Introduction

We are so glad you are joining us for these daily prayer posts. Over the next four weeks we are going to listen to the prayers of the Bible, and the saints of God. Their prayers are going to teach us how to pray.

Each devotion will take five to seven minutes of your time.

1. We will look at an insight from those who know something important about prayer.
2. We will listen to the prayers of people in the Bible—people just like us. And to people who gained a deep measure of spiritual intimacy with God because they prayed.
3. We will reflect, asking the same four questions each day that invites us to look and listen with intent.
4. And we will pray, for it is in praying that we learn to pray. And it is in praying that the Spirit changes our hearts.

May we encourage you to grab a notebook, a journal, something to write on as you do each prayer guide. Yes, it will add a few minutes to the time it takes to do the devotion, and it will also deepen your experience and shape your walk with God for years to come.

Look

Prayer is one of the necessary wheels of the machinery of providence

C.H. Spurgeon

Listen

It was time to leave Sinai. It was time to go up to the land God had promised to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The people had already rebelled, building a golden calf to worship instead of the God who had delivered them. Thousands died as a result, and now the people are terrified to “move out.” So Moses prays…

Exodus 33:12–17

¹² Moses said to the Lord, “You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’ ¹³ If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.”

¹⁴ The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

¹⁵ Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. ¹⁶ How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”

¹⁷ And the Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”

Reflect

1. Having read the Word, sit silently for a minute and give God’s Word a moment to settle within you.
2. Re-read the verses slowly and write down some thoughts that resonate with you.
3. Ask the Spirit to help you see the deeper longings, desires or motives in your heart that those thoughts are pointing to. (for example: you may write down, “Moses was upset that God had not told him who He will send with him.” The Spirit may prompt you to see that it’s when you have unanswered questions that your own frustration with God arises.)
4. What are some elements in Moses prayer that help you in your own praying when the step of faith you are taking becomes more than you think you can do?

Pray

Using Moses prayer as a template and a guide, make it your own today.

Your prayer today may begin with you telling God what God has been telling you, “Lord, you have said to me, you have put on my heart…” What is most important to Moses is a good indicator for what is most important for you, today, right now—His presence. Ask God for it; ask Him for what you need.