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THE POWER OF WRITTEN PRAYERS!--By Maria Maria #128 DO 2640 9/90
1. I love these prayers of compiled Scriptures! The Word is always so powerful, & I think they're going to be a tremendous help to the Family. PTL!
2. I'm also very inspired about the companion prayer that goes with this Scripture prayer against our enemies. The comp of Dad's prayers against our enemies gives another aspect to the subject. It's a powerful combination to have one prayer on this subject of victory over our enemies that's primarily by King David of the Bible, coupled with another one by our King David of the Endtime!
3. Of course, when we compile written prayers from the Bible or other sources, for our own use, we should adapt them to our needs. Just as we often paraphrase Scriptures when praying aloud, so we have slightly rephrased some of the verses in these written prayers, & have not always directly quoted them word-for-word. We've used Bible verses for one of these prayers & the MO Letters for the other, because the Word is so powerful & so beautifully expresses the thoughts & feelings that we wanted to express, or that we felt the Family would want to express. And we used most of the verses or quotes verbatim.
4. The small changes we've made have mostly to do with the tenses & the person in which the verses or quotes were originally written. For example, I changed all the Bible verses that were in the first person singular ("The Lord shall deliver me...") to the first person plural, ("The Lord shall deliver us...") since our enemies are not just our personal enemies but they are enemies of the Family as a whole. Also, when a verse said, "I cried unto Thee," past tense, I changed it to, "We cry unto Thee," first person plural & present instead of past tense. Another change I made was to change some verses into more personal prayers to the Lord, instead of leaving them as the rather non-personal statements of fact that they were in the original. For example: "He holdeth me up," (the third person), was changed to say, "Thou, Lord, holdest me up." (the second person)
5. So, almost every sentence of these "Victory Over Our Enemies" prayers are either an actual prayer verse from the Bible, or a prayer quote from the Letters. But we didn't feel that we had to leave every verse or quote exactly the same as they appear in the Bible or Letters because we're not using these verses for the purpose of quoting the Word verbatim. We're using these particular Scriptures or quotes because they so beautifully express the thoughts & prayers I feel we also would want to pray. So you don't have to look on these as direct quotations from the Word. We have simply borrowed these beautiful Biblical verses & MO Letter quotes to use as our own prayers, & have adapted them to our particular need.--And I'm sure that neither the Lord nor King David of old nor our King David will mind!
6. I'd been praying & thinking about publishing more written prayers for the Family, & the Lord confirmed it as His Will through Dad the other day.--Before I'd mentioned anything to him about it, he said, "I think it would be a good idea to get out a little prayer book for the Family!--Something they could use in their personal prayer times or in their united prayers, or prayer chains, prayer vigils etc. A lot of people simply run out of words when they're praying. They're not so fluent, & they need a little help." (Maria: Yes, prepared pre-written prayers can often express more clearly what we want to say than we can in our own words.)
7. "I think it would be a help & blessing to publish such prayers. People don't always know exactly how to pray or what to pray. Of course, you can always pray in tongues. But the Apostle said that edifies your own spirit, it doesn't help anyone else. (See 1Cor.14:4-6.) (Maria: Though it helps your spirit, it doesn't help your mind much because you almost need to make a conscious commitment in your mind by saying the words of a prayer, by expressing the words of exactly what you want the Lord to do.) Right, which is why interpretation of tongues is important.
8. "So I think a little prayer book would be very helpful to our folks. A lot of people are a little slow of thought & tongue, & I think it would really encourage them & help them to feel that they were praying the right thing.--Prayers that would really be heard & answered! PTL!"
9. Another confirmation & precedent for prepared prayers came to me recently, "The Lord's Prayer." When the Disciples asked Jesus, "Lord, teach us to pray" (Luk.11:1), He didn't say, "Well, just open your hearts & say whatever you feel like." Nor did He say, "Just praise God & ask Him for what you need." But He gave them an exact word-for-word prayer that they could pray just the way He gave it to them!--The Lord's Prayer!--A prayer that has endured for lo, these many many centuries! So I think that serves as a pretty good example to us of what the Lord thinks about already written & prepared prayers!--Amen? So I know you'll find these written prayers a blessing! GBY! (Amen!--D.)
10. P.S.: Please pray for our Pubs workers, that they can find time to compile & edit more written prayers for you, & that the Lord will help us to put together a book of prayers in His time!--Thanks! WLY!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
