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A Prayer about God Hearing Our Prayers

A Prayer about God Hearing Our Prayers

Loving Father,

We confess, sometimes we wonder 

if you hear our prayers. 

Thank you for giving us the words of your Word, 

other travelers voicing our questions, 

“Why, Lord, do you stand far off? 

Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” (Psalm 10:1) 

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). 

In days of doubt, 

remind us that you have not rejected our prayers 

or withheld your love from us (Psalm 66:20). 

Remind us of the many awesome deeds you have done:

You “turned the sea into dry land; 

they passed through the river on foot” (Psalm 66:6).

You have “kept our soul among the living 

and has not let our feet slip” (Psalm 66:9). 

Most of all, you allowed your Son to be forsaken 

that we might never be forsaken again (Matthew 27:46). 

Because of your great mercy, 

we join the Psalmist in singing your praise,

“But truly God has listened; 

he has attended to the voice of my prayer” (Psalm 66:19).

Read Psalm 66. 

Bible Study: Six Steps to Learning the Language

Bible Study: Six Steps to Learning the Language

Learning a new language brings freedom to travel.

Last year, our twenty-four-year old son traveled to Europe, first to Barcelona, then to France, where he participated in a music festival. Unlike me, he can navigate these foreign lands freely, because he is fluent in Spanish and highly proficient in French. Although he has a natural affinity and love for languages, his fluency is hard-fought; he trained rigorously to acquire it. One summer when he was around eleven, he decided he wanted to learn Spanish. He made a plan and set up a program for himself. He prioritized this work, setting aside around four to six hours a day (yes, he always was an unusual child!) for study. To prepare, he bought books on grammar and vocabulary; as part of the process, he made flashcards and listened to recordings. As he gained knowledge, he spent time speaking the language with his piano teacher, who is originally from Colombia. The next summer he attended an immersion program in Costa Rica and eventually began teaching adults the language. A year or so later, he followed a similar process to learn French.

Growing a passion for the language gives us more freedom in Christ.

Why, you ask, am I telling you all this? (Am I just bragging, as my son-in-law would say?). Although I do enjoy bragging on my kids, what I really want is to facilitate a passion for and proficiency in the Christian’s language, the Word of God. Now that we are citizens of Christ’s kingdom, how do we gain the freedom and joy to journey in it, to live in it? We do so by becoming more like Christ and by coming closer to Christ. One of the best ways to do that is to read and study the Word of God that tells the story of how we first became citizens and how we are to live in his land. Although studying God’s Word does not require all of the following steps, I’m going to list some that might help. Once you’ve used this process for a while, you probably won’t need to think about it; you’ll just go through it automatically. But if you’re getting started or trying to re-ignite a dwindling fire, these six P’s may help.

1. Pray

I don’t know that our son prayed about learning Spanish, but we can certainly ask God for the discipline to read and study the Bible. That’s what I call extra help!

2. Purpose

Our purpose in reading and studying the Bible is always to grow in godliness, which is to become more like Christ and to come closer to Christ.

3. Prioritize

We know this. New habits require new neurons to fire. We will have to set aside time, even make a reminder on our phone or put an appointment in our calendar if we are going to develop a healthy habit of Bible study.

4. Prepare

Just as our son gathered resources, you may need to gather some tools:

5. Plan

Whether you want to read the whole Bible over a period of time or to spend more time in-depth in a particular book of the Bible, it’s good to have a plan.

  • Think about how long it takes to read a chapter of a book, and plan how many chapters you will read a day.
  • Keep a record of which books you’ve read, so you can make sure to cover all of the Bible at some point. (For more on the question of whether you really need to read the whole Bible, see this post.)
  • For reading the whole Bible, you can find some good plans here:

6. Process

When our son sat down to study Spanish and French, he went through a process to help him learn.

Here is a suggested process for Bible study with seven steps:

1. Pray

Ask the Holy Spirit to instruct and engage your whole being with whatever you are about to read.

2. Read the passage once.

Read it aloud if you can, or listen with one of the great apps made for this purpose.

3. Read (or listen) again.

Ask, “What does this literally say?” Try to paraphrase in your own words.

4. Interpret

  • Consider the literary genre, the historical context (study Bibles and commentaries may be helpful for this).
  • Consider the story elements like character, plot, setting, metaphor, etc.: What comparisons are being made? Ask questions like “Who are the characters, and how did they respond?” “What would the original characters in the story have felt, thought?”
  • Ask, “What is the deeper meaning?”

