Sunday Leftovers: You can pray

Because the believer in Christ is secure in his salvation, he can be sure that God has saved and will save Him through eternity (1 Jn. 5:13).

But that’s not the only benefit of salvation; because the believer is saved, he also can be confident in going to God in prayer, not withholding anything from the Lord (1 Jn. 5:14).  And he can also be sure that God will hear and answer those prayers (1 Jn. 5:15).

Now it’s one thing to be certain that you can pray and God will listen.  But if we are going to pray according to the will of God (1 Jn. 5:14; cf. also 3:21-22; Jn. 14:13; 15:7, 16; 16:23-24), then it would also help to know how we are to pray.  For what should we ask the Lord?  What kinds of requests are within God’s will?  Are there any hints to knowing how we should pray?

One way that we can know how to pray according to God’s will is to pray the prayers of Scripture.  Not only do we have a model for the of our prayers, given by Jesus (Mt. 6:9-13), and the kinds of attitudes we should have in prayer (e.g., Ps. 139:23-24; Ps. 32:3-5), but we also have many examples of prayers for how we can specifically pray for ourselves and others.  Consider these examples:

• Romans 1:8-12
• Romans 10:1
• Romans 15:5-6
• Romans 15:13
• 1 Corinthians 1:4-9
• 1 Corinthians 16:23
• 2 Corinthians 1:3-7
• 2 Corinthians 2:14-16
• 2 Corinthians 12:7-9
• Galatians 6:18
• Ephesians 1:15-23
• Ephesians 3:14-21
• Ephesians 6:19-20
• Philippians 1:3-6
• Philippians 1:9-11
• Philippians 4:23
• Colossians 1:9-14
• Colossians 4:2-4
• 1 Thessalonians 1:2-4
• 1 Thessalonians 2:13-16
• 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
• 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24, 28
• 2 Thessalonians 1:3-12
• 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
• 2 Thessalonians 3:2-5
• 2 Thessalonians 3:16
• 1 Timothy 1:12
• 1 Timothy 2:1-4
• 2 Timothy 1:3-7
• 2 Timothy 1:16-18
• 2 Timothy 4:22
• Titus 3:15
• Philemon 4-7
• Philemon 25

Be confident that as a believer, the Lord invites you to pray; and when you pray, He will listen to and answer those prayers.  And to learn to pray an accord with God’s will, you will do well to pray the prayers that are recorded in Scripture.