Blog Archives - Page 19 of 93 - Faith Lutheran Church, Wesley Chapel

Kurt Steinbrueck February 14, 2026

Blog prayer

0

Praying With Jesus: Short And Sweet

Praying With Jesus - Matthew 6:7

"Short and Sweet"

“And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.”

If it’s time to pray and you don’t have much to say, what do you do?

One thing I’ve learned from writing blogs is that you have to be short and sweet. If the blog post is too long, people don’t make it all the way through…or they don’t read it at all. Hopefully, I’ve done a decent job of keeping these posts short.

In today’s passage from Matthew, Jesus tells us about prayer.

Jesus is saying that we don’t have to be long-winded when we pray. We don’t have to concoct elaborate prayers with fancy words to be heard by God.

I knew a guy in college who was in a church group with me. One day, we ordered pizza to eat during our Bible study because we were all starving. He offered to pray for the food. 15 minutes later he had finally finished. The pizza was cold and we never let him pray for the food again.

We don’t have to come up with long, elaborate prayers for God.

Why?

God already knows what you need and what is on your heart. In fact, you don’t have to even say a word and God knows.

This can free us.

We can feel more comfortable praying when we know that God isn’t concerned with us using the right words or being eloquent.

I like to think of it like a child coming to their father. Kids don’t use big, fancy words and they don’t tend to beat around the bush. They just say what they need. Their father understands and doesn’t expect long elaborate requests. He loves his child and wants to give them what they need. He’s happy his child came to him.

It’s like that with God. He simply wants us to come to Him and come to Him often.

Praying with People Who Don’t Know Jesus:
In fact, when praying with people who don’t yet know Jesus, short prayers are often the best. They don’t overwhelm the person and they provide an example for that person which they can repeat. Later, they may want to pray on their own and short, simple prayer is easier to imitate.

Let’s pray…

Heavenly Father,

Thank you for being a God who listens. Sometimes I feel like I don’t pray well. Remind me in those times that it isn’t about the words I say as much as it is my heart. Draw me to You in prayer throughout the day.

Amen.

As part of your devotion time, I encourage you to also pray for at least some of the following:

Your family
Your local church
Your pastor
Some of your fellow church members
The people on your B.L.E.S.S. list
Your country and her leaders
Your community

After praying for these people, you may want to finish your devotion time with the Lord’s Prayer…

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. They will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and every. Amen.

In Christ’s Service,

Pastor Kurt

Praying With Jesus: Pray For Your Enemies

Kurt Steinbrueck February 13, 2026

Blog prayer

0

Praying With Jesus: Pray For Your Enemies

Praying With Jesus - Matthew 5:44

"Pray for Your Enemies"

“But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”

It’s easy for us to pray for our spouse and kids. It’s easy to pray for our friends. Even those people we don’t know aren’t too hard to pray for, but what about those who actively seek to hurt us?

That’s not so easy.

Yet, that is who Jesus is saying we need to pray for. Love your enemies. He didn’t say, put up with your enemies or ignore them. Love them!

He also said,

“Pray for those who persecute you.”

Often times my first thought when considering this is,

“Sure. I’ll pray for them. I pray they will get a flat tire on the way to work.”

But that’s not loving, is it?

Love Your Enemies. Pray For Your Enemies
When we put these two ideas together, loving our enemies and praying for them, we are left with one option. To actively pray for the benefit of those who are trying to hurt us. It isn’t always easy, but it is exactly what Jesus did for us…

“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” – Luke 23:34

…and He did so much more. Romans 5:8 puts it this way:

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”- Romans 5:8

We were enemies of God and Jesus died for us.

He prays for us. He seeks to forgive us and save us. We can do the same for those who hurt us through the power of the Holy Spirit. We can pray that they will see Christ’s love in us and others and come to know His saving grace as well as find forgiveness. We can pray that God would bring changes in behavior and attitudes so there can be healing for our relationship with them.

Heavenly Father,

Please forgive me for holding a grudge against those who have hurt me. Help me, instead, to love them as You have loved me. I pray that You would bless them and watch over them. I pray that they might turn from their hurtful ways and that I would extend them grace and forgiveness. Help me to love them and be able to forgive them.

(If you have anyone, in particular, you need to pray for. Do it now.)

Amen.

As part of your devotion time, I encourage you to also pray for at least some of the following:

Your family
Your local church
Your pastor
Some of your fellow church members
The people on your B.L.E.S.S. list
Your country and her leaders
Your community

After praying for these people, you may want to finish your devotion time with the Lord’s Prayer…

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. They will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and every. Amen.

