Praying the Scriptures: A Practice for When Words are Hard to Find
As I sat down at the dinner table for a meal with my family, I was greeted with the news that my grandfather had received a devastating diagnosis: terminal cancer. Immediately, I wanted to turn toward him and pray; but what was I possibly meant to say in this situation?
In another season of my life, depression held a tight grip on me, and I found it a struggle to even make it out of bed most days. I wanted to cling even tighter to Jesus in this moment, but I had no idea what to pray when I came before God. Where could I go to find words in the depths of despair?
Both of these are situations where I’ve been at a loss for words, not because I lacked the desire to pray, but because finding the words to express myself proved elusive. It felt like grasping at thin air as I tried to make sense of the circumstances or offer some kind of comfort and hope in response.
Have you ever had one of those moments where you want to pray for someone, but you just don’t know what to pray for? What about a season in life where you’ve longed to express yourself to God with words, but they’ve simply felt too hard to find?
We all have those experiences at times when words feel too difficult to summon, linger just out of reach, or come to mind after the situation has passed. And these instances occur not only when we pray for ourselves but also when we seek to pray for others. Perhaps you’ve searched for the right words to pray for someone in their moment of need and have struggled to find them. Or you’ve longed to ask God to intervene in your life but can’t seem to turn your longings into sentences. I know I’ve often settled for less than what my heart ached to pray for, not for lack of thought or care, but simply an inability to articulate myself in the way I desired.
In this article, I want to introduce us to a practice of praying that offers a remedy to these situations. It’s a practice that is as old as the church itself: the practice of praying the Scriptures (Acts 4:24–26). As we learn to pray the Scriptures, we’re led directly to the deepest well of words that we could ever draw from—God’s own words—and find language for our longings and suffering to offer back to God.
The Scriptures: Useful for Praying
We all know the much-loved words of the Apostle Paul, that “all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16–17 NIV). As we read those words, our minds quickly begin to list the ways we know these verses apply: preaching and teaching in congregational and small group settings, training and equipping members for works of service, rebuking a brother or sister living in sin, and correcting our wayward hearts as we read and meditate upon God’s word daily.
And while each of those applications is good and right, we don’t often consider the formative role that Scripture ought to play in shaping our prayers. It may not be explicit in Paul’s words to Timothy, but it is certainly implicit that the words of Scripture should teach us to pray, rebuke and correct our misguided prayers, and train us as we seek to offer words to our gracious God who hears us when we speak.
More than any other source, the Scriptures should teach, train and inform us as we pray. What we find in the Scriptures is language given to us by God that may be used as the primary point of reference for the words we utter back to him. After all, prayer is undoubtedly one of the greatest works for which every servant of God needs equipping.
If we want the Scriptures to inform our prayers though, there is a key question to consider: what part of Scripture do we turn to if we want to pray? This is especially pertinent to consider when praying for ourselves or others in hard moments. I have a plethora of verses that I could call to mind quickly, but as in the example of my grandfather, choosing a random verse from the Scriptures is unlikely to be helpful.
What Parts of Scripture Should I Pray?
There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to choosing a part of Scripture to pray, but I want to offer three suggestions of helpful places to turn to fuel our prayers—especially in a time of personal need or someone else’s moment of pain.
The Psalms. In the Psalms, we find an unrivaled vastness in the circumstances being addressed and the forms to pray being offered—from lament to petition to thanksgiving. When we look to the words of the psalmists and make their words our own, we stand in a long line of faithful saints who’ve prayed these same words in moments of need. Jesus himself takes up the words of Psalm 22 on the cross (Matt. 27:46), and the first example we have of the early church incorporating verses of Scripture into their prayers is also from Psalm 2 (Acts 4:24–26). These words have stood the test of time. If you’re unsure of how to pray for someone in their time of hurt or heartache, remember the Psalms are a treasure trove for teaching you to faithfully express yourself before God.
The Lord’s Prayer. This might not be the first place you think of when praying in moments of difficulty, but the Lord’s Prayer (Matt. 6:9–13 and Luke 11:2–4) touches every circumstance we face. Personally, I’ve found that praying the Lord’s Prayer in my own moments of need corrects my wayward priorities and rebukes my introspective view. It does this by lifting our eyes to our need for forgiveness, demonstrating dependence upon God for provision of our daily bread, and praising God for who he is despite what we may be enduring. It also reminds us to pray for God’s kingdom to come—where the curse of sin, suffering, and death is undone.
The Promises of God. I love praying the promises of God in moments when I’m not sure what else to say, because we’re told that God is a promise-maker and promise-keeper (Ps. 145:13). This means when we pray and ask him to be faithful to his promises in Scripture we can have confidence that he will remain true to his word. An example of this comes from Deuteronomy 31:6 and Hebrews 13:5 that God will never leave or forsake those that belong to him. This was true for the people of Israel in the Old Testament, as well as those who believe in Christ today. We, therefore, can confidently declare a promise such as this in our prayers. Beginning to pray the promises of God grounds us in eternal truths when the earth is shaking beneath our feet. It clarifies our requests and petitions by reminding us of what God has promised to do for us. And it provides us with words of assurance in the uncertainty of life’s circumstances.
How to Pray the Scriptures
Finally, I’d like to offer four simple ways to practically pray the Scriptures that I’ve found particularly helpful in my own life.
Record verses of Scripture. The most helpful practice that I’ve found in leading me to pray the Scriptures is recording helpful verses in a note on my phone as I read them. It may be rich wording from a lament psalm, a beautiful promise from the mouth of Jesus, or a priority I see given by God in the Torah. By recording these verses, I have an easy-to-access and remarkably deep source of words to draw from when I’m struggling for my own and yet long to pray.
Share a prayer when you share a verse. We are quick to share verses of encouragement, comfort or hope in difficult times. However, I’ve been blessed to be on the receiving end of faithful saints who’ve not just shared a verse with me but included the words of that verse in a short prayer that they’ve offered to God on my behalf.
Write your prayers. For several years now, I’ve written out prayers based on verses of Scripture when I’m finding words hard to come by. It may be because of my upbringing in an Anglican church, where liturgy is not uncommon, but I also know of no other way to express myself before God in prayer as clearly as through this practice. It gives me time to dwell with the Scriptures and allows them to give language and form to my prayers, to teach and train me, before I utter words to God.
Pray the prayers of other believers. There are moments of hardship when even searching the Scriptures for words to pray is too difficult to do. In times like this I’ve found it helpful to pray the prayers of other faithful believers who’ve walked before me. Three helpful resources I’ve found for this are The Book of Common Prayer, originally compiled by Thomas Cranmer, The Valley of Vision, a compilation of prayers from Puritan pastors, and the more recent work of Every Moment Holy by Douglas McKelvey, which has modern liturgies for various seasons, struggles, and situations.
As you turn to God’s word in difficult moments, may you find words to pray when they would otherwise be hard to come by.
Mitch Everingham is a pastor from Sydney, Australia and is currently living in Bern, Switzerland where he and his family serve at Riverlife International Church. His first book, Finding Peace through Prayer: Seven Practices for Praying in Hard Times, is out now through Wipf & Stock Publishers. Mitch holds a BTh from Sydney Missionary and Bible College, and is completing his MTh in Missiology at Edinburgh Theological Seminary. You can find his writing here.