5. Apply

Tim Challies and Josh Byers, in their book, Visual Theology Guide to the Bible, suggest considering three categories for application: “The head, the heart, and the hands.” Try these questions for each type of application:

  • The head:
    • What does the passage say about God, yourself, living the gospel, Christian doctrine?
    • How does the passage fit in with the overall story of the Bible?
  • The heart:
    • How do I feel reading this passage? Does the passage suggest certain emotional responses?
    • Is there something in this that makes me feel uncomfortable? Why?
  • The hands:
    • Ask, “How can I live this out wherever I’m going, whatever I’m doing today?
    • What does it tell/show me about loving God and loving others? Do I need to pray about something? Do I need to confess something?

Remember: The purpose of application is to connect it to your living story, how you will become more like Christ and be drawn nearer to Christ.

6. Pray

Use some of the words you read to pray back to God.

  • For example: “Lord, help me train myself for godliness” (1 Tim. 4:7).
  • “Lord, I don’t know what it means that Paul handed these guys over to Satan (1 Tim. 1: 20), but that sounds scary. Please help me to continue to grow in faith and not fall away.”
  • “God, it says you are the ‘eternal, immortal, invisible King…’ (1 Tim. 1:17). I adore you. I yield to your rule over my life.”

7. Meditate/Memorize

Write down one verse or even a phrase from your reading to meditate on or memorize during the day or over the course of a week.

That’s it! Are you ready? Go!

Practice this process once a day, five days a week, for three weeks. (If you’re a Living Story subscriber, I’ve even provided free Bible study pages to guide you).  If you do this for three weeks, chances are you’ll have a new habit for Bible study. At the very least, you’ll gain a new appreciation for the beauty of the language and the story God has given us to help us know and enjoy him. At the most, you’ll acquire proficiency in the language you need to live in the only country where true freedom exists.

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From Recovery to Restoration cover

Get Hope for Troubling Times

Advance Review for From Recovery to Restoration

"When the storms of life crash into our lives, the devastation left behind is often overwhelming. Recovery and healing is slow and arduous. Elizabeth Turnage's devotional is for all those laboring toward recovery. From Recovery to Restoration is a hope-filled, gospel-laced, and Christ-exalting book which invites us into God's story of redemption and helps us see how he is at work to redeem and restore all things, even the aftermath of our personal losses, heartaches, and trials."

Christina Fox

Writer, Counselor, Speaker

author of A Heart Set Free: A Journey to Hope Through the Psalms of Lament.

How to Pray the Bible back to God

How to Pray the Bible back to God

Dear God, thank you for all the people who are sick…

So went one of the oft-repeated prayers of our young children in our after-dinner prayer times around the table. We still laugh about how that awkward prayer got stuck on auto-play.

Although we chuckle at our children thanking God for sick people, many adults have a similar problem with prayer: we tend to repeat ourselves, sometimes to the point of monotony.

My nighttime prayers with my husband often follow the same sleepy pattern, beginning, “Dear Lord, thank you for this day…” and ending, “Please help us rest well tonight.” Nothing wrong with that, especially for a weary woman at the end of the day. Except that, as Donald S. Whitney explains in his wonderful little classic, Praying the Bible, we can easily get bored when we pray the same thing about the same things over and over.

Everyone, he explains, prays about similar subjects: family, friends, future, work (schoolwork), church, ministry, the world, and whatever “current crisis” we or people we know and love are facing. That’s normal and fine, he says. The problem comes when prayer bores us because we are praying the same things about the same subject over and over and over. Whitney offers a simple, obvious solution. So obvious that it’s puzzling why we don’t do it more often:

He suggests that we pray the Bible, God’s Word, back to him. Jesus did it (Luke 23:46; Matt. 27:46). The church did it (Acts 4:23-26). Why shouldn’t we do it?

Whitney gives a short, easy approach to using the Psalms to pray for the things we normally pray about.

  1. Pick a Psalm from one of five based on the day of the month. For example, on the seventh of the month, I would look at Psalm 7Psalm 37Psalm 67Psalm 97, and Psalm 127. I would choose one of those to pray back to God.
  2. Start with the first verse. Let’s say I choose Psalm 127. Verse one reads,

“Unless the Lord builds the house,

Those who build it labor in vain.”

