A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO PRAYING SCRIPTURE - how to pray scripture for beginners (with examples!)

hi guys and welcome back to our channel if you're new here my name is jenny and this is arnold the prime penguin and we create videos every saturday about prayer about exploring the bible and about living out your faith and today we want to take you through a step-by-step guide for how to pray scripture not because this is a really rigid structure that you have to follow exactly as we say or because it's the only way to pray scripture this is just a step-by-step guide for if maybe you don't know where to start and you want to come along with us as we show you how we do it so grab your bible maybe grab a drink and i hope you find this video helpful so what actually is praying scripture basically is taking god's word that we find in the bible and using that to guide our prayers to shape our prayers and often as the words for our prayers and you might be saying why on earth would we want to do this why is that any better than any other prayer and i'm not saying this is a superior way to pray or a better way to pray or that it's a secret way of making sure that god answers your prayer it isn't that at all but we know that god's word is powerful and we know that it is the truth and we want our prayers to reflect that power and that truth so using god's word is a great way to do that it's also a great way to make sure that what we're praying is in line with god's will because our prayers are based in god's own word so when would we do this when would this be a good idea and we can pray scripture any time at all absolutely whenever we want whenever it feels helpful we can do it i think there are three situations in particular when praying scripture is so helpful the first is as a response to scripture so if we're reading through the bible studying the bible and we feel like we want to respond to the scripture that we're reading we can do so through prayer and take those words that we've read and studied and used them in our prayers back to god the second time is if we're not really sure what to pray for and we want god's guidance for our prayers so if we're just not sure where to start with prayer or perhaps what situations in the world should be praying for god's word can give us some great direction in this and the third time is when we don't have the words sometimes there are situations that we want to pray for but we just don't know how we don't have the words it could be because something's particularly difficult or particularly emotional and we just don't know how to express ourselves through words so we can turn to scripture and use words that are already there so how do we go about praying scripture well as i said we're going to go through a step-by-step guide starting with step one which is choosing the scripture now personally i don't think it's a very good idea just to kind of open up the bible and pick any verse at random i don't think that's going to be helpful maybe sometimes you'll land on a good verse that really fits with the prayers that you want to pray and that is great but i don't think that is helpful most of the time and obviously if you're praying as a response to scripture then finding the scripture is kind of what comes first you're just already studying and reading the bible and then reading whatever scripture it is that you're reading and then that is the basis for your prayers but if not we can choose the scripture in any way we like really we can think of bible verses we already know well that are really standing out to us that we feel really speak into the situations that we want to pray about or if there's a particular theme we want to pray about maybe we can research that and see what bible verses fit in with that theme we can do this through kind of themed devotionals and studies or perhaps just googling it and seeing what comes up and seeing if any of those bible verses kind of resonate with the things that we want to pray about step two is to understand the scripture the whole point of praying scripture is to use god's word in our prayers so we don't want to change the meaning or misunderstand and accidentally kind of twist the words so they mean something different to what was originally intended so read around the passage that you want to use in your prayers and make sure you understand what's going on maybe you need to read a couple of chapters beforehand to kind of lead into what the bible is saying to make sure you understand the context who is it being said to who is speaking what has been happening in the time before and after that verse or that passage you can also use commentaries or seek advice from other wise christians that you know and just ask them actually what is this all about what does this mean what is the writer trying to say through this and that will hopefully really help you to understand the context of that verse and what it is actually saying step three is to apply the scripture so this is where we take the scripture that is written and we apply our own situations our own prayers our own things that we want to bring before god we apply those to the truth that is written in the bible so take some time to reflect on the bible first before you get started and just think about how this bible verse speaks into the situations that you want to pray about perhaps it's a command and there's a certain area of your life that you struggle to follow that command or perhaps it tells you something about god that is particularly comforting in a certain situation that you want to pray for as i said make sure you keep the meaning behind those words the same don't just twist scripture to make it mean what you want it to mean actually stitch the context and the meaning that you have looked at before and i think to help you do this it's really helpful to use exact words from that scripture wherever possible use them in your prayer and that will really help you to make sure you stay kind of with what the scripture was saying and set four is to pray and keep on praying this is obviously the whole reason we wanted to use scripture is to inform our prayers shape our prayers guide our prayers so this is where we get to the bit where we can start praying now that we understand the scripture and we understand how it fits in with our life and the things that we want to pray about now we can bring those all together and get the praying sometimes our whole prayer will be based on that scripture and we'll stick quite close with what that passage says other times this can just be a starting point almost like a launching pad into other prayers that may then just help us to think about these other situations and other things that we want to pray about from there so now we wanted to show you some examples of how we go about praying