Praying the Scripture Weekends - 03/02-03/2024 - Interpreting the Bible vs. Praying the Bible
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 saw how we might pray through a biblical passage using Psalm 23 as a guide and example. Today, we’ll consider something that is likely to happen as we pray through the scriptures and how to address it.
Dr. Whitney names something that happens in our praying, which is that people or situations will come to mind as we pray that were not on our mind when we began. They may not be what prompted us to pray or on a list of what we planned to pray about. Praying the Bible does not exclude praying for anything that comes to mind as we read God’s Word and allow it to guide us in prayer.
We may even find the verse we read reminding of someone or something that has nothing to do with the actual verse itself. That’s ok, take it to the Lord in prayer just the same. Here’s Dr. Whitney on the subject:
The Bible tells us… in Philippians 4:6: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” …So every thought that enters your mind as you are reading a passage of Scripture—even if that thought has nothing to do with the text before you at the moment—is something you may bring to God.” (p. 34)
This is helpful because it keeps us grounded in a practice of praying the Bible while guarding against rigidity in our practice. Whatever comes to mind—pray about it.
The foundation for this is that there is a difference between interpreting the Bible and praying the Bible. When we interpret the Bible, we are doing our best to understand and apply the truth is being revealed or taught in a given passage.
When praying the Bible, however, I have a little more freedom. I’m not taking in biblical teaching, I’m being guided by biblical language to express my prayers to God. Dr. Whitney again:
With what I’m advocating, our primary activity is prayer, not Bible intake. Bible reading is secondary in this process. Our focus is on God through prayer; our glance is at the Bible. (p. 35)
This distinction helps us loosen up our praying. We need not worry if we are understanding a verse or passage correctly—that’s for Bible study. We need only to read the Word and allow the words of Scripture prompt and give shape to our prayers.
Consider: Have you ever had a word in Scripture send your mind in a random direction? Practice bringing that to prayer.
“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)
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