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Praying Scripture
- 01/16/11
- 8
Do you ever find that you just don’t know how to pray? You know that you need to pray for someone, but you don’t know how? That is a great time to turn to the Bible and to pray to God the words of God. Mary Kassian once wrote a brief overview of praying Scripture and I thought I’d share it with you today. It’s quite helpful as you consider one way of taking the words of the Bible and turning those into prayers. Note that I am not endorsing lectio divina here (and neither is Mary, I’m sure); rather, I am simply saying that there is real value in searching Scripture for application that can be immediately prayed to the Lord.
Here is how Mary encourages you to pray Scripture:
1. Read
Read a passage of Scripture slowly. Let's use a passage from Psalm 1:1-2 for example:
"Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night."
2. Reflect
Think about how to personalize the text and apply it to your own life. Take note of any particular verse or phrase that seems to be of particular importance. For instance, in the above verses you might take note of the word "Blessed" and "delight is in the law of the Lord." You might want to think about where you are seeking happiness and delight. Do you delight in God's Word?
3. Resonate
Respond to/agree with the passage by praying it back to God. Pray the words of the Scriptures, applying them to your life or circumstance. You could pray Psalm 1:12 in the following way:
"Lord, please help me not to walk according to the advice of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of scoffers. Help me find my happiness and delight in Your word, and to meditate on Your word all the time." (Or, you could pray this as an intercessory prayer for your husband, children, or for a government official, church leader, or friend.)
4. Receive
Keep Reading this article at the True Woman blog.
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Comments (8)
LectioThis first moment consists in reading the scriptural passage slowly, attentively several times. Many write down words in the scripture that stick out to them or grasp their attention during this moment.
MeditatioThe Christian, gravitating around the passage or one of its words, takes it and ruminates on it, thinking in God’s presence about the text. He or she benefits from the Holy Spirit’s ministry of illumination, i.e. the work of the Holy Spirit that imparts spiritual understanding of the sacred text. It is not a special revelation from God, but the inward working of the Holy Spirit, which enables the Christian to grasp the revelation contained in the Scripture.
OratioThis is prayer: prayer understood both as dialogue with God, that is, as loving conversation with the One who has invited us into His embrace; and as consecration, prayer as the priestly offering to God of parts of ourselves that we have not previously believed God wants. In this consecration-prayer we allow the word that we have taken in and on which we are pondering to touch and change our deepest selves. …God invites us in lectio divina to hold up our most difficult and pain-filled experiences to Him, and to gently recite over them the healing word or phrase He has given us in our lectio and meditatio. In this oratio, this consecration-prayer, we allow our real selves to be touched and changed by the word of God.
ContemplatioThis moment is characterized by a simple, loving focus on God. In other words, it is a beautiful, wordless contemplation of God, a joyful rest in His presence.
Scripture prayer seems like it could be a great way to get ourselves in line with Scripture and to think God’s thoughts after Him. However I can’t help but feel a little uncomfortable with this particular method of prayer. I’m sure election divina started out as a great idea to have closer communion with God but over time (just like many other good traditions) it became ritual and formulaic. I think so long as one is careful to focus on cognitive meditation on what is being prayed and having the proper original understanding of the particular passage (original purpose and audience) it can be extremely profitable for one’s personal prayer time, especially if your having trouble knowing what to pray for. Just like everything else one must use discernment (something that I know Tim is assuming). But it’s a little too Roman Catholic for my taste. That being said I would not discourage anyone from using this particular method of prayer if they were seeking to revive their prayer life. If God is glorified by it then who am I to judge?
Correction: I meant lectio divina.
I certainly am cautious of lectio divina for a variety of reasons, not least of which is because it would be too easy to bypass my own halting and common language to use more beautiful and poignant words in my communion with God. However I really don’t understand having such fear of spending 5 minutes repeating God’s own words back to Him, but having no problem spending 45 minutes repeating Darlene Zschech’s or Chris Tomlin’s or LeCrae’s or Townsend’s or Wesley’s words, depending upon your style.
A couple of years ago at our church someone (following Don Carson “Spiritual Reformation”) went through all of Paul’s prayers and summarised/grouped them onto an A4 sheet to be shared with everyone at church, with the heading “What I Pray for YOU”. (The homework was “find the references”!) The first few were:-
What I pray for you -That the Lord will make you to increase and abound in love towards your brothers & sisters in Christ, and toward all menThat you will be likeminded, with one mind and one mouth glorifying GodThat you will be rooted and grounded in loveThat your love will abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgmentThat you will be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledgeThat you will be filled with all joy and peace in believingThat you will increase in the knowledge of GodThat you will be given more wisdom and understanding in the knowledge of GodThat you will be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all wisdom and spiritual understandingThat you will be given a clearer heart-awareness of the hope to which God has called youThat you will be given a clearer understanding of the riches of what ”God’s glorious inheritance in His saints” really meansThat you will be given a clearer understanding of the immeasurable greatness of God’s power toward us who believe
Lectio Divina isn’t anything to be scared about - it’s a very cool way to dig way deep into God’s Word and allow His Holy Spirit to speak to us and expound and unfold something to us :)
Basically just follow the steps that “Anonymous” above typed out, and listen for the Still Small Voice of the Holy Spirit :)
If we don’t pray the Scripture, how are we going to pray according to God’s will?
If we don’t meditate on the Scriptures, how are we going to abide in the Word?
My favorite book on prayer (if I had to choose one) is Matthew Henry’s, A Method for Prayer. (You can read it on line)
http://www.matthewhenry.org/
Reading over the comments I am amazed at the yellow flags flying in the air. The Word is alive and active. When you interact with it as described in this post, you access more of that life than if you simply read and leave it at that. Once you begin to pray in this way, there are Scriptures that will begin leaping off the page, asking you for more time, asking to be prayed.
I so agree with Becky that meditating on Scripture is a prime way to abide in the Word.