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These prayer teach us that our prayers can be offered with boldness because we trust in God’s power, and that we can do so in the midst of an uncertain and even scary future. The first is a blessing, the second is a praise. The first two prayers come in the context of Moses speaking to the people as they prepare to enter the Promised Land (1.11 3.24–25). It may be that we tend to focus first on ourselves and how we relate to God biblical characters tend to focus first on God and how He relates to us. However, it may serve as a warning about our focus: our primary mode of prayer is petition and intercession, while the primary modes of prayer in the Bible are praise, thanksgiving, and blessing. There is nothing wrong with this, of course: it is found and encouraged throughout the Bible. When we suffer, when we see others suffer, we pray for help. We have previously observed that, at least in modern times, our prayers tend to be heavy on asking and begging, and light on praise and blessing. There are three blessings (one of which is actually made up of twelve blessings), an intercession, a praise, and a thanksgiving. Yet surprisingly, Deuteronomy contains only one intercession and no petitions.
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In such a book, we might expect a lot of prayers of intercession and petition. It is not all negative, some of the ways God protected them is also included: but most of it stands as a warning to the people who will now enter Canaan and will have to engage in war. In his speech, he recounts what has has happened in the decades of traveling about the desert: struggles, suffering, wars, betrayal. At the beginning of the book, Moses stands before a new generation of Israelites who will finally enter the Promised Land. There are six prayer passages in the book of Deuteronomy.