Category Archives: How to Pray

We all need help how to connect with God in prayer.

Bible Prayer for Jerusalem

Bible Prayer - Prayer for Jerusalem - walls of Jerusalem, Israel

Bible Prayer – Prayer for Jerusalem – walls of Jerusalem, Israel

Here is another Bible Prayer, a prayer by Daniel while he was in Babylon longing for God’s people to return to the land of Israel.  Daniel 9:16  O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, let thine anger and thy wrath, I pray thee, be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are round about us.

Here is a Bible prayer asking God to make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. This is actually not fully fulfilled until the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ is fully established on the earth.   Isaiah 62:6 I have set watchmen upon thy walls, Jerusalem; all the day and all the night they shall never hold their peace: ye that put Jehovah in remembrance, keep not silence, 7 and give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

 The picture above shows some of the walls of Jerusalem.  The Lord wants us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.  Psalm 122:6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:  “May those who love you prosper;   7 may there be peace within your walls,  prosperity within your fortresses.”

So the Bible is full of example prayers.

God’s Sheep Hear His Voice

God’s Sheep Hear His Voice - Tree in Israel

God’s Sheep Hear His Voice – Tree in Israel

God’s Sheep Also Hear His Voice

Now that we have looked at this example of Samuel in the Bible, I want to look at some places in the New Testament that I believe have reference to this matter of Samuel and the Lord speaking to Samuel. John 10 speaks a lot about hearing the voice of God. John 10:3, “To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice…” Who are the sheep referred to here? We, as believers in Jesus Christ, are the sheep. We can hear God’s voice. Continuing in verse 3ff, “And he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. 4 And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. 5 And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.” In other words, God’s people are figuratively referred to as sheep, here, and they know the voice of God.
Let’s continue down to John 10:14ff where Jesus is speaking, “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. 15 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.” There you have God speaking, and we, as God’s sheep, recognizing His voice, just like Samuel in the Old Testament eventually began to recognize the voice of God.
Jesus continues to speak about His sheep listening to His voice in verse 27ff, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and my Father are one.” Jesus says, “My sheep hear My voice.” We need to learn to recognize the voice of God and hear when God speaks. There is also a promise in the Bible, that we will never be plucked out of the Lord’s hand or out of the hand of the Father.

Hannah Prays

Hannah Prays - River and Tree

Hannah Prays – River and Tree

The priest, Eli, noticed Hannah praying. For some reason Eli thought she was drunk.  If you read the first few chapters of I Samuel, you realize that Eli, the priest, was not serving the Lord very well, and his heart was no so much on God. In fact, his sons were doing things against the temple. This indicates to me that Eli was probably too close to the world and was used to seeing people drunk and that is why he thought this lady was drunk. We don’t want to be like Eli; we want to be like Hannah, a person who prays before the Lord.

We see in verse 15 that Hannah went on to say, “…No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the LORD.” Eli answered her in verse 1, “… Go in peace: and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him.” Eli eventually recognized that she was praying to the Lord and he joined in with her prayer. That is a very important point. Our passage says that the Lord remembered Hannah and gave her a son. That little phrase in verse 19, “The Lord remembered her” really means something. God remembers prayer. Sometimes we pray and we think, “I don’t know if God will remember this or if God will do anything.”  God remembers every prayer.  God answers every prayer. It may not be answered in the time we expect or in the way we expect.  Sometimes the thing we specifically pray for may not be God’s will so God kind of turns that prayer around and uses it in the proper way.  Never forget that the Lord remembers prayer and He answers prayer.

Hannah Prays for a Son – Samuel

Bible Prayer - Beach Flowers

Bible Prayer – Beach Flowers

Lets look at the  background on the life of Samuel. There was a woman named Hannah. She had no children and she was quite depressed and despondent about the situation. She cried out to the Lord and prayed:  “Lord, I have no children and people are looking down on me.”  She desperately wanted a child. She went to the temple one day in great distress and she prayed.  She said, “Lord, I ask You for a child, and if You give me a child I will give him to You for all the days of his life.” Samuel was produced out of the prayer of his mother. If you are a mother, never despise the prayers that you make for your children. God answers prayer and God remembers prayer.

