Video Transcript: Healthy Prayer Patterns

Hi, I’m David Feddes and this talk is about healthy prayer patterns. Is this your prayer life? Some of us find it that we can hardly pray for more than a minute or two, before we run out of things to say, things to ask for what. We feel like we’re talking to the ceiling, we get kind of bored. And prayer can be hard for us. So is this your prayer life where you feel bored where you feel that even a few minutes of prayer is almost impossible. And then you read about Jesus who would spend a whole night in prayer or about other Christians who would spend long periods of time in prayer sometimes hours, and you say, what in the world did they pray about? How could I possibly pray for more than a couple of minutes? Well, if you struggle in your prayer life, or even if you don’t, I invite you to consider what is involved in healthy prayer patterns and positive prayer life. 

For many of us, we don’t have much trouble communicating in a lot of other areas. We may not struggle with going on Facebook and see what everybody’s thinking or snap chatting or using social media in various ways or going and watching various videos or checking out our smartphone every few seconds. So, if somebody said, be on your smartphone without ceasing, we might say, I’m already doing a pretty good job of that. But the Bible doesn’t say be on your smartphone without ceasing. It says pray without ceasing. Have prayer and communication with God, be a constant, in your life. Something that you’re constantly involved in and that you never give up on. So, if we want to pray without ceasing instead of just connecting on our phones without ceasing, we need to give some thought to prayer and to see how we can develop in our prayer life. 

Jesus is our model. Scripture says Jesus would withdraw to desolate places and pray, go off by Himself. He went out to the mountain to pray and that night, He continued all night. He continued in prayer to God. Hebrews says during the days of Jesus life on our feet, offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears. So, Jesus prayed earnestly. He prayed hard, He prayed long, and He had such a powerful ministry. And one of those keys to the power of what He did among people was those times He spent off by Himself. With His Father and Jesus is our model. He was mighty in prayer. And He calls us into a life of prayer with His father. 

We have a variety of prayer questions. Here are some of the prayer questions that I come across. Should I pray alone? Or should I pray with others? Should I pray just spontaneously right on the spot, or should I pray on a schedule at set times? Should I pray from my heart with whatever just comes up and comes into my mind spontaneously? Or should I pray with a guide, with a written prayer perhaps or with a pattern that I follow? Well, in answer to these questions, I would simply say, “Yes, pray alone and pray with others. Pray on the spot and pray on the schedule. Pray from your heart and pray with a guide.” I’ll explain a little bit more of what I mean.

First of all, the Bible encourages us to pray alone. Jesus did. He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray often. He prayed in times of solitude, and He told us to pray alone as well. He said some people like to pray just for show in front of others. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father who is unseen. Then your Father who sees what he’s done in secret will reward you. It is absolutely essential that you have a life of prayer where you’re alone with God, where you’re not trying to impress other people or be seen by them. Because if the only time you pray is when somebody besides God is listening. If you’re just praying because it’s part of your job as a leader or a pastor, or if you’re praying or your job, because hey, you’re a parent, you’re supposed to pray when you’re around your kids. If you’re just praying in front of others, but have no personal prayer life, it probably indicates that your prayer life is hollow. That you really don’t have a personal heartfelt communication with the Lord. 

You pray, first of all, to speak with God to connect with him. And that means you’re not trying to impress other people. It means when you pray, alone of you’re not even praying to impress God. You can’t impress God; He already knows what’s in you. So, you just might as well say it. And instead of trying to be polite or have exactly the right words or whatever, just pray alone before your father, tell Him what you want Him to hear from you and pour it out before don’t try to impress Him. He’s not the judge of a speech contest. He’s your Father in heaven. So, pray alone in a direct and personal way with your Lord. 

But that does not mean that you should never pray with other people. If praying with others is the only thing you do, and your reason is to impress them or to do something for them but not connect with God yourself, then of course, you need to start by praying personally and alone with God and make that always the core of your prayer life. But the Bible obviously tells us that we can pray with others as well with great benefit. God gave His temple and His place of meeting to be a place of prayer with others. My house will be called the house of prayer for all nations. Jesus Himself prayed alone, but He also went to the synagogue every Sabbath day. It was His custom and there He would pray with the other people and worship with them. The apostles and the early Christians raised their voices together in prayer to God. They prayed as individual, but they also prayed together, they prayed in times of great need when all of them would pray when they were facing persecution. When they were seeking guidance. They be worshipping God and praying together, the Holy Spirit would lead them and so prayer is a wonderful thing to do personally and individually but also together with fellow people who love the Lord and want to pray together to Him.  

