Resources for prayer
Ideas to encourage your prayer life and grow confidence in praying with children.
There are two main types of resources for prayer I'll cover in this post: collections of prayers and books about prayer.
These are resources for adults, to encourage you in your own prayer life and give your more confidence in praying with & for your children.
Firstly, we turn to collections of prayers. I’m sure there are many more around – but here are some ideas.
Collections of prayers
1. Prayers from the Bible
The Bible is a source to be harvested for prayer. I know it sounds obvious, but it doesn't mean we automatically do it! Psalms are often already prayers or easy to turn into prayers, and many of Paul's prayers can be prayed verbatim.
Whenever you read the bible, be willing to turn whatever you have read into a moment for prayer - whether praise of God, confession upon realisation of sin, the desire to be changed aligning with God's word. Have a pen and notepaper handy and try it. You will find yourself praying from the bible more and more.
2. Old service books
If you grew up in a Christian home or if you have connections to older Christians or ministers, chances are they have some old Books of Common Order/ Common Prayer or Books of Services and Prayers lying around. Get your hands on them if you can. Of course, it is very possible you attend a church that still uses a prayer book of some type - fantastic! Do you realise the resource sitting in front of you? Our predecessors were great at writing prayers, so I like to learn from them and use them.
I am very privileged to possess two old service books of my Grandad's:
- The Book of Common Order of the Church of Scotland (1940). It is inscribed as being presented to my grandfather in 1965.
- A Book of Services and Prayers (for churches of the Congregational Order, 1959).
There are prayers for various times of the year, for all sorts of life situations, prayers praising God and prayers of confession.
I tend to rewrite the ones I like the best into more modern language, so they feel more natural to pray.
3. The Valley of Vision: Collection of Puritan prayers and devotions
This has about 200 prayers about God, Christ, his saving work and specific ones for situations and circumstances. Yes, they are old-fashioned and are full of thees and thous, which I have to translate as I pray to make any sense of them. Some are a bit archaic, but some are absolute gold. The ones I especially like I have rewritten in modern language and expressions, which I find more natural to pray. A great resource.
4. The Prayer Project
A few years ago I started a collection of prayers for personal use on a blog called The Prayer Project. They were from the bible, one of the sources mentioned above or just from my own thoughts. Perhaps you might also find them helpful to get you started.
Books about prayer
There are some excellent books on prayer around. My favourite three are below. Click on each for a detailed review.
I hope you have found some of the ideas and suggestions in this series helpful, either for yourself or your family. Keep sharing ideas with one another, we can all learn from each other as we come before our great God and Heavenly Father.
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