Seven Simple Tips to Refresh Your Prayer Life

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - Podcast listener Nathan writes in to ask about prayer.

00:00:08.160 | Pastor John, I'd like to see 2016 become a revival

00:00:11.120 | in my prayer life.

00:00:12.720 | I want to be honest when I tell people I pray for them.

00:00:15.320 | I read through many theologies of prayer,

00:00:17.320 | but I would love to hear any practical tips

00:00:19.320 | or methods for praying for others,

00:00:21.400 | specifically for a spouse, for children,

00:00:23.840 | for the lost, for leadership,

00:00:26.200 | for friends, for the infirm, et cetera.

00:00:29.100 | Do you have any suggestions to help refresh my prayer life?

00:00:33.400 | - It may seem too obvious to be mentioned,

00:00:36.120 | but in my experience, there's real motivating power

00:00:41.120 | to see my obvious duties stated with simple clarity

00:00:47.600 | in the very words of scripture themselves,

00:00:52.140 | instead of just kind of vaguely knowing that I have a duty

00:00:55.200 | to actually see what the Bible says.

00:00:58.360 | So let's start there to help Nathan and ourselves,

00:01:03.360 | 'cause all of us share his desire probably.

00:01:07.240 | The Bible commends what Nathan is longing for,

00:01:12.240 | namely regular prayer for other people specifically.

00:01:17.780 | It does so with explicit commands

00:01:24.940 | and by numerous examples.

00:01:28.700 | For example, the command James 5:16,

00:01:33.060 | "Confess your sins to one another

00:01:35.540 | and pray for one another that you may be healed."

00:01:39.580 | So Nathan should take heart that his desire

00:01:44.480 | is exactly in line with what God wants him to do.

00:01:49.480 | Pray, pray for other people, pray for one another.

00:01:54.780 | The one another in that text implies

00:01:56.940 | that the people you're connected with

00:02:00.300 | are people you should pray for,

00:02:01.660 | not only, but for sure, pray for them.

00:02:04.780 | And to do so is to please God.

00:02:09.380 | It's what he tells us to do, to do it pleases him.

00:02:13.140 | And that should just give us a warm, sweet, comforted sense

00:02:18.100 | that when we get on our knees and intercede for somebody,

00:02:21.360 | God is smiling upon us

00:02:23.680 | because we're doing what he said to do.

00:02:26.320 | And then there's the examples of Scripture,

00:02:28.120 | not just the commands that tell us what to do,

00:02:30.360 | but the examples of Scripture where, for example,

00:02:35.060 | Paul is praying for his kinsmen, Romans 10, 1,

00:02:38.780 | "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them

00:02:42.800 | is that they may be saved."

00:02:45.240 | Wow, I can't tell you how many times

00:02:47.200 | that text has encouraged me to see Paul

00:02:52.120 | earnestly interceding with his father

00:02:55.320 | for the people he loves to be saved.

00:02:58.680 | So just to hear those words in Scripture

00:03:00.620 | can be very encouraging and motivating,

00:03:03.240 | powering for us to press on.

00:03:05.380 | He's praying for unbelievers there,

00:03:08.940 | but he also prays for believers in Ephesians 1,

00:03:12.760 | and Ephesians 3, and Colossians 1, and Philippians 1,

00:03:16.280 | those great prayers of Paul.

00:03:18.440 | Wow, I would just encourage Nathan and all of us,

00:03:22.800 | meditate long and pray through the prayers of Paul.

00:03:27.800 | The Philippians 1 goes like this, Philippians 1, 9,

00:03:32.060 | "It is my prayer that your love may abound more and more

00:03:35.940 | with knowledge and all discernment

00:03:38.000 | so that you may prove what is excellent

00:03:40.280 | and be pure and blameless for the day of Christ."

00:03:43.760 | I have found these prayers of Paul incredibly valuable,

00:03:48.120 | both in inspiring me to pray for others this way,

00:03:53.120 | but showing me, modeling for me how to do it.

00:03:58.280 | And that's what I would encourage us to do,

00:04:00.240 | just make those prayers so much a part of us

00:04:03.860 | that we can't help but pray this way for other people.

00:04:08.860 | And then there are Paul's invitations

00:04:13.240 | to us to pray for him,

00:04:16.560 | I mean, to the readers of his letters, to pray for him.

00:04:19.160 | 2 Thessalonians 3, "Brethren, pray for us

00:04:22.880 | that the word of the Lord may speed on in triumph."