Pray on the spot as the need arises or as you feel thanksgiving to God just burst out with thanks God or with help me. The Bible gives a lot of examples of prayers on the spot. Here’s just a few Abraham’s servants was sent out with a very important mission to find a wife for Abraham’s son Isaac. And so, the servants kind of wondering how in the world am I going to do that? And he’s got to get this girl from a certain area and location of people who are relatives of Abraham and who worship God, not just any old pagan. So, he says, “Lord, give me success today. Show me the one who is right for him.” And God answered that prayer. Later in Israel’s history, it has really become a people and they come out of Egypt. They had sinned against God and God sends poisonous snakes were biting some other people they were dying. And Moses prayed for the people right on the spot. It was urgent. They needed help now and he prayed for God’s help and God gave him an answer. And the people were healed. 

Samson was not the most pious person with the best patterns of walking with the Lord. But sometimes he prayed really, he really needed it. One time he had a big battle with the godless Philistines, and he won that battle and killed a 1000 of them. And he was just wiped out and exhausted and he was dying of thirst, and he felt like he was going to collapse and faint and die. And so, he prayed for God. And God opened up a spring and Samson drank cool water from that spring. He prayed on the spot and God helped him. Later, Samson betrayed his own calling. He got involved with a Philistine woman. He let her know the secret of his strength that he was especially devoted to God and that he had grown hair that was never cut as a sign of that devotion to God. And he got a nasty haircut and the enemies caught him and imprisoned him and gouged out his eyes and blinded him and he was their victim and their plaything. And one day they brought him into their temple to mock him and make fun of him and make fun of his God and Samson, prayed on the spot. Oh, God, please strengthen me just once more. And God did. And Samson pulled down that whole Philistine temple and did more damage in that one moment than he did in his whole lifetime to the enemies of God. 

Hannah was a woman who was grieved by the fact that she couldn’t have a baby. She never received a child and so she wept much, and she prayed, and God heard that prayer and gave her a child, the great prophet Samuel and then gave her other children as well. So, she prayed on the spot about a need that she felt that weighed on her heart. Nehemiah was a man who was grieving that Jerusalem have been conquered and then destroyed, its walls were in ruins. And even though some people were coming back to Jerusalem, the city was still not defended by good walls. And so that was on his heart, and he was kind of sad about it. The king of Persia, the emperor of the whole empire, for whom Nehemiah worked, noticed that and the kings that what is it you want? And then Nehemiah before he told the king what he wanted, he said, I prayed to the God of heaven. He just prayed on the spot before he said anything to the king. Because when you’re in the presence of a great emperor, and you say the wrong things, you can get yourself killed or you can ruin the purpose of the mission you were hoping to go on. But he prayed and he told the Emperor the king what he wanted, and the king told me that he could take over as governor and go there and rebuild the walls in Jerusalem. 

In your own life and your own prayer life, there are times when something comes up and it comes up suddenly and you need help, and you need it, somehow and you need it now. You can speak to God right on the spot, the need that prayer that comes from your heart, or God will bless you in a way that was amazing, and you don’t wait till Sunday worship to say a prayer of thanks to God until your evening devotion time when that good thing happens. Just pray right on the spot. Say thank you, Lord, praise the Lord. Or would you do something wrong? You don’t have to wait till one of your set time to pray and just pray right there. God forgive me forgive me take away my sin. Help me to change. Praying on the spot is a great way to pray. 

Well, you can also pray on schedule. Psalm 92 says it is good to praise the Lord. To proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night. Start your day praising God in prayer to end your day praising God in prayer. The prophet and politician Daniel was a person who’s very close to God, and he had a pattern in his life. Three times a day Daniel got down on his knees and prayed giving thanks to God just as he had done before. And he did this in a circumstance where if you prayed to God, you’re going to get thrown to lions and Daniel would rather spend the night in the lion’s den than go a day without praying to God. So, he prayed to God to three times a day, no matter who said what. He was going to pray to God, and you build a pattern into your life where you pray on a schedule, and it does enrich your life. You can have those prayers that are right on the spot and even when Daniel got dropped into the lion’s den, he probably said a couple extra prayers and God sent His angels to defend the Daniel, but Daniel also had his regular prayer patterns. 

