The Bible's Built-In Prayer Guide

[Rob Griepentrog]

If you're like me, you sometimes find yourself stuck trying to think of something to pray about.  While we're surrounded by people and matters to pray about, there are just some times when the mind gets stuck, and prayer can seemingly grind to a halt.

Recently, I was preparing a prayer guide for a prayer meeting focusing on Revival in the Church.  I was reading Romans 12, when quickly the Holy Spirit began to point out prayer points from within the text.  They began leaping off of the page right before my eyes!  Here are a few that caught my attention:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

³ For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment...

Verses 9-16 have a wealth of prayer points packed in as well!

Some of these highlighted points can be prayed personally, while others can be prayed for the Church, a nation, community, or another group of people (either within or outside of the Church).

Here are a few prayer examples from the highlighted text above:

Lord, (from verse 1) I desire to be holy and pleasing to You everyday.  Help me to offer my body as a living sacrifice to You today.  I want to yield my agenda, priorities, and life to Your wisdom, love, grace, and guidance.  Please fill me afresh with Your Holy Spirit, so that I may be increasingly sensitive to Your heart, and more obedient to Your promptings and will.

(From verse 2)- Father, I thank You for your presence in my life.  Thank You, too, for giving me Your Word, your Spirit, and the ability to read and take to heart what Your Word instructs.  I want to be able to confidently test and approve Your good and pleasing will.  Help transform my mind from this world's thinking into a mind that's renewed in Your ways of thinking.  You are my desire, Lord.  I love You dearly!  Grow my love for you deeper, still!

Verse 3- Father, I confess that I'm all too eager to think of myself more highly than I ought.  I want to think I'm smarter, more clever, faster, and better trained than others, but it's simply not true.  Thank you for quickly humbling me at times when I become puffed up in those ways of thinking or acting.  Help me to accurately see myself through Your eyes, so that I don't become the center of focus in my life, but so that You become and remain the center.  You are my all-in-all.

A way of praying verse 3 for the Church could look something like this:

Father, as a part of your Bride, the Church, I'm prone to thinking of myself more highly than I should.  And sadly, Father, I'm not alone in thinking with that mindset.  Many have been turned away from Christ due to encounters with Christians who have been prideful, hurtful, and sometimes just rude.  These are not attributes of You, Jesus; but many, including me, have given off that impression to others.  Please forgive me, and those in the Church who have hindered others from knowing You accurately, truthfully, and lovingly.  Please redeem those encounters, and help those of us within the Church to think of ourselves with sober judgment, not more highly than we ought.  In Jesus' name, Amen.

One of the benefits of prayer, is that God has given us His Holy Spirit to help us pray.  As we look at the Word of God, the Spirit can help us pray the Scripture back to God in ways in which honor God, and also change us, and others, from the inside, out.  The Spirit and the Word can also help us get unstuck when we feel caught at a dead end in prayer.

Try this way of praying.  Before you read the Word of God, or pray, ask God to fill and quicken you with His Holy Spirit.  He will powerfully meet you where you're at, and may lead you deeper into His Word than you ever expected or imagined!

Continue in prayer,

Rob Griepentrog