00:04:25.640 | And Romans 15, 30, "I appeal to you, brethren,

00:04:30.560 | by the Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit,

00:04:33.080 | strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf

00:04:38.080 | so that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea,

00:04:43.200 | that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable."

00:04:46.400 | I mean, for me to hear the greatest man who ever existed,

00:04:51.280 | I think, short of Jesus,

00:04:53.600 | to have him ask for prayer this way is so life-giving,

00:04:58.360 | so warm, it just makes me wanna get on my knees

00:05:01.720 | and do that for somebody,

00:05:03.120 | because Paul, if he needed it, good night.

00:05:07.960 | Everybody we know needs prayer like that.

00:05:12.760 | So I think that's about the most motivating thing

00:05:16.760 | I could say, that God tells us to pray,

00:05:19.520 | and then he gives lots of examples for how to do it,

00:05:23.880 | and he loves to see us do it,

00:05:25.680 | which is why probably Revelation 5, 8 describes

00:05:30.360 | the prayers in the golden bowls in the hands of the elders

00:05:34.320 | as incense before God.

00:05:38.440 | I mean, what does incense before God do?

00:05:41.780 | Well, it just fills his room with pleasant fragrance.

00:05:45.880 | That's what it does.

00:05:47.480 | And what a beautiful image to get out on your knees with

00:05:51.560 | and say, "I am right now going to light

00:05:55.160 | a sweet-smelling lamp or candle,

00:05:59.640 | and it's gonna fill the room of heaven

00:06:02.920 | with a fragrance this afternoon or this morning

00:06:05.920 | that God is gonna be pleased by."

00:06:08.400 | Well, that's the most important thing I could say,

00:06:11.320 | but that's not what Nathan asked for.

00:06:13.280 | He asked for tips.

00:06:15.860 | He asked for suggestions.

00:06:17.000 | So here they go.

00:06:17.840 | I'm just gonna bang away.

00:06:19.800 | And really, these don't have biblical authority

00:06:23.740 | because these are just kind of growing out

00:06:25.840 | of Piper's experience,

00:06:27.240 | and that's what saints should do for each other.

00:06:30.320 | We should just share what we've discovered.

00:06:32.560 | So number one, use a list.

00:06:35.520 | Break it up in categories.

00:06:37.200 | We're talking about people now, all right?

00:06:38.840 | You probably, over time, are gonna know more people,

00:06:42.000 | have more people ask you to pray,

00:06:43.880 | have your circles of relationships grow

00:06:46.380 | so that one list is hopeless, right?

00:06:48.600 | You gotta break it up into pieces, various groups.

00:06:52.320 | And I find that creating a notebook in Evernote on my iPad,

00:06:56.320 | I've got a notebook called Prayer,

00:06:58.160 | and under Prayer, I have these different kind of groupings,

00:07:01.440 | and you can add people to various lists,

00:07:03.920 | and then you can decide on when you're gonna pray

00:07:08.360 | for those people.

00:07:09.200 | So use lists.

00:07:10.200 | Number two, think and pray in concentric circles

00:07:15.160 | with the closest relationships near the center,

00:07:18.300 | and then moving out to the more anonymous prayers

00:07:22.160 | for groups and ministries and nations.

00:07:24.840 | So for example, in my Evernote folder,

00:07:27.800 | I move from my immediate family at home,

00:07:30.520 | that's three of us, well, actually two now,

00:07:32.920 | that Talitha's in college, but used to be three,

00:07:36.320 | out from there to the children and the grandchildren

00:07:39.120 | who live away, and then out from there

00:07:42.400 | to the ministries I'm associated with

00:07:44.200 | and the people in Bethlehem Baptist Church

00:07:46.960 | and Desiring God Ministries and Bethlehem College

00:07:50.280 | and Seminary, a whole slew of people

00:07:52.800 | that I pray for there, and then I move out

00:07:56.120 | to the church planters that I know

00:07:58.080 | and the Treasure and Christ Together Fellowship,

00:08:01.500 | and then I move out to ministries

00:08:03.080 | like Together for the Gospel and TGC and TLI

00:08:07.080 | and a lot of friends there that are on my list,

00:08:10.160 | and then I move out to my neighborhood

00:08:12.040 | and a few people I've written down in the neighborhood

00:08:16.120 | and sometimes just in my jogging evangelism

00:08:19.280 | that I do in good weather, and I'll meet people

00:08:21.960 | and they'll tell me their name

00:08:22.940 | and I ask them what I can pray for,

00:08:24.600 | and that goes on one of my lists.

