Prayers That Strike The MarkSample

Praying God’s Word

As part of your continual communication with the Lord in prayer, you can take His written Word as your guide—even down to the exact wording at times. The Bible is filled with promises God has made and a history of how He has handled things. When God’s people have been in trouble, He has spoken to them. He wants us to pursue Him so that we will know what to pray for—enabling our prayers to strike the mark. Here are some examples of praying God’s Word:

• We can entreat the Lord based on His attributes, such as lovingkindness, faithfulness, justice, and goodness. We can remind Him, “You are our Redeemer. We need You desperately.” (See Psalm 74:2.)


• We can appeal to the honor and glory of His name, reminding Him that He has said His glory will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. (See Habakkuk 2:14.) 


• We can plead the blood of Jesus on behalf of ourselves and others. (See Revelation 1:5.)


• As we recall other times of spiritual breakthrough, we can pray, “Lord, Your people need revival. Come again as You did before.” (See Psalm 85:6–7.)


• We can confess our own sins and the sins of the people we are connected with. (See 1 John 1:9.)


• We can pray for healing and we can pray for mercy. (See Jeremiah 14:19–22.)


• We can remind the Lord of past answers to prayer. In many ways, this amounts to reminding ourselves too. The more we remind Him of how He has helped us and others, the more firmly we can stand before Him in expectation now. He can give us insights and revelation so that we can fine-tune our prayers to match His character, His heart, and His will.

Essentially, you testify about God’s power and goodness as you remind Him, yourself, and the community of believers around you of what He is capable of doing. Others can add to your prayers, and their amens will make the prayers more effective.

Word-based prayers flow easily once you get underway. On your own, you might not be able to pray for more than five minutes, but with the Bible in front of you, you can remain at your station as a “watchman on the wall” of God’s kingdom indefinitely.