Hope and Petition: Prayers of Saint Augustine of Hippo

Act of Hope

For your mercies' sake, O Lord my God, tell me what you are to me. Say to my soul: "I am your salvation." So speak that I may hear, O Lord; my heart is listening; open it that it may hear you, and say to my soul: "I am your salvation." After hearing this word, may I come in haste to take hold of you. Hide not your face from me. Let me see your face even if I die, lest I die with longing to see it. The house of my soul is too small to receive you; let it be enlarged by you. It is all in ruins; do you repair it. There are things in it - I confess and I know - that must offend your sight. But who shall cleanse it? Or to what others besides you shall I cry out? From my secret sins cleanse me, O Lord, and from those of others spare your servant. Amen.


Act of Petition

Give me yourself, O my God, give yourself to me. Behold I love you, and if my love is too weak a thing, grant me to love you more strongly. I cannot measure my love to know how much it falls short of being sufficient, but let my soul hasten to your embrace and never be turned away until it is hidden in the secret shelter of your presence. This only do I know, that it is not good for me when you are not with me, when you are only outside me. I want you in my very self. All the plenty in the world which is not my God is utter want. Amen.

Why Aren't My Prayers Answered? John Piper

Back in 1996 John Piper preached a message titled, Praying From The Fullness of The Word, in which he addresses the questions, "Why aren't my prayers being answered?" - Ed Stetzer: He says in part,

It says we may not be praying according to God's will; 1 John 5:14, "If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us."
Or it could be we have cherished sin that we will not let go from our lives; Psalm 66:18, "If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear."

It could be that we have man-centered and not God-centered motives; James 4:3, "You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures."

Or it may be that we do not believe that God will do it; Mark 11:24, "All things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they shall be granted you."

Or it could be that God wants you to persevere, and is testing your obedience to his command in Luke 18:1, "At all times [you] ought to pray and not to lose heart."

Or it might be that God is, in fact, doing far more every time you pray than you can imagine and is daily putting in place a part of the mosaic that will in good time be the full answer to your prayer (as in Daniel 10:2,12).

4 Ways To Pray The Gospel Over Your Life - J D Greear

One of the revolutionary ideas of the gospel is that we begin to do what we ought for God as we are captivated by the story of what he has done for us.

Spiritual fruits do not develop in us as we focus on them; spiritual fruits come as we abide in Jesus (John 15:5). Spiritual “fruit” is much like physical “fruit.” When a husband and wife conceive physical “fruit” (i.e. a child), they are not thinking about the exact, scientific mechanics of making that child. They get caught up in a moment of loving intimacy with one another, and the fruit of that loving intimacy is a child. In the same way, spiritual fruits do not grow by focusing on fruit production, but by becoming intimate with the doctrines of the gospel.

Grow Your Fruit with the Gospel

Jesus said that saturating ourselves in the gospel, or “abiding” (lit., “making our home”) in it, is the way to abundant fruit. Sanctification is the daily process of pulling up the roots of our hearts from the flesh and grounding them in the soil of the gospel. Or, to change metaphors, we must send out missionaries to the unreached parts of our heart to preach the gospel and bring our heart under the subjugation of the gospel.


Things like radical generosity and audacious faith are not produced when we focus on them, but when we focus on the gospel.


A Prayer of God's Righteousness

About four years ago, I wrote a prayer for our church to help to this end. We often talk about “preaching the gospel to ourselves daily,” but how can you do that? This four-part prayer confronts us with the reality of God’s gift-righteousness and love:

1.“In Christ, there is nothing I could do that would make you love me more, and nothing I have done that makes you love me less.”

Pray about this “gift righteousness” of the gospel (2 Cor. 5:21) and go to war against the incipient works-righteousness hardwired into our hearts.

2.“Your presence and approval are all I need today for everlasting joy.”

Pray about this value of God’s presence in our lives. It’s one thing to know that Jesus is your possession; it’s another for that approval to have such weightiness in our hearts that our captivity to other idols is snapped.

3.“As you have been to me, so I will be to others.”

Pray about and consider the extravagant generosity of God toward us. His generosity toward us leads us to radical generosity toward others.

