When we read our Bible and pray we’re having a conversation with God: God speaks to us in his word; we talk back to him in prayer.
But how do we know what to say to him? We have what he says to us in his word, but what do we say to him? In one sense, God simply instructs us in the Bible—more so, frees us—to pray whatever is on our heart. Our Father delights to listen to us, his children, and so we don’t need to offer up particularly long or fancy prayers (Matthew 6:8). We should pray whatever is on our hearts.
It seems, however, that many of us just stop there when we consider what to pray. And in doing so we make prayer more difficult, because, let’s be honest, it’s hard to just come up with things to talk about for an extended, focused period of time.
This is why marvelous help arrives for our prayer life when we connect the two parts of our conversation with God, namely, hearing from God in the Bible and speaking to God in prayer. The typical way this connection happens is by reading the Bible and then praying back the verses or paragraphs we read. If we do this, we hear from God in his word, usually through a verse, and then we right away respond by using his words and ideas from that verse to guide our own ideas and words. This sort of Bible-reading prayer is outline clearly, concisely, and compellingly in Don Whitney’s Praying the Bible, and I wholeheartedly recommend the book for more on how to pray over the Bible.
Yet recently in my prayer life, I’ve used a slightly different way to combine hearing from God in his word and my praying back to him. I call it my “God-given prayer list.” Now, before you think I’m some cuckoo who thinks that God is handing me a specific list to pray about each day, let me explain. Here’s what I mean.
I’m reading through the Bible again in a year—something that, by God’s grace, has become a pretty solid habit (thanks to the leadership of my Dad). Reading the Bible like this in a year allows for my reading each morning to be anywhere from one to four chapters a day, which is a manageable amount to read through sort of slowly.
So as I begin my morning routine, I first ask Jesus that he may help me draw near to him, hear him in his word, and respond by talking to him. Then, I read these chapters in my Bible. But importantly (for the sake of this “God-given prayer list”), as I do so I underline parts that seem interesting, emphatic, applicable, confusing—or essentially anything I want to underline. I underline, mark up with comments or questions, draw lines between certain verses, and more. This is basic Bible reading, venturing on Bible study.
How then do I arrive at my “God-given prayer list”? After I read my chapters, I return to talking to God. And what do I use to guide my conversation with God? The words, phrases, or verses I’ve underlined. (Sometimes I break off into prayer while reading the Bible—making my method of prayer similar to Don Whitney’s advice in his Praying the Bible—but usually I read the whole chunk of chapters in one swoop.)
In short, it is these underlines which are my “God-given prayer list” for that morning. It’s pretty simple.
That’s it. Perhaps you’re underwhelmed. You may be thinking, “That’s great. But isn’t the term ‘God-given prayer list’ a bit too extreme?” I’ve been wondering the same thing, but I actually don’t think so. Here’s three reasons why.
First, the underlines I’m rooting my prayers in are from God’s word, so I’m right away doing similar to the typical method of praying the Bible. I’m taking God’s word and praying back to him similar ideas. The only major difference is I’m not doing it right away after reading a verse or paragraph.
Second, the underlines are the things that God guided me to see as emphatic, interesting, confusing, and more. As a result, my mind and hopefully my affections are drawn uniquely to these parts of the passage. This is different than the typical method of praying the Bible. The advantage in this method is that I pray over the parts that are uniquely emphatic to my heart and mind; the disadvantage is that it may lead me to skip over certain helpful biblical ideas.
Third, each Bible passage—whether you’re in something like an Old Testament story or a New Testament epistle—has such different thoughts and ideas that the underlines always are unique from one another and always lead to different ideas to pray for. Moreover, certain underlined words or phrases also can make you think about other things from other passages as well.
So that’s why I don’t think it’s cuckoo, and why I think we can even say it’s “God-given.” But why specifically do I think it might be called a “prayer list” (rather than something like a “prayer guide”)? Because not only do I pray over these words and verses, but then I take these ideas and variously apply them to God (worshiping him), myself (praying for myself), and others (petitioning for others)—like a list. It’s amazing how these underlined sections can lead me in various ways to praise God, pray for my day, or pray for others like my wife, my family, my friends, my congregation, or the world. It’s nothing too complicated; I’m simply taking my underlined Bible-ideas and applying them in a myriad of ways. But in doing so it leads to praises, confessions, or petitions before God.
Perhaps in another post I’ll give an example (like how I recently had a unique handful of underlines in Matthew 18, leading me to pray about my kids, my faith, my church, God’s grace, and even angelic protection). But I’ll leave it there for now.
May such a Bible-rooted “God-given prayer list” (throw out the term if it isn’t helpful!) lead us commune more deeply with our loving God who delights to converse to us.