Ask: How might this verse relate to the things I’m praying about? This is where I personally fold in the Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication structure and ask, “How does this verse help me adore God or confess something to God or thank God or supplicate (ask him for something)?

I might say, “Lord, thank you for building our house, for giving us a family in which our children and children-in-law know you as Savior.”

Or, I might ask, “Help us not to try to build things in our own strength.”

Or, I could confess, “Lord, sometimes I try to build my ministry (do my work) in my own strength.”

I could pray for our church, “May our church be a house of worship built by you; may our labor to bring the gospel to the world not be in vain.”

I could lift up my friends who are suffering: “Help my friend to see how you are working to make them into a glory-built house through their [chronic illness, addicted child, betrayal by a friend].”

Continuing to the second part of verse one, more prayers come to mind:

“Unless the Lord watches over the city,

The watchman stays awake in vain.”

“Lord, I confess that too often I think I am the best watchwoman for my children and loved ones. Help me to trust you with their care.”

“Lord, protect our older son as he travels to and from Chicago for grad school, our younger son as he travels home from France; protect our other children as they drive down to the beach to be with us.”

Because they were composed as songs to be sung in worship, the Psalms are well-suited for praying. As you become accustomed to praying the Psalms, you will begin to see how to pray other passages of Scripture. This skill will come in handy when you want to pray about a particular matter or when you want to pray the passage on your daily Bible reading schedule.

For example, I was recently reading Luke, so I copied the verse, “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:42) in my prayer journal underneath my children’s names. For the month of August, I prayed daily that God would increase my children’s wisdom and stature (integrity), that he would grow them in grace.

Ready to give it a go? Here’s Psalm 127 in its entirety. Try forming your own prayer (maybe even writing it down). Think of how you can Adore God, Confess to God, Thank God, or Supplicate (Ask) God with the verses. If you try this or pray Scripture regularly, I’d love to hear about your experience.

127 Unless the Lord builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain.
It is in vain that you rise up early
and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
for he gives to his beloved sleep.

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the children of one’s youth.
Blessed is the man
who fills his quiver with them!
He shall not be put to shame
when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

From Recovery to Restoration cover

Get Hope for Troubling Times

Advance Review for From Recovery to Restoration

"When the storms of life crash into our lives, the devastation left behind is often overwhelming. Recovery and healing is slow and arduous. Elizabeth Turnage's devotional is for all those laboring toward recovery. From Recovery to Restoration is a hope-filled, gospel-laced, and Christ-exalting book which invites us into God's story of redemption and helps us see how he is at work to redeem and restore all things, even the aftermath of our personal losses, heartaches, and trials."

Christina Fox

Writer, Counselor, Speaker

author of A Heart Set Free: A Journey to Hope Through the Psalms of Lament.

Bible Study: 14 Ways to Whet Your Appetite

Bible Study: 14 Ways to Whet Your Appetite

 

“Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” Deut. 8:3

Most of us know we can’t live by bread alone; some of us are even counseled by our doctors not to eat bread at all. But do we know that we can’t live by work alone or family alone or approval alone or achievement alone or whatever it is that we try to fill our hearts up with alone? Do we know that we are desperate—desperate for every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord?

I have to admit, a lot of the time I act as if I’m just fine without the words that come from the mouth of the Lord. I mean, I may read my Bible every morning, but I don’t read it as if my life depended on it. And that’s what Moses is saying here. God actually let the Israelites go hungry in the wilderness then fed them with manna.

You may know what happened. At first they thought this lovely frosted flaky looking stuff was delicious. But they soon tired of it and complained to Moses that they wanted to get back to their old familiar lives (where they were slaves in Egypt!). (Note: something else I love about the Bible—it is hilarious in places! (Until you realize that you act just as foolishly as the Israelites sometimes)).

In today’s enCourage blog, I asked, “Do we really need to read the whole Bible?” Today, I’m going to suggest fourteen ways to read the Bible. These are not so much strategies as they are attitudes and approaches. Next week we’ll talk strategy.

1. Read it as if your life depended on it.

Because it does. At least, that’s what Jesus told Satan (Matthew 4: 4). Everything we need for life and breath and even death is right here in this beloved book.

3. Read it as if it is a love letter written to you by God…

…the most holy, most perfect, most just, most loving, most merciful Being—God, your Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer (1 John 4:7-12). Because it is.

