The Word Of God Helps Us Pray Part 1

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. The stress of life can get us down.

Pressures and trials can drain our joy. But the Word of God is a great resource that can help us focus on the answers to our dilemmas and help us pray effectively. Today, lessons on praying biblically.

Stay with us. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, as you continue your series on being changed by the Word, tell us about today's message. The Word of God helps us pray. Dave, I have to tell you that today's message can be absolutely transforming to those who listen. Nothing will change your prayer life more than understanding what it is like to pray scripture. What that means is you will be taught to be able to pray different kinds of prayers, but always prayers that honor God. To put it very clearly, you won't be simply praying the same old thing in the same old way. This is a critical message. And by the way, I want to thank the many of you who helped this ministry.

Would you consider becoming a part of the Running to Win family? Here's what you can do. Go to rtwoffer.com. It's rtwoffer.com. When you're there, click on the endurance partner button. We call those who join the family endurance partners, or if you prefer, call us at 1-888-218-9337.

Go to rtwoffer.com, click on the endurance partner button, or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Now let us listen to a message that has the potential to change us for the rest of our lives. In Gethsemane, Jesus said to the disciples, men ought always to pray and not to faint. And of course, when he said that, he included women in that statement as well. But the point is, I think that what Jesus was trying to say is that either you are going to pray or you're going to faint.

It's one of the other. And that's why he emphasized prayer. He himself modeled prayer for us, went out and spent the night in prayer. A number of times it says that in the Gospels. What was Jesus doing there?

Was he just repeating himself? What is prayer really all about? A number of years ago, there was a conference with 17,000 evangelicals. Now, if you attend a conference, you're probably a little bit more committed than some other folks who maybe didn't. And a survey was done. How long they spent in prayer. Well, would you believe that according to the survey, the average Christian spends five minutes in prayer a day. You say, well, thank God pastors aren't average. By no means, they spend a lot more time in prayer. Of course, we go to heaven every evening, return in the morning. Yeah, pastors at the conference did 40% better.

They were seven minutes a day. Why don't we pray? Well, let me give you some reasons. We could blame it on the devil and he certainly has responsibility for a great deal of it, but that's not the whole of it. The simple fact is that one of the reasons is because we don't feel like it. You know, the book of James says, draw near to God and God will draw near to you. But we're not sure if we want to draw near to God because there are so many issues. There are sins, there are anxieties, and so we want to keep God at arm's length. And so we kind of stay away and we never really get a burden for prayer because God doesn't share his burden just with anyone. He shares his burden to those who really are serious who draw near. So we don't feel like it and we're into a feel generation.

Second reason I'm sure is because I'm going to be very blunt here. Prayer can be very boring. That's why many people don't go to prayer meetings. They think that the prayer meeting here at Moody Church is the same as they grew up with, which could be a very boring prayer meeting.

Thankfully it isn't, but people think that. And the reason is because prayer, you say the same thing about the same old people, the same old circumstances. How many times can you just say, now bless so-and-so, bless so-and-so. I mean, come on. Just put it on a record and let God hear it and go do something else.

It's boring. A third reason is because it's one-way communication. I mean, here we are, we're talking to an invisible God and he isn't necessarily talking back to us. At least we sure can't hear him. I remember many, many years ago I was sitting on a couch with a man, an older man, to whom I was trying to explain the niceties of the relationship between Satan and God in Job chapter one, because he had a view that I thought was wrong and so I thought God was leading me to help him understand the way more perfectly. As I was talking, he began to nod off.

And when he drifted into a light snore, I quit talking. You know, here we are, we come to God, God do this, do this, and we want you to take care of this, take care of our children, keep us from danger, the whole thing. And well, I suppose he's listening, but we're not hearing back. There could be another reason and that is we've lost the meaning of prayer. We think that prayer is indeed God's way of us getting things from him, not understanding that that's only a small part, the larger part, and that's what Jesus was doing out in the mountain all night is fellowship with the almighty. What if we had a way to pray? Now, you're here today and many others are listening either by internet or radio or other means. You're listening to this by divine appointment.

I believe that. What if there were a way to pray that would have variety? You never pray the same old thing in the same old way again. What if you had a way to pray like that?

What if you had a way to pray in which God's agenda becomes important and in a sense he does talk to us? And furthermore, our own spirits are refreshed and satisfied and we leave satisfied with God. And so we look forward to prayer. We say, wow, this is special time. You know, God is a very important person.

Not to put too fine a point on it, most assuredly, and just to think I get to connect with him this morning. Imagine prayer like that. I believe that there is prayer like that as we are changed by the word of God. Last week's message was on the topic of meditation. Today, we're going to combine meditation and prayer. In effect, what we're going to do is to pray scripture and learn to pray scripture and make that a consistent habit. And there are hundreds of you listening to me today whose lives, whose prayer life will be changed forever because of this message.

