Laundry List
July 7
Quickly sticking my head in the library the other day, I hoped for a good read to just escape with for awhile. On the "new books' shelf was a book by author Patricia Sprinkle. Knowing nothing about her I just took a chance. Ends up she is a Christian author and quite delightful. Yesterday, I finished my second novel by her...Hold Up the Sky. One character sounds off to another stating that her prayers sound like a "laundry list" of all she wants God to give her. Later, this character launches into a prayer which is filled mostly with praise, adoration and thanksgiving to God for all he has done and an attitude of trust as she lays her heartaches and troubles down to Him.
If prayer is conversation with God, how nice it would be for him to hear some happy sounds.
David and Solomon have left us wonderful examples of powerful prayers. God answered one of Solomon's prayers with this great instruction for prayer, explaining the process of humbling ourselves, seeking the Lord's face and repenting.
2 Chronicles 7:14
if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
We can learn from the prayers of others who have gone before us who acknowledge the greatness of the God they are coming before.
Hannah’s Prayer in 1 Samuel 2
1 And Hannah prayed and said: “My heart rejoices in the LORD; My horn is exalted in the LORD. I smile at my enemies, Because I rejoice in Your salvation.2 “No one is holy like the LORD,
For there is none besides You, Nor is there any rock like our God.
Moses prayed in Numbers 14
17 And now, I pray, let the power of my Lord be great, just as You have spoken, saying, 18 ‘The LORD is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.’19 Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of Your mercy, just as You have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.”
