Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path. Psalm 119:105
While the Bible was written within a particular context, it also speaks the truth and wisdom of God’s love and goodness into our lives today. When Jesus was alive, he regularly used the Old Testament scriptures, written hundreds and thousands of years before, to speak into the circumstances of his day.
In addition to speaking the Word of God into people’s lives, Jesus also prayed the Word of God. Jesus prayed more than almost anything he did and taught us how to pray by example... how he prayed, when he prayed, and the words he prayed.
Why did Jesus pray Scripture and why should we? Because God’s word never returns empty, meaning that it will always bear fruit and yield positive results when it is thought, spoken, read, heard, or prayed.
my word... always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it. Isaiah 55:11
Praying Scripture: Practical Tips
1. Select a passage that is meaningful to you or speaks truth into your life. If you’re not sure where to start, the Psalms are a great place to begin.
2. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you — “to bless your time in Scripture, keep you focused, and help you pray his Word.”
3. Read through the passage slowly, meditating on the words and ideas.
4. “As you finish a sentence or verse, turn the words into a prayer, bringing the truths and ideas of the passage into a conversation with God.”
5. Find the verses that speak truth into particular circumstances of your life and pray them regularly, confident that as you pray God’s Word, you are also praying God’s will.
(This practice is adapted from and quotes are from hJps://www.biblegateway.com/resources/scripture-engagement/ praying-scripture/practice.)
GOD STORIES: Praying Scripture
In August of 2010, I was diagnosed with cancer. Boom. Didn’t see that coming. Our daughter Emma was nine years old. She had so many questions about what was happening and how it would affect me, her, and our family. She was afraid … I was afraid … [my husband] Dan was afraid. I cried out to God for healing, but more importantly, for wisdom to know how to encourage Emma. I asked God to please not waste the time of difficulty that we were facing, but to use it to help others. Not knowing what else to do, I began reading the Psalms and simply making the verses I read each day my prayers. I would literally begin, “Dear Lord,” and then read the scriptures and end with “Amen.” They gave me words to speak to God when I couldn’t find words myself. When I got to Psalm 56:3, I knew God had answered my prayer for helping Emma with her fears and concerns about the future.
When I am afraid, I will put my trust in God. PSALM 56:3
Such a short and simple sentence, yet it contained ALL that we needed. I read the verse to Emma and we made a pact to cry out to God with that verse any time we began to feel afraid. It worked! We kind of made it a game. When one of us got that “look,” the other one would yell the verse out loud. Not only did our fears and anxieties decrease, but our regular calling out to God together built our faith. It gave us a platform to speak of God’s presence when people asked how we were doing. It redirected our thoughts when we began to give in to fear of the future. It gave us a vision of God working, and… It. Gave. Us. Hope.
We were praying God’s will into our hearts and lives and then He graciously let the truth of His Word spill out to those around us. Did my cancer magically disappear? No. Did we still occasionally fall into fearful thought patterns? Yes. But those 11 little words became a lifeline and an anchor.
This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary.” HEBREWS 6:19
When I pray God’s promises back to Him, I have found that He often blesses me with a reminder of another promise from His Word. He continues the conversation, so to speak, and “He walks with me and He talks with me.”
— Karen Hassman, Christ Church Community Member
