February 14th, 2018 - Praying God's Word

February 14th, 2018 - Thoughts for your Week

Scripture: Hebrews 4:12

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

Praying God’s Word

Do you ever feel like you want to pray, that you know deep down that prayer is so good for your soul, but you struggle to follow through and do it, because you often pray the same things and you’re afraid it’s going to be boring? If we’re honest, most of us struggle with prayer time. We tend to pray the same things over and over again. The problem isn’t that we pray for the same things – because let’s face it, we’re going to be continually praying for our family, future, finances, our work, etc. – it’s how we’re praying them.

Joni Eareckson Tada says; “I have learned to season my prayers with the word of God. It’s a way of talking to God in His language – speaking His dialect. When we bring God’s word directly into our praying, we are bringing God’s power into our praying.”

When we pray of our own accord, we will often use the same words. But what if we instead used a Psalm to pray our prayers? I’ve begun doing this and it’s amazing how different my prayer time is now. I am praying for the same things, but my prayers are totally different each time. And they feel different too. There’s more power to them, more healing in my own heart, and a greater understanding of God and what He wants me to pray.

 “If I try to pray for people or events without having the Word in front of me guiding my prayers, then several negative things happen. One is that I tend to be very repetitive…I just pray the same things all the time. Secondly, my mind tends to wander.”

-       John Piper

^“And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of Him.”

-       1 John 5: 14-15

“For thirty centuries, God’s people have found in the Psalms an answer to the disciples’ plea; “Lord, teach us to pray.”

-       Ken Langley

Tonight, instead of our Lecto Divina scripture prayer, I encourage you to pray through a Psalm. I’ve selected a Psalm to pray but feel free to choose your own. After you’re finished, take a few moments to ponder how your prayer time has changed.

We have a whole bible full of scripture we can be praying through. Let’s challenge ourselves to memorize more of God’s word so that we can infuse it into our prayers with and for one another. Like Isaiah 55: 11 says; “So is my word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to me empty but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it out.”

“By praying the Psalms back to God, we learn to pray in tune with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

-       Ben Patterson”