New Believer’s Path · Lesson 2 of 7 · In Everything, by Prayer · about 5 min
Repentance is long and hard. What else can I do?
In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
Philippians 4:6 · WEB
In nineteenth-century England, a boy of about fifteen, at home alone with time on his hands, picked up a gospel tract, meaning to read only the story at the beginning. When he came to the words ‘The finished work of Christ’, he suddenly understood: salvation had already been completed, and all that was left for him was to receive it.
That same afternoon his mother, seventy or eighty miles away, shut her door and prayed for her son until at length she could pray no longer and was moved to praise. When she came home a fortnight later, he rushed to tell her the good news, but she put her arms around him and said, ‘I know, my boy; I have been rejoicing for a fortnight in the glad tidings you have to tell me.’ Later he found that his sister had written in her diary that she would pray every day until her brother was converted—exactly one month earlier. That boy was Hudson Taylor, who later went to China as a missionary.
Source: Hudson Taylor, A Retrospect, chapter 1
In the last lesson we found ourselves a set time and place to be still for five minutes. Once we are still, what can we say to God?
After coming to faith, many people are most afraid of prayer: not knowing what to say, afraid of saying it wrong, afraid of not sounding ‘spiritual’ enough. But the Bible is wide open: “In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” (Philippians 4:6) In everything—big things and small things alike.
Prayer is not a speech; it is talking. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, the first words were “Our Father in heaven.” (Matthew 6:9-13) You are speaking to a father, not answering an examiner. He also said, “when you pray, enter into your inner room, and having shut your door” (Matthew 6:6)—no audience needed, and no fine sentences.
If you really don’t know what to say, the Bible has thought of that too: “we don’t know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which can’t be uttered.” (Romans 8:26) When words won’t come, a sigh is a prayer too.
This week, do just one thing: choose something on iPray that you truly care about, and for seven days say one sentence about it each day. One sentence is enough. What matters is not length but coming back to him every day.
“In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by ___ and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”
When you don’t know how to pray, what does the Bible say?
Choose one thing on iPray and pray one sentence for it every day for seven days.
Just this one thing, so small you cannot fail. Write it down and it goes into your Rule of Life card.
Added to your Rule of Life card. Tap each day you do it this week: