Without This One Tool You Won’t Be Prepared For The Task

Praying for what is needed; Plus--a Puritan prayer, a Hymn of Prayer, and 15 Blessings for God’s Own People

Take Up Your Tool

Someone asked: What does it mean that prayer is a tool?

Perhaps that since God is building His church, and we are His laborers, prayer is our primary means of doing the work.

If a tool is a devise we use to accomplish a task, maybe prayer is how that task is accomplished for the Kingdom of God.

Since we are inadequate to the tasks, and need the empowering of the Spirit, then it’s possible our asking the Lord for what is needed is like a carpenter using a saw or level.

A tool is something necessary for a worker on a job; we see prayer as something necessary for us as we labor for the Lord.

I think that is what it means.

So take up your tool. Sharpen it for the labor of prayer!

For Further Study

The Laborer And His Tools

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I love the ancients, and often find ways to incorporate their devotion to prayer into my own. The phrasing is reverent, the attitude humble, the words eloquent:

Confession and Petition

A Puritan Prayer

Holy Lord, I have sinned times without number, and been guilty of pride and unbelief, of failure to find Thy mind in Thy Word, of neglect to seek Thee in my daily life. My transgressions and short-comings present me with a list of accusations, but I bless Thee that they will not stand against me, for all have been laid on Christ. Go on to subdue my corruptions, and grant me grace to live above them. Let not the passions of the flesh nor lustings of the mind bring my spirit into subjection, but do Thou rule over me in liberty and power.

I thank Thee that many of my prayers have been refused. I have asked amiss and do not have, I have prayed from lusts and been rejected, I have longed for Egypt and been given a wilderness. Go on with Thy patient work, answering 'no' to my wrongful prayers, and fitting me to accept it. Purge me from every false desire, every base aspiration, everything contrary to Thy rule. I thank Thee for Thy wisdom and Thy love, for all the acts of discipline to which I am subject, for sometimes putting me into the furnace to refine my gold and remove my dross.

No trial is so hard to bear as a sense of sin. If Thou shouldst give me choice to live in pleasure and keep my sins, or to have them burnt away with trial, give me sanctified affliction. Deliver me from every evil habit, every accretion of former sins, everything that dims the brightness of Thy grace in me, everything that prevents me taking delight in Thee. Then I shall bless Thee, God of jeshurun, for helping me to be upright. ¹

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I Must Tell Jesus

A Hymn

I must tell Jesus all of my trials;
I cannot bear these burdens alone;
In my distress He kindly will help me;
He ever loves and cares for His own.

Refrain

I must tell Jesus! I must tell Jesus!
I cannot bear my burdens alone;
I must tell Jesus! I must tell Jesus!
Jesus can help me, Jesus alone.

I must tell Jesus all of my troubles;
He is a kind, compassionate friend;
If I but ask Him, He will deliverer,
Make of my troubles quickly an end.

Refrain

Tempted and tried, I need a great Savior;
One who can help my burdens to bear;
I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus;
He all my cares and sorrows will share.

Refrain

O how the world to evil allures me!
O how my heart is tempted to sin!
I must tell Jesus, and He will help me
Over the world the victory to win.

Refrain ²

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How Blessed Is—

15 Blessings for God’s Own People

• Behold, how blessed is the man whom God reproves, So do not reject the discipline of the Almighty. - Job 5:17

• How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the way of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! - Psalm 1:1

• How blessed is the man whose iniquity Yahweh will not take into account, And in whose spirit there is no deceit! - Psalm 32:2

• O taste and see that Yahweh is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! - Psalm 34:8

• How blessed is the man who has made Yahweh his trust, And has not turned to the proud, nor to those who stray into falsehood. - Psalm 40:4

• How blessed is the man whose strength is in You, In whose heart are the highways [to Zion]! - Psalm 84:5

• O Yahweh of hosts, How blessed is the man who trusts in You! - Psalm 84:12

• Blessed is the man whom You discipline, O Yah, And whom You teach out of Your law; - Psalm 94:12

• Praise Yah! How blessed is the man who fears Yahweh, Who greatly delights in His commandments. - Psalm 112:1

• How blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them; They will not be ashamed When they speak with enemies in the gate. - Psalm 127:5

• How blessed is the man who finds wisdom And the man who obtains discernment. - Proverbs 3:13

• "How blessed is the man who hears me, To watch daily at my doors, To keep watch at my doorposts. - Proverbs 8:34

• How blessed is the man who is always in dread, But he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity. - Proverbs 28:14

• "How blessed is the man who does this, And the son of man who takes hold of it, Who keeps from profaning the sabbath, And keeps his hand from doing any evil." - Isaiah 56:2

• "Blessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh And whose trust is Yahweh. - Jeremiah 17:7 ³

I pray to be such a man! I pray for all men, women, children, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, grandparents, pastors, elders, singers, teachers, members, and all in the family of faith in the Lord Jesus would also be so blessed!

Amen

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Thank you for reading Epaphras Prays, a ministry of intercessors for the people of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Our intent is to pray—and to teach others to pray, Biblical prayers. We all desperately need to be praying more, and yet we do not sense an urgency among believers to do so. Help us reach out with our newsletter to invite and encourage others to their prayer closet.

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1. Taken from The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions, edited by Arthur Bennett

2. Words & Mu­sic: Eli­sha A. Hoff­man, 1893

3. All Texts Legacy Standard Bible (LSB) - Copyright ©2021 by The Lockman Foundation - All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org

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