“Praying the Bible helps our prayer lives because it brings an entirely new focus to what we are praying.” — Wesley and Stacey Campbell
You will be pleasantly surprised when you discover how God will speak to you once you can manage to sit down and read your Bible! Does that sound boring to you? If you will try it for a few days, you will find new life enter your heart as you do this!
How do you do it?
God takes great delight when we simply read and then pray sentences from Scripture back to Him. He wants us to intentionally talk with Him in our hearts. As we learn to do this, we will be greatly encouraged to find the joy of conversing with Him. It is profoundly simple to do and will make such a difference in our prayer lives when we do.
The Bible gives us the conversation material for our prayer lives. As we read and then pray sentences from our Bibles back to God, prayer becomes much easier and more enjoyable than we learned in Sunday School! As we prayerfully speak the words on the page back to Him, those truths ignite our own hearts, cause us to ponder what we are speaking, and help us become free from those distractions which so often take up our prayer times!
Pray-reading Scripture unlocks communion with the Lord on a deep level. As we keep doing it, over time we will see change and transformation in our lives and especially in our prayer life.
It is told that when the famous missionary, David Livingstone, started travelling across Africa he had 73 of his most valued books with him, weighing 180 pounds. After his party had gone 300 miles, he decided to throw away some of his books because he was totally exhausted from carrying them. As he continued, his library grew smaller and smaller. By the end of his journey he had one book left, his most important one – his Bible! Having our Bibles and pray-reading God’s Word should be our most precious possession as well.
When we pray-read the Bible, the Holy Spirit teaches us things about God we would normally not notice. The Holy Spirit now prays through us and gives us new insights as we pray. But how can we do this in the most effective way?
“The Bible will teach you the language of God…”
How to Pray-Read the Word of God
“If you abide in Me, and My words abide (live) in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:7).
- Start with the Psalms – Start with a new Bible if possible and keep a pencil and ruler handy. As you slowly read verses, underline some of the words standing out to you. Then write a small prayer in the margin. Pause, pray that prayer and wait on the Lord for a few moments. Then continue in the same way. Do not be in a hurry.
- Pray the promises to believe – You can decide to search for a list of promises in the Bible to pray. Print them out and again with a pen and ruler, prayerfully read each one before the Lord.
- Pray the names of God – You may consider writing down a few names of God in the Bible with several Scripture references next to each one. Then, look them up, one by one. Read the verse and then pray it back to the Lord, asking Him to reveal His name and character to you.
- Ask for more understanding – When you come to a verse that draws your attention – pause there. Ask the Holy Spirit for deeper understanding about that verse. You may now even look up some key words in a dictionary and write them down in your journal. After having done a bit of research, take your notes and prayerfully speak to the Lord on what you have written down.
- Pray slowly and softly – Picking short phrases to pray is a good practice. It will keep your attention from wandering, but not be so heavy that you become burdened while praying.
- Take time to journal – Record your thoughts as you pray-read the Bible. Journaling helps us to capture the truths that God wants to give us.
Be encouraged to start pray-reading the Word of God on a regular basis. You will be amazed at all that God has to say to you from His Word as you dialogue with Him. You will grow in your effectiveness in prayer, as God leads you into thrilling depths and greater heights in your relationship with Him.
“The Bible is actually a whole book of spiritual words! The Bible will teach you the language of God so that you can effectively communicate to Him. When you speak from the Bible in your prayers, you will be led to an entirely different place in prayer—one you might’ve not thought was humanly possible, simply because the language of the Bible is so absolutely different than our own.” — Wesley and Stacey Campbell