Think of sports. I’ve been involved a lot in sports, sometimes as a coach, sometimes as a player. And in sports. There are times when you’re in the middle of the game. The coach is out there shouting instructions to the players and the players are asking the coach as they run past him asking what you want coach? So, there’s always on the spot communication. Or there are times when right and then the game the coach sees something in the player sees something they call a quick timeout. We need a 30 second timeout and a quick little they talk it over and they get back out there and play. That’s kind of like praying on the spot. Right as the game is going on. Right is the needs present themselves. But coaches also have practices where they spend a set time with the players. It’s not a game where they’re playing somebody else. They’re just practicing, and the coach is giving instruction and teaching and communicating with players and they’re asking the coach questions. And even at game time, there’s time before the game where the coaches in the locker room giving instructions to the players and there’s breaks between the periods of the game. There’re set times where the players get to rest and get little refreshment and they get some new instructions from the coach. So that’s kind of like praying. Sometimes you have your practices your time apart, or you have your times each day when you’re when the Lord have time to get refreshed and a time to communicate with the time to tell God what’s going on. Although he knows but tell him from your point of view your desires, your needs your praises, and so praying on the spot is valuable. Praying on schedule is valuable. Just as a coach and players yelling instructions during the game is valuable, but so are the breaks between the periods and the days when it’s a practice day and not a game day. So, pray on the spot as much as you’d like but also have a pattern in your life where you regularly spend time with God praying. 

Pray from your heart. Hanna said, “I’ve been pouring out my soul before the Lord.” She was pouring out herself so much that the old priest Eli, who wasn’t used to seeing people pray with that kind of devotion because it was a time of very low spirituality. He sees this woman just praying her heart out because she wants this baby, and he thinks she’s drunk. And hence the trunk I just pouring out my soul and she’s pouring it out with tears. So, to pray from your heart, to pray with tears, to pray with deep feeling and it just whatever is in your heart to pour it out before the Lord without even pretending. Trust in him at all times O people. Pour out your hearts to Him, for God is our refuge. So sometimes you’re pouring your heart out in need and journey and sorrow and anger. Sometimes you’re pouring your heart out because you’re so full of joy. And you want to tell God My heart is glad and my tongue rejoices and in prayer, you’re speaking to God with great joy from your heart and you’re doing it spontaneously. It’s not a planned prayer. It’s not a patterned prayer that was given to you by somebody else or that you ever wrote down. You’re just pouring out your heart in prayer. 

Does that mean that you should only pray from your heart spontaneously and never pray with any kind of guide? No, I’m healthy prayer patterns mean that you can often do all of the above pray alone. Pray with others to pray on the spot, but also pray on a schedule in a structured and patterned way. Pray from your heart and spontaneously pour out your emotions in what’s going on. But also, have some guides for prayer. And this can be especially helpful for some of us who do struggle in prayer, who find it boring. Who find that after 90 seconds we don’t have anything more to talk to God about. Sometimes we need a guide to lead us into prayer and help us to pray more fruitfully in a greater length and with greater meaning. So, pray from the heart is great but also with a guide. 

And I want to mention four possible guides to consider there’s others and it’s okay to experiment a little bit with guides that you might use to just kind of direct your prayer times. But here are four: the Lord’s prayer, the prayer Lord Jesus taught as a pattern for those who ask Lord to teach us to pray and said Okay, here’s a pattern for you to start with. There’s the ACTS approach. ACTS, adoration, confession, thanksgiving supplication four different elements of prayer that you include in a prayer time. Another guide for prayer is simply to pray the Bible to pray parts of Scripture and use those as your guide to prayer. And the fourth is one that I sometimes like to practice as well as to talk about and that’s just learn to pray like children and to have the different elements of your prayer be like the kinds of things kids say to their dad or their mom. 

