Speaker 1: Teach Us to Pray is brought to you by Life
Speaker 1: Audio and is a part of our Faith Toolkit series.
Speaker 1: For more inspirational faith affirming podcasts, visit lifeaudio dot com.
Speaker 2: Welcome back, friend. You are listening to the Teach Us
Speaker 2: to Pray podcast, where we teach believers practical and real
Speaker 2: life tips on how to grow your faith and relationship
Speaker 2: with God through the power of prayer. I'm Christina Patterson,
Speaker 2: host of the Teach Us to Pray podcast and founder
Speaker 2: of Beloved Women, where I encourage, equip and empower women
Speaker 2: in the love of Jesus Christ and the truth of
Speaker 2: God's Word. In today's episode, I want to talk about
Speaker 2: how to pray the scriptures. In episode nine, we discussed
Speaker 2: how to pray when we don't know what to say,
Speaker 2: and one of the ways that we shared that we
Speaker 2: could know what to say when we don't know what
Speaker 2: to pray is to pray the scriptures. And what that
Speaker 2: means is using the foundational truths of God's Word to
Speaker 2: structure our prayers. And that's what I'm going to.
Speaker 3: Teach you how to do today.
Speaker 2: So, in order to pray the scriptures, the first step
Speaker 2: that you need to do is to choose the verse
Speaker 2: or passage or scripture you are going to pray, and
Speaker 2: so you might choose a scripture that is like your
Speaker 2: life verse, a scripture that means a lot to you
Speaker 2: over the course of your life, that is reoccurring value
Speaker 2: to you as you think about it, or you might
Speaker 2: pick a scripture that relates to the current circumstances or
Speaker 2: situation that you're facing right now. One thing that you
Speaker 2: can do to find a scripture or decide what passage
Speaker 2: you want to pray over your life is to do
Speaker 2: a word search in the U version Bible app or
Speaker 2: any kind of Bible based software where you can search
Speaker 2: a particular term or word and it will pull up
Speaker 2: all the verses related to that particular topic, and that
Speaker 2: can be a good starting point for you and deciding
Speaker 2: what verse you want to pray now. Also, a lot
Speaker 2: of Bibles, if you look in the back of some Bibles,
Speaker 2: they will have indexes where you can look up particular
Speaker 2: words and it will share with you what scripture references
Speaker 2: you can look up to find scriptures on that particular
Speaker 2: word or topic. So that's where you want to start.
Speaker 2: What scripture are you going to pray? And those are
Speaker 2: some ways that you can think about where to find
Speaker 2: those scriptures. The next thing you want to do, once
Speaker 2: you've decided on your verse or your passage, you want
Speaker 2: to find the principal promise or command that the verse holds.
Speaker 2: And so I want to go over each one of
Speaker 2: these and how to pray over each one. So, if
Speaker 2: you find a promise in the scripture, a promise is
Speaker 2: a declaration that God will do something. It is not conditional.
Speaker 2: It's simply a statement about God or his character based
Speaker 2: on who he always is. So, for example, when Jesus
Speaker 2: says I will be with you always in Matthew twenty
Speaker 2: eight twenty, that is a promise not dependent on what
Speaker 2: we do or what we don't do. When we pray
Speaker 2: promises of God, we are praying to believe his promises.
Speaker 2: We're asking God to renew our mind so that we
Speaker 2: can trust that what he's saying in his word, the
Speaker 2: promises that he is giving us are true. Now, this
Speaker 2: is important because our beliefs reflect our actions, and so
Speaker 2: if we're not believing in the promises of God, we're
Speaker 2: not going to act like they exist. We're not going
Speaker 2: to act like God's always gonna be with us. We're
Speaker 2: not gonna act like he's going to keep his promises.
Speaker 2: We're not going to have that godly boldness and confidence
Speaker 2: that comes from truly standing on the word of God.
Speaker 2: And so that's why our prayer is, Lord, here is
Speaker 2: your promise in your word. Help me to believe it.
Speaker 2: Transform my mind to believe it if I'm not already.
Speaker 2: And so God's giving us his promises for the purpose
Speaker 2: for us to stand on so that we can act accordingly.
Speaker 2: So let's look at Joshua one nine, where God says,
Speaker 2: have I not commanded you be strong and courageous, Do
Speaker 2: not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the
Speaker 2: Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Now
Speaker 2: we see here that there's a command, and we'll talk
Speaker 2: about commands in a little bit and how to pray
Speaker 2: over those that you know. He's commanded to be strong
Speaker 2: and courageous. But that command is followed by a promise.
Speaker 2: God will be with Joshua, and God will keep his word.
