Praying God's Word

Since God is God and not our peer, and since God has spoken (i.e., revealed himself and his purposes in human language through his holy, inspired Word, the Bible), it would follow that we’d want to pray to God about the matters HE has already brought up. How foolish it would be for us to sit down in God’s presence and talk (i.e., pray), prattling on and on about our agenda and disregarding his (i.e., the Bible). This was my point last Sunday: we ought to prioritize “praying the Word,” taking what God says and turning it around in the form of prayers to him. We can do this in various ways. Let me mention two:

First, by echoing prayers recorded in the Bible. Jesus gave “The Lord’s Prayer” (Matt 6:9-13) as a model, but there are hundreds of other biblical examples too. Psalms consists mostly of prayers (praise, thanks, confes­sion, lament, longing…). Let these heart-cries become your own as you read and reflect on them. A few other biblical prayers are: Gen 32:9-12; Josh 7:6-9; 2 Sam 7:18-29; 1 Kgs 8:22-61; 1 Chr 17:16-27; 29:10-19; 2 Chr 20:5-12 (desperation); Ezra 9:6-15; Neh 1:4-11; 9:6-38; Job 42:1-6; Ps 51 (confession); Ps 67 (mission praise); Isa 37:16-20; Jer 32:16-25; Dan 9:3-19; John 17; Acts 4:24-31 (a knock-out praise); Eph 1:15-23; 3:14-21 (a lofty vision!). If you pray these texts, watch out!

Second, by turning every kind of Bible passage into prayer. Take promises for example: thank God for what’s promised; confess past failures to trust the promise; ask for help to rest in what’s promised. Or commands: confess failure to obey; plead for power to obey; ask for discernment how to obey (e.g., when to love your neighbor by saying yes and when by saying no). Or warnings: ask God to humble our hearts so we’d gladly heed his warnings (rather than being resistant); thank God for guarding us against some danger by giving the warning. Or stories: ask for wisdom to identify the main thrust of the story; then pray for power to obey what’s taught; give praise to our Great God for how he acts in the various biblical narratives (e.g., his prison rescues in Acts 5, 12, and 16!). Whatever the genre, let it catapult you to God in praise, confession, thanks, and petitions in related to his message!

What happens when we “pray the Word”? The Lord lifts us up from the earth-bound bog of anxieties and self-groveling, setting our sights on the majestic peak of his glory. Our prayers are enlarged, our faith is built up, our fellowship is enriched, and our hearts are moved with awe at God!

.