This handbook intentionally includes few personal remarks. It goes straight to Bible passages intended to help personal and corporate prayer. Questions related to prayer are also provided to motivate meditation on the Bible. Attempt has been made to direct readers to prayer focuses which may not seem urgent at first glance, but which are cumulatively important to God in the Bible.

In the context of corporate prayer, readers may individually select a question and an associated Bible passage to pray through. Thus, the handbook has the potential to help keep prayers diverse and biblically focused for extended periods of time. Couples and parents may find aspects of the handbook useful for times of family prayer. Elders may find portions of the handbook helpful to pray for church members under their care. Music leaders may find sections of the handbook useful to call people to worship through prayer.

I have, too many times, found myself wondering what I could ask God for members of my local church whom I did not know well. Asking them for felt needs has been helpful. This handbook includes additional biblical suggestions to answer this important question. The handbook points readers to the Bible through which God calls people from all nations to pray. While a teenager, I typically prayed less than twenty minutes per week! This usually happened at church on Sunday. By God’s grace, I have spent time with physically impaired but spiritually vigorous elderly Christians whose example I seek to follow, as they have followed our Prayer General: Jesus the Christ. Those who have influenced me most with respect to prayer were elderly ladies. One notable exception is the first person who discipled me: pastor Franky Narcisse. He has taught me both to love God passionately through prayer and to labor with Christ through prayer. I seek, in this handbook, to document the biblical foundation of his teaching to me. For God’s glory and the benefit of God’s flock under his care, Franky Narcisse has prayed biblically, week after week, for years, and has challenged me (among many) to pray biblically.

It is important to understand that the Bible is more important than any book on prayer and this document is only a point-form synthesis of the subject matter. Prayer is biblical in so far as it depends on God’s word as overruling authority to discover His will. Biblical prayer also depends on God Himself to produce in our hearts loving hunger for His glory to shine and His will to be done.

All we do, including prayer, ought to be done for God’s glory (1 Corinthians 10:31). Since God is sovereign (2 Chronicles 20:6), the accomplishment of His will does not depend on the prayers of His creatures. However, God uses prayer to accomplish His purposes, in and through His children’s life. God works in our hearts to genuinely desire His will (Philippians 2:12-13), pray for His will (Matthew 6:13), see Him accomplish His will (2 Chronicles 7:14) and praise Him as a result (Psalm 86:7-8). Through biblical prayer, God increases our appreciation and appetite for His purposes. Through biblical prayer, God sanctifies our hearts, minds, souls and bodies, as we persevere in our dependence on Him for life and ministry. Through biblical prayer, God transforms us into faithful and fervent worshipers who thirst for communion with Him: the supreme love of our lives. Through biblical prayer, God cultivates overflowing joy and gratitude in our hearts, as we witness His amazing answers to our petitions. Through biblical prayer, God grants us the privilege of communing with the three members of the Trinity, as we address the Father, in the name of the Son, by the Holy Spirit.

May God be glorified through our prayers, as they reflect God’s will presented in the Bible.

Deholo Nali