Speaker 2: And as we believe in him, we are strengthened to
Speaker 2: follow his commands. Two Timothy two thirteen reminds us of
Speaker 2: the beauty of God's promises. It says if we are faithless,
Speaker 2: he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. Many times
Speaker 2: we mistakenly not believe the promises of God because we
Speaker 2: compare God to man. We think, well, I wouldn't do that,
Speaker 2: or I couldn't imagine for giving someone for that or
Speaker 2: loving someone like me. And God's not like us. If
Speaker 2: he says that he will do it, we must believe
Speaker 2: that he will. And if we struggle to believe, well,
Speaker 2: then that's what our prayer is for. Next, when you
Speaker 2: choose a scripture or a verse to pray about, you
Speaker 2: want to see if there's a principle found there. Now,
Speaker 2: a principle is a foundational truth that is conditional. It's
Speaker 2: a statement that says, if you do this, then this
Speaker 2: will result. So let's look at the popular scripture Psalm
Speaker 2: thirty seventy four, which says, delight yourself in the Lord,
Speaker 2: and He will give you the desires of your heart. Now,
Speaker 2: many people mistake this verse as a promise that God
Speaker 2: will grant us the desires of our heart. But this
Speaker 2: is not a promise. It's a principle. When we first
Speaker 2: delight on ourselves in Him, then we will receive the
Speaker 2: desires of our heart. So we're praying. When it comes
Speaker 2: to praying principles, we're praying to live according to the
Speaker 2: principle that we may experience the fruits of living in
Speaker 2: line with God's truth. So, for example, if again, if
Speaker 2: we're looking at Psalm thirty seven four, we're praying that God, please,
Speaker 2: you know, help me to delight myself in You so
Speaker 2: that then I can receive the desires of my heart.
Speaker 2: And it's about being in alignment with God and his
Speaker 2: will when we're praying the principles. Last, when you're looking
Speaker 2: over your verse or passes that you want to pray
Speaker 2: over your life, you want to see is there a command? Now?
Speaker 2: A command is an authoritative directive or order from God.
Speaker 2: It's simply God telling us how he wants us to
Speaker 2: live our lives. So think of the ten commandments, Love God,
Speaker 2: don't steal, love your neighbor, don't kill, commands or orders
Speaker 2: from God on how we are to conduct ourselves. Now,
Speaker 2: when it comes to praying commands, we need to pray
Speaker 2: for power to fight our flesh. Jesus tells us that
Speaker 2: the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak, and
Speaker 2: so we need to be praying for God's power to
Speaker 2: truly show up in our lives so that we can
Speaker 2: live out these commands, because it's just not in our
Speaker 2: nature to do so. Now, we also don't want to
Speaker 2: become discouraged in our weakness, because when we pray, we're
Speaker 2: unlocking God's strength in our lives so that His power
Speaker 2: can be great in us. I love Tewod Corinthians twelve
Speaker 2: nine that says, My grace is sufficient for you, for
Speaker 2: my power is made perfect in weakness, and God's power
Speaker 2: is made perfect in our weakness. So even when we
Speaker 2: fall short, we know that we can lean on the
Speaker 2: power of prayer to invite God's strength into our weakness.
Speaker 2: That is what He is in the business of doing.
Speaker 2: As you reflect on the scripture that you've decided to
Speaker 2: pray over your life, you want to pray to believe
Speaker 2: any promises, to live by any principles, or to follow
Speaker 2: any commands, and in all those things we are just
Speaker 2: asking God to release his strength and power for us
Speaker 2: to do those things. Last, what you want to do
Speaker 2: when it comes to praying the scriptures is to commit
Speaker 2: to knowing God's word through the study of his word
Speaker 2: and continual prayer. We can't pray what we don't know.
Speaker 2: If we don't know God's word, if we don't know
Speaker 2: God's truth, if we don't know his principles, his promises,
Speaker 2: or commands, then we won't pray them. And so this
Speaker 2: is where Bible study is very important to our prayer lives,
Speaker 2: especially if we want to be praying God's truth over
Speaker 2: our lives. And the simple reflective methods that I've given
Speaker 2: you today, as far as pulling out the promises, pulling
Speaker 2: out the principles, and pulling out the commands, is a
Speaker 2: good starting point to knowing God's word and what it
Speaker 2: means and how you can apply it to your life.
Speaker 2: And you already have the power of prayer to unlock
Speaker 2: it in your life as well. And making those two
Speaker 2: connections between knowing God's word and praying God's word is
Speaker 2: a great gift to the believer. It is my hope
Speaker 2: that today's episode has provided you with insight and helpful
Speaker 2: tips on how you can pray. We have so much
Speaker 2: more to talk about when it comes to prayer, so
Speaker 2: I hope that if you were encouraged by today's episode,
Speaker 2: you'll share it with a friend and subscribe so you
Speaker 2: won't miss any future episodes of the Teach Us to
Speaker 2: Pray podcast, where we will continue to learn how, just
Speaker 2: like breathing, prayer can become a natural, consistent, and life
Speaker 2: giving part of our everyday lives. Until then, be sure
Speaker 2: to connect with me at Beloved Women dot org and
Speaker 2: check out the show notes to download my free five
Speaker 2: day prayer Guide. Thank you so much for taking the
Speaker 2: time to listen today. God bless you and I'll talk
Speaker 2: to you in the next episode.
Speaker 1: Teach Us to Pray is a production of Life Audio
Speaker 1: and the Salem Web Network. If you enjoyed this episode,
Speaker 1: would you take a minute and leave us you and
Speaker 1: your podcast app It really does help more people like
Speaker 1: you find a podcast to hear more from Christina Patterson.
Speaker 1: Be sure to check out her fantastic site Beloved Women
Speaker 1: dot org. A special thanks to Kelly Gibbons, Stephen Sanders,
Speaker 1: and Stephen McGarvey for their production and editing on this episode.
Speaker 1: You can find more podcasts like this over at life
Speaker 1: audio dot com.