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Ezekiel’s vision and prayer conversation in Ezekiel 37 is about as close as the Old Testament gets to Easter. How do we pray for more life? Perhaps it begins by understanding that resurrection is the work of a force outside of ourselves. I think we could all agree that in death I am helpless, out of control and unable to change my circumstances. I cannot resurrect myself. Ezekiel’s prayer session begins and ends with the Words of God, but it’s ending looks forward to Easter’s beginning, as God says, "I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live... Then you shall know that I am the Lord."

God says I will do it and when I do it, you will know that I am God. If you are in a dry bones season, this prayer is for you!

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Isaiah 64 begins as a lament. It is a fight with God for more of God. But the lament becomes travailing prayer, as a sense of expectancy is added. We are covered in sin, wanting to do our own thing in our own time for our own glory, so God turns his back on us; gives us over to our sin. But when we lament; when we cry for his presence, something shifts. And yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. Do you hear the shift? Isaiah moves frm asking the nation-scaring God to rend the heavens with fearsome fireworks to now asking Father God to put his hands on our hearts and shape us in here.

The picture of the Father as potter and his people as the clay breaks this lament wide-open. It's the New Covenant leaking into the Old Testement. It's a yada relationship. Rather than God bursting forth, God is invited in. That's a pray I want to pray! Father Potter, come!

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Did you ever feel like you were all alone? Like nobody sees you or cares about you. Nobody wants to know you. Nobody is paying attention to you. Psalm 139 is a psalm that resounds with this truth, "God is paying attention to you." God knows when we sit and when we stand. His eyes were on you yesterday when you sat down to take a break, and He knows your schedule; how busy you are, all the places you have to go and things you have to do. He's charted our path. He's familiar with all our ways. He knows the hidden paths we walk; our unseen attitudes, and secret wishes. He knows more about us than we do.

And here is the most astounding, heart-filling truth, "the one who knows you best, loves you the most." That's yada. Let His yada shape your prayers.

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Psalm 77 is the heart cry of a person who is waiting for bad stuff to stop and good stuff to start. The first half of the Psalm is a lament, a cry to God to show up and show off. The psalmist is stuck in deep trouble. But there is a turning point. It doesn't come when the current circumstances change, that's what many of us are waiting for...insead it came when the perspective changed. Instead of looking at his circumstances, he started gazing upon and pondering his God. He started to remember the works of God. And it led to gratitude.

When we become aware of the goodness and greatness of God, gratitude happens. And few things will change your heart, soul and mind while you are stuck in deep trouble, like gratitude! Today is a day to tell God thank you!

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There was a time in David’s life where he had lost everything that we would say was necessary for the good life. He was living in caves on the run from a King who wanted to kill him. Lost his family. Lost his home. Lost his reputation. Lost his freedom. And it was during those days that he'd create this song of worship, this prayer. A Psalm of David written while he was in the desert. And the heart of that song, that prayer is "O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you...your unfailing love is better than life."

It's kind of like when he had nothing, he knew that God was his everything. God was his life. This is worship. It's more than a just a prayer, it's soul thirsty for God, a dull ache that arises when we miss him. It happens when we gaze upon his glory and then realize that his unfailing love is better than life itself. God give me you! That's the prayer!

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We have a heart problem. Revive our hearts O God! We let things into our hearts that we would never let pass our mouths. We let stuff into our eyes that would make us blush if we were there in person. In Psalm 51, David longs for a renewed purity of heart, so that he can reconnect with God, because when sin rules, life is without God. When I read Psalm 51, and look at the world around me, and within me, I find myself saying that a sin-soaked heart is life's greatest problem.

But there is a solution to life's greatest problem. And it starts with the prayer, "Revive my heart O God!"

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In Luke 10, Jesus sends his disciples out on a mission. It's really a battle, in a way he is actually sending them into battle, a spiritual battle. When they come back he tells them, "Good job. While you were gone I saw Satan fall like lightening from the sky." But here's the deal, here’s the crazy battle plan. When Jesus sent them out, he said, "Now go and remember I am sending you out as lambs among wolves." Jesus sends us into battle as sheep. Hows that for a crazy battle plan? How are we going to win this war? Be a sheep. Jesus says if you wanna see Satan fall like
lightening from the sky. Be a Sheep.

Psalm 23 is the prayer of a sheep to their shepherd. And it gives us the secret to success in the epic battle between God and evil!

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Nehemiah 9 contains the longest recorded prayer in the Bible. And we can learn a lot about prayer from this prayer. For example, prayer must be radically God-centered. This prayer of Nehemiah is saturated with God. He is our Creator, Redeemer, Grace-Giving, Wonder-Working, Lavishly Loving, Great and Almighty, Chastizer and Forgiver of our Sins. I wonder what people might learn about God, if they listened to our prayers?

More than once in Nehemiah 9, you will hear God described as a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. And why are they so taken by his forgiveness, his grace and compassion and abounding love?It's because they have come to realize their sin. Let Nehemiah 9 draw you into the story of your own life and know that He loves you with all His heart!