Pray as You Eat

If you are like my family, when you sit down to enjoy a meal, you take a moment to thank God for the food, the day, your family, and more. (Some families call this "saying grace.") And if the food is really good, you might even thank God after you've eaten. But what about praying while you eat?

Throughout this Consuming Scripture series, we've been looking at various ways to "eat" God's Word. While this week's topic isn't exactly a study method designed to help you understand Scripture better, I believe it can help you go deeper in your faith. What is this idea? Using the Bible itself to guide your prayers.

Letting God's Words Guide Your Words

If you've ever struggled with knowing what or how to pray, why not let Scripture give you the words to pray? For instance, last Sunday I taught from the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians. The very last verse of that remarkable chapter about the critical importance of the resurrection says...

"Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain." (1 Corinthians 15:58, ESV)

If you were to turn that verse into a prayer, here's what you might pray:

"Heavenly Father, as I struggle with __(share problem here)___, help me to remain steadfast and immovable. Help my faith to be strong, to trust that you are at work, because if you can raise the dead, I know you can help me with this situation."

"Also, help the works I do to flourish for the good of others and for your glory. I know that the things you have called me to do at __(your job/school/organization)__ will not be done in vain if I do them for you. So please empower me by your Spirit to faithfully and joyfully serve, even as I struggle with __(the problem)__."

Prayer Tips

1. Let the Scripture guide.

Don't feel like you have to force anything or get flowery in your speech. If you don't quite know what to say next, let the next verse or phrase lead you.

2. Don't force the Scriptures to be a script.

Praying Scripture does not mean ONLY reciting back the words of the Bible to God. Rather, it is about allowing the Scriptures to guide your heart and mind to know what to say to Him.

3. Use a good Bible translation.

While I use the ESV (English Standard Version) for both preaching and personal reading, some people find the slightly-more-theological language of the ESV a bit harder to read than other translations. So use a version of the Bible that is reliable, yet readable. The versions I tend to recommend (other than the ESV) are:

• The NET Bible (NET)
• The Christian Standard (CSB)
• The New Living Translation (NLT)
• The New International Version (NIV)
• The New American Standard (NASB - similar to the ESV)

4. Use most of the Bible.

Lastly, there are quite a few passages throughout the Bible that can guide you in prayer, but realize passages like genealogies (such as Genesis 5) or heavily historical sections (such as the rest of Genesis) will be difficult as prayer guides. Instead...

• ...let the Psalms be your prayers (since many of them are prayers!)
• ...allow the Epistles (the letters in the New Testament) to guide you to pray through the Gospel,
• ...and make Jesus' words in the Sermon on the Mount your heart-searching prayers.

Don't just open up to a random spot and start praying. Otherwise you might get frustrated trying to pray through Matthew's geneology (a.k.a., "Matt's Begats").

May you take some time this week to pray through the Scriptures, letting God's Words guide your words back to Him.