Teach Us to Pray

She Prays Edition

The events of January 6, 2021, in Washington D.C. were crushing. I spent most of the day celebrating Jolee, my birthday girl, unaware of the events. When the news came of angry citizens trampling the Capital, including the deaths, injuries, and disorder that ensued, I found myself experiencing several different emotions. Regardless of where you stand on the political aisle, yesterday should have been a sorrowful blow to democracy and a disfiguring smack in the face to a wrongful interpretation of Christlikeness.

Our troubles times seem unprecedented, but they are not. No one has stormed the Capital Building successfully before, but hostilities that have ushered people toward destruction are not new. Charles Spurgeon preached during the time of the American Civil War as well as the Crimean War between his own country and France against Russia. While hearts are heavy and tensions high here and now because of the Corona Virus, London and the surrounding areas experienced Cholera outbreaks, losing thousands. In fact, over 600 people were lost in the first two years of his ministry in one location.

Much political and theological unrest was present, as Darwin published his Origin of the Species in the midst of these years. The times were just as tumultuous then as they are today. What did they do in the midst of the chaos? How did the Church prevail? What did they do to ensure lives continue to be transformed by the Gospel rather than shut the doors and go home?

How did Spurgeon and the people of his day respond? They lived out their faith in the days and times in which God placed them. Believing God, they pushed through the political uncertainty, disease, and persecution to trust in the only One who is certain. They did so through the power of prayer.

In moments like today, in the aftermath of such catastrophic losses, while our hearts ache for our country, even in the midst of the pain we may be feeling as a result of Corona, we can follow this example from Spurgeon, himself.

Today, if you are not sure how to respond, or what you should pray, the Holy Spirit is present to help you. Ask Him for help, just as Spurgeon does here. The Holy Spirit will teach us how to pray. Then pray as He leads. Feel free to pray this prayer or use it as your guide. But pray.

Holy Spirit, teach us how to pray. Let us know what we should pray for as we ought. Our first prayer is, Be Thou adored. Reign Thou over the whole earth. Hallowed be Thy name. We desire to see all men submit themselves to Thy gracious government. We wish especially that in the hearts of Thine own there may be an intense love for Thee and a perfect obedience to Thee. Grant this to each one of us. We would each one pray, “Lord, sanctify me. Make me obedient. Write Thy law upon my heart and upon my mind.” Make our nature so clean that temptation cannot defile it.

“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” May our course be very clean, our path be very straight. May we keep our garments unspotted from the world and in thought and desire and imagination, in will and in purpose, may we be holy as God is holy.

Charles Spurgeon

Add your own prayer in the comments if you like. You never know how you might be an encouragement to someone else along the way.

May God be responsive to our prayers,

For His Glory,

If you would like to be a part of the Facebook Group, She Prays, come join us! It’s a wonderful group of women who pray diligently for each other regularly. You will love them. And they will love you. Use this link provided to come aboard.

Best App to Help You Pray

If you ever struggle with staying focused, praying on a regular basis, remembering what to pray, or being diligent to pray Scripture– have I got good news for you! Help is on the way. I have found the best app! Let me introduce ECHO, the prayer app.

My cousin/friend turned me onto this resource a few months ago and my time with the Lord has never been the same. HONESTLY. I can journal, sticky note, and remember stuff with the best of them in terms of what I should pray– but nothing yet has compared with the help this little free app has been to me, personally.

I talked about it in the She Yearns Podcast, Best App for Praying, but I wanted you to have a written account in case you need it that way, also.

It’s so simple. First of all just download it. What you see is what you get. Two simple options: Pray Now or Add a Prayer. Let me tell you about some of the features and how you might utilize this awesome tool in your daily life.

How to use the app

Add a Prayer

First you are going to Add a Prayer.

Enter a title of the prayer. This could be the name of the person you want to pray for, the cause, or need, or maybe the reference if it is a verse, like Joshua 1:9.
Add an image if you like. (You don’t have to do this. I personally haven’t taken the time yet to do this – so you can skip it.)
Add a description. This is for you. Spelling doesn’t count. It doesn’t have to be a complete sentence. It can be in code. Whatever. However you want to jot down what it is you are praying for. The important aspect here is to HASHTAG IT.

For instance, if I want to pray the Scripture, Psalm 90:16-17, this is what my entry would look like:

Psalm 90:16-17

#Scripture

Let your work be shown to your servants; and your glorious power to their children.

Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!

Then I would push “Add” and now it would be under the “Pray Now” button. I can repeat this process to add more prayers.

Pray Now

When I am ready to pray for the requests I have entered, I simply push the “Pray Now” button and my requests begin to rotate. I turn them like I turn a page on a Kindle.

Feeds

Another feature I like is called Feeds. This is basically a collection of groups, organizations, and causes that has developed a “Feed” or what we might call a profile with different areas to pray in and for and possibly some prayers written out. Let’s say I want to pray for Missionaries. There is a category or Feed with that title. This is what you would do:

Click on that category.
Under Missionaries, there will be several Feed choices like, Pray for Napal, Vision Baptist Missions, 10/40 Window, or Vision for China.
Select one. Let’s say I selected the Feed, Vision Baptist Missions.
Next, I can just look peruse the prayer requests and pray as I want, or I can choose to “Follow this Feed.”
If I want to incorporate the prayer into my own prayer time, I can press, “Copy to My Prayers” and it automatically adds it to my cycle of prayers.
You can join and participate in any Feed for the free version of the app.

If you want to create your own, it requires the upgraded paid version. I’m looking to do this for our ministry here over the next few months. It’s just another way to connect in a meaningful way that is Gospel-Centered.

Reminders

You can set a reminder for a particular prayer, hashtag, or feed, for a particular date, and how often you want to be reminded. That’s just awesome for a mom of eight!

Answered

There is also a mechanism for keeping track of prayers you find God is answering. There will be a bar at the bottom while you are praying that gives the option to delete, share, or answered. Then it keeps track of the ones that you mark as “answered.” I don’t know if you are in the habit of doing this, but I have found this to be of such value in my journals. To be able to go back over the history I am creating with God. That He is present and active in my life- in my needs – in where I am– is so critical to faith. I love this about Echo. So I hope you will utilize it.

Additional Paid Features

There are a few features that are available beyond the Free version: the ability to create your own Feeds, Groups, share your prayers and add photos. I believe it’s $2.99/mo or $19.99 per year. I’m not sure I articulated this on the podcast. I apologize if I did not get it in there specifically. I don’t use these additional features, but I see the value in them. The most useful ones for personal use might be Shared with Me and adding photos. By and large, you can manage very well with the free version. To join a Feed or participate in a Group you do not need to pay anything.

I hope you will try it out. Let me know what you think. And if you are interested in me posting a Feed, what would you like to see on it?

Have a great week!

For His Glory,

Cheri