[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.5.1″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.5.1″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ custom_margin=”-30px||-30px||false|false”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.5.1″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.5.1″ _module_preset=”default” text_orientation=”center”]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.5.1″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.5.1″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.5.1″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″]Ever wonder where God is when you pray because you feel little or nothing as you do? Most men struggle to be passionate and connected to God in prayer. They don\u2019t have a gift for intercession and quickly tire of \u201cprayer lists.\u201d Personally, I suffer from a debilitating disease I call \u201cMindusconstantwanderitis\u201d when I pray, an ailment that turns all my well-intentioned prayers to thoughts of what I have to do that day, emails I have to get out, pink Elephants, you name it. Sound familiar? <\/span><\/p>\n I struggled with this disease for years, until I went to a men\u2019s retreat and was introduced to the concept of praying the Psalms. I had always enjoyed the Psalms, and had heard they were songs, but prayers? Did you know that twice in the Psalms they are referred to as prayers by their authors? Anyway, I thought, \u201cWhat do I have to lose, things couldn\u2019t get much worse?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n One of the verses the speaker that weekend pointed out was Rom 8:26-27, \u201cWe do not know how to pray as we should,<\/em> but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us\u2026and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.\u201d HMMMM. Everyone had told me to just pray whatever was on my mind. That never worked. So, what is the best way to pray \u201caccording to the will of God\u201d if not the very words of God?\u00a0 I gave it a shot and was amazed!<\/span><\/p>\n In the Psalms I found:<\/span><\/p>\n But then I kept coming up against Psalms I just, as a NT believer, couldn\u2019t pray. David was a warrior-King under an \u201ceye for an eye and tooth for a tooth\u201d covenant. Many of his Psalms are laced with those OT \u201cstruggles against flesh and blood (Eph. 6)\u201d NT doctrine says we are not to participate in. How could someone who was to \u201clove his enemies and pray for those who persecuted him (Matt. 5)\u201d pray, \u201cDo I not hate those who hate You, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? I hate them with the utmost hatred\u201d (Ps. 139)?! Uh, help me out here.<\/span><\/p>\n I kept picking them up, desperately searching for that passion, focus, and connection, then putting them down because I just couldn\u2019t pray so many of them. Back to Mindusconstantwanderitis. Sigh. But the Lord eventually led me back to the rest of that passage in Ephesians 6, that said our struggles were not against flesh and blood, but against the ruler of darkness and all his forces. Dilemma over! I could take those curses the Psalmists aimed at the flesh and turn them against my true enemy! So, I went about \u201cnewtestamentizing\u201d the Psalms, replacing OT thought with NT thought in those and other places so I could update and pray all of them! Out of this came my devotional, Praying Today\u2019s Psalms<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n\n