To Plead God’s Promises in Prayer is a suggestion found in Chapter 12 (Prayerful Praying Today) of Joel Beeke’s and Brian Najapfour’s book “Taking Hold of God.” The book is mentioned in our article Matthew Henry on the Method of Prayer.
On pages 236-237 of “Taking Hold of God” the authors write:
In His sovereignty, God has bound Himself by the promises He has made to us. Augustine said his mother prayed long for his conversion, pleading God’s promises. She “urged upon Thee, as Thine own handwriting,” for God in His covenant mercy chose “to become a debtor by Thy promises.” Psalm 119:25 says, “My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word.” Thomas Manton (1620-1677), alluding to Augustine wrote, “One good way to get comfort is to plead the promise of God in prayer… Show him his handwriting; God is tender of his word.” (Emphasis mine)
John Trapp (1601-1699) wrote:
“Promises must be prayed over. God loves to be burdened with, and to be importuned [urgently pressed with requests] in, his own words; to be sued upon his own bond. Prayer is a putting God’s promises into suit. And it is no arrogancy nor presumption, to burden God, as it were, with his promise… Such prayers will be nigh the Lord day and night (1 Kings 8:59), he can as little deny them, as deny himself.”
William Gurnall (1616-1679) wrote:
“Prayer is nothing but the promise reversed, or God’s Word formed into an argument, and retorted by faith upon God again… Furnish thyself with arguments from the promises to enforce thy prayers, and to make them prevalent with God. The promises are the ground of faith, and faith, when strengthened, will make thee fervent, and such fervency ever speeds and returns with victory out of the field of prayer… The mightier any is in the Word, the more mighty he will be in prayer.”
You can find some samples of God’s promises in the Bible in Colin Smith’s article Turn God’s Promises into Prayer. See also this article from Bible Study Tools.
In that day you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you. Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full. John 16:23-24
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