Day 17: Asking Prayer, Part 3

I must admit that I am better at the “how to pray” part of praying than the “experiencing God,” part of praying. 

Now that we’re on week three, you may have noticed that you are starting to get the hang of the “how” to pray part of prayer. A better understanding of the mechanics of prayer helps our prayer life, but praying more, and praying using the words from Scripture doesn’t make our prayer life complete. 

Have you noticed something missing? Have you felt like the habit of prayer has grown, yet something is missing? Do your prayers feel wooden or mechanical? Maybe this question will help with our next step: Are you throwing your prayers at God or speaking with God? 

To be sure, a lack of “how to speak with God” limits our conversations with Him. I hope you noticed, over the past two weeks, we read a lot of Scripture in creating your prayer process. Most of the time, I had you build your prayers from the Scripture you used. Now we’re more familiar with the method of praying Scripture back toward God, we must begin to move our emotions and feelings into the conversation, too. What we desire from our prayer life, and maybe what is missing from yours, is experiencing the presence of God in our prayers. For the second half of these 40 days we will seek to experience God in our times of prayer. 

One good prayer tool reads Scripture with six questions[1] in mind, helping us learn about God. Technically, we will combine a reading of Scripture, with a short time of meditation, and prayer. Explaining our division of time praying makes it sound a little more wooden or mechanical than intended. With this prayer tool, we ask God to speak to us using the Holy Spirit, using the Word of God. When God does speak to you or prompt you with the Holy Spirit, record the moment and savor your experience. Here are the questions for this extended prayer time: 

Prayerwork, Part 1: Turn your Bibles to John 3:22-30. Begin by asking God to speak to you from the Scripture today; trusting that God will do what He has said He will do, “…the words that come out of my mouth [will] not come back empty-handed. They’ll do the work I sent them to do, they’ll complete the assignment I gave them.” Isaiah 55:11. Pray this prayer before you read the Scripture: “God thank you for giving us Your Word. Please God, help me to understand by the power of Your Spirit what I need for today.” 

Prayerwork, Part 2: Now read John 3:22-30 and answer the six questions. Each passage of Scripture will not always answer one of the questions. Maybe this passage of Scripture only gives you a couple of answers—or maybe all of them. Sometimes, I miss the answer and only later, after thinking about the Scripture for a longer time, does the God reveal to me the answer. But today, we trust that through the Holy Spirit, we will receive one or two answers to these questions. This would also be a great opportunity to write in that new journal you bought or write more in your digital prayer records we started keeping on Day 15. 

Read John 3:22-30 

1) What does this passage teach me about God? 

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2) Is there a command I need to obey? 

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3) Is there an example I need to avoid or imitate? 

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4) Is there a promise I can claim? 

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5) Is there a warning I need to heed? 

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6) Is there a sin I need to confess and leave behind? 

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Prayerwork, Part 3: What is fun about this process is you can use these questions with almost any passage of Scripture and ask God to speak to you through His Word. Now, this next step will be a key process to your future prayer time with God. Just sit quietly and think about the answers God gave you. Roll them over in your mind. How are you going to live differently today because of what God’s Word has revealed about Himself? How are you going to live differently today because of what God’s Word revealed that you need to do? Take about three minutes and just meditate on the Scripture and answers you wrote. 

Prayerwork, Part 4: Did God give you any answers today? Did something from Scripture stick out to you more so today than ever before? Write it below: 

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Prayerwork, Part 5: End your prayer time by thanking God for the answers He gave you. 

[1] You can find these types of questions in several resources, refer to bibliography: In It to Win It by Lawson; Prayer by Keller; Asking the Right Questions by Miller; Zume material, etc.