I believe that. And the reason I do is because one day, perhaps almost 20 years ago, down in Florida, I was speaking and another man came for a seminar and I decided to see what he had to say. So I sat in the back and he gave a lecture on praying scripture and it was transforming, transforming. Some of the ideas I'm sure I'm sharing with you came from that lecture and it can change you too. If you have a heart hunger for God, this is the message for which you've been waiting.

So let's begin at the basic level. If we're going to pray scripture, the best way to do it initially and it's easiest, it's the low hanging fruit, so to speak, is to pray the prayers of scripture. And by that, I mean both Old and New Testament. You know, as you look through the Old Testament, I mean, why not pray the prayer of Jacob in Genesis chapter 32 when he said in his distress, having to meet Esau the next day and he wrestled with a man who turned out to be God, I will not let you go unless you bless me.

Have you ever been that desperate? That's a great prayer to pray. God brought Jacob to that point because God wanted to hear that from Jacob, that ultimately I will not let you go. God loves desperate people who pray. And you remember Jacob received his blessing with a limp because God loves to weaken us so that we don't trust in ourselves. But what a prayer to pray. I'm thinking of Moses in chapter 33 of the book of Exodus. I mean, Moses is up on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights with God. You'd think he'd say, you know, I've had enough of God.

It's time to move on to other things. Moses, show me thy glory. I still don't have enough of you. And God allows him to be hidden in a rock and the Lord comes and he can see at least a glimpse of God's glory. And you know what happens? How much time later? Many, many centuries later, maybe 12, 13, 14 centuries later, I forgot to do the math. He's there on the Mount of Transfiguration. And what is he doing? He's seeing more of the glory of God.

He still hasn't enough. Pray that prayer of Moses. We won't be hidden in a rock.

We won't see a vision. But isn't it important that at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is the glory of God. There is nothing else that matters. God at Moody Church in my life, in my family, show me your glory. That's a prayer to pray. You know, sometimes people say, oh, I don't know how to pray for missionaries.

What are their needs? I am going to solve that problem for you forever. If you ever wonder what you should pray for the pastoral staff for me, and I thank God for the hundreds of people who pray for me.

And sometimes you don't know. I don't know exactly what Pastor Lutzer needs today. Well, I'll tell you exactly what he needs.

You never have to worry about it again. He needs a prayer like this. For this reason, because if I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, I do not cease to give thanks for you. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you, here we are, a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, having your eyes enlightened that you might know what is the hope to which God has called you, and what are the riches of the glory of the inheritance of the saints, and the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe. And it goes on to talk about the sovereignty of Jesus who is above all things every single day.

I need that. Missionaries need that. You open your Bible, and you go to Ephesians chapter 1.

Don't do it now, because this is a different kind of message. We're going to be in a lot of different passages. But what you do is you pray scripture, and when you pray that prayer, you don't have to end it by saying, if it be thy will. This is the will of God. You are praying the mind of God. We pray scripture. We pray scriptural prayers.

Well, we could go on, but I must hurry. We pray things like the psalms and proverbs. Psalms and proverbs. Of course, that also is low-hanging fruit, because many of the psalms are prayers. But you even take a psalm like this, Psalm 23. You read it.

You memorize it. By the way, I quote this psalm at least once or twice a day, because if I ever need to nap, I find out that this psalm really does it for me. Don't misinterpret that, but it's just a way of me focusing on God and something other than my anxieties and concerns.

But after you know it, you pray it like this. Father, I thank you that Jesus is my shepherd. Thank you that he's my good shepherd. Thank you, Father, that I have the privilege of being his sheep. Make me an obedient sheep. Lord, thank you for the way in which you supply in my life. You make me to lie down in green pastures.

You lead me besides still waters. Thank you for leading me in the path of righteousness and help me to stay on it. And Lord, during those days of darkness and fear, when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, oh, Father, you're with me. Help me to believe that and that you'll not allow me to encounter or become part of evil.

And all the way through. And you're praying a prayer for yourself, for someone else. And you have somebody who's attacking you. You have any enemies? Have you got people who are not you're working with and they are not committed to your personal happiness?

Have you got people like that? Why not just pray some of the prayers of David? In you, oh Lord, I take refuge. Let me not be brought to shame. In your righteousness, deliver me. Incline your ear to me. Rescue me speedily. Be my rock.

Be my refuge. For you're my rock and my fortress. And for your namesake, you lead me and you guide me. And if you go to verse 5, it says, into your hand I commit my spirit. The words of Jesus on the cross. Even in the midst of all of the criticism that Jesus was getting and the injustice, he was praying this prayer.

And at the end, he said, I commit myself to you, believing that God is bigger than the injustice and that God uses the injustice. And so you pray those prayers. You don't just make up prayers on your own.

Well, we must hurry along. First of all, what you do is you pray the prayers of scripture. You pray the Psalms. I was thinking about this.

I've never done it. But if I were a father with young children in the home, I'd probably want to pray the entire book of Proverbs just for my children. You know, you say, well, what shall we pray for them? Work your way through Proverbs. Not all of them may be suitable to pray, but most of the Proverbs are Proverbs of wisdom, and that's what we want our children to have.

