Bible Examples of Prayer

We’ll study some examples of prayers in the Bible and see which of the four categories they fit into.

Hannah—Samuel is one of the most famous Old Testament prophets. Two fairly long books tell the story of his life, and of the first kings of Israel and Judah,—kings that Samuel anointed before God for their positions. Yet, humanly speaking, Samuel wasn’t supposed to exist.

The first book, 1 Samuel, begins with the familiar story of Hannah, the beloved but childless wife, who begs God for a son. To her eyes, her situation seems impossible. She is without honor in her society, in the eyes of the rival second wife, and in her own eyes. It is important to note that Hannah is not without honor in the eyes of her husband, who loves her. Still, he wanted children enough to take a second wife. So Hannah has taken her desperate case to the God of hosts, to the tabernacle at Shiloh.  Her prayer is recorded in verses 11-16.

“O Lord Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.”

In which category is this prayer? There are two, actually. It’s obviously a heartfelt Help prayer, but it also includes “I will.” We humans do this frequently: “If only you will [fill in the blank], I promise to [fill in some unrealistic promise, often including “I’ll never ask for your help again.”] Silly! If God believed you, he certainly wouldn’t say yes, because He wants you to come back and ask for help again!

But Hannah, we know, was praying from the bottom of her heart, and she did follow through. And so we have two books of the Old Testament named after her son, and filled with stories of the mighty deeds of the Lord of hosts he and his mother served. She also prayed a Thank You so beautiful that it’s been preserved for millennia, (2:1-10) and was imitated in some ways by Mary, the mother of Jesus, in her song of thanks and praise.

What if God’s answer had not been yes? Obviously, the Old Testament, not to mention Hebrew history, would have been drastically different, but what do you think Hannah’s response would have been? Would she have given up her faith? Would you?

Jesus—Matthew 26, Mark 14, and Luke 22 all record Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane. This is the greatest and most important “Help!” and “I Will” of all time. It certainly took more time and probably included a lot more words than we have recorded, but it had basically only two pieces:

“Help! Save me!”

“Your will, not mine.” Which means, “I Will.”

And he did.

And he didn’t have to.

What if he hadn’t?

This time we’re looking at infinitely more than a change in history. Human history wouldn’t have even continued. Wouldn’t have begun, in fact, if God had not been a God of love, a God with a Plan. Without that prayer on the bloody, sweaty ground of Gethsemane, we wouldn’t be having this discussion of prayer.

Habakkuk—Habakkuk’s complaints (Hab. 1:2-4 and 1:12-2:1) and the Lord’s answers (Hab 1:5-11 and 2:2-19) get into deep and far-reaching issues. Individual happiness, national welfare, the honor and glory of God are all involved. Which of our four categories can we find here? They are all here, in some form. It’s certainly a cry for Help, it includes praise and recognition of God’s greatness, which comes under the Thank You category, recognition of the sinfulness of the people, though it doesn’t specifically state an apology, and ends with an “I Will.”

“I will take my stand to watch,” Habakkuk says, “and station myself on the tower, and look forth to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.” (2:1) This brings us to the most important factor of prayer that we need to consider: attitude.