In prayer, I often find my mind wandering. I can start praying about something I care deeply about, but within a minute, I've wandered to video games. I also find my prayers to be shallow: "Please do this," "Thank You for that," "Help me with this." Are any of those prayers bad? No. However, I want to talk to and about God that expresses a depth of love and emotion toward Him.
I want to praise God well. For example, a love letter would not look like this: "Dear wife, you are awesome. Thank you for everything you do. I hope to treat you well. You are also pretty. Love, husband." While the letter is founded on a deep love of the wife, there is no depth in what the letter says. All the words are true, but love letters should express emotion! The more like Shakespeare, the better!
In the same way, I want to outwardly express the love and joy I have for God. John 3 explains that He already knows the mind and hearts of men, but even though He knows, I want to tell Him! And, I want others to know as well. I love to tell others about how great my wife, Michelle, is. Even more so I love to tell others how great my Lord and Savior, Jesus, is! And when I tell people, I don't want my language to be simple and fluffy; I want to speak in a way that they feel the emotion with me!
I believe that ability starts with learning to pray. Thankfully, I have recently found a way to combat the shallowness of my prayers: the scripture.
A Helpful Solution
I read an article on Desiring God titled Reignite your Prayer Life. This part of the article resonated with me:
And what is the method of prayer for most Christians? It’s this: When we pray, we tend to say the same old things about the same old things. Sooner or later, that kind of prayer is boring. When prayer is boring, you don’t feel like praying. And when you don’t feel like praying, you don’t pray — at least with any fervency or consistency. Prayer feels much more like duty than delight.
The problem is not that we pray about the same old things. To pray about the same things most of the time is normal. That’s because our lives tend to consist of the same things from one day to the next. Thankfully, dramatic changes in our lives usually don’t occur very often.
No, the problem isn’t that we pray about the same old things; the problem is that we tend to say the same old things about the same old things. The result is that we can be talking to the most fascinating Person in the universe about the most important things in our lives — and be bored to death.
The author, Don Whitney, proposes a solution for the problem. He recommends praying the Bible. And, rather than praying the words exactly as written and leaving it there, we instead are to let scripture take us by the hand, guiding our prayers into its own depths.
How to Start Praying the Bible
With this method, I have come to love the Psalms. Previously I would struggle to focus and enjoy them. What changed? I learned to pray with the Psalmist rather than just read his prayers.
Many, if not most, Psalms are prayers. They express every emotion in life: joy, sorrow, doubt, apathy, anger, fear, etc. Reading the Psalms we find a profoundness in thought, understanding, and speech. The Psalmists have a way of speaking to God about their life I cannot match.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer explains the reason to pray the Psalms. The Bible, including the Psalms, is divinely inspired. This means
each sentence contains the words of God written by the hands of men. With the Psalms, a book of prayers, God gave us a
divinely inspired book full of prayers to Himself! The Psalms are essentially God-approved prayers. We have some specific
examples from Jesus, especially the Lord's prayer, but then we have 150 more found in the Psalms!
It is easy to join with the Psalmists in prayer. Lets start with Psalm 37:4 - "Oh taste and see that the Lord is good!" We could respond, "Yes Father, my life clearly portrays your goodness. You took me when I was sad, lonely, and frightened, freed me from my slavery to sin, and made me confident in You. Thank you for my salvation! Thank you for the way you show me your goodness in the people you have placed around me."
Continuing from v5 - "Oh fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack!" We could respond, "Increase my fear of you, Lord. I depend on you for every need. You could take away all physical or mental abilities - even my life! - in an instant if you desired. They all come from you. And even if my life takes a turn for the worse, and I lose everything, you will provide for my every need, just as you provided your Son to pay the penalty of death I earned for my rebellion. Please show your steadfast love to my friend who is struggling. Teach him to fear you as well, showing us both how in you we 'lack no good thing.' "
It's as simple as that. As we follow along with the Psalm, we will be led to pray over areas of our life we might have completely forgotten otherwise. I am weak in the art of praising what I adore, so I have become an apprentice to the Psalmists, seeking their guidance.
Every book in the Bible can inspire prayer. Some places are easier than others, but we can always respond to the word of God in thankfulness or request, realigning our desires with His will.
Extra Benefits
Praying the word not only deepens our communication with God, it deepens our understanding and love of His Word. As we spend time praying the scripture back to God, we are meditating on it and personalizing it. We will not just read through the Bible, letting each verse fly over our head, but instead we are taking the time to let the word dig into our hearts and mind, pushing us to respond to God in what we say to him and what we do in our lives.
To quote Don Whitney one more time:
By this method, your prayers will be guided and shaped by Scripture, and be far more in conformity to the word and will of God than they will if you always make up your own prayers.
Conclusion
As a disclaimer, praying the Bible is not a magic bullet to all our prayer needs, nor is it a requirement for every Christian. First and foremost we must learn how to be intimate with Christ. We have to learn to devote time spent with Him, refreshing and nourishing our souls. Learning to have focused, intimate time with Christ is as important to our spiritual self as eating is to our physical. What we do during that time, however, is not important as long as it is grounded in truth, which comes from the Bible. "Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth." John 17:17.
However, I definitely encourage you to give it a try yourself! For a trial run, take out time for the next few days to pray through a favorite Psalm each day, choosing a new one each time. If you don't have a favorite, try out Psalm 1, 23, 34, 42, and 141. Simply read through the Psalm once to get a understanding of the text as a whole, then read a verse or phrase at a time, praying whatever comes to mind. If your mind wanders, go to the next verse or phrase!
Have you ever done this method? If not, do you think it could be helpful to you? I would love to hear your thoughts on it as well as any other methods that may help people revitalize their prayer life!
See you next time!