Have you noticed this morning that, so far, we haven’t prayed much. We prayed once. One prayer. ____ seconds long.
I wonder how many of you here this morning, (except for being in SS), realized at that point that you hadn’t prayed yet today. Has that ever happened to you? Have you ever gotten well into the day and suddenly it dawns on you that you haven’t directed one ordered thought to God?
If I had to make a set of mugs that contained my life mottos, one of them would say, “I don’t do mornings.” Some mornings it just takes me a while to think a coherent thought. I have to admit that there have been mornings where my first thoughts aren’t directed to God. Sometimes I wake up thinking about the solution to some challenge I was facing the day before. Sometimes I think about something that’s bothering me. Sometimes, my mind just wanders around like the ball in a pinball machine, bouncing from one place to another. If I’m not deliberate about it, I find myself starting my day without a prayer.
Think about that phrase – without a prayer. It sounds like the ultimate country western song, doesn’t it? It describes the absolute, bare minimum in human standards. When you’ve lost everything else, when every potential help or comfort in life gets stripped away, what’s the last, most minimal, most almost-not-anything-at-all that you have? Prayer. Just the way we talk about being “without a prayer” ought to alert us to the fact that there’s a problem here! There is, and we’re going to give it some attention this morning.
Some years ago, there was a movement to put together a “bloodless Bible.” It was for people who don’t believe in blood atonement and who didn’t want all that icky “blood talk” in their Bible. I guess you could say they were “plasma impaired” or they had “hemoglobiphobia.” So they worked all the blood talk out of the Bible. 10 years ago, I read about the “Good as New Bible,” produce by John Henson, a former Baptist preacher in England. They called it a “new, fresh, and adventurous” translation of the Scriptures. It was even endorsed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who called it a work of “extraordinary power.” This Bible had all the condemnation of sexual sins worked out of it. I guess that’s a Bible for the “sexually-impaired.”
Well, I’ve started work on a Bible for the “prayer-impaired.” That’s right – a new, revised Bible with prayer removed. The Bible Without Prayer. It’s going to take a while, but when I’m offering such an important help to the prayer-impaired, I guess it will be worth it. Here are a few of the things I’ll have to adjust for this to work out…
Job
I’m going to have to change the end of the book of Job. The original says
Job 42:7-10
[God said] "I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has." So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite did what the LORD told them; and the LORD accepted Job's prayer.
In the prayerless Bible, Job doesn’t pray, of course, and God doesn’t tell him to. So, his 3 friends who spoke wrongly about God, just get zapped and there’s nothing left of them but 3 burnt spots on the ground. Also, the Lord doesn’t make Job prosperous again like it says in v.10.
(After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before)
Abraham’s servant
I’m going to have to change the story of Abraham’s servant who was sent to find a wife for Isaac. There was no E-harmony.com. So, what was he to do? He prayed, and God helped him. I’m going to have to come up with some other way to fit Rebekah into the picture.
The Plagues and the Exodus
I’m going to need to do some work on Exodus – You know, Moses and the 10 plagues. At least 4 of the plagues stopped when Moses prayed they would stop. So, in the Bible without Prayer, there will still be a lot of frogs, flies, hail, and locusts. In fact, I’m going to have to change a bunch of the life of Moses because it seems like he was constantly talking with God. That just won’t be a part of the Bible Without a Prayer.
Moses
Exodus 15, the people are in the desert. They come to Marah and find the water is bad, so they complain to Moses. Moses prays for help, God fixes the problem. Not in the Prayerless Bible. Nope. Israel is going to have to do something else in this story.
Actually, Israel is going to have to be completely re-done. Exodus 32, Moses was on Mt. Sinai, getting the 10 Commandments. While he was busy spending time with God getting the law from God on behalf of the nation, the nation was busy making a god of gold and breaking God’s law before it arrives.
Exodus 32:7-14 the LORD said to Moses, "Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.' "I have seen these people," the LORD said to Moses, "and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation."
