Page 48 – Guideposts Articles

How to Pray More Efficiently

Posted on March 11, 2026March 13, 2026 by Bob Hostetler

Prayer meetings and “prayer request” times in church or small groups used to frustrate me, until I discovered a prayer secret that completely turned my frustration into fulfillment.

For example, my wife and I serve on one of many “hospitality teams” at our church. We arrive 45 minutes before the scheduled worship service, and receive instructions or updates with the large group of volunteers, then go off to a semi-private hallway with our 10- or 12-person group to pray before we take up our various duties (brewing coffee, greeting, etc.).

Our group’s leaders encourage us to share prayer requests (or “praise reports”) with the group before we then go around our little circle while some pray and some pass. Invariably, however, the bulk of our time is spent talking about our needs rather than praying about them. In fact, I’ve been in “prayer meetings” that had to be cut short after the “request” period, with a challenge to pray on our own as we dispersed because time had run out!

And invariably, some of the requests are overlooked during the prayer time (though our group leaders thoughtfully and carefully record each request and follow up later in the week with a complete list via email so we can continue to support each other in prayer).

But here’s the prayer secret I discovered that made such frustrations a thing of the past for me: I don’t have to wait to start praying. I can pray as requests are being made.

It goes like this: Sister Monica begins sharing her burden for her teenage son, who is struggling with rebellion and depression. While she is still talking, I begin praying silently: “Lord, have mercy. Speak to him. Shine your light and love into his heart. Give Monica the wisdom she needs,” and so on. It helps me to move my lips as I pray, but I try to do so in a way that doesn’t draw attention.

Then, as the next person starts sharing a concern, I finish praying for Monica and her son and shift to immediately and silently praying for the next request being made.

When someone “passes,” I’ll still say a quick prayer for God to bless that person and to meet their needs.

In this way, by the time the “prayer request” time is over and it’s “time to pray,” I’ve already taken every need people have expressed—and some they haven’t—to the throne of God in prayer. And rather than feeling frustration at the ratio of “request time” to “prayer time,” I can focus on the prayers being offered while feeling satisfaction at the requests I’ve already made.

How To Pray Like Thomas Merton

Posted on March 11, 2026March 13, 2026 by Rick Hamlin

To be a person of prayer is to always be on the lookout for models of prayer. Again and again I have turned to Thomas Merton (Jan. 31, 1915 – Dec. 10, 1968) for sustenance, drinking in the well of his rich writings.

It would seem that we have little in common. After all, he was a Trappist monk, living and working in the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky farmland, saying the offices with his brother, savoring the silence, communicating to his many correspondents through letters, spending his last days as a hermit.

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I live in a big city, commute by subway to and from work and check my phone constantly for emails and messages. I am married with kids, have a host of friends and live nothing like a hermit.

But throughout my busy days I love to check into my inner Thomas Merton, that creative, imaginative, questioning, praying person who is forever seeking and knowing God.

In his essay “Fire Watch, July 4, 1952,” he spends the night alone with God at the monastery. “There is no leaf that is not in Your care,” he notes. “There is no cry that was not heard by You before it was uttered. There is no water in the shales that was not hidden there by Your wisdom.”

I try echoing the same faithfulness in my busy urban world: “There is no baby crying, no homeless person begging, no pigeon flapping its wings, no phone buzzing, no car honking that You do not hear.”

I get caught up in the news cycle and wonder where God is, then turn to Merton who reminds me, “But there is greater comfort in the substance of silence than in the answer to a question.”

Get that? Silence is God’s friend. And ours.

“Eternity is in the present,” he goes on to say. “Eternity is in the palm of the hand. Eternity is a seed of fire, whose sudden roots break barriers that keep my heart from being an abyss.” Eternity is here.

And whether I’m praying on the sofa in our TV room or in my bed or sitting on a subway train or listening to my colleagues at my desk and closing my eyes for a minute, I feel God’s presence.

