Live With Eternal Perspective Podcast Episode 064 - Praying Scripture - Part 2
Welcome to the Terri Hitt – Live With Eternal Perspective Podcast
Episode #064 – Praying Scripture – Part 2
Thank you for entrusting and investing your precious time with me to grow in Jesus together. I am blessed to be back with you to discuss more ways to live with eternal perspective.
Thank you for joining me for Part 2 of my “Praying Scripture” series. Last week we discussed the importance of prayer, then elevated our desire to pray and communicate with our Heavenly Father to higher ground by using God’s words as the foundation of our prayer life.
Praying scripture strengthens our understanding of God’s word and releases His authoritative power into our life. Specifically seeking His word and utilizing it in our prayers is a faithful and trusting act of obedience as we rely on God’s powerful words and truths. To pray His word, we must know it, study it, and claim it. By purposely connecting our heart to God’s and intentionally praying His words, we are beseeching our Heavenly Father to use His will, just as Jesus modeled for us.
As I shared last week, in order to deepen prayer time by drawing nearer to God and using His word as ours, we may need to examine and adjust the way we pray.
We must pray with intimate devotion by crafting our language to align with scripture.
By studying God’s word, we solidify knowledge and understanding of scripture. As I have been working to craft my prayers around scripture, I find God’s words filter through my mind more often. Usually when I go to bed at night or awaken in the morning, my thoughts are focused on the Lord, but now I have His words floating in my consciousness even when I awaken at night.
God’s holy word carries privilege and strength as it shapes our heart and mind to mirror His.
Even when we follow Jesus with a whole heart, we are incredibly far from where He desires us to be. Each of us struggles in some way with emotions, feelings, thoughts, fears, sadness, depression, lying, idols, mistakes, desires, conflicts, misunderstandings, attitudes, judging, failures, busyness, and the list just continues with no end. No one is perfect. Even when we feel we have successfully submitted ourselves to God to conquer some of what our particular weaknesses are, we are only scratching the surface. New trials or disappointments will come our way to awaken us to the realization that we have so much farther to go.
Using God’s living, active word as the foundation for our prayers releases His profound power.
Through using God’s word to frame our prayers, our faith deepens and stretches wider, allowing God more access to our heart, mind, and desires.
A foundation of faith built on God’s holy word will never crumble.
Today I am sharing several verses with prayers to accompany them. These are designed for you to use during your prayer time and are also a guideline for you to craft additional prayers from God’s word as you deepen your prayer time with Him in this manner.
Let’s begin with basic prayers to prepare us to step before the presence of the Lord. First I will read the scripture, then a prayer designed around God’s word and truths.
Matthew 7:7-8 says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”
Father God, your word assures me that if I ask, I will receive. If I seek, I will find. If I knock, the door will be opened. You lovingly command me more than once to ask, seek, and knock, just as you desire that I remain constant in my faith and prayer life. Thank you for your assurance that if I continue, I will receive, find, and have the door opened to me. I know that Your word is true. I trust that You will give me what You desire as I ask You to help me to pray for what You want for me. My heart yearns for You, Your influence, and provision in my life.
Matthew 7:12 says, “In everything, then, do to others as you would have them do to you. For this is the essence of the Law and the Prophets.”
Loving Heavenly Father, I thank you for Your love for me and for Your deep and impartial love for others. Help me to see them with Your eyes and heart and enable me to love others in ways that can only come from You. May I treat everyone You created with a godly love and the same actions I desire them to extend to me.
Matthew 7:13-14 says, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
Father, cause me to remain on the road within Your narrow gate. Keep me far from the path that leads to destruction. Enable me to focus on You, Your provisions, and peace that flows from You as I remain on the road that few will choose to travel. Carry me over difficult roads with joy as I focus on walking in eternity with You.
Isaiah 50:4-5 says, “The Sovereign Lord has given me His words of wisdom, so that I know how to comfort the weary. Morning by morning He wakens me and opens my understanding to His will. The Sovereign Lord has spoken to me, and I have listened. I have not rebelled or turned away.”
Sovereign Lord, I only desire to do Your will. You have deposited Your words of wisdom within me. Enable me to use them to know Your ways and comfort the weary. Each morning I am blessed to have You awaken me with deeper understanding of Your will. I do not wish to rebel, but to remain in Your will and ways. Create within me a desire for You above all else.
Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted over the earth.”
Father, enable me to be still and know that You alone are God. You are exalted among the nations and over the earth, yet you keep your eye on me. Help my thoughts, desires, and actions to honor You.
Psalm 42:1-2 says, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul longs after You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, the living God. When shall I come and appear in God’s presence?”
Gracious Lord, just as the deer waits to drink until it feels safe, You are my refuge. As the deer pants with a deep thirst for water, Lord, my spirit yearns for You in this dry land that offers no relief. Only You know my inner being and can completely satisfy the depth of my needs. My soul thirsts for You, My God. Allow me to humbly approach Your presence as I anticipate Your loving and caring hands.
