Building On The RockSample

Praying the Scriptures

Prayer is one of the most personal and most sacred things we do. Many Christians have strong opinions about prayer—whether we should spend a substantial time in prayer each day or whether we should focus on a continuing “conversation with God” throughout the day; whether we should always start with praise or confession; whether we should use a prayer list; or whether we should use written prayers or just pray spontaneously. 

A written prayer is one of the things Jesus gives us in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:9-13), and this prayer is used in various ways in churches today. Some see it as a prayer to be recited word for word, and to many it is deeply meaningful when they use it in that way. Others see it as a general model that indicates the kind of things we should include in our prayers; they tend to believe prayer should not be bound by written words but should be spontaneous cries of the heart. C. S. Lewis takes a middle position when he uses this particular prayer and embellishes it—Lewis calls it “festooning.” 

We could embellish this prayer something like this. We could take the words, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name,” and pray like this, “Father in heaven, even though You are Lord over all, thank You for being a loving heavenly Father. You are sovereign, and I bow before Your throne of grace and own You as Lord. I pray that I may always honor the holiness of Your name by living with love and integrity.” We could take the words, “Give us today our daily bread,” and pray, “Lord, thank You for my regular wage, but You know my need for this car repair, and I ask You to provide for it now, depending on Your gracious supply.” By going through the prayer like this line by line, we could take great advantage of our Lord’s model prayer.

Other people have suggested praying other Scriptures in a similar way. Take, for example, these words from Philippians 2:14, “Do all things without grumbling or disputing, . . .” We could pray these words like this: “Father, You know the difficult job I have to face today. Please help me to tackle it in Your strength without grumbling or arguing, even if I am tempted to have grumbling thoughts that I don’t express to others. And, Lord, be with Joe as he has difficult people to work with. Help him to shine like a light in that world.”

These biblical passages can become guides for our prayers. They are God-approved patterns, expressing His will in different circumstances. And surely God can guide us as we attempt to apply these biblical truths to our own lives and to those we care about. He can lead us to Scripture passages that will meet the need.

Prayer: Father, please guide me as I pray and especially as I try to pray biblically. Lead me to those passages that express the truths I need, and give me confidence that I am praying according to Your will expressed in Your Word. Thank you for the rich store of grace in Your Word.