As long as we are committed to seeking God, God will always seek us.

How to Pray Like Mister Rogers

Posted on March 11, 2026March 13, 2026 by Rick Hamlin

My wife and I recently spent an evening watching the surprise hit documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor? about children’s TV star Fred Rogers. How wonderful to remember the charm, the humility, the authenticity of Mister Rogers. He was the real deal. Here’s what he knew about prayer:

1) Give up all judgments
Fred Rogers was ordained a Presbyterian minister. Once as a seminary student he heard one of the worst sermons imaginable. Before he could share any of his unspoken criticism the woman sitting next turned with tears in her eyes and said, “That preacher said exactly what I needed to hear.”

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As he pointed out, she had listened to the sermon in need, not in judgment. And she was the one who had grown from the experience.

In church my instinct is usually to critique a sermon, my head full of comments (if I’m not dozing) like “Where did that come from?” “What verse are you referring to?” “Isn’t that what most people say?” But to listen, to really listen to someone means giving up all those judgmental thoughts.

Listen closely to someone and you will see how valued they are, how loved by God.

2) Honor silence
The seemingly shocking thing you notice about the show “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” is how wonderfully, reassuringly, amazingly slow it was. Mister Rogers wasn’t afraid of silence. In one remarkable episode he decided to show exactly how long—how delightfully long—one minute is. He put up a timer, set it for one minute and let the TV camera roll.

The world is a noisy place. Our heads can be noisy places, full of more thoughts than we know what to do with. People will say, You need to listen to God as you pray. How can you do that without getting silent?

On TV this kindly man showed just how. Slow down. Listen. Wait. With people he had all the time in the world.

3) Your own pain can be your strength.
Mister Rogers allowed himself to be vulnerable.

Tom Junod wrote a remarkable profile of Fred Rogers for Esquire magazine and was in the documentary talking about the man. But one story he didn’t retell was when Rogers met a boy who could only communicate by computer because of his cerebral palsy.

Mister Rogers asked the boy if he could do something very special for him, a big favor. Could he pray for Mister Rogers? Of course he would. He was stunned to even be asked.

Afterwards Junod commented on the favor Fred had done for the boy, a kid who was always the recipient of prayer, who was always seen as the needy one. How typically kind.

“Oh, heavens no Tom!” Rogers replied. “I didn’t ask him for his prayers for him. I asked for me. I asked him because I think that anyone who has gone through challenges like that must be very close to God. I asked him because I wanted his intercession.”

How to Pray Like Jesus

Posted on March 11, 2026March 13, 2026 by Rick Hamlin

The Bible offers many models for prayer. The Psalms, for example, offer language to cover almost any circumstance in life. But again and again, I turn to the Gospels for reminders of just how important prayer was to Jesus and how He prayed. Here are a few verses:

In the morning, while it was still very dark, He got up and went out to a deserted place, and there He prayed. (Mark 1:35)

Jesus could have talked to God anywhere, but He found it important to go off by Himself early in the morning, seeking a deserted place. Can we do any less?

I live in a teeming city with millions of people, but I can find that quiet place sitting on the sofa in the morning with my eyes closed.

“Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for My sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:39)

Our minds are filled with distractions. Prayer is an opportunity to pay attention to them…and let them go. Catch and release. When your mind wanders in prayer, don’t fight it. Take note of the thought. And let it go. Losing our lives for God’s sake…to find them.

“…but I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail.” (Luke 22:32)

Jesus prayed for others. His disciples, those who came to Him in need. Prayer is a time to offer intersessions for all of our loved ones and those we don’t even know. I like praying through the alphabet. There’s always someone or a group that comes to mind for every letter.

“And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper to be with you forever.” (John 14:16)

We’re not alone. As Jesus promised to His disciples, the Holy Spirit is our helper at hand whenever we need it. Let the Spirit give you the words—or no words—when all words fail.

