For my devotions, I started going through a study of the prayers of men and women in the Bible and examining them to see if there are ways or patterns in their prayers that I can apply to my personal prayer life.
Each passage has been interesting so far, and I've spotted some similar patterns in the way they present their requests to God. Most of them started off with praise. I don't know about you, but half the time I fill my prayers with requests to do this or that and not nearly as much praise as our God deserves. Nehemiah, Hezekiah, and Jeremiah all started their prayers with praise. (See Nehemiah 1:4-11, 2 Kings 19:14-19, & Jeremiah 32:16-25.) Here's an interesting pattern I found going through this study: they start by praising God, they ask Him to hear their prayers; they confess their sins, sometimes they plead promises out of God's Word, and THEN they give their requests for safety, provision, or whatever it is they are coming to Him for. Isn't it interesting that the requests come last in that lineup? It's a way to encourage ourselves to be humble and to think of others before ourselves, as we're taught in scripture. Another aspect jumped out at me. I noticed it in the first few passages I read and caught on to what motivated them to pray and to turn to God. Using my examples above, Nehemiah was sorrowful after hearing a report about those left behind in the captivity, in the ruins of Jerusalem. And this sorrow drove him to pray. Hezekiah received a letter from the messengers of King Sennacherib who threatened to fight against their city to overtake it. He was no doubt distressed by this message, and it drove him to the house of the Lord to pray. Jeremiah's motivation was different, but it's still very useful for us to know. God had commanded him earlier in the chapter to buy a field from his cousin, and he purchased it. Jeremiah then came to the Lord and prayed, motivated by his obedience and fulfillment of God's Word. We find another quick example in 1 Kings 8:22-54 about how Solomon prayed after he dedicated the house of the Lord that he'd built. The people (Israel), when they knew their sinfulness, came to pray towards the house of God. There are lots of things that can further motivate us to pray in our walk with God. I hope these few insights into the prayers of men from the Bible encourage you and are as helpful to your prayer life as they've been to mine! What motivates you to pray? End-of-the-month writing update: After taking a writing break for two-and-a-half weeks, I came back to my work in progress and deleted the six chapters I had written so far. I wanted to start fresh, so that's what I'll be working on in the coming weeks.
2 Comments
Carolyn Oravitz
7/31/2020 12:37:30 pm
Wonderful observations about praying, Carolyn. You are right in pointing out we should praise and thank God and confess our sins before giving him our requests.
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Cathrinne Dymond
8/4/2020 06:56:07 pm
Carolyn, very good how you have shown us by Scripture examples how we should pray. You are a Bible studier. We must give more praise to our God before going to our concerns and requests. Confessing our sin is so important too. I will re read those passages myself. Thank you.
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AuthorHi! I'm Carolyn, a writer seeking to glorify God with my words. Archives
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