In Christ’s Service,

Pastor Kurt

Kurt Steinbrueck February 12, 2026

Blog prayer

0

Praying With Jesus: Be Alert!

Praying With Jesus - Ephesians 6:18

"Be Alert!"

“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”

Do you have set times when you pray?

That’s good, but there are other times we should pray, too.

“I’ll be praying for you.”

I’ve heard that phrase a lot and say it myself. You hear about something difficult someone is going through and you promise to pray for them.

How wonderful! However, rather than waiting, you could pray for them right then. In fact, you could pray with the right then.

Today, we are encouraged to not just pray for each other, but be alert.

We should be looking for opportunities to pray for each other. Sometimes it may be obvious, like when a friend tells us about something difficult they are going through.

Sometimes, however, people don’t share their struggles. Have you ever seen someone you knew and they said everything was fine, but you could tell something wasn’t quite right?

That’s being alert.

The passage also talks about praying in the Spirit. This is another way to be alert for how to pray for others. Instead of just praying for the things we know about, be quiet in your prayer and ask God to direct your prayers. Then, be alert for who and what God leads you to pray for.

My parents tell me of a time when I was a little boy. We were doing our family devotions and, when it was my turn to pray, along with praying my normal prayers, I prayed for Mrs. Farber (I think that was her name) to feel better. After we were done praying, my parents asked me why I prayed for her. I said I didn’t know.

Shortly after, they found out that Mrs. Farber was sick. I didn’t know that, but God had put it in my mind to pray for her.

Sometimes, there are things God wants us to pray about, which we don’t or even cannot know about. So, He places it on our hearts to pray. It may be something specific, like for Mrs. Farber to feel better, or maybe just a name.

I want to encourage you to do that. If you feel like you should pray for someone. Do it. You may find out later that the person needed that. Then again, you may never know why, but God does.

So, let’s be praying for each other.

Heavenly Father,

Please make me alert to the needs of others and encourage me to pray for them. When I do not know about the needs of others, guide me in my prayers to pray for them. Today, I want to pray for these people specifically…

Amen.

As part of your devotion time, I encourage you to also pray for at least some of the following:

Your family
Your local church
Your pastor
Some of your fellow church members
The people on your B.L.E.S.S. list
Your country and her leaders
Your community

After praying for these people, you may want to finish your devotion time with the Lord’s Prayer…

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. They will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and every. Amen.

In Christ’s Service,

Pastor Kurt

Kurt Steinbrueck February 11, 2026

Blog prayer

0

Praying With Jesus: Where We Pray

Praying With Jesus - John 4:21

"Where We Pray"

“’Woman,’ Jesus replied, ‘believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.’”

Have you ever thought of your time of daily prayer as a time of worship?

The passage above is something Jesus said to a Samaritan woman He met at a well. In this conversation, Jesus breaks all kinds of norms for the culture. Normally, Jews didn’t associate with Samaritans. Also, Jewish men didn’t typically speak to women in public, even their own wives. Now, Jesus is about to upset the applecart again as He answers her question.

Where should we worship?
She had asked where she should worship. She’s not asking whether she should attend this local synagogue or that one. The Samaritans primary place of worship was on Mount Gerizim. The Jews said the only legit place to worship was at the Temple in Jerusalem.

Jesus’ response is that the Jews were right, but there’s something more important. It’s not about the place you worship. It’s about worshiping in spirit and in truth.

Prayer is part of our worship.

As Jesus said about worship, there is no one place that we should pray. There aren’t places where prayers are stronger or more powerful. It’s not like the altar is an antenna and the closer we are to the altar the better reception God has. Prayer isn’t about the place we are, but the God who hears them…and He hears them no matter where you are. If you’re in the car, at home, at church, in nature, or in school before a test, God hears your prayer.

Where to Pray:
Yes, it’s good to gather for worship and pray in a church worship service, but this isn’t the only place to worship and thus not the only place to pray.

I’ve known people who love to go hiking or camping and love the pray when they are in nature. Sometimes, when I’m planning a series or wanting to seek God about the future of my church, Faith, I drive out a lake and sit on the bank to pray.

Of course, you may also pray before meals, pray before an important phone call, pray in bed before you get up or before you go to sleep.