Let’s read from I Samuel 1:10, “And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore. 11 And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life…”  Here we see that Hannah prayed out of her distress, out of her distressing situation. You could even say that her situation seemed impossible.  It looked like it was impossible for her to have a child. I don’t know what her situation was medically, but the point is that she prayed and God answered her prayer.

Prayer of Declaration

Bible Prayer of Declaration - Sunrise over Sea of Galilee in Israel

Bible Prayer of Declaration – Sunrise over Sea of Galilee in Israel

Here is a prayer of declaration to the Lord:  “Lord, You have been our dwelling place throughout all generations” ( Ps.  90:1 ).  Only the Lord satisfies. Places, things and projects do not replace Him.  We try to do many things to get satisfied, but only the Lord can satisfy us in reality. So this is also another example of a Bible prayer.

In Psalms 119 there are many more examples.  Psalm 119:89, “For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.” In other words, in the heavenlies there is no problem with the Word of God, but on the earth there is some problem. That’s why the Lord Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, indicating that in Heaven there is no problem with the Word of God. Yet, Jesus taught us to pray to bring the will of God from the heavens to the earth.

Psalm 119:89 says, “For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.” Yet it is God’s intention that His Word would also be established on the earth.   This is another prayer of declaration. Declaring this prayer on earth reminds us and God that His word should also be settled in our hearts while we are on the earth.  Why should His word only be settled in the heavens and not in us on the earth.

I Will Pray in the Morning

Pray in the Morning - three beach rocks

Pray in the Morning – three beach rocks

David prays in psalm 5.  David the author of  this psalm, lifts up his voice to God in prayer in the morning. What a great time to pray and think about God, the source of our life. Morning sets the direction for the day. Our time reading the Bible and praying in the morning is crucial to the atmosphere of the day. The morning prayer time is little like breakfast in the morning, giving us energy to start the day.

Psalm 5:2 Hearken unto the voice of my crying, my king and my God; for to thee will I pray. 3 Jehovah, in the morning shalt thou hear my voice; in the morning will I address myself to thee, and will look up.

The Lord is My Strength – Prayer

Consider this verse:  Exodus 15:2 The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.   In this verse, it does not say to “pray for strength”, it says the Lord is my strength. So the prayer for strength is simply to say “The Lord is my strength”.  Just say this a few times, and the realization will hit you, it’s not  asking for strength, it’s declaring the fact about where our strength comes from. Our strength is not a thing, but a person Jesus Christ. This is the best prayer for strength.

Prayer in the Middle of Anything

How do we prepare to pray to pray?

Sometimes we feel very insecure. We are very fumbly and wobbly in ourselves. We try to hide it from other people but a lot of times we feel this way. David had that experience too. But many times he prayed by calling upon the name of the Lord and the Lord became like a rock to him. In his experience in himself he was sinking. It looked like everything was all over. And to him nothing was going to happen. But God came to him. David experienced God like a rock—stable, secure, and unmovable. A rock is protection. You can hide behind a rock.  David had this type of experience and Paul had this type of experience.  David had prayer in the middle of anything.

I encourage you to all have this type of experience, to pray and call on Jesus for help.  Suppose you are in the middle of something.  For instance, this television program we’re doing was potentially a real problem for me because in my natural self I’m not that aggressive, and I’m even afraid to talk in front of people.  Here I am with three cameras staring me in the face and people watching this thing and they are thinking good, or thinking bad—I don’t know.  Potentially this could be a very dangerous situation for my soul, my psychology. Consider what you would do if you were up here talking like this? Well anyway, today I have the experience of just trusting in Jesus and relying on Him. How? Just by speaking His name.  Jesus, “You’ve got to come and help me. Jesus I’m a little insecure today. You’ve got to come and help me today.” He wants to come. So I encourage you to have this experience.

God’s created man for a purpose, to express God’s image and to represent Him.  God created man with three parts; body, soul, and spirit. Don’t forget that our spirit was made for us to experience and contact God Himself because the Bible says that God is Spirit.

As the God-Man, with all His virtue, His wisdom, and His life experiences, He went to the cross and dealt with every negative thing, including sickness.  He rose from the dead. He rose out of death, out of negative things, and He is Lord of lords. And today He is the Spirit—so available for us to enjoy.  Receive Him today as your Savior.   So feel free to contact God in prayer in the middle of anything.