Praying Through Scripture

Lord, you have brought light to my life; my God, you light up my darkness… Revive us so we can call on your name once more... The old way ends in death; in the new way, the Holy Spirit gives life. - Ps. 18:28; 80:18; 2 Co. 3:6

Prayer and the Word of God go hand in hand. You cannot say that you understand doctrine unless it leads you to your knees. Your prayers will not be powerful and effective until you are praying the word of God. 1 John 5:14 tells us “And we can be confident that He will listen to us whenever we ask Him for anything in line with His will.” How will you know what is in His will if you are not listening to Him speak through His Word? It’s good to pray using His Word so that you know for a fact that you are in line with His will!

I’m not saying that you should simply recite the Lord’s Prayer over and over. That’s too close to the prohibition against vain repetition that He gave us in Matthew 6:7 “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered only by repeating their words again and again. Don’t be like them, because your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!”

Instead, take a passage of scripture (start easy and find a prayer in the Bible) and study it carefully. Use it as a model for your prayer. Does the person ask for forgiveness? Take their words for your own and ask too. Do they ask God to search their heart and motivations in order to let them know if they are unknowingly sinning against Him? Why not ask Him the same thing? Adopt their prayer for yourself.

Then, once you become more adept at this “praying through Scripture”, start looking at passages that are not quotes or discussions of prayers. The passages above show some things that we are encouraged to ask for: enlightenment, revival, understanding of the spirit of the Word. Take a passage where a person is talking to God, but not necessarily in the traditional form of a prayer. For example, look at Moses in Numbers 11. In this passage, Moses is complaining about the difficulty of his leadership position. He’s whining! But notice that God doesn’t rebuke him for it. He sends Moses an answer, a solution to his difficulties.

Are you in a position of leadership? Maybe it’s just over your own children. Maybe you are experiencing difficulty with your spouse. Go ahead. Whine a little. Tell God about your troubles and see what happens. Maybe He’ll tell you to get off your knees and go do something about it (Josh. 7:10-13). Or, maybe He’ll send you the solution. Either way, you’ll be better off for having prayed through the Word.