When things go dry for my own prayers, I have found that it often helps to let someone else provide the words. In Ephesians 1:15-19a, Philippians 1:9-11, and Colossians 1:9-12 the Apostle Paul gives us his words that we can pray for those we know and love. There is something both freeing and challenging about making these prayers our own. Whenever I pray them I find that I need to do so over the course of several days and with the help of several different translations. These prayers free me to ponder more deeply the meaning of the words I use. At the same time, these prayers are so qualitatively different from my own that I am challenged to reconsider my usual motivation and goals. Whether or not you are in a dry season for prayer, I hope you will take a few days (and a few translations) to make Paul’s prayers your own. Let me know what you experience; I’d love to hear from you. But Paul is not the only source for prayerful words.
The Psalms were Jesus’ prayer book and they can be ours as well. If you feel like the words for a particular Psalm do not express your heart, then consider how Christ makes you one with all other Christians. Then take time to ponder what sort of modern circumstance might be described by the Psalm (remember that an “enemy” could be a disease, a pandemic, an addiction or any struggle—this is poetry so give your imagination some room to run). As the passage enters a more familiar scenario, then offer it as a prayer. Sometimes the Psalm will be for you; sometimes it will be for another. Either way you will be expanding your prayer experience and exercise. But our options for prayer-words extends out beyond the Psalms too.
A quick Google search reveals other short prayers in the Bible. Jesus had a good one for us to follow in Luke 11. Hannah, Samuel and King David also provide good models for various seasons of life. One of my favorites is found in 1 Chronicles 29:10-19. Check it out and see how you might be able to make parts of this your own.
I’d also recommend prayer books like Ken Boa's Face to Face (especially Volume 1) where Boa turns scripture passages into prayers and then sequences them so that your prayer time moves through helpful categories. There are many other books that contain prayers which flow from scriptural truths and help us express our heart to God. Just let me know if you’d like some help in selecting one of these resources and we can talk.
Of all the things we have sped by and will speed by, Paul’s prayers—indeed the act of praying itself—is one thing I want to make sure we pause to consider. To help you catch other points of interest along the way, please remember to check out the Right Now Media or YouTube Bible Project Book Summaries which I talked about in last week’s post (Driving Through New England).
Paul’s prayer for the Philippians provides a great way for me to close today. “I pray that your love may continually grow and deepen through your understanding and application of Christ’s gospel so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until Jesus returns—filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Christ—and living in a way that gives Him the glory, now and forevermore.”
Walking with you and praying for you.
Rob
