Resolved, very much to exercise myself in this all my life long, viz. with the greatest openness I am capable of, to declare my ways to God, and lay open my soul to him: all my sins, temptations, difficulties, sorrows, fears, hopes, desires, and every thing, and every circumstance; according to Dr. Manton’s 27th Sermon on Psalm 119. July 26 and Aug. 10, 1723. – Jonathan Edwards
This week, we are resolving to pray! The more I read this resolution of Johnathan Edwards, the deeper I appreciate it. He resolved to lay open his soul to God. In doing so, he intended to open up to the Lord all his “sins, temptations, difficulties, sorrows, fears, hopes, desires, and everything and every circumstance.” This begs the question, “why?” Why should we open up in all these ways to God?
This is a big question. Often when I don’t know where to start with a complex answer, I imagine that I am answering it for one of my children. If my daughter asked me this question, I would likely respond that it’s because God wants to have a relationship with us and cares for us so we can share everything with Him. I might also tell her that we can ask God for help when we are struggling. If we are struggling with a heart issue, I might encourage her to repent and ask God to help her make a good decision or change the desires of her heart to be more in line with His. One of the most important reasons to pray is to praise God and thank him for the gift of salvation. Yet, even all this is barely scraping the surface of what prayer is.
Prayer is complex because it’s not a formula; it’s a relationship.
I have never felt confident in my prayer life. I am not well spoken, I fumble my words, I get distracted, and I don’t know where to begin or end. Praying through Scripture has been the single best way to develop my prayer life. To have a relationship, you need to know someone, and the way we get to know God is through His Word. Scripture also gives us great examples of prayer!
A great place to start is with the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13. Here, God the Son teaches us how to pray. You can read through each line and then put it into your own words and make it personal.
Paul included his prayers in his epistles, and they are so rich with theology. Paul has helped show me what to pray on a more personal level. Paul’s love for God and His people resonates throughout his prayers. I would highly recommend reading Praying With Paul by D.A. Carson.
God put it on my heart this year to read and pray through the Psalms. I had no idea how much it would impact me! If you have any sort of suffering in your life, David in the Psalms can relate to you. I think David is a perfect example of what Edwards was aiming for in his prayer life. All in a single Psalm you can hear David wrestling through his circumstances, processing them with God, crying out for help, and praising the Lord. David opened his soul to God, and God changed his heart to a heart of praise. Let’s take a look at Psalm 13:
1 How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I take counsel in my soul
and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
3 Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;
light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
4 lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”
lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
6 I will sing to the Lord,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.
David’s lament turns to praise in this short prayer. Likewise, in Psalm 31, (I encourage you to open it in a separate tab. It’s longer and so worth a read.), David begins by interchanging truths like “In you, O Lord, do I take refuge,” and “you are my rock and my fortress” while also crying out to the Lord. In verse 9, he cries, “Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted from grief; my soul and my body also. For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away.” He goes on to say, “I have been forgotten like one who is dead; I have become like a broken vessel.” He paints such a vivid picture of his suffering that you can easily sympathize with him. He is giving all his pain up to God and being honest in sharing with Him how he feels forgotten and broken.
But then, in verse 14, you see the work of God through prayer happen! David says, “But I trust in you, O Lord.” For the next ten verses, he praises God. He says, “Blessed be the Lord, for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me when I was in a besieged city.” Before God even answers David’s prayers to take away his suffering, He reminds him of His faithfulness and steadfast love and gives him an even greater gift by changing his heart. To remove suffering would be a temporary gift, but this gift is eternal. This is the heart work God can do when we open our soul to him in prayer. He can change our cry, our sorrow, our fear, our worry, our pain into praise! He draws us near and reminds us of his love that saves us for all eternity. The hope of that love, the same love that led Jesus to the cross to die for our sin, can help us endure the suffering of this world.
God is doing a lot of heart work on me through the Psalms. Would you join me and see how He might move your heart to praise?
— Chelsea Nelson © March 2026