Stop and Pray

Ephesians 6:18 “With all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.” ESV

Much has been written on prayer and the Bible has a lot to say about prayer, and still many of us find ourselves feeling very inadequate when it comes to praying.  Recently a suggestion crossed my path that has been very helpful for me personally and I wanted to share it with you.  Pastor John MacArthur of Grace To You, www.gty.org, says that in addition to our regular prayer time, he also encourages everyone to pray as we read our Bibles.
As we consider this idea, first let’s stop a minute and think about those things we want to include in our prayers.
1. Adoration and Worship of Almighty God.
2. Thanksgiving and Praise for blessings.
3. Repentance and Confession of our sins
4. Supplications and Requests for others and ourselves.
The Bible gives us much encouragement even before we begin to pray with the words from Psalms 81:10b “Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it.” Yes, we can ask largely, ask many, ask much.  
Returning to Pastor MacArthur’s suggestion: Perhaps we’re reading in Psalms–“The heavens declare the glory of God” –stop and pray a prayer of adoration and worship.  Then we may be reading Mary’s song of praise in Luke 1:46-47, “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoice in God my Savior,” and we can stop and give thanks and praise the Lord for our blessings.
Or we may be reading in Kings about the sins of the Children of Israel, II Kings 17:7, “And so it was that the Children of Israel sinned against the Lord their God…”–we can stop and pray a prayer of confession of our sins, the sins of our church and the sins of our nation.  Reading on in God’s Word we find Jesus healing a woman and saying to her, “Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole,” Luke 5:34 and we can stop and pray for the many people we know who are sick and suffering and those that need to know the Lord as their Savior.  Next, as we read about Ruth and Esther we can stop and pray for ourselves, asking God to conform our own lives to His will and His way.
These are just a few simple examples of praying as we read the Bible, but hopefully they are an encouragement to press on in prayer as we follow Christ’s command through Paul in I Thessalonians 5:16-18, Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 
       Remember: Pray when you feel like it, because it would be a shame to miss that opportunity.  Pray when you don’t feel like it, because that’s when you really need it!
 
The Better Way: Praying Some Is Good, Living A Life In The Spirit Of Prayer Is Better.
 
See also:  When You Pray
 

About Gail Slawson

I am a 74 year old wife, mother, grandmother and great grandmother. After 54 years of marriage, my husband and I have been richly blessed with 4 wonderful children and their wonderful mates and 19 precious grandchildren, five of whom are already with the Lord and 5 great-grandchildren. My husband and I are busy retirees and reside in Baton Rouge, Louisiana where we serve the Lord Jesus Christ through Bible Studies, as mentors in our church and telling others about Him "as we go." Mark 16:15
This entry was posted in Encouragement, Prayer. Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to Stop and Pray

  1. Rachel says:

    Praise God for these ministering messages.

    Like

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s