Bible Prayers: Abraham Tested

Genesis 22:1-2 “Sometime later God tested Abraham. He said to him “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love    — Isaac — and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will  show you.”

Bible Prayers

God was asking him to do something that at a future time God would ask of  himself. The prophetic nature of Isaac’s sacrifice would be repeated when God sent his son Jesus to be sacrificed. With Jesus there would not be an angel to stop the sacrifice.

You were with me before I knew you, you pursued me with your love. Now I am able to look back and see the evidence of your incredible love for me. Your love is beyond my comprehension. It fills my heart with wonder and praise.

All that I have, all that I am, all that I ever hope to be exists only because of the mercy and grace you have given me. Your love continues to change my life as it did that one day that I surrendered it to you. Thank you that you never gave up on me.

Joy and gratitude fill me when I remember that day that you saved me and made me your child.  Jesus, I want to spend my life getting to know you more and more. Help me as I try to reach a deeper and closer relationship with you. Draw me to you, Lord.

Forgive me when the passion I have for you dims. Give me an unquenchable desire to seek you, to spend time with you. Give me a heart that thirsts for you in this dry and parched land.

Increase my faith, Lord. Faith that gives me new eyes with which to see. Help me understand that being successful does not mean that it will satisfy my deepest hunger. Success can blind me to what truly matters. How foolish to spend my life working for everything that is perishable and ignore what you offer—the Kingdom of God. I ask that you transform me, to see with the eyes of faith—that things are not what they seem.

By Lissette Trahan

Bible Prayers: Abraham

Genesis 12:1-2: “The Lord had said to Abraham, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you a great nation and I will bless you.”

Bible Prayers

It was through Abraham’s descendants that the Jewish nation would arise, one of those descendants would be the Savior. It was with Abraham that God established his covenant. Abraham was the rock on which the nation and the purpose of God was founded.

What I desire the most is to become like David, a woman after your own heart. I want to hear you say “Well done, my good and faithful servant” on judgment day. When I go home to you, your desire is to reward me as your child. Help me, Lord, to lead a life where I will not be ashamed.

Thank you for the conviction that I feel when I commit sin. Holy Spirit, thank you for keeping me on the right path, help me to be accountable for my life. I feel so much of what I do everyday is worthless and with wrong motives. I want to live a life obedient and pleasing to you.

At times I  have not been on fire for you as I should. Please give me a renewed zeal and passion for you. I love you Lord, and want to show you not only in words but in my actions.

I believe that my life is not an accident. My whole life has been marked out for me—planned in your all-seeing eye. I reflect on my past and see how so often you have surprised me, sometimes disturbed me, and always supported me in ways I did not expect. Yet through it all I can see where you have led me, and that each surprise—even the ones I didn’t want—in the end result had meaning. You have always been involved in my life, even when I had no interest in you. When I think of all the different directions that my life could have taken, I see the evidence of your hand guiding me.

Lord, how thankful I am that you have made your truth simple enough to understand. Etch your truth into my mind and heart.

By: Lissette Trahan

Bible Prayers: Tower of Babel

Genesis 11:4: “Then they said, “Come let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

Bible Prayers

The tower of Babel story reveals the rebellion in the human heart. The goal of the people was not to glorify God but to make a name for themselves. God knew that this would only lead them away from God. As a result he confused their language. It forced the people to scatter all across the earth. It reshaped the development of future cultures.

I ask myself, “What do I really want out of life?” What is it that I am really seeking?” I have lived a life searching for happiness; it has always led to a dead end, in the long run it never satisfied. The pursuit of happiness is not the answer. Happiness comes and goes depending on how well things are going. When I surrendered my life to you, Lord, I found joy. That joy that comes from the inside, from the Holy Spirit. It does not depend on outside circumstances. My sin nature tries to go back to my old way of life, a life searching for a happiness that is superficial. I left a life full of dead end roads that never satisfied. When I start to drift from you, as I so often do, I pray that you shake me, convict me, that I become aware of the wrong turn that I am making.

Why am I so easily distracted with earthly things?  Things that are temporal, that have no eternal value? I get so busy with the claims of the world that I become deaf to your calling. I get so preoccupied with life here that I forget what really matters. Lord, set me on the right path, I need your guidance.

I will never forget  the day that you came into my life. The joy, the love that enveloped me. I wanted to run and shout to every one that you were real. That one moment defined the rest of my life.

As I age, I realize how transitory my stay on earth is. What a difference between the eternal reign in heaven that I will have with you and this short journey here on earth. Help me to live a life that pleases and glorifies you.

By Lissette Trahan

Bible Prayers: Noah

Genesis 6:17: “I am going to bring floodwaters on earth to destroy all life.”

