- Pray Biblically. Jesus gave us the pattern for prayer in Matthew 6:9-13:
This, then, is how you should pray: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." (NIV)
This is a biblical model for prayer, addressing the Father in reverence for His holiness, praying for His kingdom and His will to be done before asking for our needs to be met. When we learn to pray for what He wants, we find that we receive those things we ask for.
As we begin to grow and mature in the Lord, our prayer life will mature also. As we spend regular time feasting on the Word of God, we will find many other prayers in the scriptures that we can pray for ourselves and others. We will claim those prayers as our own, and as a result begin to pray biblically. For instance, I mentioned this prayer earlier in Ephesians 1:17-18 where Paul says:
- I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you...
(NIV)
Do you know I find myself praying that prayer for our church? I pray that prayer for my wife. I pray that prayer for my children. When scripture says to pray for kings and all those in authority (I Timothy 2:2), I find myself praying for our president and other government officials. When the Bible says to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6), I find myself praying for the Lord to send lasting peace to Jerusalem. And I have learned by spending time in the Word, that when I pray for the peace of Jerusalem, I'm praying for the only one who can bring peace to Jerusalem and that's Jesus. I'm praying for Jesus to come. In praying these prayers I am praying biblically.
While in college I also had the privilege of playing drums for a ministry team that did a lot of youth work in churches and high schools. Two weeks after my car broke down we were at a church in Maryland, and I was staying with a family from this particular church. We had ministered there over the weekend and we were in this church on Sunday night, our last night in Maryland. When the service ended, this fellow I was staying with came up to me and said, "I hear you need a car." A little surprised, I answered "Yeah, I sure do." Somehow he had heard through my teammates that I had just lost my car. He said, "I have a car at my house that I'd like to give you. Listen, it's late tonight. You guys have been busy all weekend. I'm not going to let you drive it back to Virginia tonight. You're too tired. But the first chance you get, you come up here and get this car. It's yours."
I was speechless. I was pumped. I was psyched! I was thanking God that He had answered my prayers. It wasn't hard to be thankful at that moment. And then he told me what kind of car it was. It was a Plymouth Cricket-an orange Plymouth Cricket!! My old car was blue. (Looking back, that was the only thing I liked about it!) And God began to teach me through that experience to pray specifically. If you're going to pray for a car, don't just pray for any car. Pray for the car you think you need. Be specific. Now don't expect a brand new Mercedes (or your favorite car necessarily) just because you prayed for one! God doesn't always give you exactly what you ask for, but He will always meet your need.
Read Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part VI or Part VII.
