Praying Scripture

The way a person prays reveals a great deal about their knowledge of God and Scripture.  Since God’s Word is His will for His people, praying God’s Word is asking God that His will would be accomplished.  Jesus Christ gave his disciples an example of how to pray in Matthew 6:9-13 when He preached His Sermon on the Mount.  He said,  “This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread.  And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’”

If we truly understood Christ’s desires then we would pray what He wrote in Scripture.  An example of praying this Scripture could then be, “Lord, your name is great above all names.  No other names stand in comparison to yours!  I pray for your return and I long for your kingdom to be established on this earth.  I long for you to rule as King of all kings.  Help me to trust you in my daily needs.  May I not get ahead of you or worry about things I don’t currently have.  Help me to wait patiently upon You for the provision.  Please forgive me for taking your name in vain and coveting that vehicle that my neighbor owns.  Forgive me for fighting with my wife and not loving her like Christ loved the church.  Please guard my heart and keep Satan far from me!  I long to be obedient to You alone.”

If we don’t form the habit of praying the Scriptures, our prayers will almost certainly degenerate into vain repetitions that eventually revolve entirely around our immediate private concerns such as health or money issues versus God’s larger priorities.  The early church prayed Scripture in Acts 4:24-26 when they prayed from Psalm 2.  They prayed back to God the very words that God had given them.  Many parts of Scripture are prayers—especially the Psalms.  So, simply to read these verses is to actually pray if we are thinking about what we are doing.  Scripture will model for us how to pray if we are spending time in Scripture.