In fact, the Bible says we should pray without ceasing. We’ll talk more about that in a future devotion, but the basic idea is to always have an attitude of prayer, to always be ready to pray. Prayer should be our first instinct no matter where we are.

So, where are you now? God hears your prayers here, too. So, why not pray now?

Heavenly Father,

You are the God of all creation. You hear me no matter where I am or what is happening around me. Today, I lift my praises and concerns to you and ask that You be with me. Protect me and guide me. May I glorify You in all that I do.

Amen

As part of your devotion time, I encourage you to also pray for at least some of the following:

Your family
Your local church
Your pastor
Some of your fellow church members
The people on your B.L.E.S.S. list
Your country and her leaders
Your community

After praying for these people, you may want to finish your devotion time with the Lord’s Prayer…

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. They will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and every. Amen.

In Christ’s Service,

Pastor Kurt

Kurt Steinbrueck February 10, 2026

Blog prayer

0

Praying With Jesus: Spirit And Truth

Praying With Jesus - John 4:23-24

"Spirit And Truth"

“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

Do you ever struggle to know what to say when you pray?

This can happen in a few ways. Maybe it’s your normal time to pray or you just feel like you should be praying, but you can’t really think of anything to pray for. It can also happen when you feel overwhelmed by something. You want to lift it up to God, yet you just can’t find the words to express what you are going through.

Have you ever thought to ask God what you should pray for or how to pray about something?

I know. We tend to think we need to come up with what we are going to pray about, but remember that the Spirit knows you better than you know yourself and God knows what you should ask for better than you do. So, why not ask Him?

Maybe say something like, “God, I don’t know what to pray right now. Please search me, my life, and those around me with Your Spirit and show me what to pray for, and give me the words to pray.” Then pray what the Spirit reveals to you.

Do you ever feel that your prayers have gotten into a rut, of sorts; praying the same basic thing time after time?

One of the great ways we can pray is to pray God’s Word itself. Praying in the Spirit and speaking His Words of truth. Praying the Scriptures not only can add to our ideas of what we can pray, but it can help us take the focus off ourselves and focus us on God. These are His words and His promises.

There are many prayers in the Scriptures that we can pray.

The Psalms, in particular, are full of prayers:

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.” – Psalm 51:1-2

And the Psalms have many other types of prayers. However, you don’t have to be limited to only praying the prayers in Scripture. You can use pretty much any Scripture to guide your prayers.

I meet with a group of pastors once a month to share what is going on in our ministries and lives and to pray together. In addition to praying for prayer requests from the pastors, we often allow our prayer time to be guided by a passage of Scripture.

Usually, someone has picked a passage in advance, and we read a verse or few verses and pray about what the passage is talking about. Then, we read another verse or few verses and pray again. We continue that until we finish the passage…or run out of time.

Praying in the Spirit and in Truth:
The main idea of praying in the Spirit and in truth is that we pray according to God’s will and character. We pray in agreement with God and His Word. We pray in agreement with the Holy Spirit.

I’ll close this devotion with an example of praying a passage from the Bible and then ask the Spirit to guide the rest of your prayers.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” – Romans 15:13

Heavenly Father,

God, please search me, my life, and those around me with Your Spirit and show me what to pray for, and give me the words to pray.

(Wait on the Spirit and pray when you are ready.)

Amen

As part of your devotion time, I encourage you to also pray for at least some of the following:

Your family
Your local church
Your pastor
Some of your fellow church members
The people on your B.L.E.S.S. list
Your country and her leaders
Your community

After praying for these people, you may want to finish your devotion time with the Lord’s Prayer…

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. They will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and every. Amen.

In Christ’s Service,

Pastor Kurt

Kurt Steinbrueck February 9, 2026

Blog prayer

0

Praying With Jesus: God Acts

Praying With Jesus - Matthew 7:7-11

"God Acts"

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

When you pray…

…do you really believe God is listening?
…do you really believe God cares?
…do you really believe God will act?

I think one of the reasons we don’t always pray as much as we could is because we don’t really think God is listening and working. After all, God doesn’t typically speak back to us audibly, we don’t usually see instant results, and sometimes the way God works isn’t the way we wanted.

Jesus says the Father is listening, cares, and does act.

He cares like a good father. He helps and provides better than we earthly fathers ever could. Sometimes that means He doesn’t give us exactly what we want. I don’t give my kids exactly what they want all the time either.

My son once asked if he could jump out of a second-story window.

I said, “No.”

