Recently, we’ve been inviting our children to pray at meal times, when they go to bed, or really whenever they want. It is sweet (ok, maybe not after the 1000th time) to hear them pray for going to the dinosaur park. Or the fire trucks.
But, really, to hear them speak to God, in little faith, not really understanding fully what that means, is engaging.
Last night we read in our family devotion the chapter on the Lord’s Prayer in the Jesus Storybook Bible. How Jesus has a complete understanding how His Father works and hears prayers. And how he didn’t have to write down his prayers, use big words, or have his eyes closed. He just prayed. He spoke His heart.
Donald Whitney, in his typical pastoral, effective teaching style, in his book Praying the Bible, encourages his readers in a method of praying the Scriptures back to God. It unites our hearts with the heart of the One who hears our prayers. His chapter on praying the Psalms was interesting to me. A pastor friend of mine shared this with me when I was going through an extremely hard time a few years ago, and it was definitely one of the best pieces of advice I received.
Whitney acknowledges the problem of our weak prayer lives, but doesn’t leave us there. He guides us in a how-to of sorts of praying the very words of God. If we believe that the Bible is sufficient and perfect, then we can use it to pray for every area of our lives.
I don’t know anyone who would say they pray as good as they ever want to, so this would be a good book to engage your prayer life more.
Thanks Crossway for this book. All opinions are my own.