Proclaimer Blog
Praying Scripture (again)
I am sure I have mused on praying Scripture before. I am sure I shall
do it again. For, you see, I’m not all that good at it. Neither are my
people. And, I’m pretty sure, neither are you. The bulk of our praying
takes something like the form, ‘please bless so and so’ or ‘I pray
for…’ followed by a list of names.
I’ve been challenged by this whilst sitting under the ministry of
Peter Adam at this year’s Spring Ministers Conference. We’re looking
at Habakkuk. It’s pretty intense stuff. But one of the key ideas is
the encouragement that Peter is giving us to pray Scripture. How long,
has it been, he has challenged us, since we prayed ‘How long, Lord?’
You can’t really read Habakkuk and not be moved to pray this prayer
today.
So how might you or I make this work? How about trying this: do your
devotion and pick out one application from the reading. Use the Bible
words to pray for yourself and then pick up your prayer list. Now
apply the same truth for each person you pray for. I don’t mean to
simply repeat the Bible verse as a mantra, that would seem little
better than just saying, ‘please bless…’ Rather, work through what
the truth means for each person on your list and pray that in.
I’ve found that praying like this is a richly rewarding and pastorally
useful exercise. It brings me nearer to my people. It gives me a deep
desire to see them flourish as Christians.
Why not give it a go?