Praying the Scriptures for your Life
Praying the Scriptures for your Life
By Jodie Berndt
I know of no better thermometer to your spiritual temperature than this, the measure of the intensity of your prayer.
Charles Spurgeon
The One who breathes stars breathes prayers for you, the One whose words spoke the world into being uses priceless words over your being, the One who made time lives beyond time, controls all of time, uses all of His time to pray for you, because you are priceless to Him.
It is not the products of our days that will matter in the end, but the prayers of our days. Prayer is not what we do before we work, nor is prayer what we do instead of our work. Prayer is our life's work.
We have the best assurance that God, our heavenly Father, always wants the best for his children. God will either give us what we ask or give us what we would have asked if we knew everything he knew.
Tim Keller
John 15 - have you ever realised that the word "abide" appears 11 times in the first 0 verses?
Warren Wiersbe says "to abide means to keep in fellowship with Christ so that his life can work in us and through us to produce fruit."
Andrew Murray makes the point that if Christians got as excited about staying connected to Christ as we did about coming to him in the first place we would experience more power. We would feel more joy. We would become people of impact. The deepest cry of our souls - for an encounter with Jesus that will sustain us even when our hearts fail and our prayers feel empty and flat - would be satisfied.
R A Torrey said to abide in Christ would mean our prayers will obtain that which we seek from God.
What does it look like to stay?
To be willing to surrender. Not living up to a standard but simply trusting the Holy Spirit to change us, renew us and keep us connected.
"Our prayers thus lay the track down which God's power can come. Like some mighty locomotive, his power is irresistible but it cannot reach us without rails."
Watchman Nee
"The Bible wasn't meant to be read through; the Bible was meant to be prayed through. And if you pray through it, you will never run out of things to talk about "
Mark Batterson
The first 3 chapters of Praying the scriptures for Your Life by Jodie Berndt provide an introduction to 31 Days of Abiding in the Presence, Provision and Power of God.
"No other habit can do more to transform your life and make you more like Jesus than daily reflection on Scripture." Rick Warren
Each day has a topical reflection followed by a series of verses to read, reflect on how they intersect with your life and then respond by praying the scriptures.
James and John's mother asked for a specific position of honour which Jesus said no to. How often we beg God to give us something that he knows would lead us through pain. How often have we asked for something without seeing the bigger picture? How often have we been disappointed in God, hugging our trust tightly to our chests, the way we do with a coat when we feel the bite of the wind? God meets us in those places more times than we care to remember. He tells us we didn't trust him, we trusted in an outcome, in a gift. He doesn't want us to want the gift. He wants us to want him. That is God's desire - as we remain in him and open ourselves up to him through our prayers - he satisfies our hearts deepest cry. We may start the prayer process desiring a gift or an outcome, but somewhere along the way, our hunger will grow. Our desire will shift. We will move from seeking the gift to the place where we long for the Giver.
Psalm 73 verses 25 and 26
"No other habit can do more to transform your life and make you more like Jesus than daily reflection on Scripture." Rick Warren
Each day has a topical reflection followed by a series of verses to read, reflect on how they intersect with your life and then respond by praying the scriptures.
James and John's mother asked for a specific position of honour which Jesus said no to. How often we beg God to give us something that he knows would lead us through pain. How often have we asked for something without seeing the bigger picture? How often have we been disappointed in God, hugging our trust tightly to our chests, the way we do with a coat when we feel the bite of the wind? God meets us in those places more times than we care to remember. He tells us we didn't trust him, we trusted in an outcome, in a gift. He doesn't want us to want the gift. He wants us to want him. That is God's desire - as we remain in him and open ourselves up to him through our prayers - he satisfies our hearts deepest cry. We may start the prayer process desiring a gift or an outcome, but somewhere along the way, our hunger will grow. Our desire will shift. We will move from seeking the gift to the place where we long for the Giver.
Psalm 73 verses 25 and 26
Jodi has a lovely testimony of her father in the opening reflection:
My earthly father died, way too young, from brain cancer. As I look back on his legacy - on all the ways his life left an imprint on mine - the gift I cherish the most is the introduction he gave me to Jesus. Dad came home one day when I was just 8 years old and confessed that he'd had it all wrong. He had spent his life trying to earn God's approval (teaching Sunday school, working hard at his job, playing second-rate tennis with a big grin on his face) until someone told him it wasn't about being a "good guy". Being a Christian was about realizing you were not good, after all, and that you needed a Saviour.
My earthly father died, way too young, from brain cancer. As I look back on his legacy - on all the ways his life left an imprint on mine - the gift I cherish the most is the introduction he gave me to Jesus. Dad came home one day when I was just 8 years old and confessed that he'd had it all wrong. He had spent his life trying to earn God's approval (teaching Sunday school, working hard at his job, playing second-rate tennis with a big grin on his face) until someone told him it wasn't about being a "good guy". Being a Christian was about realizing you were not good, after all, and that you needed a Saviour.
"Adoration never requires us to shut down our emotions. On the contrary, it invites us to bring them - all of them - to God. God does not want our polished pretenses ... He wants us to come honestly. So He invites us to wrestle."
Sara Hagerty
When we call on God, releasing his power through our prayers and our praise, our lives become places where he can perform. Our careers, our marriages, our finances, our friendships, our health - all of these venues, and more - are opportunities for God to showcase his splendor. That's what Jesus is taking about in John 15 verses 7 and 8 when he tells us to "ask". "This is to my Father's glory" he says, "that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples."
I have been reading this wonderful little book by Jodie Berndt titled Praying the Scriptures for Your Life. There are 31 days that could be read as part of a daily systematic plan which would be so beneficial (as would a highlighter!) There are so many brilliant quotes that I could include from many famous people. These writings are based around John 15 and abiding in Christ which is a subject that resonated so much with me personally. So much emphasis is placed on coming to faith but actually living it out daily is difficult. This book has given me so much encouragement and I thoroughly recommend it.
In the chapter on praying about how to use your time Jodie Berndt quotes Elisabeth Elliot
"If we really have too much time there are some items on the agenda that God did not put there. Let us submit our list to God and ask him to indicate which items we must delete. There is always time to do the will of God. If we are too busy to do that, we are too busy."
We may think the answer for an overwhelmed life is a change in our circumstances or an easing up in our schedules but it's not. The answer is to spend time with God - and the busier we are, the more time we should spend. As Martin Luther famously put it "I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer."
Just as I am about to finish this book and up pops this chapter! Thrilled as I have been struggling with this aspect of my own prayer life just this past week. Do you pray for the little things in life as well as the big? Maybe you should!
Pete Grieg in How to pray asks "one of the greatest theological questions of our time in the realm of petitioners prayer appears to be whether we should ask God for parking spaces." And the answer... yes! The request is born more out of relationship, out of an understanding that God knew my needs and that every good gift - the big stuff and the small - is, as the bible says "from above".
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