So you pray, and you can pray with them and teach them how to pray scripture. Third, praying the prophets, praying the Old Testament prophets. This is more difficult, but there are passages, as you're reading Jeremiah, for example, that are so applicable to America. My people have committed two evils.

They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and hewn out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. What an amazing passage of scripture, and that is simply true of America. You know, when I was talking about praying the prayers of the prayers of scripture, I forgot to tell you this, and it comes to mind. When I pray for my children, I use different passages of scripture. Sometimes I may pray the same prayer for them, but this morning, since I happen on Sunday to pray for our oldest grandson, Jack, this is what I prayed for him. I said, Father, I pray that he might abound in love and all discernment. I pray, O Lord God, that he might be able to do that and that he might be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, being filled with a fruit of righteousness, which is by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and the praise of God.

Doesn't that trump, O God, bless Jack? This is scripture that you are praying, and if you are open to looking at the passages as you read them and making a note of all of the different prayers in the New Testament, you'll begin to pray different prayers. Well, we must hurry on, praying the gospels, praying the gospels.

You can do that, too. I mean, if you're reading Mark chapter 1 where the demons were subject to Christ, and even where they affirmed the fact that he was the Son of God, the way in which you turn that into a prayer is you stop and you thank God, you thank Jesus for his absolute total triumph over evil, and you thank him that the demons are subject to him, and you take the miracles that he did and you turn those miracles into miracles of praise and gratitude to God. And pretty soon, you see, when you approach the scriptures with the intention of saying, how can I pray this back to God, it's amazing how that almost every place you can do that. Now, of course, there are some passages that don't lend themselves at all really to prayer.

And so what do you do then? Well, it doesn't hurt, you know, for you to simply read those passages to God because God will be blessed. God will be honored as you read his word to him because he says, I have magnified my word above my name, or at least equal to my name. But what you're doing is you're always coming to the scriptures. And the reason that you are coming is because you want to encounter not merely the text, but you want to encounter God, like that song goes, beyond the sacred page, I see the Lord. That's why we read the Bible. See, this is why so many people get turned off because they think, well, you know, I'm told I should be disciplined, I should be in the word.

And so they look at it as if this is a box I have to check. I read the Bible today. Well, yes, it is. Many of us are listening to all of the New Testament. I listened to about five chapters last night and about seven this morning. I was listening to the Bible on my iPhone, by the way. Just wanted everybody to know that.

Just let that float out there. And we're all doing it. And so, you see, we're so preoccupied doing that, that we're not spending a whole lot of time. I'm missing my time reading the word. So I have to find other ways and other times to continue to read the word so that I can continue to pray scripture and in that way encounter the Lord God. So what we're always doing is, I like to shock seminary students sometimes and say, you know, the Bible wasn't written to be studied. Look at all the tuition that I just paid. And it's not written to be studied. The Bible was written to transform your life. The means to get there is study. So you didn't waste your money when you put in that money for tuition. It is important.

But it's important to get to a goal. The Bible says knowledge puffeth up. If all that you have is, look at all the knowledge that I have, you've missed the whole point. You read the word. You pray the word to encounter God. You can pray the letters of the New Testament. Once again, for the most part, they are easy to pray.

But I'm thinking of people. I have a friend, and I met him at Founders Week, and he shared with me a huge trial that he is going through. And I prayed for him right there, by the way.

But, you know, it dawned on me later. What I could have done, and what I'll do, is to pray the book of James for him, the opening verses. Oh, may so and so count it all joy when he meets various kinds of trials. Oh, Lord, I pray that he might know that the testing of his faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Give him wisdom, and all the way through. You're just praying now God's word. I'm not just saying, oh, God bless him. I'm praying something different, because the word is filled with opportunities to pray or to praise, if you only look for them. Well, this is Pastor Lutzer. I hope that you understand how transforming this message can be. It can change your prayer life for the rest of your life. If you are blessed as a result of the ministry of Running to Win, it's because other people have contributed to this ministry. You know, I'm holding in my hand a letter from someone who said, through your ministry, you led me to saving faith in Jesus, and my husband followed, and together we were baptized, along with our daughter and her husband. And then she goes on to say that her husband passed into glory some time ago. My friend, you have had a part in this conversion. And I mention that because as our partners pray for us and become involved, together we are getting the gospel to thousands upon thousands.

Would you consider becoming a part of the Running to Win family? We call these people endurance partners. Of course, you need more info. Here's what you can do. Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com, and when you're there, click on the endurance partner button. Or if you prefer, call us at 1-888-218-9337.

Thanks in advance for helping us as this ministry goes to 20 different countries in three different languages. Right now, go to rtwoffer.com, click on the endurance partner button, or call us at 1-888-218-9337. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. Next time on Running to Win, join us for more insights from the New Testament on praying scriptural prayers. For Dr. Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.