Prayer A to Z

How to Manage Your Personal Prayer Time

Posted on April 7, 2017 by Stephen Nielsen

When you begin your prayer time, pray around the passage you have just read. Prayer should always be prepared and inspired by the Word.  Then after you have finished praying around the scriptures, you can start making a list of requests others have given you and also of your own needs.

If you are really struggling, you will tend to be more sympathetic toward yourself and want to list more items for yourself. But don’t do that.  Do the opposite.  Pray more for others.  Paul tells us that we are to esteem others better than ourselves; to regard their interest’s more than our own (Phil 2:3-4).  And if you do this, especially if you are feeling down, God will bless you and lift you up.  That has been my experience.  When I have felt down, after I have prayed for others for a while, God has lifted me up.

When you list the requests of others, be careful not to read into them or analyze them. It should be your intent to pray for them exactly as they have made their request.  Then, as you begin praying for them, the Holy Spirit may move you to pray for other things, deeper things.  He will show you exactly what they need and how to pray for them (Rom. 8:26).

As for your own requests, I think the most important things to pray about is over what God has just spoken to you about in His Word. Pray over that first.  Then list and pray over any other concerns you have.  Pray over everything you may be anxious about (Phil. 4:6).  Pray for anything you think you need or that you desire.  You can feel free to pray about anything.  Nothing is off limits.

As you are praying, however, God will show you what things you really need and what things would actually not be beneficial for you to have (1 Cor. 6:12).  I have experienced that the more I meditate on God’s Word, and the more I pray, the more He will reveal to me those things He wants me to have and pray about.  Here then is a good principle of prayer: the more we pray the more we will know how to pray.

Inspired Prayers: A Great Aid to Our Prayers

Posted on February 4, 2017 by Stephen Nielsen

The Bible is full of wonderful inspired prayers. Each prayer in the Bible is different; each one was designed and offered to fit a different need.  Some prayers are short, some long.  Some are very personal, some more public.  Some prayers, like the Psalms are very devotional.  The prayers of Paul are very doctrinal.  I think all of the inspired prayers of the Bible can be a great aid to your prayers.  Let the Holy Spirit show you which ones He wants you to use to help you in your prayers.

Generally, I see that there are two ways Biblical prayers can be used to aid our prayers: (1) they may put us in the right mood for prayer; and (2) they can be used to instruct us and tutor us in prayer. Therefore, when we read and meditate on a Biblical prayer we invite the Holy Spirit to teach us how to pray.  If we are submissive to Him He will put us in the mood for prayer, give us a teachable heart, and then teach us from the prayer how to form our own prayer.

As we meditate on Biblical prayers, they show us not only the mechanics of prayer and how to form prayers, they will come alive to us and will pray for us (Heb. 4:12). If we are yielded to the Spirit they will show us God’s heart, what His will is, and what He wants us to pray.

Inspired prayers will also show us our own heart. They will be as a mirror to our heart.  The words we find in Biblical prayers may express how we feel better than we could ever express.  They will show us what our heart is really like and what we really need and desire; for God, who speaks to us through all of scripture and through Biblical prayers, knows what we need and what we should pray for better that we do.  Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”