So, let’s look at these guides the Lord’s prayer Jesus taught us to say Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Now, the Lord’s Prayer is a great prayer to memorize and to speak to the Lord. But it’s also a template or a pattern for prayer that can be expanded upon where you don’t just use it as the prayer that you say but as the outline for a bigger and fuller prayer. So, you say the words our Father and you say oh what a privilege it is to be adopted as your child. You are our Father and not to be just me and you and I have just a me and your relationship with your our Father, I’m part of the family of God. There’s other people who love you and worship you. Thank you for your church. Thank You that we can come together to you as a family and know that you love us as a father and watch over us. And you’re so close to us and I can call you my Abba. I can relate to intimately we’re also in heaven, you’re on the throne room of the universe, your supreme your great beyond anything I can imagine you are so far above me and so magnificent. And so, your opening words of prayer are just expressing who you’re speaking to your dear Father and that great ruler and Creator, Lord of the universe, and you gather your thoughts to realize who it is you’re talking to, and you praise Him and you say, hallowed be thy name and you don’t just say those words, but you start praising him for who he is for His love, His mercy, His faithfulness, for the wonderful things he’s done in your life. You praise His name as the Great Creator as the Savior as the one who directs all things according to His plan and purpose. You long for His name to be honored by others you say hallowed be thy name Lord. May all of the creation praise you. May all the animals and the trees and the angels and the Archangels all that you made, praise your name and bring glory to your reputation. May those who don’t yet know You, praise You. I praise you help me to praise you more fully and to know you better so that I can appreciate who we are. Let your name be praised to me. 

And then you say like kingdom come Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So many things on earth aren’t the way they’re supposed to be. But in Jesus Christ, you begun to reign extend that reign take over more hearts take over more lives take over more and more aspects and parts of society. Let your way be known among the nations. Governments honor you in the way that they live. Let your people especially your church prosper and do your will on earth so that we’re more and more like the angels of heaven in the way we conduct ourselves and you can go on and pray not just the words Thy kingdom come Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, maybe praying for the mission of God in the world and for the missionaries that you know of. And so, you’re using this as an outline, to help God is to praise His name to seek the coming of His kingdom. Remember we are to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness before we seek other types of things. 

So, after you’ve sought God, after you’ve sought His righteousness and His will in the world, then you can get around to the things that we often fill our prayers up with. Give us this day our daily bread. Remember that prayer from Proverbs give me neither poverty nor riches but give me daily bread. You’re saying Lord, keep me from being too poor and keep me from being so rich that I become proud and don’t need you. but give me what I need for today and supply all my needs. Whether that’s food and finance, but also Lord supplied me with the energy, with emotional strength with all that I need for the day to serve you and honor you. And Lord, I bring my relationships before you, my relationship to you. 

I’ve sinned against you and don’t just say, “Forgive us our debts.” If you know ways you’ve sent them say, Lord, this and this and this are the ways that I’ve sinned against you. Let that be part of your prayer. And then you think about frayed relationships or situations where you’re at odds with somebody else and they’ve maybe hurt you. And you say, “Lord, forgive me as I forgive my debtors.” And think of those people who you need to forgive and bring them before the Lord in prayer. Bring all those relationships before him. 

And then think about spiritual warfare because prayer is at the heart of spiritual warfare. The Bible when it speaks to the armor of God says, “Pray in the Spirit, and all kinds of occasions and requests and keep on praying for all the saints and that’s in the context of putting on the armor of God.” Put on the gospel armor each piece put on with prayer says the Bible, that’s the final petition of the Lord’s prayer. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. And so, you pray, Lord, show me what the devil schemes are. Help me to fight against the temptations that might come my way just keep it away from me and deliver me from the evil one. So, you see what I’m doing here? I’m not just reciting the prayer. And for the sake of this talk, I can’t go on and on and on about it. But you get the idea. It’s an outline for how to pray in a way that’s not just focusing on me, myself and I. You know, the notorious prayer the guy who said, Lord bless me and my wife, our son, John and his wife us four no more. Well, that’s not exactly the way to pray. 

