Learning to Pray Through Scripture

Most Christians are familiar with the experience of trying to pray but struggle to know how to express themselves to God. Sometimes it is difficult to know how to pray and what words to use and other times we struggle to know what to pray about at all. These challenges are certainly not unique to us as modern people; knowing how to approach God in prayer and how to express ourselves has been a difficulty experienced by every generation. One of the greatest resources in this area is found in the Scriptures themselves and today I want to share some thoughts about how we can learn to pray through different passages of Scripture.

Here at House of Prayer Edmonton, we are constantly using the Bible to help us in prayer. We practice two main types, or expressions of prayer: the first is ‘intercession’ and the second is ‘devotional’. Intercession is when we pray for another person or group of people or general need or topic. Devotional prayer is more personal, where we focus more on our own relationship with God; these prayers are also often called prayers of ‘supplication’.

I want to use Psalm 130 as an example of how Scripture can be a tremendous help to us in our prayer lives, both in intercessory prayer and devotional prayer.

Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord;

    Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
    to my cry for mercy.

If you, Lord, kept a record of sins,
    Lord, who could stand?

But with you there is forgiveness,
    so that we can, with reverence, serve you.

O Israel, put your hope in the Lord,

   For with the Lord is unfailing love

And with him is full redemption.

Each month HoPE prays for an amazing local ministry called the Old Strathcona Street Mission, which ministers among people who are experiencing homelessness. I had recently spent time reading Psalm 130 and so those verses came to my mind and I chose to use the language of these verses to pray on behalf of some of those who are experiencing homelessness and addiction. I was able to pray on behalf of people in a way that they could not pray for themselves, lifting my voice to cry out for people who are in the depths of homelessness and addiction, asking the Lord for mercy. I prayed for God’s unfailing love to be expressed and become real to them and that God would bring about redemption in their lives.

Using the Scriptures in this way should never be thought of as a ‘magic formula’, but rather as a way that we can pray with greater confidence, knowing that how we are praying is in alignment with the character and will of God. We can be confident that God hears the cries for mercy that rise to him in prayer and, in the language of Psalm 130, we can know that God is full of unfailing love and that he desires to bring about redemption in our lives. This helps us have some language to express our prayers.

The ideas and wording of Psalm 130 can also be used in devotional prayer. For example, we can pray, “Thank you God that you hear my voice and that you hear my cry for mercy.” We can also pray from v. 3-4: “Lord, thank you that you don’t keep a record of all my sins, because I know that if you did, there is no way I could not stand in your Presence. I thank you that you are a God who forgives sin; Lord Jesus, have mercy on me and forgive, so that I can serve you today.”

As Christians we recognize the importance of reading the Bible regularly, however learning to pray through many of the passages that we read is a powerful way to interact with God as we read his Word. Think of how quickly we can read through a short Psalm such as Psalm 130: it is only 8 verses, and we can read it in under a minute. I want to encourage you to slow down and take time to silently, or quietly, pause as you read and pray in a personal way about what some of the verses say. Talking to God as you read the Scripture is a tremendous way to create dialogue with God and allow the Holy Spirit to impress things on our hearts.

If using Scripture in your prayer life is a new idea, I want to offer two suggestions: First, make frequent use of the Book of Psalms. The Psalms have been the ‘prayer book’ of believers for thousands of years. Second, become familiar with the prayers that are in the Bible, particularly the Lord’s Prayer (Matt. 6) and other key passages such as John 17, Ephesians 3:14-19, Acts 4:24-31 and others.

(Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash)