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    A Study of Prayer
    A Study of Prayer
    A Study of Prayer
    Ebook160 pages4 hours

    A Study of Prayer

    By Joyce Church Bruno

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    About this ebook

    Have you ever wished that you could have a more fulfilling prayer life? Do you ever get so busy in a day that it is difficult to find time to pray? If so, this book is written especially for you. Prayer is one of the greatest weapons we have in our arsenal to fight the devil and one of our least used. Too often we tend to try to rely on our own strength when facing trials and don’t call on the incredible power of God that is available to us.

    This book explores why we should pray, what may hinder our prayers and offers suggestions on how we should pray. It also cites of Biblical examples of people who took action without first praying to God or those who didn’t wait for an answer from God before jumping into situations.

    Intended for individual or group study, this book delves into prayer on a deeper level. May God bless those who study it with a more meaningful prayer life.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWestBow Press
    Release dateJul 9, 2024
    ISBN9798385025251
    A Study of Prayer
    Author

    Joyce Church Bruno

    Joyce Church Bruno grew up in a small West Virginia town situated on the banks of the beautiful Ohio River. Now she lives in Centerville, TN with Rick, her husband of almost 34 years and their three cats. She is a registered nurse who fills in at the emergency department, endoscopy clinic and medical rehab unit of the local hospital. She is also a member of the Fairfield church of Christ. Joyce has been writing since she was a teenager, but this is her first published book. She is already hard at work on her second writing project.

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      Book preview

      A Study of Prayer - Joyce Church Bruno

      Copyright © 2024 Joyce Church Bruno.

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

      This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

      WestBow Press

      A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

      1663 Liberty Drive

      Bloomington, IN 47403

      www.westbowpress.com

      844-714-3454

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

      and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

      Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

      ISBN: 979-8-3850-2524-4 (sc)

      ISBN: 979-8-3850-2526-8 (hc)

      ISBN: 979-8-3850-2525-1 (e)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2024909617

      WestBow Press rev. date:  05/08/2024

      CONTENTS

      An Introduction to Prayer

      Lesson 1:The Five Types of Prayers

      Lesson 2:Why Should We Pray?

      Lesson 3:Why Don’t We Pray Like We Should?

      Lesson 4:How Should We Pray and For Whom Should We Pray?

      Lesson 5:What Keeps God From Hearing Our Prayers?

      Lesson 6:How Does God Answer Our Prayers?

      Lesson 7:When God’s Answer Is No

      Lesson 8:To Whom Did God Say No in the Bible?

      Lesson 9:Prayers That God Always Answers in the Affirmative

      Lesson 10:Sometimes God’s Answers to Prayers Were Immediate in the Bible

      Lesson 11:Sometimes God’s Answers to Prayers Didn’t Come for Years

      Lesson 12:Not Waiting on God Can Lead to Sin

      Lesson 13:While We Wait

      About the Author

      ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

      First and foremost, thank you to God Almighty who has gifted me with the talent to write, who has blessed me far more than I deserve, and who walks beside me each step of the way. I can’t make it through a single second of a single day without You, heavenly Father, and I thank You for never leaving me. Through prayer, this book came to be; and without God, it wouldn’t have been possible. It’s been a long road, with many delays due to the pandemic and a busy lifestyle in general, but here it is at last! To God be the glory, now and forever! Amen! Without Him, I can do nothing!

      To my husband, Rick, who has been my greatest supporter throughout life, through my creative writing endeavors, and throughout our marriage. I love you, honey, and I count you as one of my biggest blessings, and I thank God for you every day.

      To my sister, Jan Hopkins-Campbell, who pushed me to get this study book published. Thank you for your constructive criticism and your input. Your support and encouragement have always meant so much to me. I’m proud that you are a published author yourself, I’m proud of your watercolor art business, and most of all, I’m proud to be your twin. Thank you for your love.

      To Mike Kelley and Rodney Rochelle, our ministers at the Fairfield Church of Christ, who proofread my manuscript, made some comments and suggestions, and kept encouraging me to get this book published. I love you, brothers.

      To Bill Hopkins, my father figure and mentor, thank you and Barb for taking me into your home while I was in nursing school and encouraging me in this work.

      To the women of the Fairfield congregation, who let me teach this material so that I could get their feedback. You all have been sources of love and encouragement to me, and I love every one of you.

      To Janine David, Leandra Drummy, and WestBow Press, thank you for believing in my book and for agreeing to publish it. It’s been a long three-plus years since I started it, but the journey has been worth it!

      AN INTRODUCTION TO PRAYER

      Prayer is simply communication between man and a higher being. That definition makes prayer sound so simple when in fact it is more multidimensional, more awe-inspiring, more thought-provoking, and more purposeful. To understand the power available to us humans through the avenue of prayer, we must first decide how we view that higher being—in this case, God.

      Do you see God as a loving Father who wants you to come to Him with all your fears, disappointments, and failures, or do you see Him as a tyrannical being ready to zap you into eternity if you mess up badly enough? How a person views his or her earthly father can frequently influence the way they view God, and as it was in my case, that may be unfortunate.