2. Read it as if you don’t know everything.

As if you don’t know everything about the Bible and as if you don’t know everything, period. In other words, read with humility (James 4:6).

4. Read it to develop a relationship with the Author…

that same God who is holy, perfect, just, loving, and merciful. (The Psalms, all of them). As you read, ask “Who is this God? What is he like?”

5. Read it as if all of it points to Jesus God’s Son, your Savior (Luke 24:27).

Because it does. Read it to learn how Jesus lived, and ask him to help you live that way too.

7. Read it as if you are going to—hard word alert—submit to it…

surrender to it, obey it, live it out (Psalm 119:4, 5, 7, 11, 33-34, etc.). (And as if you actually can, because of the power of the Holy Spirit (see number six above)).

6. Read it to learn more about the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit…

who not only raises the dead (Titus 3:4-7), but who also mysteriously and remarkably transforms (sanctifies) all who have trusted in Christ as Savior (Romans 15:15).

8. Read it as if it was written in Hebrew and Greek and Aramaic.

Because it was. This means that you will sometimes need help understanding the words, the concepts, and the culture. Seek out good translations, commentaries and teachers to help you.

9. Read it to find out how you are relevant to it.

We often ask, “How is the Bible relevant to me?” But the whole point is, that we don’t fold the Bible into our story; it folds us into its story (Psalm 119:154, 156, and 159).

11. Read it to learn how to pray. 

In fact, do this, too: pray to learn how to read it (Matthew 6:7-13).

10. Sometime, in some seasons of your life, read all of it…

because you really need to know the whole story to understand its individual parts.

12. Read it to make sense of suffering—

yours, the world’s, Christ’s (2 Cor. 4: 16-18).

13. Read it as if it will bring you great joy, delight, and hope…

yes, even, or especially, when you are suffering. (Psalm 119:14).

14. Read it as if it was the best news you’ve ever heard!

The Bible tells the whole and true story of the God who created the cosmos…

how his created people destroyed that cosmos by rebelling against him; how God restored, redeemed and reconciled his people and his creation by sending his very own sinless Son, Jesus Christ, to die on a cross for their sins; and how, one day, this same Jesus, who was resurrected from the dead, will return to establish his heavenly kingdom here on earth, reuniting forever the holy Creator God with his beloved creation, and there will be glory, glory, glory and lots of hallelujahs!

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A Good Read for Hard Times: The Waiting Room Devotional

A Prayer about Praying and Personalizing Scripture

A Prayer about Praying and Personalizing Scripture

Hi Friends,

Today we will pray part of Psalm 139, personalizing it as we do. I hope you try this—it can really remind us of how God is speaking to us and how we are speaking to God through Scripture and prayer. Wherever it says [name], just pray your name or the name of the person you are praying for. (If you want to change the pronouns, you can do that too!)

O Lord, 

“You made all the delicate, inner parts of [name’s] body

and knit [name] together in my mother’s womb.

Thank you for making [name] so wonderfully complex!

Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.

You watched [name] as I was being formed in utter seclusion,

as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.

You saw [name] before I was born.

Every day of my life was recorded in your book.

Every moment was laid out

before a single day had passed.

How precious are your thoughts about [name], O God.

They cannot be numbered!

I can’t even count them;

they outnumber the grains of sand!

And when I wake up,

you are still with [name]!” (Psalm 139:13-18).

In Jesus’ creative name we pray. Amen.

If you like this exercise, try doing it with the entire Psalm 139. 

A Prayer about Praying for the Church

A Prayer about Praying for the Church

Precious Lord,

We continue praying Ephesians 1:15-23 for our friends and for our churches.

We pray that every single saint (person set-apart in Christ) 

will “understand the incredible greatness 

of your power for us who believe in you” (Ephesians 1:19).

[Name ways you see or need to see God’s power to the church in these days].

Mighty God, you 

“raised Christ from the dead and seated him 

in the place of honor at your right hand” (Ephesians 1:20).

May we bow down to King Jesus 

far more than we bow down to our personal agendas.

May we remember and live in the reality 

that the church is Christ’s body—

“it is made full and complete by Christ, 

who fills all things everywhere with himself” (Ephesians 1:23),

and may we worship joyfully 

in anticipation of the day 

when there will be no more division in the church ever again. 

In Jesus’ reigning name. Amen. 

Read Ephesians 1:15-23.