Jeremiah 33:3 says, “Call to Me, and I will answer and show you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”
Father God, how great You are that You beseech me to call upon You so that You can lavish Your loving care upon me. Your promises are certain. I know You desire my reliance and ask for me to trust in You. I call upon Your gracious heart to hear my cries and fulfill Your words to me. Thank you for desiring to be involved in my life. I need You. Show me great and unsearchable things I cannot know and have not seen as I seek Your mighty hand.
How beautiful it is to enter God’s presence with His words crafting the desires of our heart to beat in unison with His. As we absorb the beauty of praying God’s words to Him, let’s examine a collection of verses that may be used for family.
1 Peter 5:8-9 says, “Be sober-minded and alert. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in your faith and in the knowledge that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering.”
A prayer of protection from these verses could be:
Father, cause me to remain alert. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Protect my family and I, Dear God, and enable us to resist the adversary as we stand firm in our faith and in the knowledge that all of your children are undergoing the same challenges and suffering. Carry us, Lord, and keep our eyes fixed on You as we rest in Your ability to embrace and encircle us with Your steadfast and powerful protection.
Galatians 1:10 says, “Am I now seeking the approval of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.”
Father, may the only approval I desire be Yours. When I try to please man, I am not focused on being Your servant. Help me remain steadfast to You and Your ways.
1 Peter 5:6 says, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, so that in due time He may exalt you.”
Heavenly Father, I believe that humble submission is key to living for You. Help me to submit to Your mighty and sovereign hand, despite circumstances, and await the time You choose to exalt me.
Matthew 22:37 says, “Jesus declared, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Lord, thank you for allowing Jesus to be the perfect example for us to follow. May His words be carved into my mind and heart so that I do not sin against You. Father, help me to love You with all my heart, soul, and mind. Enable me to see myself as You desire and to love others as I love myself, as You stir compassion, empathy, and godly love in me to extend to them so that You may be glorified.
Deuteronomy 6:1-9 says, “These are the commandments and statutes and ordinances that the Lord your God has instructed me to teach you to follow in the land that you are about to enter and possess, so that you and your children and grandchildren may fear the Lord your God all the days of your lives by keeping all His statutes and commandments that I give you, and so that your days may be prolonged. Hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe them, so that you may prosper and multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you. Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These words I am commanding you today are to be upon your hearts. And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.”
This passage of scripture is one of my favorites in the Bible. How lovingly God has left wise instruction for us to absorb that will allow us to raise children for Him. A prayer scripted from these words will humbly touch our heart as we passionately strive to live for God and set our children on the path to knowing, loving, and honoring Him.
Heavenly Father, I accept the commandments, statutes, and ordinances that You have instructed those who love You to follow. Help my children, grandchildren, and I to fear You all the days of our lives. May we keep these laws because we love You and desire to honor You. Prolong our lives as we submit to Your desires. You, my God, You are One, high above all else. I love You Father, with all of my heart, soul, and strength, just as I desire that my children and grandchildren will. I pray that the words You have commanded us will be upon my heart and cause me to teach them diligently to my children, that I will speak of You, and of Your words when we sit at home or walk along the road, when we lie down, and when we get up. Please tie them as reminders on my hands and bind them to my forehead. Write them on the doorposts of my house and on my gates as I strive to love You with my thoughts, emotions, energy, and purpose and teach my descendants to do the same, for You are worthy of our undivided love and devotion.
This passage of scripture speaks to me so deeply because I believe we should all live this way as easily as breathing. God created this world and is in and above and around all we see and experience. It should be easy for us to follow this command. As we seek God moment by moment, speaking of His existence in and through all, allowing our children and grandchildren to see the love and reverence we hold for our Heavenly Father, we are in effect writing Him on our doorposts and gates, and binding Him into their minds and hearts. When we allow God this access, we are truly living with eternal perspective.
Gracious and loving Heavenly Father, thank you for Your word and the transforming effect it creates on our life. Your word is alive and powerful, sharper than a double-edged sword, dividing soul and spirit, joint and marrow. Through it, our innermost thoughts and desires are exposed so that true spiritual and eternal reconstruction can occur.
Next week on the podcast we will finish this series with Part 3 as we delve into our final set of scripture and prayers.
Thank you for listening to this podcast. If prayer is a topic you would like to learn more about, you may enjoy listening to episode 18, “Prayer.” Please visit terrihitt.com to access podcast episodes housed in one convenient location, read blog posts, transcripts, and access additional resources designed to mature your walk with Jesus through an eternal perspective and encourage you to raise or influence children to choose Christ over culture.
I’m thrilled to share that my latest free resource, “Scattering Seeds: Planting Character and Faith in Your Child” has released! This eBook is an excellent encouragement and support for mothers or grandmothers of young children. I encourage you to visit my website to access and download it soon.
I pray this podcast draws you nearer to God and helps you cling to Him, despite any circumstances in your life. Until next week, keep looking Up while focusing on ways to Live With Eternal Perspective.