of prayer. It’s all too easy to make prayer a self-focused task where we are either trying to appease God, showing Him how good we are, or we are asking Him to give us all things we really want like a petulant child. Understanding the true purpose of prayer changes the way we approach God.
In Genesis 3:8, we have a tiny glimpse into what it might have been like for Adam and Eve to live in full communion with God as He walked in the garden with them. Can you imagine what that might have been like to just hear God’s voice calling your name? To walk alongside Him as you inspected the growth of fruit on the trees and the forest creatures at play?
Prayer is the expression of our longing to return to that place in the garden where we can converse with God side-by-side and hear His voice speaking gently to us. The ultimate goal of prayer is to know Him, to grow in understanding of who He is and to draw near to Him. It’s all about a relationship with the God who stooped down from on high to make a way for us to cross the great divide and be with Him.
With the intent to know God, our key elements of prayer can be remembered as a way to pray the way scripture has modeled for us. We are called to WALK with God as though we were in the garden with Him again and to WALK in the light with Him through this life. So, this acronym of WALK can set up a system to pray through scripture including each of these steps:
Worship the God who hears our prayers
Appropriate the truth of scripture as you grow in your walk of faith
Light - Walk in the light by openly confessing your sins and need for God
Know Him more and more as you spend time with Him daily
Here is a plan I also use to pray for others and myself that starts with those closest to me and expands beyond my reach into where only God knows how my prayers could impact others.
Sunday: Pray for God's will to be done on earth. Pray for the great commission to be accomplished, for God's purposes of bringing many nations to Himself to be furthered. Pray for any missionaries across the world that your church supports or that you personally support or know. If you are led, pray for different continents, different nations, for God's Word to spread to each and every unreached people group. Join in partnership with God in seeing His will be done across this whole world.
Monday: Pray for your family. For your family of origin, for extended family members, for your marriage, for your children, and grandchildren (whatever applies to you personally). The scriptures from our prayer time could be transferred into your prayers for those closest to you as much as to your own spiritual growth.
Tuesday: Pray for the family of God, for your friends and for those in your church. Pray for your pastors and for ministry leaders in your community of believers. One of the best ways to bless someone is to ask how you can pray for them and then intentionally make it a practice to be praying for God to work in their life.
Wednesday: Pray for your workplace or your school. Pray for coworkers or fellow students, for those you interact with daily, many who do not follow Jesus. Pray that you might be a light in this place and for opportunities to share the good news.
Thursday: Pray for your local community and local ministries in your area. I think of our Pregnancy Help Center, college ministries, the Bible camp nearby and other para-church organizations as well as all the people in our neighborhood who need to know Christ.
Friday: Pray for political leaders starting with your city, your state, our country, and expanding to the world. Pray for peace on earth, the way God desires it and for leaders to know their accountability to God and desire to seek wise counsel in their decisions.
Saturday: Pray intentionally for your own spiritual growth, for a deeper understanding of who God is, for insight into His word, and for His work to continue in your life that you might glorify Him through your life.
I hope you find this process helpful in organizing your prayer life. If any of it is too much, just remember it is only a guide - this is never meant to become something legalistic! It's just something that has been helpful to me that I started many years ago so I thought it might be worth sharing. Remember the goal of prayer is to draw near to HIM, so always put the focus on Him first and the rest will fall into place.
Blessings,
Heather
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