Category Archives: Pray

Praying the Psalms -Psalm 101-

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Psalm 101 (ESV)
A Psalm of David

 

I will sing of steadfast love and justice;
    to you, O Lord, I will make music.
 I will ponder the way that is blameless.
    Oh when will you come to me?
I will walk with integrity of heart
    within my house;
I will not set before my eyes
    anything that is worthless.
I hate the work of those who fall away;
    it shall not cling to me.
A perverse heart shall be far from me;
    I will know nothing of evil.

Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly

    I will destroy.
Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart
    I will not endure.

I will look with favor on the faithful in the land,

    that they may dwell with me;
he who walks in the way that is blameless
    shall minister to me.

No one who practices deceit
    shall dwell in my house;
no one who utters lies
    shall continue before my eyes.

Morning by morning I will destroy
    all the wicked in the land,
cutting off all the evildoers
    from the city of the Lord.

Father in Heaven, what a beautiful thing it is to wake up this morning with a song of praise and worship in my mouth. Help me keep this song through the day, and help us, your Church, today to sing of your steadfast love and justice in the assembly of the saints with a glad heart. Help us make music to you and rejoice in doing so.

Father, as I sing your praises through the day, as I consider your steadfast love and justice, I pray that you help me ponder the way you have showed us to follow.  Help me consider how to love kindness, and do justice, and walk humbly before you, my God. Let this be the hard motivation behind all I do.

My Father, help me to walk in integrity of heart within my house. Help me to live this day, this week, this life, with integrity everywhere I go, but always starting within the walls of my house, within my room. God, it is in our homes where we take off our shoes and show who we really are. Help me be true to the gospel when no one else is seeing me, when I do the dishes and read a book with my children under the covers. Help me to live in integrity in my marriage, to honor my Man and bless him every moment. Help me love my precious family,  those with whom I share a roof, those with whom I share the meals; Help me also to love the stranger and the foreign; give me eyes to see, ears to hear, hands to do, and feet to walk.

God, help us to honor you with our eyes. Help us not to set our eyes before anything that is worthless. Lord, that we may choose wisely this week which books to read, which websites to visit. Father, help us to hate the work of the evil One. Lord, thank you, thank you because you have made us free from the bondage of sin, now we are free not to cling to the sins of our past. O what a glorious truth this is!

This week I will fight many battles, some big and other small, but I pray that in each one your name may be glorified. That my heart will be purified as a refined silver in the oven.  Help me overcome all the perverse desires in my heart that rise against your Holy Name. Help me fight against all arrogance. Lord, I want to be poor in spirit, always depending on you. Some prayers are not easy to say, but God, I pray, keep me humble. Remind me always that the arrogant, the one with a haughty look can not stand before you.

This week help me, Lord, to choose my company, my friends wisely. Help my children, my Man, help us all to dwell with those who love Truth, who are faithful to you, who honor your Word and fear your Name.

Morning by morning I will fight my enemies in your name, Jesus, and because of You, I will stand firm.

I love you Lord, because you loved me first…

Amen

Becky

Praying the Psalms -Psalm 61-

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Psalm 61
To the Choirmaster: With stringed instruments. 
Of David
Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer;
from the end of the earth I call to you
when my heart is faint.
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I,
for you have been my refuge,
a strong tower against the enemy.
Let me dwell in your tent forever!
Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings!
                                                          Selah
For you, O God, have heard my vows;
you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.
Prolong the life of the king;
may his years endure to all generations!
May he be enthroned forever before God;
appoint steadfast love and faithfulness to watch over him!
So will I ever sing praises to your name,
as I perform my vows day after day.

Father, sometimes you bring us to situations in our lives in which we feel like we are at the very end of the earth, in a desolate land, where not only our body feels weary, but also where our heart faints. But right there, in the middle of our sadness and our confusion, your Spirit within us draws us to call to you, and You hear us.

God, our God, where shall we go when our little ones are fighting cancer, when we bury our spouses and our children? Where do we go when our daughters are in a hospital bed asking questions? Where do we go when there are tears we want to wipe off but they keep coming back? Where do we go when the marriage vows seem to be crumbling down? Where do we go when our songs are not anymore? Where do we go when we see injustice in this world?

We go to You.
We run to You.
We go to you:
our Rock,
our refuge,
our strong tower.

Oh God! That we may dwell in your tent forever! Safe from our thoughts, our own doubts, our fears, our own foolishness. Safe from the enemy of our souls that wants to devour our trust in You.

Oh God! Let us take refuge under the shelter of your wings! There and only there can we be safe. No enemy will be able to find us when our lives are hidden with Christ in You.

