I don’t know anyone who knows what to pray all the time. There are some situations and events that happen in our lives that leave us feeling clueless as to what to pray. For God to answer our prayers, it must be in His will – that’s scriptural. But what if we aren’t sure of what His will is?
Then there are times that we run out of words or perhaps feel like we are saying the same thing over and over. We may find our prayer time lacking, and our minds drifting off to other things while the clocks ticks on, and on, and on. We want to be devoted in prayer, but frankly… we just may not have enough to say to fill the time.
First, let me bring encouragement to you by saying that God doesn’t work on our time tables. We don’t have to pray an hour a day in order to be saved. We do want to develop a good prayer life, but it’s more about quality than quantity.
Second, we have a great tool that most often gets neglected during prayer that can help both situations above – the Word of God. The Bible gives us direction as to the will of God, and gives us substantial scriptures that bring interest, faith, and personal enrichment into our relationship with God.
The Word of God is always true, so praying the Word removes our fear that we may not say the right thing. It is also our spiritual weapon, and part of our defense. When we pray about spiritual struggles, praying the Word fights our spiritual enemy and protects us from lies and deceit.
An easy way to learn to pray scriptures, is the use the book of Psalm. This book is packed full of praise, encouragement, guidance, and scriptures to fight fear, discouragement, hopelessness, and sin. We can be extremely discouraged but after reading through some of the psalms, find ourselves with hope, as we connect with David who faced enormous adversity for years at a time. Though David struggled with mankind, and his own emotion, his heart always turned back to God and found faith to believe that God was faithful.
To pray the Word, find a Psalm (or other scripture) that deals with similar situations or emotions that you are dealing with. Put yourself (or you name) in place of the writer, and apply it to your own life. Below are some examples.
When you are:
Afraid: Psalm 3, 91
Alone: Psalm 27
Envious: Psalm 73
Like giving up: Psalm 34, 43
Sad: Psalm 13
Weak: Psalm 40, 121, 142
Worried: Psalm 37
Tempted: Psalm 141
Feel unimportant: Psalm 139
Feel like praising God: Psalm 96, 100, 145
When you need:
Comfort: Psalm 23
Forgiveness: Psalm 32, 51, 103
Guidance: Psalm 19, 25
Hope: Psalm 13, 27
Peace: Psalm 3
Courage: Psalm 11, 42
Confidence: Psalm 46
Protection: Psalm 91, 121
Rest: Psalm 23
Wisdom: Psalm 16, 111
Create a quick list of these scriptures and keep them in your purse or wallet, if you cannot memorize them.
You can also read the scripture and then pray a relevant prayer after it. Here are a couple examples:
‘The Lord is my shepherd…’ Thank you that you look after us and protect us
‘I shall not want…’ Thank you that you provide for all I need….
The more you pray scripture, the more you will know God’s will and be able to apply it to your life’s situations. You do not have to know all the right words, all the time. Pray God’s Word; it’s always right, and it always encourages and build us up.
