Arrow 7

Introduction

If you get a text message or a voicemail from a loved one we want to answer it right?? It’s hard for us to get a text message from somebody that we care about and not want to reply back to that message. It is the same way with the Word of God. He has given us His message and we desire to understand it and ultimately we should want to respond to what God has to say to us and we obviously do that through applying the Word to our lives by living out what He says or telling others about what he says…but we also do that through the privilege of speaking to God himself through prayer. It is a grace from God that we have been able to talk to him in prayer and it is extremely important that we do so. Martin Luther said that “To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than being alive without breathing.” Oswald Chambers said “Prayer does not fit us for the greater work, prayer IS the greater work.” Jesus teaches his disciples and us as well how to pray “This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is I heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’” says “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God.”

The final arrow that we are going to go through tonight after applying the word is “What does this text prompt me to pray?” When we pray a lot of the times we get in this cycle where we pray the same things and we start getting bored with prayer and feel like it’s the stale and it is probably because we have never thought about praying the word or praying in line with what the Word is telling us. This will deepen and strengthen our prayer lives and make it more vibrant…and here are some ways that we can do that and why we should be praying the Word of God.

Conviction

Most of the time we pray about the things that are at the front of our minds, which isn’t always a bad thing but it can slowly cause us to miss other things that the Spirit is wanting to show us in our prayer life as we work through Scripture. God’s word is “living and active” and is able to show different areas in our life that we wouldn’t usually see. So, the more we read the Bible the more we are illuminated of our sinfulness, which brings conviction, that prompts us to pray with a humble heart, trusting that God is willing and able to forgive us of our sinful behaviors! (My crazy mamaw smoking cigarettes)

Consistency

We all struggle with being consistent about praying to God. We all watch TV, maybe play a sport or multiple, play in band, participate in plays, have school assignments, family responsibilities, etc. So many things take our attention throughout our days and if we are not intentional about being in prayer to God we will find ourselves pushing prayer to the bottom of our priority list.

When we are in the Word often we will be consistently reminded of the necessity of prayer and its importance of prayer in each of our lives.

“Connecting prayer and Bible reading allows you to build momentum in your spiritual disciplines and ensure that you are consistently engaging in these vital practices the Lord has given us to conform us to his image.”

Confidence

Many times we are afraid to pray because we are afraid that we are going to pray the wrong thing, or say something that is going to make God mad or say something that isn’t true or whatever that doubt and fear might be I know that it has crept into the minds of probably all of us in the room young and old, but praying the Scriptures provides assurance that you are praying in line with God’s good purposes.

says that if we ask anything in His name, he will do it…but this isn’t some magical verse that allows us to tag on “in Jesus name” to our prayers that are selfish, self seeking, and self glorifying so that we can get what we want. For instance, you can’t pray for the killing of a certain person because they bully you every day because God answering that prayer would be outside of His character as a God who is long suffering with those who do not know him and persecute you. Instead, God will do anything you ask that is in line with God’s purposes and His plans. We can have confidence in our prayers when we pray in accordance with His word!

For example: If you were to lose your job you would be tempted to pray: “God, I pray that you would give me a new job soon.” but instead we should be praying in alignment with Scripture like “God, you tell me in your word not to be anxious about my life, what I will eat or what I will drink, not about my body, what I will put on. I pray that you would help this job loss to teach me to trust you more, knowing that you will always provide for my needs.”

Specifics

Sometimes our prayers are super generic. A lot of times we find that we say the same phrases over and over again like “thank you for my family” “bless this day” “put your hedge of protection around us today” “I pray for everyone’s safety and that they have a great day.” Which none of these are necessarily bad but they lack specifics a lot of the times. Asking God to forgive you of your anger and bitterness towards your sister or brother or mom or dad or friend, or bully, or teacher is more specific than just asking God to forgive you of your sins in general.

“Scriptures will provide a tool for revealing specific needs for your prayers and will help you fell God exactly what you feel and think.”

Diversity

Sometimes our prayers can grow stale and routine. We pray when something bad happens like a friend diagnosed with an illness, you pray you don’t want to get coronavirus, you pray when a friend or family member gets into a car accident. These are all great things to pray for and about and need to be prayed for and lifted up to God, but there is so much more to a biblical prayer life. “If you pray only when there is trouble…then you’re in trouble.” Sometimes our brain lack clarity so we just pray for what first pops into our minds.

We should be consistently praying thankfulness to God for His characteristics, our worth in Him, our need for the gospel, and hope in his mission to see the lost saved. These types of prayers will often be the fruit of a prayer life based on the Scriptures. Focused on God’s goodness, His ability to do what is right at all times, His knowledge being greater than our own, and His ability to save those we think are “too far gone”.

Reinforcement

Praying the Scriptures that we are reading reinforces the passages we are reading into our minds and our hearts. “We are more likely to recall passages that we study when we talk to God specifically about it.” It also is a way of seeing the importance of the things that you are reading.

“Prayer forces you to do more than recite theological facts. You must personalize the passage and ask God to transform your heart so that you can obey its meaning.”

Simplicity

Praying the Scriptures requires us to think about what we are reading and be intentional about living it out. Im guessing that most of us in this room have never thought about praying the Scripture so this is such a foreign thing for you to do and when you start doing it you’re probably going to feel awkward in praying Scripture back to God. But praying the Word forces us to slow down, think about our prayers, and pray meaningful prayers that are aligned with God’s will.

Through repetition of Scripture

Ex. God, “You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God; I will extol you. Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever.”

You can often change the pronoun from “we” to “I” so that you can personalize it when you pray like God I pray “since I am surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let me also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let me run with endurance the race that is set before me, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of my faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Some passages are easier to become straight prayers than others. Like the psalms are easily constructed so that they can be prayed straight out since they were written as songs to God. Passages that have clear statements about God’s character also are a useful method to pray prayers of thankfulness to God like God you are “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.”

Through composing from your study (7 Arrows)

You can turn other Scriptures into prayers by what you have learned through using the arrows that we have went through. You can pray the truths you have learned in study like in says “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” and your prayer could be shaped like this:

Arrow 1: “God, I acknowledge that Christ is no longer dead but has been raised by your mighty power and is enthroned in the heavens. By virtue of my faith in Christ, I too have crucified my sinful self and have been raised to a holy life”

Arrow 2: “Paul reminded the church in Colossae that they were to set their minds on the things of God and not on the things of this life”

Arrow 3: “I know that you are holy and pure and desire your people to reflect your glory”

Arrow 4: “But, life in this broken world makes it hard for me to focus on you.”

Arrow 5: “I pray that you would, by the power of your Spirit, transform my mind so that I love the things that you love and think about the things that bring you joy.”

Arrow 6: “I also pray that you would use me to show others that the things of God are of far greater worth than the things of his world. Thank you for what you are showing me in your word. Amen.”

Conclusion

Praying the Word helps us in so many different ways in our prayer lives. It helps us be convicted of our sins and see our need for a savior, be consistent in our prayer life, reinforce the word in our brains and our hearts, it helps us pray for different aspects in our lives we often neglect, and it helps us align our purposes with God’s purposes.