Recently a good friend of ours had a very serious medical condition which resulted in him being hospitalized in the intensive care unit. This friend was able to post on social media what was going on and asked for prayer.
I’m prone to what I believe are distractions from the enemy who does not want us to pray. How about you? Knowing my weakness, I decided to immediately take action and write a prayer and send it to my friend via text message. My prayer was deep to the point of me having tears while writing. I felt the Holy Spirit guiding my heart and words while lifting up our friend.
Upon receiving the text my friend later shared that he broke down crying while reading the prayer and said he needs to be taught how to pray. Praise God for this humble request. Praise God as our friend’s health has made great improvement.
Want to pray better? We can do this by learning from Jesus and from today’s reading.
Pray like Jesus
When asked by his disciples how to pray, Jesus responds:
“When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.”” (Luke 11:2b-4 ESV)
Habakkuk’s Prayer
Chapters one and two of Habakkuk contain conversations between Habakkuk and God. Those two chapters are more of a dialogue (Habakkuk complaining, God answering) and then chapter three (the final chapter) takes on a different tone as a direct prayer. We can learn from Habakkuk’s prayer as he:
- Prays with a humble posture, with a healthy fear
- Praises God
- Petitions God
- Remembers what God did in the past and trusts he will do it again
- Acknowledges God’s power over all the earth, that God is his source of joy and strength
- Asks questions to God
- Waits patiently and faithfully for God, trusting he will respond
A Challenge!
Today I challenge our readers to pray for someone via text message. The first person who comes to mind (even if the person seems to be just fine, encourage him or her, just pray). Don’t wait because I’m guessing I’m not alone in being distracted. Keep it simple or go deep; pray for the Holy Spirit to put something on your heart. Let’s change the world through prayer as it is our most powerful weapon!