Day 5: Breath Prayer Part 5, Addition


“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
Matthew 23:37-39
(Mixed together: Psalm 57:1; Exodus 19:4; Psalm 61:4; Psalm 118:6).
 

What other breath prayers can you find in Scripture? You can use the Scripture from just about anywhere and rewrite the words into a prayer. Jesus did this. The Scripture records Jesus using Scripture to pray back to the Father in Matthew 23 and Luke 13. In that prayer, Jesus mixed and matched different Scriptures of the Old Testament to form one lament/prayer for Jerusalem. 

This is an important concept to add to our understanding of prayer because we are praying a prayer based on Scripture. In this lesson we’re going to add some more Scripture to our prayers. The more Scripture we pray back to God allows us to cover and explore a full biblical spectrum of God’s thoughts. The more of God’s thoughts we get into our minds, the more our thoughts start taking on the shape of the way God thinks.  

Prayerwork, part 1: Keep praying whenever you think about it during the day. Keep doing the three prayer times on which you set your alarm, and for today’s prayer lesson start reading the book of Psalms. The Psalms, found right in the middle of your Bible, is our prayer book. As you read a couple of chapters, underline a sentence you would like to turn into a prayer. Write down some of the ones you underlined below. 
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Here are some of the Scriptures I’ve taken and used as my own breath prayer from various parts of Scripture, including Psalms: 

“The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Psalm 23:1

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.” Matthew 6:9

“The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” Psalm 34:18

“The LORD bless you and keep you.” Numbers 6:24 

Prayerwork, Part 2: Write your own breath prayer in the blanks below using Scripture from Psalms (or anywhere in the Bible). And use them today as you remember to pray, or at your prayer hours. 
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"Come near to God, and He will come near to you."
James 4:8