What Jesus Said About PrayerSample

Pray the Word

EW Kenyon once said: "Fasting and long hours of prayer do not build faith. Reading books about faith and men of faith and their exploits stirs a deep passion for faith in the heart but does not build faith. The Word alone is the source of faith."

Andrew Murray adds another angle: "Little of the Word with little prayer is death to the spiritual life. Much of the Word, with little prayer, gives a sickly life. Much prayer with little of the Word gives more life but without steadfastness. A full measure of the Word and prayer daily gives a healthy and powerful life."

Prayer and the Word go hand in hand. Take the book of Psalms and pray through the Psalms one by one. Formulate your prayers from each verse. You can do this with, for example, the Book of Mark, one of the letters of Paul, Peter, James or Jude.

Read Mark 1:14-20 and Psalm 27:1-14. Meditate on it. Ask the Spirit to reveal what He wants you to see about God, yourself, and others. Then, turn these verses into prayers. You can do the same with any of the books in the New Testament, the Psalms, Proverbs, etc.

Are there any warnings in this passage, commands, promises, sins to avoid, or examples to follow? Turn this into prayers.

A very practical way is to pray over each verse and ask the Lord if there is someone for whom you can pray this verse. Formulate a prayer and pray it to the Lord. Sometimes, you can even share the prayer with a specific person the Holy Spirit may lay on your heart.

Three prayer requests to God:

Father, will You please teach me about Yourself, Jesus your Son and God the Holy Spirit.

Father, is there anything you want from me or want to say to me?

Father, for what do I need to pray, for whom do I need to pray and about what do you want me to pray?