scripture and what that might look like using different passages from the bible so the first example that i want to look at is psalm 145 so this is described of a psalm of praise and psalms were written as prayers and songs to god this is a great place to start and a great place to just find prayers that are already written we don't need to change this in any way we can always just pray it exactly as it has already been written and i'm just going to read you the first part of it i'm going to read verses 1 to 7 which say i will exalt you my god the king i will praise your name forever and ever every day i will praise you and extol your name forever and ever great is the lord and most worthy of praise his greatness no one can fathom one generation commend your works to another they tell of your mighty acts they speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty and i will meditate on your wonderful works they tell of the power of your awesome works and i will proclaim your great deeds they celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness as you can see there's nothing there particularly that needs to change that needs to be applied in any way this is a prayer that we can just pray is a prayer of praise to god and again as i said before this could be a launching point we can pray this prayer and then continue our own praises using our own words our next example is joshua chapter 1 verse 9 which says have i not commanded you be strong and courageous do not be afraid do not be discouraged for the lord your god will be with you wherever you go so this verse is part of a story in the old testament so we need to be careful not just to plop ourselves down into joshua's shoes or in other characters shoes because this was written at a specific time talking about certain events that happened in history plenty of things happened in the old testament that god did not condone he did not think we're good so we don't just want to take that without understanding the context behind it but we can look at these and see what god says about himself the promises that he makes because god is the same now as he was then when this story happened and obviously when you do this normally you would just be exploring the verse as we said in the step-by-step guide understanding it understanding the context applying it and then praying but for the purpose of this i've just written out some prayer examples just to kind of give you a flavor of what a prayer based on this scripture might look like so for this we could pray dear god thank you that you were with joshua so that he did not need to be afraid thank you for the many times that you have been with me in difficult situations we know that you are the same god yesterday today and forever so we know that you will always be with us help us all to remember that you are with us when we feel afraid and discouraged may that bring us comfort courage and strength are men for our next example we're using matthew 5 verses 14 to 16 which say you are the light of the world a town built on a hill cannot be hidden neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl instead they put it on a stand and it gives light to everyone in the house in the same way let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven so this is from the sermon on the mount and it's an example of jesus's teachings so when we're using jesus's teachings or commands that we read in the bible we're often going to be praying for god's help to help us follow those commands and if there are particular circumstances or situations where we struggle to follow these commands we can pray in particular for god's help for those situations so for this one the prayer i've written says dear god sometimes i struggle to let my light shine before others sometimes i want to hide away and not be seen but i know that we should be like a lamp not hidden under a bowl but placed on its stand and giving light to everyone help me and everyone else who struggles with this to share our light with those around us help us to be bold so that people see our good deeds and glorify you amen and for our last example we're using 2 corinthians chapter 4 verses 8 and 9 which say we are hard pressed on every side but not crushed perplexed but not in despair persecuted but not abandoned struck down but not destroyed and i think this is a great example of how we can use scripture in our prayers for other people for intercessory prayer interceding on behalf of others to god so this could be for your friends and family people you know or it could be for any kind of world events things that are going on in the world that you've seen on the news maybe there are lots of passages of scripture that would be really helpful to help you intercede so for this prayer i've written dear god i bring before you everyone who feels hard-pressed who feels perplexed who feels persecuted who feels struck down i pray they will know your presence with them that you will bring them hope may they always know that they are not crushed they are not in despair not abandoned and not destroyed thank you for the hope that we have in you are men i think if you were praying this individually you would apply much more specific situations maybe you can think of a certain people who are feeling perplexed or feeling hard-pressed and think of those situations and you can name them and you can name those people that you know and then pray that same prayer over those particular people and just be a bit more specific obviously i'm kind of keeping this vague as a bit more of an example to show you how it can be done so that is our step-by-step guide to how to pray scripture again as i said this isn't the only way of praying scripture there are lots of different creative ways that you can do this but we hope this has been helpful as maybe a bit of an introduction if this is something you've never done before or a new way of looking at it do let us know down in the comments if you have any questions about praying scripture we'd love to chat more about it down there but we hope you enjoyed this video and found it helpful if you did please do give it a big thumbs up and subscribe to see more videos from me and arnold and bernard particularly about the bible because he does love the bible and if you'd like to hear more ideas for how you can use scripture in your prayers do check out these two videos on screen and we will see you next saturday for a new video bye you

Channel: Prayer & Penguins

Views: 6,237

Keywords: how to pray scripture, praying scripture, pray scripture, pray scripture for beginners, how to pray gods word, praying the scriptures, what praying scripture means, why we pray scripture, guide to praying scripture, examples of praying scripture

Id: fWCiTZALo2M

Length: 13min 19sec (799 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 16 2022