Even I, a sinful, foolish father know that to love my child means sometimes I have to say, “No.” How much more does our Father in Heaven, who is good, all-knowing, wise, and perfectly loving, know when He should say, “Yes,” “No,” or “Not now.”

Answered Prayers
One thing you may hear a lot from people is the phrase, “God answered my prayer,” when the person received what they prayed for. It’s great to give God credit and praise Him, but that phrase also implies that God doesn’t answer prayers when we don’t receive what we asked for.

God always answers every prayer!

It’s just that His answer isn’t always, yes. Every prayer receives one of three answers: yes, no, or not yet. Just because you don’t receive what you asked for, you have to wait, or God delivers in a different way than you expected, doesn’t mean God didn’t answer your prayer. He did. He always does.

And, make no mistake. God does act.

He gives good gifts. He gives what we really need. Most importantly, He draws us closer to Him as He acts on us.

That’s something we don’t always realize about prayer. Praying isn’t just about asking God for stuff and getting stuff. It’s also about being reminded of your relationship with God. When you pray you are reminded that…

God is God and you are not.
God is mighty
God is loving
God is close and personal (He listens to you and cares about you)
You can trust God
You can and do rely on God
God is the source of all good and perfect gifts (James 1:17)

So, next time you pray, remember that God will act. He will give you what is good, what you need. He will also act on You to draw you closer to Him and help you to learn to trust Him more.

Heavenly Father,

I know that You hear me because You promise so in Your Word. I know that You love me because You sent Jesus to save me. Help me to come to You in prayer and trust that You will act… as a good Father would.

Amen.

As part of your devotion time, I encourage you to also pray for at least some of the following:

Your family
Your local church
Your pastor
Some of your fellow church members
The people on your B.L.E.S.S. list
Your country and her leaders
Your community

After praying for these people, you may want to finish your devotion time with the Lord’s Prayer…

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. They will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and every. Amen.

In Christ’s Service,

Pastor Kurt

Kurt Steinbrueck February 7, 2026

Blog prayer

0

Praying With Jesus: Praying Together

Praying With Jesus - Luke 9:28

"Praying Together"

“[Jesus] took Peter, John and James with Him and went up onto a mountain to pray.”

How do you feel about praying with other people?

The Christian faith is interesting. It is both personal and social. We talk about a personal walk with Christ, about personal devotions, etc., but Christianity is also inherently social and corporate (group). Our faith was never intended to be lived out in isolation. Even God is Trinity and the three persons of the God-head communicate with each other.

Prayer, as well, has both personal and social aspects.

Sometimes we can and should pray by ourselves (I obviously encourage daily personal devotions), but prayer is also to be done together. However, many of us feel uncomfortable praying with others.

We may be OK praying a pre-written prayer, like the Lord’s Prayer, with others, but to pray from the heart, saying what comes to our minds, can be a little scary.

The good thing is God doesn’t judge our prayers by our eloquence. He promises to listen and answer even the most stumbled through prayer.

Just as Jesus prayed with others, we should pray with each other.

In some cases that may be praying with our family or sometimes we may pray with a friend in need. If you are one who typically doesn’t pray with others, I want to encourage you to try it out this week. Whether it’s with family, friends, or anyone else, find a time to pray with someone…not just what we do in our church service.

If you feel nervous about it, let me encourage you.

Your prayer doesn’t have to be fancy or really long. Short and simple is perfectly fine.
Like most things, you’ll feel more comfortable with it over time and be able to think more easily of what to say the more you do it.

Feel free to have a pre-written prayer or just say what’s on your mind. My family likes to combine both in our family devotions. We start by praying whatever is on our hearts and then we finish by praying the Lord’s Prayer or Luther’s Evening Prayer.

Dear Jesus,

Thank you for promising to listen to and answer our prayers. Please remind me of the wonderful blessing that prayer is and help me to share that blessing with others by praying with them.

Amen.

As part of your devotion time, I encourage you to also pray for at least some of the following:

Your family
Your local church
Your pastor
Some of your fellow church members
The people on your B.L.E.S.S. list
Your country and her leaders
Your community

After praying for these people, you may want to finish your devotion time with the Lord’s Prayer…

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. They will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and every. Amen.

In Christ’s Service,

Pastor Kurt

Kurt Steinbrueck February 6, 2026

Blog forgiveness, prayer

0

Praying With Jesus: God Wants To Forgive Us

Praying With Jesus - Luke 11:4

"God Wants To Forgive Us"

“Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.”