Loosely translated, “Moses, stand back, I’m going to nuke these people off the face of the earth and start all over with just you. But Moses prayed. He pled with God, reasoned with God, reminded God of His promises, and God relented. In the Bible without prayer, there is no prayer by Moses, Israel gets nuked, and a whole new nation called the Mosesites is started!
This would change the other stories – of Moses and Aaron praying and saving the whole nation again in Numbers 16; of Moses’ prayers that stopped fires from the Lord from burning in the camp (Num 11:1-2); of Moses’ prayer that helped the people when snakes were sent by God and many Israelites were bitten and died in Numbers 21. Then there was the time that Aaron and Miriam were smarting off against Moses and God struck Miriam with leprosy. If your big sister had been sassing you and your wife, wouldn’t you find it kind of fun to say, “Serves you right!”? In the Bible without Prayer, (if Miriam is even alive by Num 12) Moses would say just that, instead of 12:13. (Numbers 12:13 So Moses cried out to the LORD, "O God, please heal her!")
Yep, the whole history of Israel is going to have to be different in the Bible without Prayer.
Samuel
I guess there won’t be a boy named Samuel, which means I can leave out the books of I + II Samuel. Remember, his mother Hannah was barren – no kids. And in I Sam. 1, we find her in the temple, praying without words – only moving her mouth. Eli the priest, sensitive guy that he is, assumes she’s drunk. Well, in the Bible without Prayer, that’s the best explanation. She’s not there asking God for a son. She’s drunk. And since she doesn’t ask God for a son, she doesn’t have one a year later and there is no prophet born whose name means “asked of God.”
Hezekiah
I’ll need to rework the story of Hezekiah when he was threatened by King Sennacherib in II Kings 19:14-16. In the original, he takes his worries to God and lays them out before Him.
19:35 - That night the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning--there were all the dead bodies!
I’m going to have to come up with something more creative than God answering Hezekiah’s prayer.
I’m also going to have to have Hezekiah die 15 years earlier, because Hezekiah prayed and God granted him a 15-year extension on his life. Not in the Bible Without Prayer.
Jonah
In the original story of Jonah, chapter 2 is Jonah’s prayer from the belly of the whale. God hears him and the whale rushes up to the shore and vomits him out. In the Bible Without Prayer, I think I’m going to have to remove ch 2, have the whale rush up to shore…and just burp.
Elijah
Elijah’s story gets changed. He loses the contest on Mt. Carmel with the prophets of Baal. He predicts a drought that never happens, and he tries to raise a widow’s son from the dead, only to fail. You see, all of these things involved Elijah praying. But they won’t happen in the Bible without prayer.
Daniel
There won’t really be any need for a book called Daniel, because early in Daniel King Nebuchadnezzar is ready to kill all his wise men, including Daniel and his friends, if they don’t interpret the king’s dream. They also have to tell him what the dream was. In the original story, Daniel prays with his friends, God answers, and they’re all spared. (Daniel 12: 17-19). Take that prayer out, and as best I can tell, Daniel and his friends are dead pretty early in the book. No need for a book about Daniel in the Bible Without Prayer – or at least it’s going to be very short.
Esther
I’m going to rework the story of Esther too. Oh, it will still be there. It’s just going to need a different ending. This prayer-less ending will contain the destruction of the Jews…again. Now, in the real story, Queen Esther is in a position to seek the king’s favor and save the lives of all the Jews. It’s risky, but she says
Esther 4:16 "Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish."
In other words, she gets her people asking God for help, and it works. Sorry, Esther. Without prayer, the king gets hacked off at you, you’re executed, and all the Jews are exterminated…again.
Nehemiah
The whole book of Nehemiah is going to need some major revision. He’s the one who led the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls. It’s full of his prayers – prayers of confession, asking for wisdom, for strength, for protection, and then giving praise to God for His help. In 2 months, Israel accomplishes an incredible task, against all odds. In the Nehemiah prayerless revision, it has to be changed to a story of mishaps, bungles, sabotage, and frustration, because there’s no way Israel could have done it on their own.
Zechariah and John the Baptist
The NT will have to open differently, since a childless man named Zechariah won’t be praying. There won’t be
Luke 1:13 But the angel said to him: "Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John.
