Seven Reasons Why I Pray Scripture     

            One thing that has changed my prayers dramatically is learning to pray Scripture. For years my prayers were rather anemic, without much content. I often floundered with, “Lord, help them!” Of course, God hears each prayer and understands the sincerity of our heart. But I felt my prayers were weak and repetitive. Praying Scripture expanded my prayers in many ways. Here are a few of them (the last one is most important).

1. Eliminating distractions: During prayer time, my mind often wandered to waiting tasks. I found it helpful to pray verses like, “Turn my eyes away from worthless things and preserve my life according to Your word.”¹ I now keep a notepad nearby to jot down things I may forget. Then I strive to put those things on hold for twenty minutes as I seek first God’s kingdom and His righteousness.²

2. Praying Biblical Principles: During my daily Bible reading, if a particular verse brought someone to mind, I added their name and the reference to my prayer list. I began to feel my prayers had more substance. One day, while reading 1 Timothy 2:3–“God our Savior…wants all men to be saved,” I thought of a friend whose husband didn’t know the Lord. I called her, and we agreed to pray that verse for him because we knew God wanted him to be saved. I wrote her husband’s name in my Bible beside that verse. Not long after, he became ill, but before he died, he accepted Jesus into his life! When we affirm Biblical principles in prayer, we are agreeing with God’s ultimate will for a person or situation.

One Sunday morning, when my pastor husband was really dragging, I prayed that he would receive strength that Isaiah 40:31 describes: “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.” When Kelvin began to preach, he was not my tired husband, but my energized pastor proclaiming God’s word with power! I started making my own prayer sets by choosing verses for family members and inserting their names.

3. Zeroing In: Singling out a particular need has allowed me to see God working in a specific area. A verse I often  prayed for people during COVID was Job 33:4 – “The breath of the Almighty gives me life.” My prayer partners and I prayed this verse for a man on a ventilator. Days later he was off the ventilator, and soon after he went home! Thanks be to God for His powerful words!

4. Focusing on Jesus: I started with the Seven “I Am” statements of Jesus, and prayers such as, “Thank You for being my Bread of Life,³ my Vine.⁴  Help me to draw nourishment from You. Guide me, my Shepherd,”⁵ etc. Then I began collecting verses showing what Jesus has given us—forgiveness, truth, peace, and much more. That Scripture list grew to twenty-five Gifts from Jesus.

5. Gathering Bouquets of Scripture Prayers: In my daily reading, I began finding special verses on specific topics like healing, persecution, human trafficking, suicide, etc. As I organized the verses into a topical list, the collections grew. I now have a notebook with six divisions of Scripture prayer sets:  Focusing on Jesus, Repentance, Family, the Body of Christ, Our Country, and Pre-Believers. What a blessing! Obviously, I can’t pray through all the prayer sets in a day. To avoid feeling overwhelmed, I track where I left off the day or week before with little sticky arrows. I always start each day by praying verses praising God for who He is. I pray a few Scriptures for individual family members, and then ask God what areas to pray for next.

6. Praying Higher: God says, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my thoughts higher than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9).  Reading His words causes me to lift my thoughts and prayers above my own views of the world. I tell God, “I know that all things are possible with You!” ⁶  I ask that His words come true in my heart and in my community. Scripture is like a letter from God, and prayer is our conversation with Him. We say, “I love what You’ve said! I agree with You; I want to see Your will be done!” In our daily Bible reading we can pray, “Lord, let this be true in my life!” I know a woman who prayed through the entire Bible over a period of two years! God says of His word, “It will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” ⁷  As I pray His words, they are accomplishing His purposes in me—purposes to encourage, guide, and inspire.

7. Praying God’s Will: I’ve learned it’s highly important to ask, “God, what is YOUR will for this situation?” My prayers would be to correct the obvious and fix people, which is good. But perhaps God wants us to also pray for the man without a job to learn more dependence on Him, or that the woman with chronic pain find Christ’s power made complete in her weakness. God has more in mind and wants us to pray towards the underlying causes, the bigger picture. This is especially true in praying for our country: “God, YOU are in control and Your plans will not be thwarted. Some trust in military or political plans, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” ⁸ What is God’s will for our country? He calls His people to humble themselves, pray, seek His face, and turn. Then He will hear, forgive, and heal our land. ⁹

Praying Scripture is a way of life, as we continually focus on God throughout the day and draw on His words and His will for the concerns He puts on our hearts.

Check out my “Scripture Prayers” category on the home page of this website. More prayer sets will be posted in the future!

¹ Psalm 119:37;  ² Matthew 6:33;  ³ John 6;  ⁴ John 15;  ⁵ John 10;  ⁶ Mark 10:27;  ⁷ Isaiah 55:11;  ⁸ Psalm 20:7;  ⁹ 2 Chronicles 7:14.