The prayers of the Bible are an amazing gift from God and have much to teach us. They help us understand how Jesus, Job, Moses, David, Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Mary, Peter, Paul, and many others talked with God.

These prayers can also help us talk to God. Just as Jesus used several of the David’s prayers in His final moments on the cross (see Matthew 27:46 cf. Psalm 22:1 and Luke 23:46 cf. Psalm 31:5), we too can find in the prayers of Scripture, words that can help carry our thoughts and emotions to God.

When we use the prayers from God’s Word humbly and expectantly to encourage us in our own prayers, we open our hearts and lives to deeper faith, renewed strength, fresh blessings, and God’s power.

God invites us closer to Him through the prayers of the Bible. His Spirit “helps us in our weakness” (Romans 8:26). As we pray God’s Word from our hearts, the Holy Spirit breathes new life into our prayers and into us.

Prayers to Say Thank You 

Where would you be without Jesus? Take a moment to really think about it. The words of Ephesians 2:12 sum it up well: “without God and without hope.” Without Jesus, we would be hopelessly, eternally lost.

We can never thank God enough and praying the “thank you prayers” of the Bible cultivates gratitude in us and opens our eyes to “the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints” (Ephesians 1:18 NIV). Praying them is like counting the treasure of everything God has ever done for you and ever will.

Jesus once met 10 lepers at the Samaritan border on the way to Jerusalem. He healed all of them, but only one came back to say thank you.

Where were the other nine? Too caught up in the gift to remember the Giver. I’d love to point a finger of blame at them, but I’ve joined their party more times than I’d like to admit.

The one who came back and fell at Jesus’ feet, “thanking him for what he had done,” was a Samaritan. Jesus told him, “Stand up and go. Your faith has healed you” (Luke 17:15-16, 19). But the word Jesus used isn’t the same one Luke used to describe the physical healing. It’s the same word used of the woman who wiped Jesus’ feet with her tears (see Luke 7:50). Jesus wasn’t just telling him, “Your faith has healed you.” He was saying, “Your faith has saved you.”

Real gratitude makes us come back to God. There’s a choice to be made. We can go our own way distracted by all God has given us, or we can come to Jesus and worship Him for what He has done.

Keep your eyes on the gift and (maybe) you’ll be blessed as long as it lasts. Turn your heart to the Giver, and you’ll be blessed for eternity.

Reflect and use these Bible-based prayers to express your gratitude to God:

• My God, thank you for making me. You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me! (from Psalm 139:13-18)
• Lord, I trust you and praise you with all of my heart. Praise the Lord! For he has heard my cry for mercy. The Lord is my strength and shield. I trust him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out in songs of thanksgiving. (from Psalm 28:6-7)
• O Father, thank you for the simple message of salvation! O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike. Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way! (from Matthew 11:25-26)
• Dear God, thank you for answering my prayer. I thank you for answering my prayer and giving me victory! (from Psalm 118:21)

God bless you as you pray! May our loving Lord draw you ever nearer and smile upon you as you pray His Word and His promises back to Him.

Excerpted and adapted from an article by James Banks, from A Heart to Heart Conversation with God—Biblical Principles and Practices of Prayer, published by DHD Indonesia

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