That means no John the Baptist. Sorry, John. Sorry, Jesus, no one there to prepare the way for Your ministry.
Jesus
When Jesus does start His ministry, it will have to be changed quite a bit too.
Mark 1:35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.
I guess we’ll have to say Jesus went off to a solitary place and…sat.
In Matthew 4, I guess Jesus will spend 40 days in the desert fasting and playing solitaire instead of praying to prepare for His ministry.
[Luke 5:16 - But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.] won’t be there. Maybe Jesus will get more done! Do you suppose? Maybe not, because His prayer seems to be connected with the most crucial parts of His ministry – Like
[Luke 6:12-13 One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles:
Matthew 26:36 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, "Sit here while I go over there and pray."
John 18:1 When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was an olive grove, and he and his disciples went into it.]
As troubled as He is in the Garden of Gethsemane, what’s Jesus going to do? What will He tell His disciples? “Sit here and …think”? Where will He take the weight of those moments before the cross? How will He endure it? How will He even make it to the cross? This Bible Without Prayer is going to take a lot of work!
The Church
Once the Church begins, I’ll have to make some adjustments. The opening scene has to change, because they’re all together praying. I’ll have to change this to gossiping or arguing or maybe a fellowship dinner. Then,
Acts 2:42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
Cut prayer. Chapter 6 the Apostles say, “We will devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word,” Not in the prayerless Bible – because that means the Church is a prayerless Church. There won’t be Acts 4:31 [After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.]
The Apostles had been arrested and released. In the original, the Church prays. The building shakes. They speak with boldness. It’s just as well to not have them praying for boldness. Maybe that way I can arrange for Peter not to be arrested in 12:5. If he is imprisoned, but the Church is not praying for him, then we can scratch Peter off the list – oh, that means I can also leave out the books of I & II Peter.
A Centurion named Cornelius won’t be praying, so Acts 10:4 [Cornelius stared at him in fear. "What is it, Lord?" he asked. The angel answered, "Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God.] won’t happen. The gospel won’t get spread to the Gentiles so well.
I’ll also have to leave out part of the story of Paul, because when God calls Ananias to help Paul, He says,
Acts 9:10-12 In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, "Ananias!" "Yes, Lord," he answered. The Lord told him, "Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight."
Armor of God
And, as you put on the armor of God, just like a soldier who’s all equipped for war, stop short of the last detail mentioned in Ephesians 6:17-18 [Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.]: leave out communications with headquarters. You see, a Bible without prayer means a soldier who’s not in contact with headquarters.
Now that we’ve gone through that, I realize this has become like George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life” being given a glimpse of what the world would be like if he’d never been born. It’s brutally different.
Create a Bible without prayer and we become a people without prayer, and that’s what we’re left with:
1. No Contact WITH God
In what other relationship in your life do you listen only and never reply to the person who’s talking to you? (And guys, don’t say, “My wife!”)
We don’t have a relationship with someone and never speak to him.
2. Fewer Blessings FROM God
If, in fact, all of these stories from the Bible are shaped by the prayers of Godly people, I find it safe to say your life, without prayer, won’t be as blessed by God. James said, “You do not have because you do not ask.” YOU DO NOT HAVE.
So, why are so many people without a prayer? It may be due to…
3. No Humility TOWARD God
Prayer is a good reason to take off your hat. That’s more than just some old custom, it’s a visual. To say you “have your hat in his hands” is a way of saying you have humbled yourself. Bowing your head is a visual. Raising your hand in surrender is a visual. It requires a certain degree of humility to come before God and ask and thank and praise Him. If your life is without prayer, it means you don’t practice that humility before God.
4. No Expectations ABOUT God
You’re without prayer? It might be because your God is too small – because you have no expectations about God. If you don’t think God can help, or if you don’t think prayer does anything – that God isn’t listening – why pray? If that’s how you think about God, I can see why you’d be without prayer.
5. No Praise or Thanks TO God
Your prayerlessness may be because you don’t see any need to give praise or thanks to God. I hope that’s not where you’re at! In Ro 2, Paul says that’s what God expects of all people, what He expects of everyone everywhere who can experience creation.
