This is the thirty-first lesson in author and pastor Mel Lawrenz’ How to Live the Bible series. If you know someone or a group who would like to follow along on this journey through Scripture, they can get more info and sign up to receive these essays via email here.
Just released: A Book of Prayers for Kids by Mel Lawrenz (a perfect gift for the kids you know and love).
Below are two prayers that may be helpful in your pattern of reading and studying Scripture. Prior to the prayers is a sermon I preached some time back about how to make prayer a practical pattern in real life. “Real Prayer: How Prayer Works in Good Times and in Bad Times.”
SERMON OUTLINE
1. Prayer and Our Relationship with God
Prayer as position: “we are under God”
Prayer as presence: “we are with God”
Prayer as power: “we are in God”
Prayer as purpose: “we are for God”
2. Prayer in All Circumstances of Life: James’ Final Words
Praying when we are in trouble (James 5:13)
Praying when we are happy (vs. 13)
Praying when we are not well (vss. 14-15)
Praying when we are guilty (vs. 16)
A PRAYER BEFORE READING SCRIPTURE
Open my eyes, gracious Lord, as I turn to your word.
I long to know you, to understand life, and to be changed.
Examine me, Lord, by the floodlight of your truth.
Amen.
A PRAYER AFTER READING SCRIPTURE
May the word I have read, Lord, be planted deeply in my mind and heart.
Help me not to walk away and forget it, but to meditate on it and obey it
and so built my life on the rock of your truth.
Amen.
[Taken from the 95 prayers in “Prayers for Our Lives: 95 Lifelines to God” by Mel Lawrenz]
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Available now: Knowing Him: Devotional Readings About the Cross and Resurrection by Mel Lawrenz. Get it now.
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Mel Lawrenz (@MelLawrenz) trains an international network of Christian leaders, ministry pioneers, and thought-leaders. He served as senior pastor of Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin, for ten years and now serves as Elmbrook’s minister at large. He has a PhD in the history of Christian thought and is on the adjunct faculty of Trinity International University. Mel is the author of 18 books, including How to Understand the Bible—A Simple Guide and Spiritual Influence: the Hidden Power Behind Leadership (Zondervan, 2012). See more of Mel’s writing at WordWay.