      Growing up, my twin sister, older brother, and I all struggled with low self-esteem. In our home, we were never good enough, smart enough, attractive enough, athletic enough—in short, we were never enough. Both of our parents grew up with low self-esteem, and they perpetuated the cycle.

      Around that same time, I came to view God as a higher being with a list of dos and don’ts that had to be checked off or avoided if I wanted to have any chance of making it to heaven. To me, He was that Supreme Being who wanted to zap me into eternity if I messed up badly enough. It wasn’t until I was in my midthirties that I discovered that God wanted a personal relationship with me—me! And prayer? That took on an entirely new meaning too. I was allowed to talk to God about anything and everything.

      Suddenly, prayer meant instant access to a father, albeit a heavenly Father who loved me, faults and all, and only wanted what was best for me. What an awesome thought! I had never experienced that in my entire life! And to think that the same God who created the universe by simply speaking it into existence, parted the Red Sea for the fleeing Israelite nation, calmed the storms on the Sea of Galilee, raised the dead, and did many other miracles too numerous to mention wanted to hear from me! What an awe-inspiring thought. The God who has created trillions and trillions of people even knew the number of hairs on my head! (Luke 12:7). I mattered to Someone!

      Ephesians 3:12 tells us that in him we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in him. Because I am His child and because I have faith in Him, God loves me and wants to hear from me! That gives me the confidence to pray and ask Him for anything. Not that I expect to get everything I ask for, but just knowing that God is ready to listen makes all the difference.

      Along this same line of thinking, do we, as Christians, realize the awesome power available to us through the avenue of prayer? Stop and think about this for a moment: Did Jesus ever reject one person who came to Him with a sincere request for help? How much more will God hear the sincere prayers of his obedient, repentant people? God has power over all evil, over all the world, over death. How many times do we use our prayers to tap into the power available to us? Do we not believe what the prophet Malachi said in chapter 3, verse 10, of his book when he wrote, ‘Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and test me now in this,’ says Yahweh of Armies, ‘if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, that there will not be room enough for?’ God is just waiting for us to communicate with Him, and He is ready to bless us with even more than we can ask or imagine.

      In the book written by the apostle Paul in Ephesians 3:20–21, we also read, Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to him be the glory in the assembly and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. We cannot even imagine the things God could do for us if we would just pray for His help, get out of His way, and allow Him to use us as He wills.

      In his prayer in 2 Chronicles 20:5–12, King Jehoshaphat (who had allied himself with the evil King Ahab of Israel) conceded that only God could save the nation of Judah from its enemies. He acknowledged God’s sovereign power and expressed his complete dependence upon God to save His people. Throughout the Bible, God led His people out of prisons, lions’ dens, battles, catastrophes, and various trials. Because of this, we need to allow Him to lead us today.

      Stop and think about this for a moment: people will always disappoint us. No human being will ever be able to fulfill all your emotional, mental, spiritual, or physical needs. It’s human nature for all of us to think of ourselves first before thinking of others. It’s natural for all of us to fall short of others’ expectations. On the other hand, God is always waiting, ready to hear our deepest desires, ready to love us without judgment (unless we need it), ready to bless us. No one can love you to the same depth as God. No one.

      Do you have someone in your life with whom you can be totally honest 100 percent of the time? Someone who knows every single detail about you—everything you have ever done, every thought you have ever had? Someone who knows every one of your deepest, darkest secrets? For most of us, the answer would be no. Although I truly love my husband of thirty-five years, to say that he unequivocally knows everything about me would be untrue. There always seems to be a part of me that I hold back and keep hidden for fear of rejection. God, on the other hand, knows everything about me and loves me anyway. He knows every thought I have ever had, every action I have ever done, and yet He still loves me.

      Have you ever been brokenhearted and felt that none of your friends could even begin to understand the valley of your despair, how you struggled with a problem that seemed too personal to share even with your closest friend? Maybe like Job, your friends are not too good at comforting. (Heaven knows Job’s three friends would never have won any awards for their empathy and compassion!) Yet God is concerned about everything we face, even if we bring difficult circumstances upon ourselves through our own human weaknesses and impulsivity. He alone can sort out the mess we have made of our lives. Whether what you are facing seems trivial or overwhelming, God wants you to bring it all to Him in prayer. Nothing you are facing is too small or too large to not bring to His attention.

      How many of us struggle daily with some issues—addiction, overeating, poor health, loneliness, anxiety, financial difficulties, trying to raise godly children in an ungodly world—and turn to self-help books for our answers? Why don’t we just turn to the One who has all the answers to life’s problems—God Himself? When we are hurting the most, God does not avert His gaze, refusing to look into our tear-filled eyes. He sees the depths of our pain and longs to gather us close to Him. Why stress when you can pray to the one who spoke the universe into existence (Genesis 1:1), stopped the sun in the sky (Joshua 10:12), stopped the rain from falling to the earth for three years (1 Kings 17:1), made a donkey talk (Numbers 22:28), and raised His Son to eternal life (Luke 24:5–7)?

      Prayer allows us to express our innermost thoughts to God (even though He

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