Beyond Please and Thank You

“I maintain that people—truly born-again, genuinely Christian people—often do not pray simply because they do not feel like it. And the reason they don’t feel like praying is that when they do pray, they tend to say the same old things about the same old things.”- Donald Whitney

Thank you and please. For a season of my Christian life, my prayers followed a pattern: Thank you for this day, this food, the hands that prepared it, the one who worked for it, and for Jesus. Please help me with this, heal someone I love from that, guide us in this decision, and bless this food to our bodies. Done. Signed, sealed and delivered with a hearty amen.

Prayer started to become boring, rote, and a tedious task. After all, I wasn’t telling the Lord anything I hadn’t already said before. It was like a long marriage. He knew all my stories, and I knew His. Prayer was only a formality on my part, exercised because that’s what good Christians are expected to do.

“To pray the Bible, you simply go through the passage line by line, talking to God about whatever comes to mind as you read the text.” One day I picked up the book Praying God’s Word by Donald Whitney. His words convicted my heart and led me to begin the practice of using whatever I read in the Bible to guide my prayers. No longer could I skim a passage to check a box for my daily reading. I would need to meditate on the words, in silence allow the Spirit of God to speak to my heart and only then, pray, as Whitney suggested, about whatever the Lord brought to mind. For years, the Father had daily spread a feast before me, and I had spent years merely grabbing a cup of coffee on my way out the door. Now, I was finally ready to sit down at the table. When you pray God’s Word, Whitney went on to say, “What you are doing is taking words that originated in the heart and mind of God and circulating them through your heart and mind back to God. By this means his words become the wings of your prayers.”

Whether your prayer life feels stagnant, or only a tiny bit dry, I commend this practice to you. I can think of few places in the Word easier to begin than the Psalms. Using this week’s sermon text as a template, spend time reading, meditating, listening in stillness, and praying God’s Word.

“May the Lord answer you when you are in distress; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you. May he send you help from the sanctuary and grant you support from Zion. May he remember all your sacrifices and accept your burnt offerings. May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed. May we shout for joy over your victory and lift up our banners in the name of our God. May the Lord grant all your requests.

Now this I know: The Lord gives victory to his anointed. He answers him from his heavenly sanctuary with the victorious power of his right hand. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm. Lord, give victory to the king! Answer us when we call!” Psalm 20

Can you relate to David’s feelings of distress? In what areas do you need His protection and support? Most importantly- what do these verses reveal to you about the nature and character of God? What are you tempted to trust in other than the Lord?

Using these verses to guide your prayer can be as simple as inserting your own name in the Psalm. But perhaps you’ll be inspired to write your own. I’m eager to hear how this habit revitalizes your prayer life!

As Christ’s people, called by His Name, may we ever be those who humble ourselves in prayer and seek His face.

Natalie