How to Pray the Scriptures
Praying the Scriptures means using God’s Word as the framework for our prayers. It is a powerful way for believers to not only know God’s Word but to access the power of prayer and live God’s Word. In today’s video, I’m giving 3 easy steps to pray God's Word. Enjoy!
One of the ways that I shared how we could pray when we don't know what to say is to pray the scriptures. What that means is using the foundational truths of God's Word to structure our prayers. In today’s video, I’m going to provide a more step-by-step process on how to pray the scriptures.
In order to pray the scriptures, the first step that you need to do is to choose the verse or passage of scripture you are going to pray. You might pick a scripture that relates to the current circumstances or you may choose a scripture from a Bible reading plan you are currently working through.
One thing that you can do to find a scripture or decide what passage you want to pray over your life is to do a word search in the YouVersion Bible app or any kind of Bible-based software where you can search a particular term or word, and it will pull up all the verses related to that particular topic. Some Bibles have indexes in the back where you can find scriptures related to a particular word or topic as well. We also have a “Topical Scripture Index” in the back of each LIFE Bible journal to help you find a scripture to pray or study. The Holy Spirit may also place a certain scripture on your heart to pray, so ask God to lead you in the process of finding a scripture to pray.
Once you find the scripture to pray, you then want to read and study the scripture to give you one of three ways to pray the Word. From the scripture, you will find the principle, promise, or command that the verse holds. I want to go over how to use each one of these to guide your prayers.
1. Praying God’s Promises
A promise is a declaration that God will do something. It is not conditional. It's simply a statement about God or his character based on who He always is. When we pray the promises of God, we are praying to believe His promises. We're asking God to renew our minds so that we can trust that what He's saying in his Word, and the promises that He is giving us are real.
This is important because our beliefs reflect our actions. If we don’t believe the promises of God, we're not going to act like they exist.
We're not going to act like God's always going to be with us or faithful to keep His promises. Then we're not going to have that Godly boldness and confidence that comes from truly standing on the Word of God like it is true.
So our prayer is: Lord, here is Your promise in Your word. Help me to believe it. Transform my mind to believe it if I'm not already.
God gives us His promises for the purpose of us to stand on so that we can act accordingly.
2 Timothy 2:13 reminds us of the beauty of God's promises. It says:
“If we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.” (2 Timothy 2:13 ESV)
Many times, we mistakenly choose not to believe the promises of God because we compare God to man. We think, “well, I wouldn't do that” or “I couldn't imagine forgiving someone for that.” But God is not like us. If He says that He will do it, and if we struggle to believe, we can pray about that as well and God is faithful to help our unbelief.
2. Praying God’s Principles
Now let’s say the scripture you want to pray holds a principle to live by. A principle is a foundational truth that is conditional. It's a statement that says, if you do this, then this will result. When the scripture we want to use to guide our prayer holds a principle, our prayer should be to live according to that principle so that we may experience the fruits of living in line with God's truth.
So for example, if we're looking at Psalm 37:4, where the Bible tells us when we delight in God, then He gives us the desires of our heart, our prayer might sound like this: Lord, please help me to delight myself in You so that I may receive the desires of my heart.
Praying God’s principles found in scripture are about being in alignment with Him and His will.
3. Praying God’s Commands
As you read the verse or passage that you want to pray over your life, you want to see if it holds a command. A command is an authoritative directive or order from God. It's simply God telling us how He wants us to live our lives. When it comes to praying commands, we need to pray for power to fight our flesh so that we may obey the command. Jesus tells us that “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41) so we need to be praying for God's power to truly show up in our lives so that we can live out these commands.
Still, we don't want to become discouraged in our weakness because when we pray, we're unlocking God's strength in our lives so that His power can be great in us. I love 2 Corinthians 12:9 that says:
“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (2 Corinthians 12:9 ESV)
Even when we fall short of living up to God’s commands, we know that we can lean on the power of prayer to invite God's strength into our weakness. That is what He is in the business of doing.
In short, as you reflect on the scripture that you've decided to pray, you want to pray for help to believe the promises, wisdom to live by the principles and power to follow the commands.
What you want to do when it comes to praying the scriptures is to commit to knowing God's Word through Bible reading, studying and continual prayer. If we don't know God's Word, we can’t pray His word.
As we’ve learned today, God’s Word provides the words we need to pray powerful and life-changing prayers.
Now I’d love to hear from you. What scripture do you find yourself praying often? Let’s encourage one another in the comments.
Before you go, I want to invite you to download my free 5-day prayer guide so you can put into practice what we’ve learned today about prayer and see how just like breathing, prayer can become a natural life-giving part of your everyday life. Simply click the free resources link in the description of this video.
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Thank you so much for watching today and until next time, be beautiful, be blessed, and beloved.
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