Last week I wrote about Psalm 139:23-24. In my daily Bible reading, those verses caught my attention as they do every time I read them. I prayed through them, realizing how much I need to pray them every day. That realization got me thinking of other verses that seem to articulate and pinpoint the core of our need, turning that need into prayer. These are prayer verses we should come back to over and over, for these inner needs of the heart do not change. Here are a few of those inner heart-cry prayer verses:
Psalm 5:8 Lead me, O Lord (O Yahweh), in Your righteousness because of my enemies; Make Your way straight before my face.
Psalm 25:4-5 Show me Your ways, O Yahweh; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God (Elohim) of my salvation; On You I wait all the day.
Psalm 143:8-10 Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning, for in You do I trust; Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my soul to You. Deliver me, O Yahweh, from my enemies; In You I take shelter. (To You I flee for shelter) Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God (my Elohim); Your Spirit is good. Lead me in the land of uprightness.
Psalm 86:11 Teach me Your way, O Yahweh; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your Name. (Give me an undivided heart to fear Your Name, or Give me singleness of heart to fear Your Name.)
These are all verses that cause my heart to yearn for more of God, causing me to cry out in prayer that I might walk in His ways and know Him more fully. They help me realize that God's people down through the centuries of history have wrestled with the same things I wrestle with:
a scattered, divided heart;
uncertainty and confusion in which way to take, what decisions to make in life;
a deep need for God to lead us and teach us;
an inability on our part to know the right ways to think and the right paths to take.
These verse also show me that we have an enemy, the enemy of our souls, who wants to keep us in the dark, keep us distracted and scattered, keep us waylaid on the wrong path, keep us blinded to the truth, and keep us from the fear of the Lord. One of his primary targeted strategies in our lives is to make us laissez-faire (having a passive, idle, sloppy, indifferent, complacent, goal-less, careless, uninvolved attitude) toward God. Jesus so clearly put His finger on this reality and on our very real need when He taught us to pray, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."
There are many other Bible verses that make excellent daily prayers. Maybe you have a favorite—one that catches you up short every time you read it, one that captures the cry of your heart. If so, share it with us.
I commend the above verses to you for your daily prayers. Commit them to memory; write them on your mirror or on the window over your kitchen sink. But mostly, write them on the tablet of your heart and make them the cry of your heart.