Thank you, that you hear our voice, Father.
Thank you because you have put in my heart a fear for your Name.
Thank you, Lord, for the wonderful promises that you have given us.
Thank you, because you look down to the ends of the earth
and see everything under the heavens.
Thank you because your dominion knows no limits.
Thank you, Father because even from the end of the earth,
You bring us to you,
and you wipe our tears,
and heal our diseases,
and mend our broken hearts

Father, let my praises to you reach to the end of the earth!

Amen

“Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.” Isaiah 45:22

Becky

Sola Scriptura and Prayer

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Sola Scriptura is one of the 5 pillars of the Reformed Faith, and it means that the Scriptures, God’s infallible Word, are the uttermost authority in our lives, in the Church. It means there is nothing above them, that the Scriptures are sufficient. The Scriptures were breathed by God, and therefore are the very speaking of God.

Now, we also know how important prayer is in the life of the believer. Prayer and a desire to learn the Scriptures are the natural responses from those who have been born again. Both draw us to the Throne of Grace.

Have you consider how Sola Scriptura applies in the life of prayer? Many times, we simply don’t know how to pray, we are short-sighted. We say we want God’s will to be done, but as we pray we pray hoping that ours may be done. We sometimes pray as if we were trying to persuade God to do what we think is the best for us, for our children, for our husband, or for our friend.

Bringing our theology to our mundane life is what we ought to do; we need it when trials come, we need it when life is good, we need it when we do dishes and bake a cake, and when serve our family and the needy among us. But we also need it in our prayer closet.

When we pray, let us pray the Scriptures. Let the Word of God guide us to the Throne of Grace. Let the Word of God be our most wonderful prayer companion. When we don’t know how to pray (and also when we think we know how to pray) let us turn to the Word of God, and let us make it our utmost prayer book.

M. Horton has said it well, “There can be no communication with God apart from the written and living Word. Everything in the Christian faith depends on the spoken and written Word delivered by God to us through the prophets and apostles.”

This is another reason why we (my friends from Doctrines in the Kitchen, Out of The Ordinary, and Desiring Virtue) are always trying to encourage women to love the Word, to study it, to memorize it, to make it our supreme rule of life. Sisters, if we want to be women of prayer, we need to be women of the Word; if we want to become “warriors” in the prayer closet, let us learn how to use The Sword. There are no shortcuts.

Under His sun and by His grace,

Becky

Praying the Psalms -Psalm 20-

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A prayer of intercession.

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble!
May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!
May he send you help from the sanctuary
and give you support from Zion!
May he remember all your offerings
and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices!
Selah

May he grant you your heart’s desire
and fulfill all your plans!
May we shout for joy over your salvation,
and in the name of our God set up our banners!
May the Lord fulfill all your petitions!

Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed;
he will answer him from his holy
heaven
with the saving might of his right
hand.

Some trust in chariots and some in
horses,
but we trust in the name of the Lord
our God.
They collapse and fall,
but we rise and stand upright.

O Lord, save the king! May he answer us when we call.

Father, I come boldly before you in the name of Jesus. It is because of Him and through Him that I can come before you and be assured that you hear the voice of my prayer.

Your steadfast love, O Lord, is forever sure and your mercies new every morning. This morning, therefore,  I come before you to pray for my neighbor. That she might see your steadfast love and mercy anew in her life this day.

Answer to my friend’s prayer.  In the time of trouble she has seek your face and has not hidden from you. Her heart, her thoughts, her fears are before you. Oh Father, hear the voice of her prayer today.

She is troubled, her soul is heavy, she cries herself to sleep, and her troubles surround her day and night. Be her comforter. Be her protection, her support, her strength, her hiding place. Please, O God, answer her prayers according to your good will; she is your daughter, the apple of your eye, your child. Be with her today.

Lord you are full of mercy, and I pray that in your mercy you will remember her, remember all her prayers, her tears, her service to others, her love for your Word. Lord, let her know that you have not forsaken her. That you know the number of the hairs on her head.

Father, my friend has poured her heart before you many times. Her heart’s desires and plans are before you. Show her the way she should go. Bless her steps, and give her wisdom to decide the best in every circumstance. Lord, answer her. Please, Father, grant her the petitions of her heart, help her to wait patiently on you. May she shout for joy over your salvation and your glorious name.  May her rejoice in the God who hears!

