Page 50 - The Importance of Prayer Student Textbook

our lives. Ask Him right now to take your members and use each one of them for His glory and His
purposes. May we fully understand Colossians 1:16 For everything, absolutely everything, above and
below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels - everything got started in him and finds
its purpose in him. Yes, He has a purpose and a plan for each one of us. He alone is God and so cares for
us that He is willing to stoop down and listen to every one of our prayers according to Psalm 113:5-6.
Who can be compared with the LORD our God, who is enthroned on high? He stoops to look down on
heaven and on earth. Psalm 65:2 O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come.

Praying the Psalms

There is no book of the Bible that contains more prayers than the Psalms. The Psalms were written
prayers for the Hebrew people to sing. They can be categorized in the following ways.
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1 There are Psalms of complimenting Him. This is also called worship in the scriptures. Psalm 95:6 is an
example. Come, let us bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our maker.
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2 The second way to pray is to ask for forgiveness. Psalm 51:1 According to the multitude of your
tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.
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3 A third way to pray is to yield yourself to God. See Psalm 100 or refer to the above section on this
subject.
4 A fourth way to pray is to ask for protection. Psalm 34:7 Lord, deliver me from dangers I face, and the
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dangers I don’t know about.
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5 A fifth way to pray is to ask for victory. Psalm 23:6 Lord, I want victory now, I am tired of being
defeated, I want victory today.
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6 A sixth way to pray is for guidance. Psalm 23:2 Lord take me by the hand and guide me through my
difficult decisions.
7 And the seventh way to pray is for provisions. Psalm 27:13 Lord, I want to see your hand in my
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service for you.

This is certainly not an exhaustive list of categories but an introductory list of categories. The following is
an introductive list of Psalms that I have prayed over the years that have been a blessing to me. I want
to encourage you to begin to make your own list and experience the joys of praying the Psalms.

Psalm 81:10 I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide,
and I will fill it. Take this prayer promise and remind God of His greatness to bring deliverance. Remind
Him that He commanded you to open your mouth wide and He would fill it. Of course, you have already
ask the Lord to give you the desires of His heart. Bring these desires to His throne of grace and mercies.
God has not forgotten His greatness, but He loves to Hear us pray and marvel in His abilities.

Psalm 139:23-24 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there
be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. (Please refer to my comments on this
passage in the above section on dangerous prayers)

Psalm 65:10 Oh, thou that hearest prayer unto thee shall all flesh come. Did you just catch what God
recorded for us to read and remember? God Himself is declaring to be a prayer hearing God that is
deeply concerned with each one of us. Remind God that He declared Himself to be a God that hears
prayers. This is what set God apart from all the other god’s of the time of this writing. Jeremiah 19:5
describes the mindset of the day that typified what most people thought about the gods. The verse says,
they have built the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal--something I
did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind. He desired a relationship with us, and He did not

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