Incline, Open, Unite and Satisfy

I was inspired this morning by a pattern of prayer John Piper offers: IOUS. He describes this in a recent article from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (the entire article is saturated with wonderful truth--it's a great summary of John Piper and Desiring God Ministries). Maybe you'll take a moment to pray with me:

Incline my heart to Your testimonies - Psalm 119:36
"I plead, 'Lord, don't let me not want to pick up the Bible.' "

Open the eyes of my heart to see wondrous things in the Word - Psalm 119:18
"Make Your truth glorious and beautiful and attractive and satisfying and delighting."

Unite my heart to fear Your Name - Psalm 86:11
"My heart is fragmented and going every which way...I'm worried about [fill in the blank]...So I ask God to get my heart together to have a reverential demeanor toward Him."

Satisfy me with Your lovingkindness - Psalm 90:14
"Make my heart so content in You that [fill in the blank] is not attractive... I want an attraction to You to dominate my life."

Piper also adds one more "S": Spread. He explains, "The mission statement of our church is, 'We exist to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.' "

One more quote I love is Piper's comment on 2 Chronicles 16:9:

"For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him" (2 Chronicles 16:9, ESV).

"I love to think of prayer as giving God an occasion to show off how broad His shoulders are."

(HT: Justin Taylor)