Praying the Scripture Weekends - 01/27-28/2024 - A Solution for Dull Praying
Welcome to the weekend, Seeds of Faith community!
Scripture is God’s inspired word, the sacred story that makes sense of the world. Prayer is our response to God. Every 2nd and 4th weekend in 2024, we are considering how the Bible can not only reveal God to us, but also guide us in our praying.
Praying the Scripture Weekends is currently referencing the book Praying the Bible by Donald Whitney, professor of biblical spirituality and associate dean at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Click here to get a copy if you’d like to read it on your own.
Last time we noted that Dr. Whitney identified a problem that many Christians face in their praying. They “tend to say the same old things about the same old things.” This is different than praying about the “same old things.” That’s good. We shouldn’t move someone or something off our prayer list prematurely. But saying the same old things is different. So, does Dr. Whitney have a solution for this problem? Yes he does.
“Is there a solution? If so, it has to be fundamentally simple. Since God invites—indeed, if by his Spirit he enables—all his children to pray, then prayer must be essentially simple.” (p. 23)
The logic is straightforward. If God desires something, then there must be a means by which that desire may be fulfilled. And since God desires for “all his children to pray,” then there’s a way for that happen. Further, Dr. Whitney insists that God wants us all to have a satisfying prayer life.
If saying the same old things becomes dry and unsatisfying, then what can make the difference?
“Here it is: when you pray, pray through a passage of Scripture, particularly a psalm.” (p. 27)
At various times reading through the Bible, I’ve come across a prayer from someone in the Old Testament like Moses or David, or a person or author in the New Testament—Jesus or Paul, say. I’ve marked that spot, maybe underlined or drawn a box around those verses because I appreciated the way they prayed and thought their prayer then would be a good prayer for me to pray now. This is a good practice and can be incorporated into our prayers. But there’s a great place to begin.
“The best place, however, for learning to pray through a passage of Scripture is in the book of Psalms.” (p. 27)
Consider: Do you have any favorite prayers from biblical authors or characters?
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
If you liked this post from Seeds of Faith, why not share it and/or subscribe?
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™