4.“As I pray, I’ll measure your compassion by the cross and your power by the resurrection.”


Pray that God would help you view the world through the lens of the gospel. Seeing the compassion and power of God revealed in the gospel produces bold, audacious faith in our hearts.



Focus on What Jesus has Done For You

Things like radical generosity and audacious faith are not produced when we focus on them, but when we focus on the gospel. Focusing on what we ought to do for God creates only frustration and exhaustion; focusing on what Jesus has done for us produces abundant fruit. Resting in what Jesus has done for us releases the revolutionary power of the gospel.



J.D. Greear is the pastor of the Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, NC. This article is adapted from his newly released book, Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary.

Three Things Jesus Prays For Us by Jonathan Parnell

Thomas Watson:

When a Christian is weak, and can hardly pray for himself, Jesus Christ is praying for him; and he pray for three things.

First, that the saints may be kept from sin (John 17:15). "I pray that thou shouldest keep them from evil." We live in the world as in a pest-house; Christ prays that his saints may not be infected with the contagious evil of the times.

Second, for his people's progress in holiness. "Sanctify them" (John 17:17). Let them have constant supplies of the Spirit, and be anointed with fresh oil.

Third, for their glorification: "Father, I will that those which thou hast given me, be with me where I am" (John 17:24). Christ is not content till the saints are in his arms. This prayer, which he made on earth, is the copy and pattern of his prayer in heaven. What a comfort is this; when Satan is tempting, Christ is praying! This works for good.

All Things for Good, 1663, (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 2008), 23, paragraphing mine.

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The Reflective Life by Jack Deere

(This article was copied from Jack Deere's blog on the Wellspring Church website.)

Socrates said that the unexamined life is not worth living (Apology 38a). The unexamined life will also get us in trouble. About 120 years earlier, one of the Hebrew prophets said the same thing. Haggai said, “Give careful thought to yours ways” (1:5, 7). It’s rare to find anyone who pays attention to Socrates or Haggai. When is the last time you gave careful thought to your ways? When is the last time you gave careful thought to the ways of God? How do you do that? I’ll tell you how I do it. I keep three journals: a prayer list, daily events, and daily meditation.


1.Prayer List

1.There are three sources for regular conversations with God: whatever is on my heart, the prayers of Scripture, and my own personal list. God frequently speaks to us while we’re praying.

2.My current list:

1.i. Thanks/praise
2.ii. Confession
3.iii. Family
4.iv. Dreams

1.Give us the right interpretation.
2.Warning dreams: don’t let these happen
3.Good dreams: let these happen
5.v. Extended family
6.vi. Immediate needs
7.vii. Wellspring and our services
8.viii. Congregation
9.ix. Questions for the Lord
10.x. Upcoming conferences
11.xi. Friends who don’t go to Wellspring
12.xii. Enemies
13.xiii. My disciples
14.xiv. My men’s group
15.xv. VIP group (people I know that don’t yet know the Lord)
16.xvi. Record answers with date and “thank you” in red.

3.Problems with a list:

1.i. Can limit us.

2.ii. Can burden us. When my list gets too big, I file it and start over with a smaller one.

3.iii. Can get mechanical.

2.Journal of daily events.

1.The disciples took notes:

1.i. Luke 1:1-4

2.ii. Rev. 1:19

3.iii. Luke 2:19, 51, “But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”

4.iv. We take notes because we treasure what the Lord does and what He gives us.

2.What not to write

1.i. Don’t record all the details of the day.

2.ii. Don’t give our journals the authority of the Bible.


3.What to write

1.i. I start by recording my wake up time, my weight, and whether I worked out and/or did cardio. If I’m recording it means I am paying attention to my life and trying to move forward. When I don’t record, I’m just going with the flow, trying to survive.

2.ii. Anything that stands out or is meaningful to me.

3.iii. Anything that I think God may be showing me that day.

4.iv. Some days I may only record two lines. I don’t let writing in my journal become a burden. It is simply a tool to help me reflect on my life.

5.v. I write honestly with no intention of showing my journal to anyone. It is password protected.

3.Journal of meditation on the ways and works of God that are illumined to us in Scripture. NB. This journal sometimes overlaps with my journal of daily events. You may only want to keep one journal for both.