[Romans 1:20b-21a …so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him…]
6. No Time FOR God
Take a self-exam and see if this is what’s behind your life without a prayer.
Prayer takes time. It always will. I’ve heard of praying and fasting, but not fast praying!
We’ve managed to speed up a lot of things – transportation, information, food. Why? So we’ll have more time. For what? Why is it we have less time to pray? Or, could it be, in our hearts we have more time for ourselves but none for God?
People without prayer gathered together are what make up a church without prayer.
What? A Church without prayer? Sure!
Frankly, a church can do a lot without prayer. It can engage in all kinds of social activities. It can help the community. It can so some impressive advertising. It can create relationships. It may draw a big crowd – and that crowd may be real impressed. A lot can possibly be done without prayer. And, frankly, it will be just as empty as a refrigerator in a house full of teenagers. It might look real promising on the outside, but when you look inside, there’s nothing there!
• When we start off meetings with an obligatory prayer, are we really a church of prayer?
• When important decisions are made and 10X more time is spent in discussing than is spent praying, what are we being?
• When we have a “prayer walk” and invite everyone to come together and pray, and ¾ of the church doesn’t show up, what are we being?
• When it’s decision time in our worship together, and people are heading out the door to get somewhere rather than pleading with God for the salvation of the lost people among us, are we being a people of prayer?
• When people of the church are faced with challenges that are too big to carry alone, but they don’t ask anyone to pray for them because that’s just not how we deal with problems here, what have we become?
• When there’s more than one minute of quietness during a worship time and it makes us uncomfortable and we’re not sure what to do with it, do we dare to call ourselves a people of prayer?
“Sherm, you’re kind of stepping on my toes!” Well, insert name here!
We’ve directed some attention to what’s NEXT at CCC. The T part of that is “Taking it to God,” remember? Whatever we do at Central, if it’s going to have any substance, is going to have to be prayed up. Period. The way we’re going to get things done in this community of believers is by prayer.
I’ve seen the frustration we all feel because of the non-essentials that seem to get in the way. You come here on a Sunday morning, and something is so distracting, it smudges your experience. Mine too! And I’ve been working on this experience for some 20 hours this past week!
What about God’s experience while we’re here?!!
We all have different opinions, but I haven’t heard one person disagree that we need to apply ourselves to prayer. We’re all together on this. The day that CCC is clearly a family of prayer is the day when all petty challenges and prejudices and pride and roadblocks of the enemy will be exposed for what they are and we’ll rise above that static. But it won’t happen if individually, or in meetings, or in SS classes, Bible studies, small groups, or in ministry teams we are people without prayer.
A church can go a long way without prayer, but all that we accomplish, the amount we will grow, will never go beyond the point of human strength and human reason. I don’t want to stop there. Do you?
We got this far into a time of worship with only one short prayer. Now that we’ve experienced that, we’re going to do it better.
God didn’t give us a prayerless Bible. He didn’t start a prayerless church to be populated by prayerless people. He didn’t want us to be “without a prayer.”
Stepping forward to accept Jesus is a prayer – it’s an appeal to God to be forgiven. It’s calling on His name to be saved. If you’ve never done that, you’re most definitely without a prayer this morning, and we’re praying right now that you’ll change that.
Scriptures used in this study:
Luke 18:1-8 - Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.' 4 "For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!'" 6 And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"
Luke 11:5-13 - Then he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6 because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.' 7 "Then the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.' 8 I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs. 9 "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
Jonah –
Jonah 2 - From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God. 2 He said: "In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry. 3 You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me. 4 I said, 'I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.' 5 The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. 6 To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you brought my life up from the pit, O LORD my God. 7 "When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, LORD, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple. 8 "Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. 9 But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the LORD." 10 And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
Elijah –
1 Kings 18:36-38 - At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: "O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. 37 Answer me, O LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again." 38 Then the fire of the LORD fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.
James 5:17-18 - Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.
