we'll be giving away free books this week so make sure to watch to the end for details I don't know anyone who doesn't want to improve their prayer life any Christian wants to improve their prayer life their sense of intimacy with God the frequency of answers to prayer and so forth and yet in about 24 years of pastoral ministry as well as many other ministry experiences through the years it's been my observation that virtually everyone struggles in their prayer life in this way in particular we want to pray if we're in the world by the
Holy Spirit and yet while that is pressing against one side of our soul so to speak colliding with that is our experience and our experiences but when I pray it's boring I want to pray I believe in prayer I try to pray but when I pray it's boring and when prayer is boring you don't feel like praying if you don't feel like praying you don't pray with any fervency with any consistency because see I think the problem in prayer is not that people pray about the same old things that's normal our lives tend to consist
pretty much of the same old things your family your future your finances your bills are something like that your work or students schoolwork your church ministry Christian Concern and the current crisis in your life so if you put all that together if you're gonna pray about your life and these six things are your life and these six things don't change dramatically very often well that means you're going to pray about the same old things most of the time that's not the problem the problem is we tend to say the same old things about the same
old things we can be talking to the most fascinating person in the universe about the most important things in our lives and be bored to death not because we don't love God not because we don't love who or what we're praying about I would contend that it is the method if a person isn't dwelled by the Holy Spirit the problem is almost certainly not them rather it is their method I believe there's a simple permanent biblical solution to this almost universal problem and it is very simply when you pray pray the Bible turn the words
of Scripture into the words of your prayers and I think the best place in the Bible to do this is the Book of Psalms so what does this look like well let's say you take the 23rd psalm and you want to pray that a given morning you read the first line the Lord is my shepherd and then you might pray something like lord I thank you that you are my shepherd you're a Good Shepherd and you Shepherd and he shepherded me all of my life but O great Shepherd would you Shepherd my family today guide
them into the ways of God and guard them from the ways of the world lead them not into temptation deliver them from evil and I pray Lord you would make my family members your sheep - may they love you as their Shepherd as I love you as my shepherd and when you can't think of anything else you go to the next line I shall not want Lord I think you have never really been in want I haven't missed many meals all that I am and all that I have is from you Lord but I know
it pleases you I'll bring my desires to you so would you provide those finances that we need for those bills for that car for school or maybe you know someone who is in want and you pray that just go through it line by line take a psalm go through it line by line talk to God about whatever comes to mind because I think most of the time what will come to mind is whatever is in that passage and if something comes to mind that really isn't in that text well the Bible tells us where to
pray about everything anyway so everything that comes to mind is something we ought to turn her into prayer or not to pray about anyway you come to a verse you don't understand fine skip it go to the next verse maybe you understand the next verse perfectly but it just doesn't prompt anything to pray about fine skip the whole section there's nothing says you have to pray over every verse there's nothing says you have to finish the psalm so whether you have four hours or four minutes this works you can do that with the Psalms I
think next after that it's easiest in the New Testament letters because there's so much compressed almost every verse there that can prompt something to pray about you can even do this on a narrative but in this case you sort of back up and get the big picture what's the big idea often in a narrative there's one main kind of punchline there and it may be that's all you would pray about not so much all the details leading up to it though any detail that prompts something to pray about should be prayed for but what's having
done this I think anybody can do this and so I would encourage anyone who's watching this as soon as this is over to actually try it just take a psalm just talk to God about whatever comes to mind and once someone has tried that they don't need any notes to remember how to do that again they don't need to watch this again they will have it down it's like riding a bicycle you never forget how and I can highly recommend this because having done this almost every day of my life since the 1st of March
1985 I can testify there's nothing and all my devotional life that more quickly and consistently Kindles my consistently cold heart like praying the Bible when I wake up I almost never feel like praying anytime I rarely feel like praying and that's normal but God said to Jeremiah is not my word like a hammer and a fire a hammer that breaks heart hearts a fire that melts cold hearts you go to prayer your heart is cold well that's pretty normal but you can take the fire of God's Word and plunge it into your cold heart and
pretty soon you begin to feel like pray thanks for watching you can submit your questions by email Twitter or in the comments section below and don't forget to subscribe to find out the answer to next week's question will be giving away three copies of dr. Whitney's book praying the Bible go to the link in the description below to find out how you can enter