“When you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your sins.” (Mark 11:25)

Prayer is an opportunity to become renewed. Forgiveness is a sure way to start. For me it’s never a one-time thing but something I need to do over and over again. When I forgive others, I can begin the work of forgiving myself.

“My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, Your will be done.” (Matthew 26:42)

Sometimes prayer is a one-way tug-of-war. Think of Jesus in the Garden, asking God to be relieved of His suffering. The only conclusion is relinquishment. Not His will, but God’s will. It might seem scary but there is always goodness ahead. For Jesus, yes there was the Crucifixion and then the Resurrection.

“Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name…” (Matthew 6:9)

Most of us know these holy words, the prayer Jesus taught His disciples. I’m always grateful to be reminded it’s in the first-person plural, not singular. Even when we’re alone, we’re praying with others and for others. The answers come to us all from Our Father.

How to Pray Like Jacob

Posted on March 11, 2026March 13, 2026 by Rick Hamlin

I take comfort in the story of Jacob, that deeply flawed son of Isaac. A cagey liar, an ambitious schemer, yes. And yet, God worked through him, as God can work through us all. A few lessons I’ve taken from Jacob’s story:

God appears in places where you don’t expect Him.
Jacob was on the run after robbing his twin brother Esau of his birthright. He had left the safety of his father’s domain and set out to find a wife. The sun had set, and he took a rock as a pillow.

Then he has a magnificent dream. He sees a ladder with angels ascending and descending on it, a highway to and from heaven. God appears right there, standing next to him, exclaiming, “Know that I am with you and will keep you where you go…” He’s given another chance. Like us all.

Make your promises back to God.
Jacob is pretty shaken up after that dream. “Surely the Lord is in this place,” he says, “and I did not know it.” He is afraid, but he doesn’t run away.

If God will stick by his side and provide for him on the journey and bring him back safely to his father’s house, he will give back to God a tenth of all his belongings, and he’ll make that stone a pillar for God’s house. He matches God’s promise with a promise of his own.

“Here I am,” can be our best prayer.
Jacob falls in love with Rachel, but her father Laban makes him work for a long time—ultimately 20 years—before he’ll let him go. In the meanwhile, he has many children, and his family grows.

Finally, God tells him to go back to the land of his ancestors. And he has another dream. It’s not nearly as vivid as that ladder of angels, but Jacob’s response to this angel is the perfect answer. “Jacob,” he’s asked. “Here I am,” he replies.

We often talk about the importance of showing up. To your friends, your family, your work colleagues, your church. That’s what it means to say—and pray—“Here I am.”

Be honest with God in your prayers.
As he sets out, Jacob is worried. “Save me from my brother Esau!” he prays “I’m afraid he will come and kill me, the mothers and their children…”

And then, because he’s Jacob, he schemes some more, splitting up his flock, encouraging his servants to lie. (Will he ever learn?)

Faith can be a wrestling match.
On the way, Jacob has to wrestle with God—quite literally. In the end the victory goes to Jacob. For his loyalty, his faith, his persistence. He doesn’t let God go and asks for God’s blessing because of it.

To live in faith can be a struggle. To doubt is very natural to all of us. To entreat in prayer and wait for answers. But be like Jacob. Don’t give up.

Though wounded, Jacob is triumphant. All is forgiven. God’s promises are fulfilled. But the pleasure I find in the biblical story is to see how God’s answers to prayer don’t always come in ways that are expected.

Then and now.

How to Pray Like a Child

Posted on March 11, 2026March 13, 2026 by Bob Hostetler

Feel like a failure at prayer? A novice, perhaps? Good.

Brother Lawrence, the 17-century author of The Practice of the Presence of God, wrote:

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For many years I was bothered by the thought that I was a failure at prayer. Then one day I realized I would always be a failure at prayer; and I’ve gotten along much better ever since.

I think that’s a great attitude for the praying soul. After all, Jesus Himself said that we should “receive the kingdom of God like a little child” (Luke 18:17, NIV), and since prayer is certainly an act by which we receive the kingdom of God, day by day and moment by moment, it makes sense to pray not as an expert nor even as an adult but as a little child.

