Terry Tekyl in his book “How to Pray After You’ve Kicked the Dog” has an excellent section on prayer using scripture.  His main point is that the God whom we read about in scripture is the same God who is active in our lives today.  So we can trust that God will act as He did in scripture – His nature does not change.  His advice on using scripture to guide our prayers is to relate our lives to the stories of scripture.  Just as God has acted in the stories of scripture so too He will act in our lives.  What great advice on prayer!  Below is a selection of stories that Terry lists and possible themes that are within the story for use in prayer:

The Creation Story (Genesis 1-2) – The goodness of God

The Fall (Genesis 3) – Redemption

Joseph and his brothers (Genesis 37-45) – Finding the good in bad things

Moses & the burning bush (Exodus 3) – The call of God

David & Goliath (1 Samuel 17) – Overcoming Giants

Daniel & the Lion’s Den (Daniel 6) – Protection and courage in the face of persecution

Jonah & the whale (Jonah) – The value of obedience

The Temptation of Jesus (Matthew 4) – Facing tests in life

Jesus Calms the Storm (Mark 4) – Faith

The Good Samaritan (Luke 10) – Selflessness

The Resurrection of Jesus (Luke 24) – Hope

Use these and the many other stories of scripture to enrich your prayer life by letting them remind you of the faithfulness of God!