In my morning devotions I have four sections in my notebook – things I am thankful for, prayers for me, prayers for others, and listen to God.

I have been doing this format on and off since the year 2000. I first heard about it at a youth conference we ran at our church. I found it a simple format and something that fit well with my devotions.

The last section is listen to God. I simply say, “God is there anything You want to say to me?” And I sit quietly and wait. Usually I get an impression on my heart about something or a thought pops in to my mind.

The responses vary from a passage of Scripture, to a word of encouragement for me, or to something I need to do or someone to pray for.

God knows my heart really well and He often speaks a word of encouragement to me. Lately it has started with, “I am with you Dave,…”. This has been really comforting over the last three months.

So how do I know if it is God, or me or something else? Well I sit and wait and I test it. This morning was easy as it was a paraphrase of Psalm 23. Other times I just pray, “Is this You Lord?” And I do not write it down until I have a peace about the word.

For me it took time and practice to know if it was God. It was like tuning in to a radio station, when you tune in to the right frequency it is easy to hear.

I believe as Christians we have the Holy Spirit inside us (Romas 8:11) and Jesus’s words that His sheep know His voice and follow Him (John 10:27-28). So when I ask God to speak, I am confident He will.

If you would to read a post I did about my devotional format, you can find it here.

“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

Worry is not a very productive pastime. It is like riding an exercise bike, it gives us something to do, but we don’t go anywhere. God tells us not to worry about anything at all. He asks us to bring our concerns to Him in prayer. As today’s verse says, “Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done”.

Prayer
Lord, when I am faced with issues that would cause me to worry, I pray I will look to You instead. Help me to bring all of my requests to You and trust You for the outcome. Amen

A great habit I have used over the years is to pray the Scriptures. By this I mean using the words of the Bible to convey our heartfelt needs to God.

The Bible tells us that God’s Word goes out and achieves His purposes.

Isaiah 55:11 NLT says, “It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.”

So here is an example of a prayer for healing. I start by reading the Psalm to declare God forgives our sins heals our diseases.

Psalm 103:1-5 NLT
[1] Let all that I am praise the LORD; with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name. [2] Let all that I am praise the LORD; may I never forget the good things he does for me. [3] He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases. [4] He redeems me from death and crowns me with love and tender mercies. [5] He fills my life with good things. My youth is renewed like the eagles.

Then I pray the next two verses as a prayer.

Acts 4:30 NLT
[30] Stretch out your hand with healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

Psalm 6:2 NLT
[2] Have compassion on me, LORD, for I am weak. Heal me, LORD, for my bones are in agony.

For Psalm 6:2 I pray it as is for myself, but I change “me” to the persons name if I am praying for someone else.

I find praying this way declares God as our healer, it asks for His power to heal and it shows our total dependance on Him. And it is done in Jesus’ name.

I encourage you to give it a try next time you need to pray for someone, or even try it for yourself.