00:08:27.520 | So concentric circles is one way I handle

00:08:30.760 | the diversity of those lists.

00:08:33.000 | Third, pray the Word of God over these people.

00:08:37.440 | This will keep your prayers

00:08:38.680 | from being merely repetitive, right?

00:08:41.360 | Read the Word of God first, meditate on it, pray in it,

00:08:46.360 | and then pray what God shows you from the Word

00:08:51.040 | for the people that are appointed to be prayed for that day.

00:08:55.560 | Fourth, periodically assess your prayers for them

00:09:00.560 | by comparing what you pray

00:09:02.840 | with what the New Testament prays.

00:09:04.780 | I gathered in one place, and I think this is available.

00:09:08.520 | - Yeah, I'll find the link.

00:09:09.360 | - We could check, Tony, and make it available.

00:09:11.520 | I think it's available at Desiring God.

00:09:13.240 | I gathered into one place all of the things

00:09:16.600 | that are prayed for in the New Testament.

00:09:18.320 | It's a list about, I don't know,

00:09:19.160 | it's about 40 different kinds of prayers,

00:09:21.960 | and I use that list not every day,

00:09:24.360 | but periodically I just run through it and say,

00:09:27.120 | okay, am I neglecting anything important

00:09:29.240 | that the New Testament prayed for?

00:09:31.520 | Number five, mingle general prayers with specific prayers.

00:09:36.520 | A lot of people are skittish about general prayers.

00:09:40.640 | I love general prayers,

00:09:43.120 | like, "Hallowed be thy name all over the world."

00:09:45.600 | That's a big general prayer.

00:09:48.280 | Both specific prayers are important.

00:09:50.300 | So a specific prayer might be,

00:09:51.920 | "Grant that Bill would find a job this week.

00:09:55.440 | "He's been out of work, Lord, help him find a job."

00:09:57.680 | That's specific.

00:09:58.580 | You can just bang, you can see the answer to that

00:10:00.560 | immediately.

00:10:01.720 | General prayer would be,

00:10:03.120 | "Lord, cause Bill to love you more

00:10:05.740 | "and to treasure you above all."

00:10:07.520 | Well, that's a lot harder to detect, right?

00:10:09.700 | But so crucial that you pray for.

00:10:13.200 | Number six, I've only got seven.

00:10:15.680 | Number six, be quiet over the people

00:10:20.440 | and see if God brings things to mind

00:10:23.800 | that people might need today,

00:10:27.400 | and then pray those things

00:10:28.860 | if God brings anything specific to mind.

00:10:31.240 | And lastly, I would say, look for answers,

00:10:36.400 | take note of them,

00:10:38.180 | keep some kind of record, maybe in your journal

00:10:40.660 | or in another folder of answers.

00:10:44.740 | And what keeps it all fresh and authentic

00:10:48.920 | is the way it all flows from the Word

00:10:52.140 | and goes back to the Word, the Scriptures.

00:10:55.520 | And I can't stress enough

00:10:59.440 | that we don't wanna become rote,

00:11:01.440 | we don't wanna become mechanical and repetitive.

00:11:04.600 | And the best way to do that

00:11:06.280 | is let the Word be fresh daily

00:11:08.840 | and let the Word make your prayers for people fresh daily.

00:11:13.840 | Yeah, such good counsel.

00:11:15.120 | Thank you, Pastor John.

00:11:16.040 | And when it comes to praying God's Word,

00:11:17.920 | I'll add the link to the podcast transcript.

00:11:20.580 | And this is probably a good time to remind you

00:11:22.640 | that we do release transcripts of the audio recordings

00:11:26.160 | as we release them.

00:11:27.720 | And you can find those at our online home

00:11:29.320 | at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

00:11:34.000 | And when it comes to praying the Bible,

00:11:36.560 | see Don Carson's book,

00:11:37.640 | "A Call to Spiritual Reformation,

00:11:39.640 | "Priorities from Paul and His Prayers,"

00:11:41.920 | really excellent book.

00:11:43.300 | And Don Whitney has a new book titled, "Praying the Bible."

00:11:46.800 | Both of those books are really helpful

00:11:48.400 | in taking the words of Scripture

00:11:50.440 | to help orient our own prayers to God.

00:11:53.600 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke,

00:11:56.080 | and we will return tomorrow.

00:11:57.680 | See you then.

00:11:58.520 | (upbeat music)

00:12:01.100 | (upbeat music)

00:12:03.680 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

Seven Simple Tips to Refresh Your Prayer Life

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