1 Kings 17:17-23 - Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. 18 She said to Elijah, "What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?" 19 "Give me your son," Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. 20 Then he cried out to the LORD, "O LORD my God, have you brought tragedy also upon this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?" 21 Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried to the LORD, "O LORD my God, let this boy's life return to him!" 22 The LORD heard Elijah's cry, and the boy's life returned to him, and he lived. 23 Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, "Look, your son is alive!"
Saul
Acts 9:10-12 - In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, "Ananias!" "Yes, Lord," he answered. 11 The Lord told him, "Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight."
Moses
Exodus 8:12-13 - After Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh, Moses cried out to the LORD about the frogs he had brought on Pharaoh. 13 And the LORD did what Moses asked. The frogs died in the houses, in the courtyards and in the fields.
Exodus 8:30-31 - Then Moses left Pharaoh and prayed to the LORD, 31 and the LORD did what Moses asked: The flies left Pharaoh and his officials and his people; not a fly remained.
Exodus 9:33 - Then Moses left Pharaoh and went out of the city. He spread out his hands toward the LORD; the thunder and hail stopped, and the rain no longer poured down on the land.
Exodus 10:18-19 - Moses then left Pharaoh and prayed to the LORD. 19 And the LORD changed the wind to a very strong west wind, which caught up the locusts and carried them into the Red Sea. Not a locust was left anywhere in Egypt.
Exodus 15:23-25 - When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.) 24 So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "What are we to drink?" 25 Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the LORD made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them.
Numbers 11:1-2 - Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the LORD, and when he heard them his anger was aroused. Then fire from the LORD burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp. 2 When the people cried out to Moses, he prayed to the LORD and the fire died down.
Numbers 16:19-22 - When Korah had gathered all his followers in opposition to them at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, the glory of the LORD appeared to the entire assembly. 20 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, 21 "Separate yourselves from this assembly so I can put an end to them at once." 22 But Moses and Aaron fell facedown and cried out, "O God, God of the spirits of all mankind, will you be angry with the entire assembly when only one man sins?"
Numbers 21:7-9 - The people came to Moses and said, "We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us." So Moses prayed for the people. 8 The LORD said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live." 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.
Exodus 32:7-14 - Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. 8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.' 9 "I have seen these people," the LORD said to Moses, "and they are a stiff-necked people. 10 Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation." 11 But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God. "O LORD," he said, "why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, 'It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth'? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. 13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: 'I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.'" 14 Then the LORD relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.
Numbers 12:9-14 - The anger of the LORD burned against them, and he left them. 10 When the cloud lifted from above the Tent, there stood Miriam--leprous, like snow. Aaron turned toward her and saw that she had leprosy; 11 and he said to Moses, "Please, my lord, do not hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed. 12 Do not let her be like a stillborn infant coming from its mother's womb with its flesh half eaten away." 13 So Moses cried out to the LORD, "O God, please heal her!" 14 The LORD replied to Moses, "If her father had spit in her face, would she not have been in disgrace for seven days? Confine her outside the camp for seven days; after that she can be brought back."
Jesus
Mark 1:35 - Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.
Luke 5:16 - But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
Nehemiah
Nehemiah 6:9 - They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, "Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed." But I prayed, "Now strengthen my hands."
Hannah
1 Samuel 1:15-17 - "Not so, my lord," Hannah replied, "I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the LORD. 16 Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief." 17 Eli answered, "Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him."
1:20 - So in the course of time Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, "Because I asked the LORD for him."
Church
Acts 4:31 - After they prayed, 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 12:5 - So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.
Daniel
Daniel 2:17-19 - Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. 18 He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. 19 During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven
Abraham’s servant
Genesis 24:12 - Then he prayed, "O LORD, God of my master Abraham, give me success today, and show kindness to my master Abraham.
Cornelius
Acts 10:4 - Cornelius stared at him in fear. "What is it, Lord?" he asked. The angel answered, "Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God.
Zechariah
Luke 1:13 - But the angel said to him: "Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John.
Hezekiah
19:35 - That night the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning--there were all the dead bodies!
2 Kings 20:2-3 - Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, 3 "Remember, O LORD, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
