Yancey on Prayer 4

Life has continually kept me from reading Yancey's book, "Prayer - Does it Make Any Difference?" But the past couple of days I've had a few moments to sit and soak in his insights and wisdom.

I was intrigued by Yancey's suggestion to "pray the Psalms." He suggests using the Psalms as a template for prayer by inserting your own circumstances, a friend in need, a stressful day, etc. into the Psalms and allowing them to become your prayers to God. I thought I'd try it this morning for a teen I've committed to praying for. I used Psalm 1 (the beginning seemed like a good place to start). So my prayer went like this:

(I'll call the teen "Bobby")
"O Lord, bless Bobby by helping him walk away from the counsel of the wicked
Help Bobby to avoid standing in the way of sinners or sitting in the seat of mockers
May his delight be in you
Inspire him to meditate on your law, on your goodness, day and night
So that he might become like a tree planted by streams of water
May his leaf not wither and may he prosper in all that he does
Keep Bobby from being like the wicked who are like chaff that the wind blows away
Instead watch over Bobby and keep him in the way of the righteous

I continued on in Psalms looking for more ways to pray like this for other circumstances and events in my own life. But I honestly found it difficult (at least for the first 20 Psalms - that's as far as I've gone). The problem is each one seems to beg God's destruction upon one person or a group of people. I'm not really sure that there is anyone in my life that I would classify as my enemy, much less anyone I want God to DESTROY!!!!

But that's the beautiful thing about the Psalms; it's real people with real struggles who see God as playing a real role in their lives. Sure they pray for sick folks or for strength, but they also pray for the struggles from the "daily-ness" of life. It's real prayer that invites God into every part of a person's day, not just the "God time."

I plan to use the Psalms in the coming weeks to help me pray better. I plan to use them to draw strength from those who labored and toiled for God generations ago and to help point my mind to a God who is present in everything I do, whether I know it or not. I hope you'll join me.