And the Lord’s Prayer teaches us to lift our eyes to Heaven, to the kingdom of heaven, to the hallowing of God’s name, to the doing of God’s will, for the forgiving of sins, both our own and the way we forgive others for fighting against the devil and provision of our daily needs and our daily bread. And what a wonderful guide for prayer that is our Lord Jesus taught that as a first step to people who said, Lord, teach us to pray. So, if you want to develop in your prayer life learn this prayer, learn it by heart, and then go beyond that. Say, Lord, this is the prayer you taught me, but it’s also the outline for praying that you taught me, and you can say this prayer, just a few moments. But if you really start to get into this prayer as an outline and the various aspects of it, you can be praying quite a while as you praise God and seek His help and explore these areas that Jesus taught us to pray about. 

Another pattern for prayer that some people find very helpful is the ACTS approach. Adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication. So, you just go into a prayer time with this pattern. You have all the words written out, but it’s a pattern. It’s not just totally spontaneous and from the heart, although it should be heartfelt prayer, but you say I’m going to spend part of my prayer praising God adoring Him rejoicing in Him, admiring Him just being overcome by His awe, His splendor and telling him how magnificent he is. And so, you set aside a time of prayer to do that. 

Then you say, Okay, now I’m going to spend some time confessing, admitting where I’ve been wrong, where I’ve sinned against Him, and you spend some time doing that. Then you say, now it’s time for Thanksgiving. The Bible says, Bless the Lord oh my soul and forget not all His benefits. So, He’s given you many, many benefits. And the Thanksgiving portion of prayer is to remember those benefits and a grateful heart and words of thanks as you offer them to God. And supplication is asking for things. It’s asking God to do things. So, there’s a lot of overlap between these patterns. You can see obviously the Lord’s Prayer also involves adoration and confession of sin and asking for forgiveness and supplication asking God to bring his kingdom and help us fight against the evil one. So, this is just a different way of organizing things, but it’s a good prayer pattern so that you don’t just get stuck in this application phase asking for stuff. And when you do get into the supplication, or ask for things you’ve already praised God, you’ve already kind of cleared the decks and gotten the sin off your chest and confessed it to him. You thank him for all his goodness and thank him him for past goodness. Gives you encouragement to ask for more. And God likes to be asked for more in light of all these already done. 

So supplication may involve a number of things that could involve the needs of the moment, whatever comes to mind. You think about your family members, you pray for them, for God to help them or to walk with Jesus to provide for the different things that they need from him. You pray for people who are part of the body of Christ whom you know. Maybe they have special needs. Are you just aware of someone who’s sick or something struggling in their marriage or somebody who’s not walking with the Lord, and you pray for them? You’ve got neighbors, the people who come to know You pray for them, you pray for their salvation, you pray that God will protect them and bless their lives and enrich them you pray for the mission of God around the world, you supplicate God and ask that missionaries will see fruit on their work. There’ll be strengthened that the Church will advance in other nations not just through the missionaries but through the Christians who live there and shine for the Lord and evangelize and so your supplication. The ‘S’ part of ACTS is a major part of prayer and when do that again, you’re going to find yourself praying for more than 30 seconds. 

A major part of growth in prayer is learning to pray the Bible, and the Bible is filled with prayers and the Bible is filled with things that should prompt us to pray. And so, one place to begin when you’re trying to learn to pray besides the Lord’s Prayer and ACTS. ACTS, adoration, confession thanksgiving supplications is just pray the Psalms. Many of the Psalms our prayers to God and for instance, Psalm two is a prayer to God about the nations that are raging, and you remember the fact that God laughs and then you remember the fact that the Son of God is in charge and so you pray in light of that Psalm. Psalm three and four are praying the presence of difficulty and enemies but they’re also prayers that I’m going to lie down and sleep in peace. I’m going to get a good night’s sleep, because you make me to dwell in safety, Lord. You can pray Psalm 23 The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures and restores my soul and all the things that that wonderful psalm talks about. Psalm 27 the Lord is my light and my salvation. One thing I asked the Lord, this is what I seek that I may dwell on the house of the Lord all the days and I like to gaze on the beauty of the Lord. My heart says if you seek His face, your face Lord will I seek. And so those Psalms give expression to the desires of our hearts, and they give expression to prayers. Oh Lord my God, you are very great. You are clothed with splendor and majesty. He wraps Himself in lightness with a garment. He’s made all things shout for joy. Lord, all yours worship the Lord with gladness and the Psalms just, they’re flooded with these beautiful, magnificent prayers. And if you don’t know how to pray, and you don’t know how to praise, just get into those Psalms. 

