Bible Promise: praying to God With Us

Genesis 28:15 – “Look! I Am with you. I watch over you as you come and go. I will not leave you before I have done everything I promised.”

What joy we have in Your presence, Lord! What empowering promises You have given us to claim!

You, our Heavenly Father, our Loving God, and the Creator of all life in heaven and on earth, have given Your Word to be with us. No matter where we are, You are there.

We need You now, Lord.

We need You now.

 

©2020, Mary Harwell Sayler from her book Kneeling on the Promises of God

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Prayers of Abraham

When God called to him, Abraham heard and responded, “Here I am, Lord.”  When God asked him to intercede for a man he had wronged, Abraham obeyed.

This patriarch of God’s people is lauded as an example of true faith and closeness to God, but few of his actual prayers have been recorded.

Genesis 15:2

O Lord God, what will You give me?

Will I need an inheritance

if I have no child?

Genesis 17:18

Oh, that my child

might live in Your

presence, Lord,

and be under Your

blessing!

Genesis 18:23, 32

Lord, would You really sweep away

the righteous with the wicked?

What if ten honorable people

are found?

And God answered:

For the sake of ten,

I will not destroy the town.

Paraphrased by Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2019, in  the Book of Bible Prayers.

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NEW! the Book of Bible Prayers

After decades of researching what the Bible has to say about prayer and buying a bunch of prayer books that weren’t quite what I wanted, I felt led to collect the actual prayers in the Bible then prayer-a-phrase (prayerfully paraphrase) them into THE prayer book I personally want and need. If you do, too, you’ll be happy to know the Book of Bible Prayers is now available on Amazon.

With the gathering of these prayers, I saw things I’d never before noticed. As the Foreword notes, for example, “The prayers in the Hebrew scriptures (aka Old Testament) are frequently pleas, praise, thanksgiving, complaints, and petitions, but in the New Testament such requests or responses are less likely to occur. Instead, Paul and other apostles typically ask believers in Christ to pray for them. Or, more often, they offer parental blessings over the Christian communities they’re addressing. Similar to the priestly blessing of Aaron in Numbers 6, these New Testament blessings are directed toward the people rather than God, but I felt I would be remiss to exclude all of them, so a few of those blessings have been prayer-a-phrased as prayers."

An exception is the prayer of Melchizedek, which remains the blessing given over Abraham and now over us!

“May you be blessed by God most High,

maker of heaven and earth.

May you be blessed by God most High,

Who has delivered you from the hands

of those who wish you harm,”

Genesis 14:19-20.

That blessing also brought another surprise: i.e., It’s the first prayer-blessing recorded. Prior to that, we had God’s blessings over all creation in Genesis, and by the time of Adam and Eve’s grandson, we hear how “All people began to call on the Name of the Lord.” But it’s the actual prayers spoken to God that bring us this prayer book.

Lord willing, I’ll post a prayer from the book with some regularity on this site with the hope and prayer the Book of Bible Prayers will bring unity to the Body of Christ and more power to your prayer life and mine.

MaryHarwell Sayler, ©2019

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Nehemiah’s Prayer is surely ours

“Great Lord, God of heaven,
Who inspires us to awe,

You always keep Your Word,
Your love, Your promises
with mercy shown
to those who love and obey You.

So now I ask You to open Your eyes,
Your ears to this prayer as I pray -
night and day - for Your servants,
Your children.

Lord, I confess we have sinned
against You,
and so have those before us.

How greatly we have wronged You!

We have failed to obey
Your commandments and laws given
to us through Your servant Moses.
But, Lord, do You remember what
You told us back then? You said,

‘If you are not faithful to Me,
I will scatter you among the nations.

But if you return to Me
and obey My commands - even
if you are as far away as you can go -

I will come and get you.

I will bring you to the place I have chosen
for My Name’.”

Nehemiah 1:5-9

as prayer-a-phrased by Mary Sayler after reading various translations on Bible Gateway

©2018

The Bible Prayer of Jesus

“Thou art my father, my God,” Psalm 89:26.
Our Father which art in heaven

“The Lord our God is holy,” Psalm 99:9.
Hallowed be Thy name.

“Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,” Psalm 145:13.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done

“I will be exalted in the earth,” Psalm 46:10.
in earth, as it is in heaven.

“And the Lord God humbled you, let you hunger, then fed you with manna….to make you know that we do not live by bread alone, but by every word from the mouth of the Lord,” Deuteronomy 8:3.
Give us this day our daily bread.

“Hear in heaven Your dwelling place and forgive! To those whose hearts You know, let it be according to their ways – for You, Lord, You alone, know the hearts of all,” 1 Kings 8:39.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

“Listen, O Shepherd of Israel, You Who lead us like a flock,” Psalm 80:1.
And lead us not into temptation,

“Fear the Lord your God, and God will deliver you from the hands of all your enemies,” 2 Kings 17:39.
But deliver us from evil

“Yours, O Lord is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty! All that is heaven and earth is Yours! Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and You are exalted above all,” 1 Chronicles 29:11.
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.


Bible verses were prayer-a-phrased by Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2017, with scriptures found on Bible Gateway then interwoven with the Lord’s Prayer from the King James Version (KJV) of Matthew 6:9-13.

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Praying for God’s Word to be in me

Oh, LORD, prepare me
to keep Your Word,
so I won’t be ashamed
when I look at my life
in light of Your commands.

Sincerely, I will praise You
as I learn more of Your
righteous rules.

Don’t ever leave me, LORD,
for I want to obey You,
but, oh! How can anyone
keep Your ways – purely
without fault – except
by discerning Your Word?

With all my heart, I seek You!
Don’t let me stray away!

Deep inside me,
I will hide Your words,
so I’ll know what to do.

Blessed LORD, teach me!
You Are To Be praised
and blessed.

Psalm 119:5-12


© 2014, Mary Harwell Sayler prayer-a-phrased this poem from today’s Bible Reading in Psalm 119, drawing from several of the many translations on Bible Gateway.


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