Have you ever avoided prayer because you knew you sinned and didn’t want to face God?

Today’s passage is probably very familiar to you. It’s the part of the Lord’s prayer that deals with forgiveness. I find it amazing that this is part of the prayer Jesus taught. It not only tells us what we ought to do but reveals something about God. It shows us that Jesus wants us to confess our sins and that He WANTS to forgive us.

It’s not that we have to convince Jesus to forgive us, he wants to do it.

Sin separates us from God. Sometimes, when we sin, we may feel afraid to pray about it. Like Adam and Eve, after we sin, we try to hide from God. We may think that we’ve really blown it this time and gone too far, or we’ve done the same sin too many times. We figure Jesus is only going to forgive us so many times…but that’s a lie. Jesus wants to forgive us.

What if we don’t want to confess?
Sometimes, however, it’s not guilt or fear that keeps us from confessing our sin, it’s that we don’t really want to let go of the sin. Truth be told, we kinda like the sin. And we know that if we come before God in prayer, we’re going to be faced with our sin and will need to confess it and turn from the sin. So, we stay away. However, we need to confess our sin and we need to turn from it.

Amazingly, even in those moments, Jesus wants us to come to Him. Sometimes our confession needs to go something like this,

“Lord, I know I’ve sinned and should be sorry for it, but I don’t really feel sorry and even want to keep doing it. Please change my heart, that I would turn from my sin. Please forgive me.”

Who would be better to turn to in order to change our hearts than the one who gave us a new heart? He is the one who said He will always show us a way out of the temptations we face. So, turn to Him.

For Christians, our lives are lives of repentance. Confession and forgiveness are something we need daily (maybe more often). When we hold onto our sin and refuse to repent, we harden our heart towards God…and that’s a very dangerous and scary place to be.

Whatever your situation might be, Jesus encourages us to come to the Father in prayer, confess our sins, and receive His forgiveness. Let’s do that right now.

Heavenly Father,

I am forever amazed that You would be willing to forgive me. I know I don’t deserve it, but I trust in your promise to forgive me. Today, I confess the following sins:

(confess your sins)

Please forgive me for the sake of Jesus Christ who died for me.

Amen.

As part of your devotion time, I encourage you to also pray for at least some of the following:

Your family
Your local church
Your pastor
Some of your fellow church members
The people on your B.L.E.S.S. list
Your country and her leaders
Your community

After praying for these people, you may want to finish your devotion time with the Lord’s Prayer…

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. They will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and every. Amen.

In Christ’s Service,

Pastor Kurt

Kurt Steinbrueck February 5, 2026

Blog Lament, prayer

0

Praying with Jesus: Prayers of Lament

Praying With Jesus - Psalm 22:1-2

"Prayers of Lament"

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.”

Have you ever had a terrible day…or week…or month?

What did you tell God about it? Did you tell Him anything?

I remember talking with a guy, I’ll call him, “Alex,” here. Alex had been going through a very difficult time. He was not only feeling worn down and helpless from this struggle, but mad. He was mad that God wasn’t removing the struggle.

I think he was expecting me to say something about how it was all happening for a reason because he seemed rather surprised by my response.

“Have you told God?”

“Of course! I’ve told Him what was happening and begged Him to help.” Alex responded rather upset.

I replied, “No, I don’t mean you told God about the problem. I mean have you told Him how confused and mad you are that He’s allowing this to happen?”

“No. You aren’t supposed to complain to God,” he said, a little confused.

“Really?” I said. “Why not?”

Alex isn’t alone. I’ve talked with many people who thought this. We’ve been taught by our parents, coaches, and others not to complain and we have assumed that means we can’t express our confusion and frustration to God. We see it as being ungrateful and lacking faith.

Psalms of Lament
Yet, read through the Psalms guess what you are going to find…Laments. A lament sounds a lot like complaining and a lot like confusion and frustration.

The passage for today is from Psalm 22, but the first part of it is probably more familiar to you as the words Jesus spoke from the cross. He was reciting Psalm 22, a lament Psalm.

Yes, even Jesus lamented to God.

Perhaps you have felt anguish and frustration, but also felt like you can’t express that to God. You can.

God already knows. So, your thinking it or expressing it to others, but holding it back to God isn’t keeping God in the dark.
God wants you to turn to Him. Over and over in the Scriptures, God tells us to turn to Him in every situation.

There is, however, one more important thing to note about the Laments in the Bible.

