In my message on Sunday, I introduced a book that has helped to change the way I pray called Praying The Bible, by Dr. Donald Whitney.
If we’re honest, prayer can easily become a recitation of repetitious words about repetitious things. The result is usually boredom and drudgery…and giving up. I found that this quote by Dr. John Piper sums up the problem pretty well while providing the solution at the same time:
If I try to pray for people or events without having the word in front of me guiding my prayers, then several negative things happen. One is that I tend to be very repetitive…I just pray the same things all the time. Another negative things is that my mind tends to wander.” John Piper
In Praying the Bible, Dr. Whitney, Professor of Biblical Spirituality and Assocate Dean at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, tackles the dilemma and explains that the problem with our prayer is not that we pray about the same old things all the time, but how we pray about the same old things.
The solution is to use Scripture to pray the words God has given us back to God. In this way, we take Scripture (particularly the Psalms which is an actual prayer book!) and use it as a catalyst for things that God brings to mind for us to pray:
“Basically what you are doing is taking the words that originated in the heart and mind of God and circulating them through your heart and mind back to God. By this means his words become the wings of your prayers.”
Psalm 130:3 is one of the examples found in the book: “Oh, Lord, if you should mark iniquities, O Lord, who should stand?”
Using this method, some things you might be prompted to pray about are…
- Gratitude that God is the Lord: sovereign, kind, compassionate, true, etc. Thanking God that He is merciful not to hold our iniquities against us through Christ, but that through confession there is restoration (1 John 1:9)
- That I am a sinner in need of forgiveness and so I might spend time confessing specific iniquities that come to mind.
- That He makes us to stand against evil rather than beaten down by sin and shame.
- That we are overcomers, even more than conquerors through Christ (Romans 8:37) and have been adopted as children.
- For our friend, Mark!
That last one might seem odd, but Whitney reminds us that the point of reading the passage in this context of prayer is not to interpret the Scripture as we do in Bible study, but to utilize it in focusing our attention on things that need prayer. Since we are called to “pray about everything” (Philippians 4:6), then if seeing the word “mark” used in the passage reminds you of a friend named Mark who needs prayer, pray for him!
I’ve not only found this to be an extremely liberating way to pray, but a way that prayer can be sustained for as long as I have time. To illustrate, one of the instructions in the book is to pick any Psalm and begin praying it for just 7 minutes. As I began to pray, the text brought so many things to mind that when I looked down at my watch, thinking that I was probably at 3 or 4 minutes, 10 minutes had passed and I wasn’t even close to working through the entire Psalm!
If you struggle with prayer or simply want to take your prayer life to the next level of depth and intimacy with God, I highly recommend you pick up this little, easy to read book and give it a shot. If you do, let me know if you find it helpful or if you’ve come across other similar resources that have helped you.
To purchase this book through Amazon, click here.
