A Thousand Episodes of Pray the Word (Psalm 119:147)

Psalm 119:147 and celebrating a thousand episodes of Pray the Word.

Today is a really special day, and I’m going to take just a break today from praying specifically for a need that someone has sent in light of this pandemic. The reason I want to pause today is because this is actually our 1000th episode of Pray the Word. So we started this podcast on August 11th, 2017 with the hope, the aim of encouraging people to pray based on God’s word. John 15:7 tells us, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given to you.” We know that when we pray according to God’s word, when God’s word fuels our praying, that God answers, that God is pleased with that kind of praying and God answers those prayers.

The Pray the Word Podcast

And so we started this podcast just with hopefully a daily encouragement. And I don’t think I realized all that goes into a daily podcast like it happens every single day, but I’m thinking back today to 1000 episodes. Like they tell me over five million downloads, among tens of thousands of listeners as we’ve walked through good portions of the Bible from the Old Testament and the New Testament, and now praying God’s word specifically for needs amidst this pandemic.

I’m just so thankful for God’s word and for the privilege of prayer. I’m really overwhelmed right now, I hope this podcast is encouraging you and your prayer life. Not just in these few minutes that we spend together praying, which is even, that’s an awesome thought that we get to pray like this together, that as I say these words and as you download and listen to this and lift your heart before God, just that thousands of people are praying his word in this way. Similarly, crying out to him, it’s pretty awesome.

But I hope it’s encouraging you far beyond these few minutes to dive into God’s word, and let his word drive you into intimacy with him through prayer. So it’s more than appropriate that we would be in Psalm 119 as we come to this 1000th episode. So I want to read one of my favorite verses, Psalm 119:147 and it’s part of the Bible reading for today.

“I rise before dawn and cry for help. I hope in your words.”
-Psalm 119:147

God, that that is my prayer. I trust that’s our prayer together. That we need help from the moment we wake up. We need your grace, even as we’ve prayed in recent days. Your mercy to live, to breathe. We need your help in every way in our lives, for physical sustenance, all the more so.

We need it all the time, but we feel that need all the more so in the middle of a pandemic where we so sensitive to a spreading virus. God, we cry for your help in the middle of a pandemic. We cry for your help in so many different ways in each of our lives, as singles, as husbands, as wives, as parents, as kids, teenagers, students. We all need your help in so many ways. And we say Psalm 119:147,”As we rise before dawn and cry for help,” our hope is in your words. God, our hope is in your word. We praise you for your word. What a gift, oh God. Thank you for your word. Thank you for revealing who you are.

Today we celebrate the privilege of praying God’s Word together for a thousand episodes. “I rise before dawn and cry for help; I hope in your words.”

Thank you for your promises to us. Thank you for telling us what your purposes are in the world so that when things are so dark around us, we have a rock to stand on. When the storms are coming, we know your word is a foundation that will never ever fail us. We praise you for your word. We praise you for your salvation revealed in your word God.

Thank you for revealing Jesus from cover to cover in the Bible, pointing us to your son, his supremacy overall, his salvation of our souls. God, thank you for saving us by your word. Thank you for saving us from judgment and eternal hell. To know you, to be in relationship with you for all of eternity in heaven. God, that’s only through your word. We praise you for the lamp it is to our feet every day that lighted us to our path every single day.

Psalm 119:147 Demonstrates a Reliance On God

We praise you for your word and we praise you for the privilege of communion with you around it. God, I just pray this over every single person listening right now. God, I know we try to keep this podcast relatively short and today’s going longer, but I’m just compelled to pray. Oh God, for every single person listening right now, that you would draw them in the days to come, the weeks to come, in the months to come over this next year, that you would draw them into deeper intimacy with you through your word than they have ever experienced before.

Not just knowledge of your word. Yes, I pray for that, but God, intimacy with you through your word, relationship with you. Whereas you speak, we respond, we pray according to your word, and we experience your purposes and your power and your presence and your promises. All of these things through your word God.

Prayer For Greater Intimacy with God and His Word

I just pray that over everybody listening right now, God just try to picture their faces. Obviously, tons of them. I don’t know almost all of them I don’t know personally, but God you do. You know them and so I just asked you to hear my prayer right now and our prayers in this sense for each other right now, God, that you would help us all to grow in intimacy with you through your word, that we would find in your word, our hope on a daily basis, our joy on a daily basis, our life.

Your words give us life. So we rise before dawn, day after day after day. Even as we do that together on this podcast and we pray together, we say together, our hope is in your words. God, we love you. We love your word. We love the privilege of prayer. And we praise you for hearing our prayers and we pray that you would answer. We pray that you would continue to answer our prayers according to your word. In Jesus’ name, we pray your word. Amen.