“…Scripture without prayer has no soul; prayer without Scripture has no substance.”
– Eugene Peterson
I’m coming to agree with Eugene Peterson, perhaps we cannot disentangle prayer from God’s Word, there is a twining together, as God embodies His Word.
Scripture becomes the seeds for my prayers.
I must consciously do this – pray God’s Word. This parroting of His words back to Him – it’s powerful. This has changed my prayer life. Now I often start my morning time by opening the Scriptures, and when I see a truth that jumps out at me, that I want for my life, I ask God for it for myself or my loved ones. There’s a bigness to prayers under the power of God’s Word.
Recently I read “You who are near me know my strength” (Isaiah 33:13). I stopped right then and there reading those words and asked the Lord – ’Help me draw near You and may I know Your strength’. The best way I can describe it – I want that, Lord!
As I’ve mentioned, the praying of the Psalms is one very specific way we can pray with God’s Word. I believe the Psalms are that training ground – truly ‘the school of prayer’ as the wise Andrew Murray’s book on prayer proclaims in its title.
The truth is for over four years I read the Psalms almost exclusively. They comforted me. They fed me. I went to them, not fully understanding all that was in them – particularly the violence or the deep calls for justice against enemies which were far beyond what I had experienced or seen. Yet each day I found myself led to a God who was a very present help, a faithful presence in troubles. One who offered compassion and mercy and protection in the midst of the unspeakable troubles we all face. I saw over and over God’s sovereignty over every situation, His presence no matter what, and this was a comfort to my soul.
God became real to me here – in the middle of the Psalms. I found God’s mercy and grace for me in the health troubles I faced. The truth about His kindness and His mercies despite horrific circumstances unfolded before my eyes as I poured over the Psalms and found myself with King David pouring out my heart to the Lord with the Psalms.
David’s prayers for mercies, became my prayers for mercy. David’s prayer for forgiveness and a new heart, became my prayer for a new heart. The prayers of the Psalms became the prayers of my heart. I was formed and reformed right there, as I read and prayed the Psalms.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer explains beautifully how when we pray the psalms, our prayers join with Jesus’s own prayers, particularly the psalms we don’t grasp fully…….
“A psalm we cannot utter as a prayer, that makes us falter and horrifies us, is a hint to us that here Someone else is praying, not we; that the One who is here protesting his innocence, who is invoking God’s judgement, who has come to such infinite depths of suffering, is none other than Jesus Christ himself. He it is who is praying here, and not only here but in the whole Psalter….
The man Jesus Christ….is praying in the Psalter through the mouth of his Church.”
– D. Bonhoeffer “Life Together”
For me, the Psalms are a witness to the truth that when God meets us in our darkest hour in our deepest distresses, He changes things. His Presence makes a difference. The equation of our lives, for you math geeks, is altered when we add God. For you cooks – the recipes to our lives become sweeter with God in the mix. For the workout geeks – God strengthens our muscles and shapes our bodies into His pleasing ways, as we pray.
Have you noticed in reading the Psalms that often the psalmist begins with lament ‘Why, God? How long, Lord will You leave us?’, yet they end in praise. These laments and honest acknowledgement of our emotions are where I start, but I, too, find myself like the psalmist’s cry where lament turns to praise. My prayers are changed. I can’t explain it.
“Praising God is not concocted flattery, but the most earnest human business we can undertake. Ultimately, it is for the sake of the world: we praise God in order to see the world as God does.”
– Ellen F. Davis, “Getting Involved With God”
It is part of the mystery of prayer. Prayer draws me to a new vision and closeness with God. Pain become praises to God. Groans and gut cries become glad utterances. Worries become worship. Desperation becomes declaration of God’s goodness.
It’s part of the work of God in and through prayer, taking unbearable and unsolvable life circumstances and adding God to life’s equation produces a by-product of hope. It’s a paradigm shift, an altering perception of reality to include the wonder and work of God. It changes things. It alters our vision, we begin to see the world differently.
“Prayer means nothing else but the readiness and willingness to receive and appropriate the Word, and, what is more, to accept it in one’s personal situation.”
– Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “Life Together”
(Rom. 12:1, Isaiah 55:8)
**Well, this will be my last Lent thanks offering, I’ll be going back to short and sweet Instagram posts, probably my fav offerings. Thanks to all who spent any time here reading a bit of my story and my heart for prayer. May you know God’s nearness as you pour out your own heart and words to Him.
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