How Should I Pray?Sample

Praying the Scriptures

To pray, to grow in prayer, one of the best things we can do is pray the Scriptures. We can, of course, pray the Lord’s Prayer—the model that Jesus Himself gave us, but we can also pray using other verses from the Bible. Doing this helps to break us out of patterns in prayer that we can all fall into, and keeps us from just saying the same things again and again. When I pray through a passage of Scripture, it enlarges my perspective. I can be assured that what I am praying for is the will of God because I am praying His word back to Him. 

How do you pray the Scriptures? Select a chapter of Scripture. Take each verse, one at a time, and ask yourself what it is teaching you. Then, determine how to translate that into a prayer, how to relay it as a prayer request. 

Part of Psalm 19 discusses the Word of God. Verse 7 begins: “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.” You can pray, “Father, I thank you that I know that Your every word is tested and is pure. I thank You that in Your Word, You give me what I need to encourage me in every storm and revive me. Let Your Word have that effect in my life today.” Psalm 19:7 continues, “The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.” Based upon these words, you can pray, “Lord, I need wisdom. I need wisdom for all of my decisions. I need wisdom for my family. I know that Your Word is wisdom. It is the ground upon which I can walk and be safe. Lord, help me to live my life out of Your Word today.” You can continue praying in a similar way all the way through the rest of the psalm. 

Time and time again, you can just take a statement from Scripture and turn it into a prayer. Paul wrote, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Colossians 3:16). Praying through the Scriptures is a way to obey God and grow in knowledge of Him and His word.

This devotional was based on an episode of the Straight Truth Podcast. Consider subscribing to the Straight Truth Podcast YouTube Channel. We release new episodes every Thursday.