Praying in Accordance with God's Will

The quotation by Thomas Murphy in today's reading from GPTG pg. 157 really struck me. His reasoning resonates with me and helps me understand more clearly the relationship between the Word of God and our prayers. Here is his quotation:

"The prayer of the sanctuary should be thoroughly saturated with scriptural thought and expression. The language of the Bible is that which the Spirit prompted, and which must therefore be most in accordance with the mind of God. For the same reason it must be Bible language which is best calculated to express those devotional feelings which are the work of the Spirit in the heart."

In addition to guiding the believer to express the correct feelings (affections) toward God, the Bible helps us to know how to pray for God's will. How can our prayers be filled with "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven" if we do not look to his word to seek that for which we should be praying? As the writer of this section points out, we may pray something that we know to be God's will, but there is an added comfort in couching that prayer in the language of the Scriptures.

I attend a church whose pastor purposefully fills his pastoral prayers with Scripture as he seeks to pray according to God's will and to edify his flock. I have been immeasurably blessed by it. I hope this reading will give us all a desire to know God's Word in a way that will allow us to pray it back to him, both in public and private prayers.