But how do we do that?

1. Run to God when thunder rolls.
My five grandchildren have taught me at least something of what it means to pray like a child. For example, my five-year-old grandson Ryder hates thunder. When the sky begins to darken and storm and clouds gather, he becomes hyper-vigilant. He may be involved in playing a game or assembling Legos, but he will pause occasionally and cock his head and listen, and return to playing only when he is sure there is no lightning or thunder in the area.

At the first rumble, however, no matter how far away it may be, he drops everything he is doing, runs to his mother or father, and buries his face in their embrace. Every time I see him do it, I identify with him—not in a fear of thunder, but in my desire to run quickly into my Father’s embrace whenever a storm assails.

To pray like a child is to run, not to the police or the bank or the newscast when life’s storms hit, but into the waiting embrace of your Heavenly Father.

2. Run to God when you wake.
Our daughter, son-in-law and their three children lived with us recently while preparing to move across the country. Nearly every morning, we heard the pitter-patter of little feet traipsing into Mom and Dad’s bedroom as soon as one of the children awoke. Even in the middle of the night—awakened, perhaps by a loud noise or a bad dream—children dash immediately and instinctively for their parents’ bed.

To pray like a child is to run immediately and instinctively to God upon awaking. One family I know even trained their five children never to “get up” in the morning; once awake, they “got down” onto their knees at their bedside to begin the day in prayer—a practice they continued into adulthood and bequeathed to their own children and grandchildren.

3. Run to God when you’re tired and crabby.
Avery is the youngest of our grandchildren and, to quote Shakespeare, “though she be but little, she is fierce.” From time to time, however, she runs out of gas and gets tired and crabby. When that happens, she finds consolation only in her mother’s arms. She doesn’t know, of course, that her dire mood has a physical explanation—she just knows that Mom’s embrace is what she needs. That’s another way to pray like a child: run to God when you’re tired and crabby.

You don’t have to clean yourself up, brush yourself off, dry your tears and re-apply your makeup before praying—far from it! His arms are open for you when you’re at your worst. And He can shush and shelter you and, like a mother hen, “cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge” (Psalm 91:4, NIV).

These are not the only ways to pray like a child, of course. There are many more: whining, certainly. Throwing tantrums. Asking for treats. In the course of a week, I’m sure I cover them all. Maybe you do too. But these pictures of prayer help me to remember that I need not aspire to “expertise” in prayer but to childlike humility, honesty, and simplicity instead.

How to Pray in Times of Panic

Posted on March 11, 2026March 13, 2026 by Bob Hostetler

Panic is contagious.

It spreads quickly and many are susceptible to infection. The cause may be financial, prompted by a layoff or a falling stock market. It can be rooted in health concerns, such as the global reaction to the coronavirus. It might be rational or irrational, specific or general.

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Wherever the panic comes from, it is usually a combination of two sensations: fear of the future and a perceived lack of control. After all, if we knew what was going to happen, or had a sense of control over the coming events, the panic would likely subside.

That’s why prayer can help. That may sound like a platitude. Like so much wishful thinking. But it’s true. Many years ago, God told His people who were facing an overwhelmingly threatening situation:

“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation;
the one who relies on it
will never be stricken with panic” (Isaiah 28:16, NIV).

Turning to God in faith can relieve the uncertainty and stress that induces panic. We may have limited control when it comes to the outbreak of pandemics, sudden natural disasters and spiraling stock markets. But while praying may or may not change the circumstances in which we find ourselves, it can change us. Prayer can center us, calm us and point our minds and hearts to God.

So, sure, we can flip channels and obsess over the latest unsettling news. Or we can see the wisdom in the biblical prescription for fear, worry and panic: “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank Him for all He has done” (Philippians 4:6, NLT).

