The Believer's Prayer Book

I love that the Bible is a book of prayer! The Holy Spirit has given us a whole book filled with prayers, and of course, the Psalms is one of the most wonderful sources of prayer that we could ask for.

For years I have spent a lot of time in the Psalms, praying the prayers with which this book is filled. Right now I'm in Psalm 80 again, so I thought I'd share it with you, pointing out how much fuel for prayer there is in this psalm.

First of all, it's important to remember that Psalm 80 is a prayer first of all for Israel and that we must keep Israel in the forefront of our mind as we read the Word. God has very definite plans for Israel that are yet to be realized, and the Church's prayers for Israel are critical for the fulfillment of God's purposes for Jesus' natural family.

The great thing is that however we see God relating to Israel is how He relates to all those who belong to Him, and so we can take such Scriptures, whose first application may be to Israel, and find them to be perfectly suited to us in our walk with God on this earth. And so while praying Psalm 80 for Israel, I am also praying it for the spheres of influence that the Lord has given to me.

I'll simply list out all of the petitions that the psalmist makes in Psalm 80:

1. "Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel..."
2. "Shine forth..."
3. "Stir up your might"
4. "Come to save us"
5. "Restore us, O God"
6. "Let your face shine..."
7. "Restore us, O God"
8. "Let your face shine..."
9. "Turn us again, O God of hosts"
10. "Look down from heaven, and see"
11. "Have regard for this vine..."
12. "Let your hand be on the man of your right hand"
13. "Give us life"
14. "Restore us, O Lord God of hosts"
15. "Let your face shine..."

What wonderful prayers for us to use in praying for our family and ministries, etc.! If you don't do this as a regular thing, I would encourage you to practice praying out of the Bible. For example, taking this psalm, you could do something like the following:

• First, go through this psalm and meditate on Who it is addressed to. This is very important, because without pondering the One you are praying to (in light of what the psalmist says about Him), then it will be difficult to pray in faith when you make your petitions. For example, at the beginning of the psalm, the psalmist addressed God as the "Shepherd of Israel...who is enthroned on the cherubim." Meditating and gazing on this truth will awaken faith to believe that such a God can really do something about the person or situation that you are asking about.
  
• Go through the psalm and pray for Israel, remembering the deep passion God has for His chosen people and agreeing with that through praying this.
• Pray these phrases over a particular person or situation or group in your personal sphere. The phrase can act as a jumpstart into your own prayer for the particular thing on your heart.
  

Praying Scriptures in faith is very powerful because we have the assurance that they are prayers that God delights to answer since He wrote them in the first place! I tell my students that praying in agreement with prayers in the Bible is like adding your signature to a check that requires two signatures. God has already signed off on these prayers but needs a second signature in order for the check to be valid (the prayer to be answered).

The Lord bless you and inspire your prayers as you agree with His prayers that are easily accessible to us. It would be great for you to find one or more others who will pray the prayers in the Word with you; that adds even more power when two or more agree together with God!

Have a good week in Him; may you continue to grow in your experiential knowledge of Him and of what He's doing on the earth in this season of history!