Be Specific When You Pray

Read Exodus 2:11-25. When you feel hopeless and you talk to God, he can help you make specific prayers to him. As you turn to God and lay before him your situation, and the difficult circumstances you find yourself in, you begin to gain some perspective on what is causing your difficulties.

As the Israelites began to cry out for help, they knew for certain what was causing their misery. God had promised they would be set free from their captivity in Egypt. But they were still under the burden of slavery. They knew they needed rescuing. They knew they needed God to fulfil the promise he had made them.

The Bible contains many verses that can help, whatever the source of your unhappiness. There are verses of lament, that can help you to cry out to the Lord in your pain. There are verses that tell you of the goodness of God, about his justice, his grace and his mercy. And there are many, many promises. In any difficult situation, you can pray one of those verses back to God. And when you do, you will sense hope returning and filling your heart once more.

THINK IT OVER

Think about the following:

•What Bible verses do you find particularly comforting when you are facing difficult circumstances?