Praying and Praising with Scripture

Do you pray Scripture?

I recently finished reading Beth Moore's book Believing God.  I found her commentary on John 15:7 quite thought provoking.  The verse says, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you."

Here's what Beth had to say.

"According to John 15:7, the key to answered prayer is sharing the mind of Christ over any given matter through His words actively abiding in us.  The more His words roll around in our heads, the more likely we are to think with them....When I use Scripture, I in effect transfer the burden to God's Word rather than my ability to pray correctly or adequately."

I have prayed Scripture in the past, but this encouraged me to get back into the habit.

There are certain areas in which we know what the will of God is.  For example, when I pray for my unsaved neighbor, I can use 2 Peter 3:9.  "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."

James 1:5 is a wonderful verse to pray when I need to make a decision and am unsure of what to do. "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him."

At times, I have prayed for a particular answer to prayer for a family member, a request that would bring a blessing in their lives, and have quoted the last part of Psalm 84:11, where it says "...no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly."

In difficulties, I can tell God that I know His grace will be sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9) or "...my God shall supply all [my] need..." (Philippians 4:19)  If I'm fearful, I know that God has told me He has not given me the spirit of fear (2 Timothy 1:7) or if I don't feel up to a task, I know that "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." (Philippians 4:13)

Using promises from His Word is powerful.  I can remind God of His promise that He "will never leave me nor forsake me" (Hebrews 13:5) and that if I acknowledge Him, He will direct my paths. (Proverbs 3:6)

The more that I read, study, and memorize Bible passages and meditate on them, the more Scripture I can find to address prayer concerns and needs that I have.

A similar practice is to use God's Word to praise Him. The Psalms are perfect for this!  Last year, I memorized Psalm 145 and it works well here.  I take the verses and put them into my own words as I pray.  For example, verses 8 and 9 could be prayed like this.

Lord, I praise you because you are gracious and full of compassion toward me.  I thank you that you are slow to anger and show such great mercy.  You are so good to all of us and everything You do is covered by your mercy.

I am taking the words that God had the Psalmist pen and praising Him with them.  This is something I want to do more of as part of my daily prayer time.

Do you ever pray Scripture?  Is there a favorite Bible verse or a particular promise that would make a good prayer or praise to God?