I have decided to pull back the curtain so to speak and explain why I do what I do as far as scripture prayers. Understand that I have read many books on prayer over the warriors in my lifetime. I do not consider myself on their level of understanding but I keep trying to strive for that. Also, I have spent years praying over many different ministries, churches, and people and now after my son Philip died, I have written books with prayers in them and have a website dedicated to prayers for people to use and learn from. I just wanted to create this document to explain the process of how I got to this level of prayer. I hope that anyone who reads this or gets my prayers understands that my goal is for you to become a person who can talk to God, use His words, and be more confident in Your prayer life.
Step Number One
To use God’s word and his promises to pray them to God you must know the Bible. Not scholarly but enough to demonstrate faith and some understanding. My first step for people to understand is to find verses, preferably a section, not a single verse, and break them down into your language and definition. Once You grasp what God is telling You, or promising You then you can start forward. I also suggest you look at multiple translations to get a better feel for what the scripture [God] is trying to tell you. Here is an example of scripture I try to apply to my life and how I would break it down: Romans 12:1&2 NIV—Therefore, I urge you, brothers, given God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will. Romans 12:1-2 New Living Translation And so, dear brothers and sisters,[a] I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.[b] 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. MEV Romans 12:1&2—I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service of worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Now for breaking it down into my definition: I and my fellow believers who have learned to live because of the mercy of God, should present themselves daily as a living sacrifice, and know that we are living temples. We should strive to be Holy with the help of the Holy Spirit every day from when we awake until we go to sleep at night. We should desire and listen to God so that we can offer up true worship that God seeks from us and learn to do His will, and walk with the light he puts before us for our path that is unique to each one of us separately. And I should not try to do what the world does but create my way with God. I should do anything whether it is the music, meditating on scripture, or what I watch, read, or view during my day to keep my mind on what I know is right, is God’s principles, and is the opposite of sin and temptation. Help me to have a thought life that reflects my spirituality and walk with God. This way I will be clear-minded enough to understand God’s will for me today and I can then go ahead and fulfill the purpose he created me for.
I know this is wordy, but understand I have been doing this for many years now and I have had some great mentors in this process. Use a dictionary to break down the bigger words. It is not how good you define it, what is important is that You understand the scripture well enough to know what You are talking to God about. Remember the most important point to prayer—God knows your heart, and your dreams, what he desires is a relationship and what You should be desiring is to make Your heavenly Father proud of how You are using the gift of salvation to learn to be His child.
Step Two
Pray, whether in your mind, out loud, or on paper if it helps to organize what you want to say. I write because I think of it as if I was writing a love letter to God so that he can call and talk to me. Start with praising God. Then move into using the scripture you choose to explain Your desire before God. Then offer up Your petitions for the day to him. I have found plenty of scripture prayers in the Bible that I use to close out my prayers but that is my style does not have to be yours.
Step Three
No matter how You choose to pray, with or without scripture or with or without ideas from scripture, make sure you are honest to God, He already knows but wants and desires to hear it from us. Remember that in Hebrews it tells us that when we pray, we are: Hebrews 4:16—Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. If you can picture entering the throne room and coming before God with Christ next to him and Your advocate and the Holy Spirit standing by You, and encouraging You to speak You will pray in the right mindset and God will be pleased to hear your request. Your faith, hope, and desires also play a part in how or when You will receive your answer. Remember, Christ our example of how God wants us to emulate as closely as we can, took time to pray, both privately and publicly. And we know from his prayer in the Garden that he always submitted himself to the will of God no matter the cost or the expectation.
I am sure I could go deeper and give much more than this beginning but I wanted people to know that praying scripture is not hard and it is fascinating how much more focused and authentic Your prayers will become over time. Also, you will start to pray with your own words just using the ideas from the scriptures so that your relationship is personal with God.