Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace. Hebrews 4:16
You have a direct audience with Almighty God every time you pray. Where can we learn this holy art of prayer? God has given us an entire book of prayers in the Bible—the Psalms. The reason we have been given the book of Psalms is to help us in our praying.
The Psalms are a training manual for prayer. In the book of Psalms, there are model prayers for every circumstance of life. These prayers have been breathed out by the Holy Spirit. They show us how to pray in a way that is pleasing to God, and they are given for our use and for our instruction.
There are 150 psalms. God has given us a manual on how to pray in every circumstance of life, and we should use it. We should use it to improve our praying. We should use it especially when we find it hard to pray.
We should use the Psalms so that our prayers are shaped by the Word of God, so that they are more than a reflection of our own hearts. Bonhoeffer says, “If we are to pray aright, perhaps it is quite necessary that we pray contrary to our own heart. Not what we want to pray is important, but what God wants us to pray… The richness of the Word of God ought to determine our prayer, not the poverty of our heart.”
Which one is shaping your prayer life more right now: the poverty of your heart or the richness of the Word of God?
