Reluctant Pray-ers

Growing in Prayer
Lesson One:
"The Most Reluctant Pray-ers in the Bible"

You know what happened to Jonah, right? He tried to run away from God and ended up in the belly of a specially-made fish!

One of the most beautiful prayers in the Bible is memorialized in Jonah 2. The runaway prophet cries out in despair, but he also proclaims, "I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the Lord" (verse 9).

Verse 8 resonates with me each time I read it:

Those who cling to worthless idols

forfeit the grace that could be theirs.

What worthless idols am I clinging to?
What grace am I forfeiting?

Action: "Begin each day this week by praying, 'Lord, help me to be quick to pray today and slow to resist you'" (p. 22).

Significant Quotes

Help us, Lord, to turn toward you, and in our turning,

find you have been turned toward us all along.

Timothy Jones

I have been driven many times to my knees by the

overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.

Abraham Lincoln.

(Note: Growing in Prayer is a six-week study from the Women of Faith Bible Study Series.)
(Photo credit)

Knowing God's Word #12

Chapter 12: Why Bother?

Why study Scripture?

• "We study something that is living and powerful."
• "We grapple with eternal truths."
• "We delve into the divine Word of God."
• "We study God's unchanging Word so that it can change us."

And yet . . . 1 Corinthians 13:2 reminds us:

Though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries
and all knowledge, and though I have all faith
so that I could remove mountains,
but have not love, I am nothing.

A paraphrase:

If I could speak for God and could unravel any enigma
and knew all there was to know and have perfect trust,
enough to do the miraculous, but cared nothing for others,

I will have missed the whole point!

God's purpose for His Word and what it does in our lives:

• Psalm 19:8, 11
• Psalm 119:9, 111
• Isaiah 55:11
• John 17:17
• Acts 20:32
• Romans 15:4

Digging Deeper

• Follow a Scripture reading program
• Choose another section, topic, book, or theme for actual study
• Keep a notebook or journal of your discoveries

Knowing God's Word #11

Chapter 11: Soaking

Soak in God's Word through study and meditation.

David invites the Lord to listen to him in Psalm 5:1: Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my sighing.

David sought God's favor in Psalm 19:14: May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, be pleassing in your sight.

Paul encourages us to focus on whatever is excellent and praiseworthy in Philippians 4:8.

This week, we're encouraged to memorize and meditate on a Scripture passage "until it penetrates your heart and soul."

I chose Jonah 2:8: Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.

Everytime I read this simple verse, my heart lurches at its sadness so I want to dig deeper into it.

What passage are your hiding in your heart?

Knowing God's Word #10

Chapter 10: Themes

Even though the Bible was written by multiple authors over several centuries, the theme of Redemption runs like a scarlet thread from Genesis through Revelation. Other themes weave through the Scriptures, themes of love, atonement, and sacrifice.

The same resources used for word studies can aid us in our search for the themes we wish to study.

Knowing God's Word #9

Chapter 9: Word Studies

Word studies help ensure we know a word's meaning and how it is used throughout Scripture. Online resources such as Bible Gateway, Vine's Expository Dictionary, and Strong's Concordance make it so easy to find out what the meaning of a word and all the places it's found in Scripture.

One of the questions in this chapter asked us to do a word study for "approved" in 2 Timothy 2:15.  First I go to Strong's Concordance and enter the verse's citation in the search box. This takes me to a page that shows the verse and assigns each word or phrase a number.

The number for "approved" is 1384. I click on the number and land on another page that shows the Greek word, it's transliteration, definitions, and the other passages where the same Greek word, dokimos, appears.

The info on dokimos provides fascinating insight on our mundane word "approved." Check it out!

Knowing God's Word #8

Chapter 8: Outlines

Outlining a passage of Scripture may reveal patterns we might otherwise miss. Here's my outline of the Parable of the Sower (Luke 8):

Farmer went out to sow his seed

• Path -- trampled / eaten by birds
• Rock -- withered among thorns / grew and choked
• Good soil -- yielded a bountiful crop

The meaning of the parable: the seed is the word of God

• Path -- Satan takes the word from them
• Rock -- no root among thorns / choked by life’s worries, riches, and pleasures
• Good soil -- noble and good hearts and persevere

Since I don't have access to a tab function, the above outline isn't exactly like I created it in WordPerfect, but you can still get the idea.

Usually, though, I prefer to write out an entire verse or passage, separating and indenting the lines as if creating a poem. This simple exercise helps me pay attention to the prepositions and conjunctions, nouns and verbs.

Knowing God's Word #7

Chapter 7: Back to the Basics

The colored pencils are back again! This time, we looked at the first twenty-four verses of Scripture's longest chapter, Psalm 119. Here's our color code:

Blue: right actions and attitudes
Orange: wrong actions and attitudes
Purple: what God does to/for those who obey Him
Green: what God does to/for those who resist Him
Yellow: the mentions of God's Word

The colors create a visual of this passage that aids our understanding of God's Word.