God saw how great wickedness had become and decided to wipe humankind off the face of the earth. Noah was found righteous in that generation, so God saved him and his family. God instructed Noah to bring into the ark two of every animal, male and female. Noah obeyed everything that God commanded him to do.

Bible Prayers

You are always with me,  no matter where I am or what I am doing. At this moment I stop to adore you, to praise you, and to thank you for my life. Even before I knew you, you loved me, you pursued me. You never gave up on me. I know you are aware of everything that happens to me, I call to you and you hear me.

When I believed and received by your grace my salvation, that was the beginning of my spiritual

journey. My soul awoke as from a deep slumber. I felt your love and I loved you in return. Now I cannot live without it.

Father, you sent your son Jesus to be a sacrifice for my sins. That was the only way that I could receive the Holy Spirit that abides in me today. That was the only way you could rescue me and allow me to spend eternity with you. You knew he would be tortured, crucified. Jesus could have said “enough” and stopped it, legions of angels would have come to his rescue. But then the devil would have won. I will  never understand so great a love. You did this for me, a sinner. How can I not spend my life praising you, loving you, obeying you.

Lord, give me a vision of life that transcends the world as I know it. Help me with  the situations I find myself in that calls for more sacrifice than I think I can give. I know if I obey you I can find my deepest purpose in life, the reason you created me.

Jesus, you are my mediator to God, you are my hope, you are the way to  my Father.

By Lissette Trahan

Bible Prayers: Adam and Eve Banned from the Garden of Eden

Genesis 3:23: “So the Lord God banished him from The Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.”

Bible Prayers

The reason God banished Adam and Eve was they now had the knowledge of good and evil. He was preventing them from eating from the tree of life. If they ate of that, they would have lived forever. Man was created with the ability to choose. If the only experience Adam had was of good things, he had no knowledge of anything that could be called evil. Satan introduced Adam to evil and God would not allow him to eat of the tree of life and live forever. Because of Adam and Eve we now have to choose.

Lord, I want to belong to you totally. I surrender my life to you. I want to live my life pleasing you, obeying you. The only way that I can be content is by knowing you more. I need your presence throughout the day. I can do nothing without you. Holy Spirit, help me.

I know that God never leaves us unless we go away first. Even when I ignore you, you are there knocking and waiting. Sometimes I feel you hiding, I don’t feel your presence. My prayers seem to just bounce off the walls. At those times help me to have faith in you. Your Word says that God allows us to go through difficulties to teach us to rely on him more. At those times let me experience your compassion, draw me back to you, Lord.

No matter what I am going through I know that you love me and that all you do is for my good. I believe that with all my heart. Knowing that helps me face life. Knowing that helps me through difficulties. With you by my side nothing is unbearable. 

Lord, as I go through life I want to learn to plant seeds that ultimately will help others find their way to you. What I plant, no matter how small, you can make it grow into something that is beautiful and fruitful.

Please keep me from falling, correct me and guide me. You know my weaknesses. I get caught up in the rush of this world. I want to learn to live constantly in your presence.

By Lissette Trahan

Bible Prayers: The Forbidden Fruit

Genesis 3:6 “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”

Bible Prayers

The fruit did not make Adam and Eve wise, but they did realize for the first time that they were not wearing clothes. Adam and Eve thought they would get pleasure and wisdom from eating the forbidden fruit, but they got neither. Their lives were ruined because of their sin.

Lord, I worry at times that my life is not pleasing to you, that my walk is not good enough. It is hard to forget my past sins even though I know that you have forgiven them. I know the grace that saved me. When I sin, I am convicted knowing that I have offended you. When my soul is troubled, I turn to you and you are always there. I can come to rest in that profound inner peace knowing that you will be my advocate when I stand before my Father.

Your Word is full of treasures, the more I explore it the more riches I find. The Bible is a love letter to me from the creator of the universe. It was your Word that led me to you, where you revealed your love for me. It changed my life. It introduced me to Jesus.

Your mercy gives me time to repair the many mistakes that I have made. I can begin over again knowing that you will accept me and love me. You never make me feel judged, you give me as many chances as I ask for. Your mercies are new every morning.

Your Word says that salvation is found in Jesus Christ. That there is “no other name by which we are saved”. Does this mean that only Christians are saved? God is not that small. All people are touched by the Spirit of God in many ways that we do not always see or understand. However, those who are touched, it is always by Jesus Christ. Jesus, you are the human face of God, you are the God who took on human flesh, you are the revelation of who God is for me.

By Lissette Trahan

Bible Prayers: Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden

Genesis 2:15 “And the Lord God took the man, and  put him into the garden of Eden to dress and to keep it.”       

Bible Prayers

The Lord God planted a garden of Eden. And there He put man who he had formed. Life in the garden of Eden would be life in the Kingdom of God. Lived in the presence of God, a place of grace and blessing upon humanity.

