Improve Your Prayer Life by Listening to Prayer from Scripture
Spiritual Questions with Scriptural Answers.
In our last article, we discussed the prayer life of Jesus and how we can begin to improve our prayer lives by learning from Him. In this article, we want to discuss how we can improve our prayer lives by reading, studying, and meditating upon the prayers recorded in the Bible.
Have you ever found yourself in a position where you had time to pray and wanted to pray but didn’t know exactly what to say? This can be very discouraging and can hinder our desire to pray like we ought.
One of the best ways to pray is to pray back a prayer to God. Studying the prayers of God’s faithful saints can help us tremendously. To make prayers even more fulfilling, we can make them personal which can transform our lives.
In the following, we will examine three Old Testament examples of Godly men who prayed powerful prayers in the midst of difficult circumstances.
David’s Prayer.
First, we examine a prayer of David.
David, like Jesus, was a man of prayer. David, though he fell short many times, was a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22). One of the reasons he was so close to God is because of how he prayed.
When we study the Book of Psalms, it is amazing to see David’s dependence on God. Time and space do not permit for us to examine each Psalm wherein David offered a powerful prayer to God, but we want to specify the prayer found in Psalm 51.
The background of this Psalm is David’s sinful actions of committing adultery and conspiracy to murder (2 Sam. 11-12; cf. Jas. 1:13-15; 1 John 2:15-16). God sent a prophet by the name of Nathan to tell David of his sinful actions. Once David acknowledged his sin, he turned to God in prayer and delivered one of the most humble and beautiful prayers of repentance in all of Scripture (Psa. 51:1-4, 7-12).
Daniel’s Prayer.
Second, we consider the prayer of Daniel.
As a faithful man of God, Daniel prayed fervently and believed in the power of prayer. His faith was so strong that others were opposed to him and wanted to see him suffer.
A decree was made that if anyone prayed to God they would be thrown into a den of lions. Daniel, knowing the decree went out, did the following:
“Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days. Then these men assembled and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God” (Dan. 6:10-11).
In the face of trial and inevitable suffering, Daniel still turned to God as he had always done. Here we can gain encouragement to be persistent and consistent in prayer and like Daniel, always be grateful to God.
Nehemiah’s Prayer.
A third and final example is that of Nehemiah.
When he heard that the walls of Jerusalem had been torn down and the gates burned, Nehemiah turned to God in prayer (Neh. 1:4-11).
In this prayer, he began by acknowledging God’s greatness and power. He then prayed that God would be attentive to his prayer and pleaded for mercy.
Finally, Nehemiah prayed that God would open a door of opportunity for him to be able to go and help rebuild the walls and help his people.
As we consider these three examples, we should be able to relate them to our own lives.
When we sin and go to God in prayer, we can remember the prayer of Psalm 51 and pray it back to God.
When we are facing difficult times like Daniel, we can gain encouragement that Daniel made it a practice to stay steadfast in prayer.
Like Nehemiah, we can pray for open doors of opportunity to better serve the Lord and help others.
While these are just a few examples, I hope you will be encouraged by them but also study the other prayers offered throughout Scripture.
I then challenge you to make them your own and pray them back to God. This has helped me and my prayer life and hopefully, it can help you as well.
Drew Suttles is a minister for the Quitman church of Christ in Quitman, Georgia, and one of my best friends in this world. They live-stream all their Bible classes and sermons on their YouTube channel.
Drew also hosts the “Weathering the Storm” podcast on the Scattered Abroad Network. Drew talks about facing life’s challenges as a child of God. His podcast will be a blessing to your life.
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