Talking Back To God Without Being Slapped By Your Mama
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Talking back to God is incorporating His words into our prayers. As we pray the Scriptures we become inspired by the written word as it leads us into a deeper, more intimate relationship with the Creator of the Universe
Your mama won’t mind if you are repeating God’s Word back to Him. She’ll be happy you’re praying!
Praying the Scriptures takes the mundane out of our prayer time and helps us focus on what the Holy Spirit is directing us to pray using the inspired Word of God.
By incorporating the Scriptures, our prayers become more focused, creative, and personal.
Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.
Why Is Praying So Difficult?
Praying is our way of communicating with our heavenly Father. Through prayer, we bring our requests, troubles, and plans to the throne.
However, as important as prayer is, it often seems insincere and meaningless. We find ourselves repeating the same things over and over and reciting phrases and talking points we’ve learned from others.
We can always find excuses for not praying, but I think the most common reason is time.
We fly into the morning routine before we pray. And slide through the afternoon without giving it a thought. In the evening, we slip into bed at night, maybe thinking, “Oh, I haven’t prayed today.”
So, if praying is an important element in our relationship with the Lord, why is praying so difficult?
I know in my own experience, praying begins to feel like a “have to” instead of a “want to” when I allow the following reasons to dictate my actions:
- Praying begins to feel like a one-way conversation
- Praying for the same need day after day becomes redundant
- I become unmotivated because of unanswered prayers
- I lose interest because I get bored
- It’s hard to stay focused for any length of time
Do you ever feel that way?
God has given us the ability to harness the power of prayer, yet we continue to struggle.
We can turn our prayerlessness into powerfulness by praying the Scriptures.
What Is Praying the Scriptures?
Praying the Scriptures is when you take a verse or a passage of Scripture and use it as a foundation for prayer.
You know how it is when you sit down to pray; you’re not sure where to begin, or you get in the habit of starting your prayer the same way every time.
Starting prayer with a Bible verse as the foundation takes off the pressure from coming up with something interesting to talk to the Lord about. It allows us to join in on a conversation that God has already initiated in His Word.
When we are praying Scriptures, we are using God’s words to express our feelings. We read His written word, and as our hearts begin to stir, we express our need to the Lord in a way that we might not have thought about before reading the passage.
This simple but effective method takes no forethought, no preparation, and there’s no learning curve.
Begin reading your Bible—anywhere—and then when something stirs a thought, pray about it.
For example, if we were using a verse like Psalm 63:3, we start by reading it.
Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. Psalm 63:3
And then we could pray, “Father, Your love is steadfast, unwavering, and faithful. Your love is better than life itself. You loved me even before I knew who you were and before I knew You wanted to give me eternal life. I will continually praise You for Your loving kindness. Your praise will be forever on my lips.”
There are no hard-core rules to this technique. You read the verse and pray whatever comes to your mind, implementing the words found in that passage. We are just allowing the His words to guide us into prayer.
Using this method takes the pressure from us coming up with something “on the fly.” We stay focused because we are reading Scripture, and we are free to receive God’s Word and allow it to bless us as we bless the Lord.
Praying the Psalms
Dr. Donald S. Whitney teaches this method in his book, Praying the Bible. He suggests that the best practice of praying Scriptures is praying through the Psalms.
Dr. Whitney uses a familiar reading plan of reading five Psalms a day, beginning with the Psalm corresponding to the day’s date and then every 30th Psalm after that. Following this plan allows you time to read through the Psalms every month.
For example, on the 1st day of the month, the assigned Psalms would be chapters 1, 31, 61, 91, and 141.
After reading a verse or passage, incorporate the thought in prayer. After praying until nothing else comes to mind, go to the next verse and pray using that as a foundation.
If nothing jumps out at you or grabs your attention, move on to the next verse. Pray until nothing else comes to mind—it may be a minute or ten minutes—but pray until you are finished.
If you have time, move on to the next verse or passage and read and pray until you are out of time.
If you don’t have time to finish the reading, don’t sweat it. It’s more important to meditate on the word as you pray than to complete the reading.
Dr. Whitney also suggests that reading through the Psalms will transform routine prayers.
“Any routine prayer can be transformed by saying, ‘What is the purpose of this prayer?’ and praying that through the passage of Scripture.” –Dr. Don Whitney
He suggests that there are six routine prayers that most people pray about regularly:
- Family
- Future
- Financial
- Work or school
- Christian concern (church or personal ministry)
- Current crisis
These are the prayers that become redundant. Using the daily Psalm as a foundation, our prayers are transformed into unique requests with life and meaning.
6 Examples of Praying the Scriptures
Praying for Family
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience bearing with one another in love eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:1-3
“Father, give us, as a family, the grace to walk in a manner worthy of our calling. Our familiarity with each other causes us to let our guard down. We may get too grumpy or impatient as we walk in the flesh and not in the Spirit. Help us to be strengthened today by Your Holy Spirit to walk in peace with humbleness, gentleness, patience, and love.”
Praying for the Future
And He [Jesus] said to His disciples, “Therefore I tellyou, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, not about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Luke 12:22-23
“Father, thank you for everything you have given to me and my family. You have blessed us beyond wonder! Forgive me for not always trusting in You and Your ways. Sometimes I get anxious about the needs that come up, but You tell me in Your Word that You take care of the birds and the grasses, so I know that I have nothing to worry about because You love me more than anything else. Thank You!.”
Praying for Finances
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Matthew 6:21
“Father, You know my needs, and I will trust that You will meet them. Help me be faithful with the finance opportunities You give me, and help me be faithful when I feel like I lack the money to make it through the month. You are my provider, and I will trust in You.”
Praying for Work or School
And the herald proclaimed aloud, ‘You are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, that when you hear the sound of the horn pipe, lyre, trigon, harp bagpipe, and every kind of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. And whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace.’”
“Heavenly Father, give me boldness to stand for what is right in the world. Don’t allow me to fall under the deception that everyone is doing it, but give me the strength of Daniel and his friends as they chose their fate in the lion’s den and the furnace rather than compromise their loyalty to You.”
Praying for Ministry or Church
This is the message we have heard from Him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice truth. 1 John 1:5-6
“Father, as I reach out to others to minister to them, fill me with Your light. Let my lips speak the truth, my heart show Your love, and control my spirit with Your Spirit that I may not misrepresent Your message.”
Praying for a Current Crisis
But they that wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31
“Lord, You are fully aware of the events that are going on in my life. You have them all under Your control. And although it wears me down to think about everything that is going on, I will trust in You. And as I wait on Your timing, I will believe that You will renew my strength and give me wings like an eagle that I may come out on the other side with more faith and more understanding.”