If you don’t know how to confess, look at Psalm 32, or Psalm 51. How blessed is the man whose transgressions are forgiven sins are covered, said Psalm 32. And I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long for doing that Your hand was heavy upon me. So, my strength was sapped, and then I acknowledged my guilt to you and confess it and you forgave the guilt of my sin. You can pray Psalm 32 as a confession and as a relief or Psalm 51 Be merciful to me. Oh God, forgive my transgressions. Don’t take your Holy Spirit from me, restore to me the joy of my salvation. Wow. You can learn to confess using the words of the psalms. You can learn to beg God for help when you’re facing enemies or sickness all of that’s there in the psalms. When you’re struggling with your own thoughts and depression. It’s all there. And learn the psalms and read them often and pray them as you read them, and your life will change and your prayer life will be changed. You’re praying the words that God has given us for prayer, and there’s other great prayers in the Bible too. 

A few examples: you can find a wonderful prayer of Daniel in the book of Daniel or the prayers of Ezra and Nehemiah. You can find prayers throughout the Old Testament of various heroes of faith. And when you read the epistles of Paul, you read things that he prayed for his readers and start praying those for yourself. Paul said, I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father may give you the spirit of wisdom revelation, so that you may know Him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints. And you take that prayer and make it your own. And you say, Lord, give me the spirit of wisdom revelation open the eyes of our heart, help me to know you and your riches, or you go on from Ephesians one to Ephesians three, I kneel before the the Father, from whom, his whole family on heaven on earth derives its name, I pray that out of his glorious riches, He’ll strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. So, you pray that for yourself. You pray, Lord dwell in my heart through faith. Help me to know this love that goes beyond all knowledge helped me be to be filled with your fullness and you end the way he does. He was able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to His power that’s at work in us. To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen. You pray prayers like that for a while, it’ll change you and God loves prayers like that, because you’re praying for Him for more of Him, for Him to fill you. 

You can also echo the prayers of heaven. How do you do that? Well, read the book of Revelation. There’s some tremendous songs and prayers in Revelation. You are worthy our Lord and God who receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they were created to have your being and when you pray that prayer, you’re joining with a great living creatures of heaven, the cherubim, you’re joining with the 24 Elders, those great heavenly representatives that stand before the throne of God, you’re praying with 1000s upon 1000s and 10,000 times 10,000 angels when you’re praising the Creator. That’s the prayer they pray. And so, when you pray it, you’re doing it with them, and you’re praising God. They also say Worthy is the Lamb, Jesus Christ was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength in honor and glory and praise. And so, you take that prayer on your lips, and you say hallelujah, the Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory. Or you say, Praise You Oh God, just and true are your judgments for you have judged right Babylon. You see these prayers in the Bible, and they make you strong in prayers because you’re praying the prayers of heaven, you’re praying the prayers of angels, your praying the prayers of saints made perfect. These prayers that God revealed to John in the book of Revelation. So, pray those prayers of the Psalms, Paul’s prayers and of other Bible writers. 

And on top of all that, the prayers that are in the Bible, just pray as you read the Bible when you’re reading Genesis, why don’t you read about God’s creation, praise God for doing those things. When you’re reading of Jesus, struggling in the Garden of Gethsemane, sweating drops of blood or wearing the crown of thorns on the cross. You just read that, or you pray and say thank you, Jesus. Thank you. Oh, Jesus, forgive all my sins, wash them away by your precious blood. Thank you for loving me so much. When you read the miracles of Jesus, you say, oh, Lord, release your power in our time, and make us mighty and new that your wonders may be seen among your people. So, you see what I mean? It sounds like Oh, I got to, I got to pray and what are we going to say for the next three minutes? No, when you have the Bible as your pattern for prayer, and when you’re reading the Bible, listening to God’s voice, something in you wants to talk along with him or to speak with him in conversation, and so you’re praying in response to your Bible reading in response to the meditation you’re doing in the thoughts that the spirit is bringing to you, and you’re praying God’s word. 

