Praying Scripture
Praying Scripture
In the early centuries of the church, believers were taught to pray the Scriptures. Since the Bible is divinely inspired, they believed that praying Scripture deeply connected them to the mind and heart of God. Furthermore, as Scripture was repeatedly prayed, it became memorized. This was a wonderful benefit for those who were illiterate. It also meant that memorized Scripture could lead them to pray at any hour of the day or night.
Praying Scripture is a way of entering deeply into the text with a heart alert to a unique and personal word from God. Words and verses that catch our attention become invitations to be with God in prayer. When our prayers seem to be more about maintaining control and offering God our agenda for his stamp of approval, praying Scripture can return us to a simpler state of openness and attentiveness to God. We lay aside our own agendas and open ourselves to the prayers given to us in the Bible.
The book of Psalms is a wonderfully human prayer book. It doesn’t clean up the mess of life before prayer. It brings the totality of life to God. Here we find prayers that voice our needs, fears, joys, sorrows, anger, loneliness, dryness and joy. The Psalms invite us to be authentic and honest and come to God as we are. The Bible also contains wonderful prayers by people like Jesus, Paul, Daniel, Mary, Moses and Hannah. Their prayers can provide a framework for intercession for peoples and nations. When we are at a loss for words and have no prayers in our heart, the prayers of Scripture are ready to guide us to God. They can provide the help and structure that keeps us on the path through a difficult season. (See also “Devotional Reading,” “Liturgical Prayer,” “Intercessory Prayer.”)
Reflection Questions
- Do you let God set the agenda in your praying? Explain.
- What prayers of the Bible have helped you in the past?
- How might praying Scripture for yourself or a loved one lift the burden from your shoulders and place it squarely on God’s?
Spiritual Exercises
- Use the Lord’s Prayer as a framework for your prayer. (See exercise 1 in “Intercessory Prayer” for a detailed description.)
- Become quiet and breathe in God’s love. Breathe out your self-doubts and self-recriminations. • Turn to Psalm 139. Slowly read the psalm aloud, pausing after each verse. Substitute your own name for the pronouns me and I. For instance, insert your name in the blanks:
For you created _________’s inmost being; you knit _________ together in _________’s mother’s womb. _________ praises you because _________ is fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, _________ knows that full well. (Psalm 139:13-14)
Do not hurry. There is no need to get through the entire psalm at once. • Respond to God’s nurturing knowing.
- When you are convicted of your own sinfulness, turn to Psalm 51 or Psalm 32. Offer yourself to God in repentance. Read the psalm one verse at a time. Stop after each verse and talk to God about what you have read. For instance: “When I kept silent, /my bones wasted away/through my groaning all day long” (Psalm 32:3). Consider where you are hiding from God and others. What secret are you afraid to face or share with God and perhaps others? How is your denial or rationalization of some sin eating away at your peace of mind? • Talk with God about this verse and move to the next verse. Continue throughout the chapter.
Let the words of the psalmist comfort and sustain you. David and the other psalm writers struggled like you. They all sinned like you. And yet in God’s economy David was a hero of the faith. Tell God what it means to you that the heroes of faith struggled just as you do.
- When you are filled with concern for the church, place yourself in the presence of God and pray one of Paul’s prayers for the church: Ephesians 1:15-21 or Philippians 1:3-6, 9. Or turn to Jesus’ prayer for the church in John 17. Slowly read the passage. Listen for the prayer God places in your heart for the church. Take that prayer with you.
- Sing God’s Word. When a song comes into your mind, receive it as a word of God to you. Listen to the song. What is God saying to you? What do you want to say to him?
- Is there a story in Scripture that reminds you of your life or a situation in your life? Go to that story and begin to meditate on it. What is God saying to you? • How might the life of a biblical character help shape your prayers?
- Is there a prayer in Scripture you can make your own as a love song to God? Memorize it and say it often to the Lord.
- If you find it hard to pray for someone you love (or even hate), ask God to give you a prayer for him or her from his Word. Don’t stray from that prayer until you are prompted by the Holy Spirit to do so.
Resources on Praying Scripture
Praying the Parables by Joyce Huggett
A Call to Spiritual Reformation by D. A. Carson
“The point is that we should make a gift of our hearts, emptying them of ourselves that they may be filled with God. Our Almighty Father becomes one with us and transforms us, uniting Creator and creature. How desirable is this union!” —Teresa of Ávila
Prayer of Recollection
DESIRE | to rest in God, allowing him to calm and heal my fragmented and distracted self |
DEFINITION | The prayer of recollection represents a specifically “restful attitude” of connecting with the reality that God is in me. As we let go of distractions, this prayer recalls the soul to its true center and identity in Christ. |
SCRIPTURE | “But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.” (Psalm 131:2) “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) “Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you.” (Psalm 116:7) “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:16-19) |
PRACTICE INCLUDES |
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GOD-GIVEN FRUIT |
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