Used Prayers

How do you feel about using someone else’s prayers? Not for me I hear you say, they’re stale. Maybe it’s time to recognize that while we can fall into heartless ritual, we can also benefit from the thoughtfully crafted prayers of others. We do well to learn the language of heaven from godly men and women through the ages and today. It’s good for our imaginations to be stirred to new heights and find ourselves joining in and adding on. You’ll find them used but not used up. Here’s a start:

“O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory; I pray Thee, so that I may know thee indeed.” - A.W. Tozer

“Loving Lord and Heavenly Father I offer up today all that I am, all that I have, all that I do, and all that I suffer, to be Yours today and Yours forever. Give me grace, Lord, to do all that I know of Your holy will. Purify my heart, sanctify my thinking, correct my desires. Teach me, in all of today’s work and trouble and joy, to respond with honest praise, simple trust, and instant obedience, that my life may be in truth a living sacrifice, by the power of Your Holy Spirit and in the name of Your Son Jesus Christ, my Master and my all Amen.” - Elizabeth Elliot Gren

“O Lord, we pray for our country that God would bless it; and O that we might have a season of revival of pure and undefiled religion in the land. We perceive that Thou canst turn the hearts of the people, as the trees of the wood are moved by the wind. O that there might come a deep searching of the heart, great thoughtfulness of the Scriptures, reverence of God and the principles of justice and peace; and may this land make another stride in onward progress, and out of it may there be gathered a people whom Thou hast chosen, who may show forth Thy praise.” - Charles H. Spurgeon