Read & Pray
Why would we use the Bible to guide our prayers?
Scripture keeps us grounded. Unlike our ever-changing emotions, the Bible helps us set our minds on the never-changing truth of God.
If you have never prayed through the Bible, the book of Psalms is a great place to start. Psalms is a collection of songs, praises, and quite literally, prayers. Here are some easy steps to help you learn how to pray your way through a Psalm.
- Pick a Psalm (or, just a passage if it’s an unusually long Psalm like 119) and read it all the way through.
- Now read it again and make sure you understand all the words and look up any questions you may have about the passage.
- Read each section again and pause after each section, offering the words to God as a prayer.
- Now it’s time to use scripture to guide your personal prayer. After reading each section, pause and offer the same truth to God in prayer using your own words and your own experiences. Look for ways to worship God, give Him thanksgiving, confess your sins, pray for your own life, or for lives around you.
Here is Psalm 100 as an example:
1 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
God I give you all the glory, honor, and praise.. You fill me with joy and I pray more and more people on the earth will come to know you!
2 Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.
Lord, I joyfully praise you! I come to you with gladness for all that you have done for me!
3 Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
God, thank you for being a personal God. A God that I can commune with and be yours and yours only. You made me, so you know me better than I know myself. You’ve been my Good Shepherd, guiding and protecting me through darkness and uncertainty.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
Lord, would You receive my praise? I want to give you all the praise and honor in my life to glorify you. (Spend time giving thanks to the Lord for what He has done in your life lately.)
5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.
You are so good, so loving, so faithful. I come to you Lord, this time on behalf of my unbelieving friends and family. (Spend time interceding for those in your life who don’t know the Lord.)