Praying the truths of Scripture opens up wonderful conversational possibilities with God our Father. It can be a time of recognizing God's goodness and greatness, and putting the reality of these firmly in our minds. It can be a time of recognizing our failings, and coming to God for forgiveness, and also of coming to God to ask for His help to live as the new creatures in Christ that He saved us to be.
When we read that God is our salvation (Isaiah 12:2), but we know that we are depending too much on our own sufficiency we can pray, "Oh Lord, help me to count on You and You alone! Help me to put no confidence in my own goodness! Help me not be deceived by the lies of my culture!"
When we read in 1 Peter 1:14 "As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct," and we feel insufficient to the task, we can pray, "Lord, I know my weaknesses, and they are great, please help me not to be ensnared by the passions of my flesh, but help me to say no to them, and yes to the leading of Your Holy Spirit."
In this way, we work in harmony with the Word of God in putting off that which is old, and putting on that which in new, for Christ's glory and to serve God more fruitfully.
Recently during my devotional time, I went verse by verse, pulled things out of Scripture and wrote them down on a spreadsheet: what we as Christians are called to do, what we are warned not to do, and what part God plays/has played. Then I went through again, verse by verse and wrote down prayers stimulated by each verse. Every week I put some of these prayers in our church bulletin, and we pray for them as a congregation. I think this is helpful because not only are we praying Scripture as a congregation, we are getting a deeper view of what each book of the Bible teaches. I've included three weeks worth of these Prayer Points below.
Maybe this would be of help to someone,
Jana Dorn
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All zip files opened. Are these Jana's worksheets? If so, I can see how they would be helpful in structuring sermons.
Maybe the closet I pray in is too small.
Yes, from Jana.
Heart – size is more important than square footage :-)