1.Writing causes us to read expectantly not passively.

2.An example from my meditation: 8/16/10 (Phil. 3:7-11). Paul lost “all things” for the sake of Christ. In order to “gain Christ,” that is, to move to the next level of friendship, you always have to lose something, to give up something that has been holding you back. You have to risk something for nothing more than a closer relationship to Jesus. If you risk the loss for anything other than this your motive is ulterior and you lose. “not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ”—real righteousness begins in the heart with faith, not with the external performance. By faith in Christ, Mary sat at Jesus’ feet and did nothing other than listen to Him. Righteousness is first established in the heart through faith and then it is manifested in external behavior. Paul quotes Ps. 116:10 in 2 Cor. 4:13 to this effect, “I believed, therefore I spoke” (Study the contexts of these two texts, both are about suffering and death). Jesus was rewarded for heart attitudes in Heb. 1:8-9. Faith increases by feeding the heart Scripture, which God illuminates so that we can interpret our experience by Scripture. Our experience increases our faith when we understand our experience by the light of illuminated Scripture. Sometimes God interprets our experience by speaking to us directly from heaven, but mostly it is spoken to us when God illuminates His written word. God has locked the explanation of our individual lives, the interpretation of our experience, in the Bible. “These things happened as examples to us.” Or “how shall a young man cleanse his way.” Or “it is the glory of God to conceal a matter and the glory of kings to search it out.” On another note, what happens to leaders is used by God to produce life in their followers (2 Cor. 4:12). This is why Paul is always telling his story, talking about his struggles. Whatever is going on in his life is meant to strengthen the faith of others.

Prayer In The Mist of The Storm- Stowe Missal

O God, make speed to save us.

We have sinned, O Lord, we have sinned, spare our sins,

And save us; Thou who guidedst Noah over the flood waves,

Hear us; Who with Thy word recalledst Jonah from the abyss;

Deliver us; Who stretchedst forth Thy hand to Peter as he sank, help us,

O Christ Son of God, Thou didst the marvelous things of the Lord with our fathers, be favourable in our days also;

Stretch forth Thy hand from on high.

Deliver us, O Christ.

Hear us, O Christ."

-Stowe Missal, 9th Century A.D.

Seven Kinds of Prayer to Soak our Bible Reading by John Piper

But since our text is Psalm 119:18, "Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from Your law," we should let this psalmist show us how he prays more generally about his reading of the Word of God. So let me close with a little tour of Psalm 119, and show you seven kinds of prayer with which you can soak your Bible reading this year.

We should pray . . .

1. That God would teach us his Word. Psalm 119:12b, "Teach me Your statutes." (See also verses 33, 64b, 66, 68b, 135). True learning of God's Word is only possible if God himself becomes the teacher in and through all other means of teaching.

2. That God would not hide his Word from us. Psalm 119:19b, "Do not hide Your commandments from me." The Bible warns of the dreadful chastisement or judgment of the Word of God being taken from us (Amos 8:11). (See also verse 43).

3. That God would make us understand his Word. Psalm 119:27, "Make me understand the way of Your precepts" (verses 34, 73b, 144b, 169). Here we ask God to cause us to understand - to do whatever he needs to do to get us to understand his Word.

4. That God would incline our hearts to his Word. Psalm 119:36, "Incline my heart to Your testimonies and not to [dishonest] gain." The great problem with us is not primarily our reason, but our will - we are disinclined by nature to read and meditate and memorize the Word. So we must pray for God to incline our wills.

5. That God would give us life to keep his Word. Psalm 119:88, "Revive me according to Your lovingkindness, so that I may keep the testimony of Your mouth." He is aware that we need life and energy to give ourselves to the Word and its obedience. So he asks God for this basic need. (See also verse 154b)

6. That God would establish our steps in his Word. Psalm 119:133, "Establish my footsteps in Your word." We are dependent on the Lord not only for understanding and life, but for the performance of the Word. That it would be established in our lives. We cannot do this on our own.

7. That God would seek us when we go astray from his Word. Psalm 119:176, "I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Your servant." It is remarkable that this godly man ends his psalm with a confession of sin and the need for God to come after him and bring him back. This too we must pray again and again.