That writer knew what we need to discover: prayer displaces worry and pushes back on panic. If we’re feeling panicky, we should pray. If we finish praying and we’re still panicked, we should pray. If we feel panic returning, we should return to prayer, as often as necessary.

How to Pray in the Rough Times

Posted on March 11, 2026March 13, 2026 by Rick Hamlin

Every once in a while a new book comes along that reaffirms and helps me in my prayer life. I was particularly moved by Richard Lischer’s book Stations of the Heart: Parting With a Son.

Lischer is a professor at Duke Divinity School, where he has taught for more than 30 years, and so I expected something that was high-minded and literary. What I got was a story about faith and prayer in the trenches of life.

Richard went through one of those trials that no parent ever wants to face: the death of his 30-something-old son, Adam, from cancer. Adam had just gotten married, was looking forward to a promising career as a lawyer, and his wife was newly pregnant when he got the painful, devastating diagnosis that his melanoma had returned. Suddenly the tables of parenting were turned. Adam became the spiritual mentor for the father. Adam reached out and dug deep in prayer. Adam showed his father how.

Richard quotes Thomas Merton: “Souls are like athletes that need opponents worthy of them, if they are to be tried and extended and pushed to the full use of their powers,” and explains how Adam had discovered an opponent that would push him to the full use of his powers. “Two distinct paths opened before him: one would take him through the maze of chemo and radiation to an uncertain end. The other, originating in his baptism and nurtured by the rituals of his newfound community, would lead him through the labyrinth to his true destination.”

Adam and his wife, Jenny, made ritual of praying the psalms at night, and Richard points out how appropriate the psalms are for these times of trial: “The psalms are filled with the complexities of rage and so was Adam. It is never pure anger at work in any of us, and it wasn’t in him, but anger in the disguise and permutations of fear, suffering, sadness and bafflement. The psalms are filled with questions; they ask ‘why?’ and ‘how long?’ Sometimes they address God disrespectfully in a manner that good religious people find offensive. But they also offer more than the usual, therapeutic alternatives of suppressing the rage or projecting it onto others.”

As someone who regularly prays the psalms, those words resonated with me. “They invite the believer,” Richard goes on, “to lay the whole mess before God. The psalms treat God as a partner in suffering and in doing so they open a narrow path from lament to a grudging acknowledgment of God’s love. In the psalms Adam and Jenny found a script for moving from their worst fears to a powerful affirmation of trust.”

In this Easter season when we recently recalled how Jesus prayed from the cross the words of a psalm—“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”—to Easter Sunday itself when we sang more “Alleluias” “Hallelujahs” than one psalm can contain, it was helpful for this reminder that for thousands of years, from Old Testament times to today, the psalms have provided words of prayer for those times when you’re not even sure what to say to God.

May they help you find just the right words, as they helped Adam Lischer and his father, Richard, at one of the toughest times imaginable, “to lay the whole mess before God.”

How to Pray in Light of the Resurrection

Posted on March 11, 2026March 13, 2026 by Bob Hostetler

Imagine what it was like for Lazarus, friend of Jesus, to live again after he’d been dead, buried and then resurrected by the Lord. Imagine what it was like for Lazarus to pray after that! Do you think there was anything he wouldn’t pray about? Anything he wouldn’t ask? Any doubt in his mind?

That must have been the case for every first-century follower of Jesus after they encountered the risen Christ. After all, if Jesus could not only raise Lazarus from the grave but also rise Himself, what could He not do, in answer to prayer?

Isn’t that also the case for us? If we believe in and affirm the resurrection of Jesus, we should be able to pray in its light. Here are six ways:

1) Pray boldly, like the early church.
The first-century Jerusalem church responded to danger and persecution by praying, “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable Your servants to speak Your word with great boldness. Stretch out Your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of Your holy servant Jesus” (Acts 4:29-30 NIV).

After they prayed, the Bible says, “the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly” (Acts 4:31 NIV).

