How Can You Enrich Your Prayers?

PRAYER is unique among the loving provisions of Jehovah God. Opposers may confiscate your Bible or prevent you from meeting with fellow worshipers, but no one can rob you of prayer. To overstate the value of prayer is impossible. How important it is, then, for each one of us to cherish and take full advantage of this privilege. What can help you to enrich your prayers?

The Bible is not a prayer book. Yet, it could be described as mankind’s greatest textbook on prayer. The Hebrew Scriptures alone contain over 150 prayers. Some are short; others are long. They were uttered in public or in private, by kings or by captives, in triumph or in tribulation. As David sang in Psalm 65:2, “people of all flesh” turn to Jehovah, the “Hearer of prayer.” Why did God inspire the writers of the Bible to record such a broad selection of prayers?

To answer that question, consider 2 Timothy 3:16. It says: “All Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial.” Thus, Biblical prayers are there to guide us, as are Scriptural prophecy, principles, and history. How can these prayers be of benefit to us?

By looking closely at Scriptural prayers, we can identify those said in situations similar to our own. We can learn how prayers vary in purpose and setting. Moreover, we will discover new expressions of praise and thanksgiving and will find fresh words for our petitions and supplications. In short, Biblical prayers can help us to enrich our own prayers.

Mary, who became the mother of Jesus, was a person who apparently benefited from expressions used in a prayer recorded in the Bible. She visited her relative Elizabeth after each of them had conceived a son with divine assistance. Mary offered praise and thanksgiving to God, and some of her words are remarkably similar to those contained in a prayer in the Hebrew Scriptures. It seems likely that Mary was familiar with the prayer uttered by Hannah, the mother of Samuel the prophet. Hannah had also conceived a son with God’s help, more than 1,000 years earlier. Could it be that Mary meditated on this prayer because it reflected her own feelings?​—1 Samuel 2:1-10; Luke 1:46-55.

What about you? Can you recall a Biblical prayer spoken under circumstances similar to your own? Finding, reading, and meditating on such prayers will help you to enrich your own communication with God. In the next article, we invite you to examine three prayers from the Holy Scriptures. They were offered under different circumstances, perhaps similar to yours.