You are on a faith journey and the emphasis is on ‘journey’. Take it one step and one day at a time. This is a marathon and not a sprint. Remember, you are in good hands because those hands were nailed to a cross for you.
You can click to download some notes I wrote on MOST of the Old Testament books (No Ruth, Psalms or Proverbs). When you click the book button it will download the file. Feel free to add to these documents as you read the books. They are not meant to be an exhaustive summary but they will highlight key portions of the book. They will also let you know if you can ‘skip’ that section (genealogies for example) or skim portions of the book (like the details for the Temple furnishings).
The bible project has video summaries of the books of the bible. They are helpful to watch prior to reading a chapter. This will give you some of the context.
Once you are taken to the page, scroll down for the summaries. Most are a sentence long- some might be three. Either way, they are great and short descriptions of the books.
You can do an online search for different reading plans. There are thousands out there. If you need a couple of quick plans you can try one of these.
Use the acronym ACTS as an outline for your prayers:
A: Adoration: Praise God for who He is, His creation, how He is good to you, etc.
C: Confession: Tell God your sins. Tell Him you are without excuse. We confess our sins to God, not because He doesn't know them (in fact, He is very aware of the sins we commit that we are not aware of), but because we are also confessing our need for Jesus.
T: Thanksgiving: Thank God, first for Jesus death and resurrection, for bringing you to faith and keeping you in the faith. Thank God for anything else you can think of.
S: Supplication: A fancy word for "to ask". Ask God for what you would like. Most people start with asking God for things. This is a better place for supplication because we come off of confessing our sins and thanking God. Our priorities start to change. Of course, we are called to ask God for anything, but we follow Jesus' lead and pray as He did in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus finished His prayer by saying, "Not my will, but your will be done."
Spend your whole prayer just thanking God for everything you can think of. To help, you can make a list of 100 things you are thankful for as a guide. I know this sounds tedious. But, when you start, you will start by saying, "Thank you God for my family", "Thank you for my health", etc. You will realize you can go more in-depth. Instead of thanking God for your whole family, you will thank God for your spouse, your kids, your siblings, etc. One item (your family) will turn into several more prayers of thanksgiving when you focus on each person in your family.
Find prayers others have said/written and use those. Here are a few examples: The Lord's Prayer.
Here is Luther's morning prayer: “I thank you, my Heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have kept me this night from all harm and danger; and I pray that You would keep me this day also from sin and every evil, that all my doings and life may please You. For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen.”
Luther has others prayers that you can find in your Small Catechism.
You can write out your prayers. Make a bulleted list of prayers you say. For some, writing helps them. Another bonus, if you use a prayer journal you can track your prayers over time and see what you were praying for some time back. You can also record how certain prayers were answered. A prayer journal can be a simple spiral bound notebook or you can buy an actual prayer journal.
Our public prayers are listed in our bulletin every week. Sometimes it is good to pray for others. This helps us develop compassion and helps us to focus on other people's needs. You start to see people in a different light.
Our political leaders- all of them. Even the ones you disagree with. Pray for wisdom and discernment for them.
Light of Christ. The pastors, the staff, the preschool, our musicians, our events, fellow members, etc.
Those who are difficult for you. Prayer might not change them but it certainly can change us to see others differently.
Ask God to give you an opportunity to invite someone to church.
Ask God to show you how He wants you to serve others?
Ask God to show you how to be more involved in the ministry of Light of Christ.
"God knows what He is going to do, why should I pray?"
"Why should God listen to me?"
"I don't want God to listen to me. I want what God wants"
"God doesn't answer my prayers so why should I pray?"
These are challenging questions. You are joined by many who have thought the same thing. There is no easy answer but here are things for you to consider.