2) Pray big, like Peter.
When a woman named Tabitha died in Joppa, her fellow Jesus-followers sent for Peter, who was staying nearby. Peter responded and went to the room where Tabitha’s body lay, surrounded by mourners.

The Bible says, “Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, ‘Tabitha, get up.’ She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat up. He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called for the believers, especially the widows, and presented her to them alive” (Acts 9:40-41 NIV).

3) Pray powerfully, like Paul.
Writing to the churches in and around Ephesus, Paul prayed, “Ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in His holy people, and His incomparably great power for us who believe.

“That power is the same as the mighty strength He exerted when He raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way” (Ephesians 1:15–23 NIV).

4) Pray broadly, like James.
Living and praying in light of the resurrection, James apparently couldn’t envision a circumstance that couldn’t be taken to God in prayer. He wrote, in the Bible book that bears his name, “Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:13-16 NIV).

5) Pray confidently, like John.
John, the “beloved disciple,” wrote in a letter to the church, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of Him” (3 John 2 NIV).

6) Pray victoriously, like Jude.
Jude ended the Bible book that bears his name with a prayer of praise: “To Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen” (Jude 24-25 NIV).

All of these early Christians prayed as they did because they knew what we say we know: “The Lord is risen.” May our prayers, like theirs, remind us and testify to a needy world: “He is risen indeed!”

How to Pray Healing Prayers

Posted on March 11, 2026March 13, 2026 by Rick Hamlin

I was at a day-long session on healing prayer. I’d been reading through the Gospels lately and it seemed that one of the things Jesus asked his disciples was to heal–as He did. I would like to be a better follower of Jesus so when the notice at church went up, “Seminar on Healing Prayer,” I figured I should go.

Truth to tell, I felt like an imposter. Me, a healer? Me, someone who would pray for others to be healed? Not just long-distance or on my own but in their presence, putting my hands on them and asking God to heal them? How would I do that?

And yet, not only did Jesus heal time and again, making the lame walk and the blind see, performing amazing miracles, but He also sent His disciples out in the world to do the same, and after He died, they performed their own miracles as recorded in the book of Acts.

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Me perform miracles? That would be a stretch.

There were about 20 of us at the seminar, and we sat in a circle. Leigh, our leader, supplied a great deal of wisdom. First of all, she made the very obvious point: it is not we who heal. It is God who heals. What Leigh want to help us do–in prayer–is get out of ourselves so that we could indeed help God heal.

“Prayer gives us a chance to surrender ourselves to God’s will,” she said.

That comment hit home. I thought of my prayer time, how often it gets filled up with wants and needs and the occasional outright demand, even when I promise to put myself in a receptive, holy, silent state.

What if I just made my prayer time, surrender time? It would be a little like holding up a white flag in the trenches of my life and waving it, “I give up, God. It’s up to You. Take over.”

I kept holding on to that thought for the rest of the day, the rest of the seminar. We split up and prayed for each other, practicing the tenets of healing prayer.

Surrender prayer was almost easier to do for someone else: “Hey, God, let me get out of the way here. Let me open myself up to be used. Thank You for Your good care. You hear the need here and know the concerns. Let Your will be done.”

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It all sounds pretty close to the sublime prayer Jesus made in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Thy will be done.”

I will confess to being a novice in healing prayer. If I can ever be used, I would be grateful. But success here is not about winning accolades or impressing your friends (how often Jesus urged those healed to not tell anyone what He did). It’s about giving up. Surrendering. Losing.

What a way to pray.

How to Pray God’s Promises

Posted on March 11, 2026March 13, 2026 by Sabra Ciancanelli

If we will but turn to God, He can help us with all our needs. He tells us this again and again in the Bible. Here are seven of the many Scriptural promises. Read each promise in a highly personal way, relating it to yourself. Concentrate on the one you most need now. Say, “I hereby accept this promise and will use it this day.”

