Take a minute to listen to the attached 'Prayer Minute'. It shares a need some of us face from time to time especially we need God through His word helping us.
Difficult situations sometimes that we face, confront us—especially with our children, or sometimes with others that are similar to the situation mentioned in this ‘Prayer Minute’. These situations cause us to anguish and look for answers.
Put yourself in this situation and consider the following questions:
- Why would you turn to God?
- What about your turning to God’s Word.—note: The ‘Prayer Minute’ mentions Isaiah 55:11 which says “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”
- Why would using scripture in prayer help when faced with difficult problems? (hint—see I John 5:14)
How do I know if a scripture applies? Proverbs 2:1-6 gives encouragement to learn God’s word and to let the Lord’s wisdom guide us. God’s wisdom will lead us to the right scripture to use in our prayers.
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Andrew and Dr Charles Hughes,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Many of us have faced similar difficult situations like the one in the Prayer Minute. Situations like those can drive us to our knees and seeking God's help. I appreciate both of your thoughts. I know they will help and encourage others to seek the Lord's help in prayer.
Lewis Turner
I find that I pray two different ways, and I believe that Scripture can inform both of them. The type of prayer in the prayer minute is a "reactive" prayer - a response to a specific situation. I suspect that if the truth were known, most prayer is of this type. I definitely think that Scripture can guide this kind of prayer, but often the "sound bite" approach to applying prayer scriptures can be a detriment. For example, one of the most-used (and may I suggest most-abused) prayer verses is John 15:7 - "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you." We often take this verse to be a carte blanche promise of God's answer in any situation. The passage is actually about bearing fruit, and the context of the prayer promise is that of bearing fruit for God. This is obvious from the very next verse, "This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit...".
I do believe in applying Scripture to situations as we pray, but I've seen it done badly often enough that I try to be careful.
An approach I'm trying to use more and more these days is the one suggested by Jon Graf in his book, Praying Like Paul. Rather than starting with a situation or even a person, Jon starts with Scripture. He looks at some of the great prayers in Paul's epistles and then challenges us to think of people for whom we could pray those prayers. I find this "proactive" approach to prayer to be more kingdom-focused than the typical reactive prayers. Surely there's a place for both, but I can't help thinking that if we more consistently prayed these proactive, kingdom-focused prayers for people, maybe the need for the reactive type of prayer might be lessened. Just a thought...interested in feedback.