The Prayers of the Bible - 1 Old Testament

^{The Prayers of the Bible, from the book: "Prevailing Prayer" by D. L. Moody}
Those who have left the deepest impression on this sin-cursed earth have been men and women of prayer. You will find prayer has been the mighty power that has moved not only God, but also man.

Old Testament prayers

Abraham was a man of prayer, and angels came down from heaven to converse with him. Jacob’s prayer was answered when he wrestled with God at the place he named Peniel, which means “face of God.” His meeting with the Lord resulted in Jacob having a mighty blessing, and even his brother Esau’s heart was softened towards him. The Lord gave Samuel as an answer to Hannah’s prayer for a child. Elijah’s prayer closed up the heavens for three years and six months, and when he prayed again, the heavens gave rain.
The apostle James calls the prophet Elijah a man with a nature like ours. James also says, the effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much (James 5:16-17). Elijah was an extraordinary man, but his story testifies to the power of prayer and the Holy Spirit rather than to any power he had within his human nature. I am thankful that those men and women who were so mighty in prayer were just like us. We are apt to think that those prophets and mighty men and women of old were different from what we are. They lived perhaps in a darker age, but they were similar in nature to us.
We read about another occasion where Elijah prayed, and this time brought down fire on Mount Carmel. The prophets of Baal cried long and loud to their gods, but no answer came. The God of Elijah heard and answered his prayer and God demonstrated his power (1 Kings 18). Let’s remember that the God of Elijah still lives. The prophet was taken up from earth to heaven by a whirlwind in a chariot of fire, but his God still lives, and we have the same access to him that Elijah had. We have the same permission to go to God and ask the fire from heaven to come down and consume our lusts and passions – to burn up our impurities and let Christ shine through us.
The Scripture is full of examples. Elisha prayed, and a dead child came back to life. Some of us have children who are spiritually dead in sin and who have wandered from God’s truth. We can do as Elisha did by asking God to raise them up from spiritual death in answer to our prayers.
Manasseh, the king, was a wicked man, and had done everything he could against the God of his father. The Lord allowed him to be taken into captivity. Yet in Babylon, when he humbled himself and cried to God, the Lord heard his cry, and took him out of prison and restored him to the throne at Jerusalem. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God. He also removed the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the LORD, as well as all the altars which he had built on the mountain of the house of the LORD and in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside the city. He set up the altar of the LORD and sacrificed peace offerings and thank offerings on it; and he ordered Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel (2 Chronicles 33:13, 15-16)
Surely if God answered the prayer of wicked Manasseh, he will hear ours in the time of our distress. Isn’t this a time of distress for so many people we know? Aren’t there many around us whose hearts are burdened? As we go to the throne of grace, let’s remember God answers prayer!
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_{Dwight L. Moody — Prevailing Prayer}

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