1. When You Need Courage
…As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Be strong and of a good courage… Joshua 1:5,6

We are not alone. God will never forsake us but will protect, guide and comfort us at any time, anywhere. When the going is hard and you feel insecure and maybe fearful, just repeat this wonderful promise.

2. For a More Joyful Life
… Whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. Matthew 16:25

This is a curious promise that runs counter to the modern materialistic conception that to have, one must get and keep. But for people who live only for themselves, life shrinks and finally withers. But for those who give generously to help other people in Christ’s name life grows ever richer. The more you give the more you receive from life.

3. Removing an Obstacle
And Jesus said unto them…for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. Matthew 17:20, 21

A mustard seed is very small but you do not need a well-developed faith to move mountainous difficulties. Just a little faith will do it but it must be the real thing, the kind that comes by deep desire and earnest prayer and disciplinary dealing with yourself. Armed with this genuine faith, that which formerly seemed impossible becomes gloriously possible.

4. Victory Over Tempation
Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him. James 1:12

Temptation is the urge to do or say something contrary to the will of God and the law of Christ. It often is pleasurable and the mind attempts to rationalize it, to make it seem all right. If we do not give in to evil we shall become rulers of ourselves. And He will help us gain its victory.

5. When You Need Forgiveness
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9

You carry a heavy burden when sin is in your life. Many people live ineffective lives because of it. But this relief-giving promise tells us that if we freely confess to Him our wrongdoing and sincerely ask forgiveness, Jesus Christ will give new life to us.

6. When a Loved-One Is Ill
And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up… James 5:15

People, who have been given up by doctors and loved ones, have often been healed when someone has had enough faith to put them unreservedly into the hands of the Great Physician. There is tremendous power in the prayer of faith as applied in cases of illness, whether of the body or the mind.

7. God’s Greatest Promise
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16

This is one of the most majestic of all Biblical promises. Jesus took upon Himself our guilt and paid with His own life for our sins. It represents God’s supreme entreaty, His profoundest appeal to us. The great promise is that if we believe in the atoning power of Christ’s death on our behalf we shall not perish when we die but have everlasting life.

How to Pray for What You Really Want

Posted on March 11, 2026March 13, 2026 by Bob Hostetler

Do you ever hesitate to say what you really want in prayer? Do you sometimes say what you think God expects? Circle around the subject? Tiptoe, maybe?

We do it in other conversations, of course. We dawdle and delay. We don’t reveal what we really want. We “build up” to the main point. We want to save ourselves—and others, maybe—embarrassment or discomfort, so we fill our conversations with platitudes and courtesies.

Once, when Jesus was leaving Jericho amid a crowd of followers and fans, a blind man named Bartimaeus sat on the roadside begging. As Jesus approached, Bartimaeus began to cry out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Jesus stopped. He summoned the blind man and asked, “What do you want Me to do for you?”

It seems like a strange question. Ludicrous, even. After all, the man was blind. What else could he want?

He had called out to Jesus, of course, but it was in general terms. He begged for “mercy.” Could he have had some other form of mercy in mind? Had other beggars Jesus encountered asked only for money or food? Did Bartimaeus fully grasp the limitless potential of his encounter with this Rabbi?

Can you imagine if that blind man had demurred? If he had said what he thought Jesus might want to hear? If he had decided to “build up” to the prayer of his heart? If he had answered Jesus’ question by saying, “Well, lots of things, really. I could use some help paying the bills, and my sister needs new dentures.”

As strange as Jesus’ question may seem, any answer but one seems unimaginable: “I want to see.” (Mark 10:51, NIV)

It was the prayer of his heart. It was the one thing he wanted most. It was his greatest need. And it was answered.

What is the prayer of your heart? What is the one thing you want most? Your greatest need? Maybe you hesitate to put it into words. Maybe you fear being disappointed. Maybe you feel like it’s too selfish.

But say it anyway. The Healer is asking, “What do you want Me to do for you?” Speak your answer, boldly, like a blind beggar with nothing to lose.