I am amazed at the immense variety of birds and animals and the beauty you created. The Garden of Eden, where you placed the first two human beings, Adam and Eve, was paradise. Everything about your creation was perfect. When you finished it, you said, “It was very good.” Imagine living in a world with perfect temperature, without sickness, no injustice, no poverty, being able to commune with you everyday with no separation, because there was no sin. This was life as God intended it to be and because of you, Jesus, I can look forward to someday living there. When everything here seems to be in chaos, please remind me that this is not my home.

Let me go into my heart and examine myself daily. No one knows when their time on this earth will end. Death approaches me everyday, I want to be prepared, ready to meet the one who died for me. I pray that the way I live my life will not bring shame when I stand in front of you.

I remember the first time that you revealed yourself to me. My enthusiasm, my joy! Lord, rekindle that love for you in me. May it never get cold. I earnestly pray to receive this grace.

I am saved. I have the hope and conviction of life after death. I also know that salvation means more than life after death. When I was saved, you touched me, Lord, something became possible in my life, not because of my power, but because of your power. I am saved and everyday continue to be saved. Your blood cleanses me as I walk through this world full of sin. I have access to you as a child has to its father. You knew me and knew that I would be yours before the foundation of the earth. Make me worthy, Lord.

By Lissette Trahan                                                 

Bible Prayers: In His Image

Genesis 1:26: “Let us make man in our image”

In the vastness of this universe, on this tiny little planet, earth, God placed His most perfect creation, men and women made in His image.

                                 We are made in God’s image, we are spiritual beings,                             

  with intelligence. God placed us above everything

else. He gave us authority and dominion. A gift of   

love.

BIBLE PRAYER

You created me, you made me in your image. All my existence from beginning to end is to fulfill the goal of making me more fully what you made me to be, your faithful servant. As I ask for your forgiveness, fill my life—a life so full of flaws and deficiencies—with the hope that your Word promises. I am covered with your blood, Jesus, all of my sins are forgiven. I can rest in peace knowing that the best is yet to come. Spending an eternity with you in your Kingdom. I rejoice!

Lord, you say I am not of this world, yet you command me to go into the world. I need your help to not sit back and see the world go by and do nothing. I selfishly am only concerned with my small world around me. Let me reach out to my neighbors, to whomever you put along the way and show them by my attitude and actions that I care. I need to give of myself and serve so that people see the joy and love that comes from you.

Give me the ability to  recognize beauty and truth when I see it. Holy Spirit, let me always be open to your promptings—convict me when I am blind and deaf to your guidance. Give me discernment to know evil; if I go the wrong way, help me to quickly turn and repent. Don’t let me become spiritually deaf, keep me aware and sensitive so that I will always obey and follow your leading.

Lord, give me a heart that is dedicated completely to you. I want to renounce anything in my life that is not your will for  me.

By Lissette Trahan

Bible Prayers: The Beginning

Introduction to Bible Prayers for this summer:

My hope in writing this collection of prayers is that it would be an aid anyone struggling with their prayer life. To be used, not as a substitute, but as a primer for the times that we yearn to approach God and cannot find a starting point.

The comments accompanying each Bible illustration come from sermons that have inspired me or my heartfelt feelings.

I hope it will help readers create the communication with God that is so essential in our lives, and that it will establish that intimate relationship that God wants us to have with Him.

Sincerely,

Lissette Trahan

Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

The universe had a beginning. Before God spoke it into creation there was no universe, no planet earth. The sense of how small we are, how fragile the earth is shows me the creator in all his power and glory. The order throughout the universe proves to me  that we have a creator holding it all together. As we search for meaning we can know that there is a God in control. We are alive, a speck, in this huge universe, but we are not alone.

BIBLE PRAYER

One clear night I looked up and really saw the stars, the galaxies. the huge universe and I felt awe. Then I read in the Bible:

Psalm 19:1

       “The Heavens Declare the Glory of God;

          the Skies Proclaim the Work of His Hands.”  

I look at our small planet. It is the size of a grain of sand compared to our universe. How can I not believe that there is a God holding it all together? Let me never forget, Lord, to stay in awe, to say WOW! At the beauty of nature, when a baby is born, how we are suspended in this vast universe. The human spirit longs to experience awe. The ability to awe is the first step of faith. Thank you, Lord, for giving us a life full of awes.

Lord, help me to be constantly aware of your presence. I want to form a habit of continually talking to you through each day. Forgive me for the times I have ignored you. Help me to reject any thoughts that distract me when I am praying.

Never let me lose the sense of your presence. I have confidence in your goodness. In the same way that you pursued me I know you will keep me always by your side guarding me from sin.

When I awake in the morning, my first thought is of you, when I lay down to sleep, my last thought is of you. Continue to bless me, Lord, I want you to be the center of my life, the anchor of my soul.

By Lissette Trahan