Lord, I pray today for my friend. Some trust in so many things that are vain, but we know You. We know who is our only hope. We know that you hear the prayers of your children. We know that you will never leave us or forsake us. We know in whom we have trusted. We trust in You. We trust in your name, Mighty God, Prince of Peace, Strong Tower, Jesus, Wonderful, Counselor.  We trust in every aspect of your name. We trust in You, in all of You, Oh Lord.

Rise my friend from the ground, Father,  help her stand upright. Be her victory. Be her song.

Blessed be your name, O Lord of Hosts.
Blessed be the King of kings who hears the plea of his servants.

Amen

 

A Lesson on Praying Earnestly and Unexpected Miracles

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If you were my child, by this time you would have heard me saying a million of times how wonderful (and important) it is to read the Bible stories as if you had never read them before. Be expectant, read the drama, pay attention, be engaged with the characters in the narrative. Get excited. Love the story. See Jesus. Things like these I tell my children over and over again.

Today I would like to convince you to do the same. Read in Acts 12 the story of Peter’s imprisonment and how he was rescued by an angel. Read it aloud. Get excited. Be engaged. Read it as if you had never read it before.
The Liberation of St. Peter by Sebastiano Ricci, 1722

Herod is killing Christians and when he sees that the Jews are happy about it, he decides to keep on the persecution, so he arrests Peter. Peter is now asleep in the prison and an angel appears and strikes him on the side. Just imagine that, waking up in a dark, nasty cell surrounded by a bright light and an angel striking you. Not the kind of an angel apparition that many would like to have. That would have been scary. Now add to the fact that the words that the angel speaks are not sweet and soft. The angel woke up Peter telling him, “Get up, quickly.” The chains fell from Peter hands and the next thing he hears is the angel telling him “Dress yourself and put on your sandals.” The angel appeared in a fantastic way, now he surrounds Peter with a bright light, strikes him, breaks his chains and asks him to dress up quickly. Without much thought, they pass by two soldiers and find themselves in the street. Peter in now all by himself, the angel has departed and just then he realizes that this had not been a dream. This is how things work when you are in the business of preaching the gospel. You either get the beatings from men or the striking from angels whom God sends to break chains and open doors.

Now keep on reading and see the wonderful lesson in the story. In one of Peter’s friends’ house many saints had gather together to pray for Peter’s deliverance as soon as they had heard the news of his arrest. These saints prayed earnestly (v.5), and no one would have dared to doubt their faith. The answer to their prayer came when they were praying earnestly -but expecting nothing: the Lord sent his angel and Peter was out in the streets walking towards his friend’s house where they were all gathered. The saints were still praying earnestly. God’s answer to their prayers knocks at the door and they don’t believe the miracle. They even scolded Rhoda, the servant girl who first recognized Peter’s voice -and believed the miracle- with harsh words saying, “You are out of your mind.” Talk about being in the spirit and all of a sudden acting in the flesh? Here you have a good example.  But Rhoda, and I just love that her name is here for us to remember, kept insisting, It is Peter, it is him. He is here! But the men who had been praying earnestly did not believe her. They thought it was easier to have an angel knocking at the door than Peter himself (I guess they had to listen from Peter how angels open doors and strike people, and not necessarily knock at doors).

This story has taught me an enormous lesson:  God hears and answers our earnest prayers, not because of our faith, as if our faith had power in itself to change things, but because He is full of grace. He answers the prayers of his own in spite of our unbelief because He is our Heavenly Father.

We pray not to change God’s will, we pray because we have been commanded by God to pray. The saints in this story prayed earnestly and God’s will happened even though their faith was little. What an encouragement! Let us pray earnestly, without ceasing. Let us get together with our family and with our friends to pray. God will sure hear us, and His will will be done on earth as it is done in Heaven. Our prayers avail much not because of our own merits, but because the God who hears us has mercy on us. He moves us to pray and to pray earnestly. Let us keep praying, friends, soon an expected-unexpected miracle will knock at our door.

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

 

Becky

A Poem for Little Souls: The Lord’s Day Evening

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Lord, how delightful ’tis to see
A whole assembly worship thee!
At once they sing, at once they pray;
They hear of heaven, and learn the way.

I have been there, and still would go,
‘Tis like a little heaven below;
Not all my pleasure and my play
Shall tempt me to forget this day.

Oh, write upon my memory, Lord,
The texts and doctrines of thy word;
That I may break thy laws no more,
But love thee better than before.

With thoughts of Christ, and things divine
Fill up this foolish heart of mine;
That, hoping pardon through his blood,
I may lie down and wake with God.

Isaac Watts
Divine and Moral Songs for Children

May the Lord bless you this day, dear friends.
Becky

Also by Isaac Watts, A Poem for Little Souls: The Lord’s Day Morning