The lament isn’t just a complaint. The lament is always accompanied by a statement of faith.

Yes, it’s,

“God! Why are You allowing this? Why aren’t You helping?”

However, it’s also,

“Because I know that You are good and mighty. I remember that You lift up the meek and care for those who suffer. So, I will wait on the Lord.”

If you think about it, the frustration happens because you expect God to act. So, the statement of faith is natural. It also reminds you of who God is. It reminds you that you can trust God, even through the suffering.

Jesus is well acquainted with suffering. The Father forsook Jesus on the cross because Jesus took all our sins. Jesus endured that so that you would not be forsaken, and as a child of God, you never will be.

Take a few minutes to read the rest of Psalm 22.

If you are struggling right now and feel frustrated (or in the future if it happens) don’t hold it in. Turn to God. Pray a lament. Maybe pray a Psalm of lament. He will listen.

Heavenly Father,

I know that you are a good and loving Father. Yet, there are times I go through suffering that I don’t understand. Honestly, it has made me mad. Help me to turn to You in those times. Help me to be able to express my frustration, but do so in faith, knowing that You care for me and that You are my hope and my salvation.

Amen.

As part of your devotion time, I encourage you to also pray for at least some of the following:

Your family
Your local church
Your pastor
Some of your fellow church members
The people on your B.L.E.S.S. list
Your country and her leaders
Your community

After praying for these people, you may want to finish your devotion time with the Lord’s Prayer…

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. They will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and every. Amen.

In Christ’s Service,

Pastor Kurt

Kurt Steinbrueck February 4, 2026

Blog praise, prayer, psalms

0

Praying with Jesus: Praying the Psalms

Praying With Jesus - Ephesians 5:18-20

"Praying the Psalms"

“Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Have you ever felt like your prayers were old and stale?

You can categorize prayers into the two categories of “prayers from the heart” and prewritten prayers.

Prayers “from the heart”
The idea of what some people call “praying from the heart” is that you pray what’s on your heart rather than something that is prewritten. These can be excellent prayers sometimes, and certainly, God encourages us to bring everything that is on our hearts to Him. However, sometimes it’s good to pray a prewritten prayer and can actually be quite refreshing.

Our passage from Ephesians encourages us to use different forms of speech and prayer, that includes hymns and, yes, psalms.

Why Prewritten Prayers?

The reason I keep putting “praying from your heart” in quotes is that the name implies that we aren’t praying from our heart if we pray a prewritten pray. This isn’t true. In fact, there are many good reasons to pray prewritten prayers.

It provides some help – The truth is that while praying from the heart sounds great, sometimes people struggle to do it. They feel like they don’t know what to pray. This can especially be true when you’re asked to pray with or in front of others. A prewritten pray can help you through those times.
It gives new ideas – Another reality of praying from the heart is that often our prayers become repetitive. Time after time, we find ourselves praying the same things. There’s nothing wrong with this, but there may be some things to pray for which you never think about. A prewritten prayer can make you aware of new things to pray for.
It gives new language – Similar to what I wrote above, when praying from the heart, our prayers can not only pray for the same thing over and over, but we may find that we always use the same words. This may not only be true from one time praying to the next but even multiple times in the same prayer. Prewritten prayers can give us new words and new ways of praying for things.

The Lord’s Prayer
The most common prewritten prayer people pray is the Lord’s prayer. It is absolutely wonderful that Jesus gave us this prayer which, though simple, includes everything we need to pray for.

Praying the Psalms
Not only did God give us the Lord’s Prayer, but He also gave us an entire book of the Bible for our prayers. The book of Psalms is used by many as a prayer book. It gives a variety of words and topics to pray. It also gives us different ways to pray, such as praise, confession, lament, and requests.

Give it a try.

In fact, here’s a good Psalm to start with.

Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory
in the heavens.
2 Through the praise of children and infants
you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?

5 You have made them a little lower than the angels
and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their feet:
7 all flocks and herds,
and the animals of the wild,
8 the birds in the sky,
and the fish in the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.

9 Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

-Psalm 8

As part of your devotion time, I encourage you to also pray for at least some of the following:

Your family
Your local church
Your pastor
Some of your fellow church members
The people on your B.L.E.S.S. list
Your country and her leaders
Your community

After praying for these people, you may want to finish your devotion time with the Lord’s Prayer…

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. They will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and every. Amen.

In Christ’s Service,

Pastor Kurt