Praying the Bible is a title of a short, very short book by Don Whitney, but it is a helpful book that many people have read and found that really helped cultivate them. He uses Psalm 23, as one example, Just praying, the Lord is my shepherd pray all the way through that prayer. He gives other examples and gives a lot of help and practical insight in developing your prayer life. So, if you’re just looking for a little book that will help you in this pattern of praying the Bible and growing into prayer, like as you listen to the Word of God, this is a very helpful and a very brief book. 

I got a prayer pattern that I sometimes use and it’s certainly a great invention. It just uses a lot of the things that I’ve already been talking about. But it’s praying like little kids. God invites us to come to Him as His little children. And we can say to Him, Daddy, like children do. Kids say, “Wow, awesome!” And that’s part of praising God and finding him so awesome. Kids need to say I’m sorry, and so do we. Kids sometimes are upset and say, “Why it’s not fair.” And of course, those kinds of prayers are in the Psalms and God hears those prayers. We mustn’t, we shouldn’t say that to God, we should ever ask why. We should never protest that something’s not fair. Well, the Bible writers do. And we think even if we don’t dare to pray it, so if you come to God, you might as well be honest and say what’s really in your heart. If you’ve got complaints, instead of complaining to everybody else about God. Just bringing complaints right to the top bringing the God that God hit you’re not even supposed to feel this way. But I do. So, here’s why. Why do you let this happen? How long is this going to go on? Why don’t you do something about it? It’s not fair. And when you pray like children, you’ll actually start being a more genuine person in your prayer life and you’ll be more real before God, and you’ll become more real to you. Of course, little kids also need to learn to say please and ask for things and seek help from their parents and from others who say thank you and answers are given that lets us just say I love you, Lord, I love you, father, and sometimes just be quiet. Sometimes a little child just likes to be silent in the arms of parents and enjoy being together. And sometimes that’s all you need to do in prayer. Just be there with God and be glad that he’s God that you’re you that He loves you that He treasures you. 

But again, this involves a different elements of prayer that when you’re looking to have a prayer time, instead of just saying, well, whatever came to mind or whatever bubbled up in my heart, you might say, Okay, well, what are what are the daddy things are the expressions of thanks that He’s, my father. How do I praise Him and say, “Wow, what do I need to say sorry about what I feel like complaining about?” Prayer maybe isn’t always going to be the complaint department but if you’ve got complaints on your heart and troubles that cause turmoil, and you bring them to God and leave with Him, and then say, please, thank you, I love you. And sometimes Be quiet, be still and know that I am God, be peaceful in His presence. As one of the psalmist says, Lord, I don’t concern myself with things too wonderful for me. But I have still quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother like a weaned child is my soul with me. Here just quiet. You’re glad to be with him? 

Well, those are guides for prayer, the Lord’s prayer that what Jesus taught us you know, that can’t be beat or can’t be topped. A.C.T.S adoration confession thanksgiving, supplication, praying various passages of the Bible, the prayers that are there the prayers of all the prayers of heaven, the prayers the psalms are just praying in dialogue with the Bible as you read about God, the Great Creator God, the ruler, God the Savior, the things Jesus did and just praying the whole time you’re reading those things and see what happens to your prayer time pray like children and use one or another of these patterns. Sometimes change things up after a while one pattern may help you for a while to develop your prayer life and then you say, Okay, I’m going to let go of that for a while and here’s going to be my structured approach to prayer for a while. And none of these of course are meant to be substitute for praying from your heart and praying on the spot. But they’re to help make our prayer times more extensive and richer and fuller and help us to express to God the things Jesus wants us to be praying about. 

What are healthy prayer patterns well pray alone and pray with others. Pray on the spot and pray unscheduled. Pray from your heart. Pray with a guide. And as you do that, be thankful that even if you don’t always get it exactly right, and you won’t you have a loving Father who knows what you need even before you ask him. You have His Spirit, who is interceding for you with groans that words cannot express and he was searching our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit always intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will. And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him. Those are the words of Romans eight. Those are the great encouragement that we have in prayer. and when we get started, and we’re working on our spiritual fitness and we want to better prayer life, and we want to get over being too bored, or having prayers that run out after 45 seconds or 90 seconds. Hey, we may not know exactly how to pray, but we’ve got a God who loves us who invites us to pray, and we can come to Him, and we can truly grow in our prayer life, as we spend time with Him.