Prayer: Praying Scripture When You Get Stuck in Prayer

Most of us would agree that we need God in grief (no matter how we feel about Him). During dark nights of the soul, we come face to face with our humanness–our frailty & our inability to take another step (or another breath) without His divine intervention. If we need God so much, then that means we must talk with Him. Yet talking with Him–praying–can feel very very hard. Our minds wander, we say the same things over and over, and we feel bored or just plain lost. 

This struggle is quite the conundrum! We need to pray–to offer up our pain, hurt, confusion, hope and gratitude–but it feels unattainable at times. What do we do? 

Noticed how Jesus prayed. 

Most often, Jesus prayed Scripture. 

• To fight off Satan in the wilderness, Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy (Deut 8:3, 6:13, 6:16)
• The Lord’s Prayer is built from Old Testament language:
  • “hallowed be your name” echoes Ezek 36:23
  • “give us today our daily bread” recalls the provision of manna (Ex 16) 
  • “forgive us our debts” reflects Ps 51
• In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus’ heartwrenching prayer before the Cross reflects the attitude of surrender found in the Psalms (Ps 40:7–8; Ps 143:10).
• On the Cross Jesus prayed Ps 22:1 and Ps 31:5.

Our King, Savior, and Shepherd has shown us how to pray: our words to God are to be infused with the Word of God, through the power of the Holy Spirit. I’ve heard the Bible described as “the language of the Holy Spirit.” It makes sense, then, to offer back to God His very own language.

You’ll notice that many of Jesus’ prayers come from the Psalms. The Psalter (Book of Psalms) was the prayer and hymnbook of the Jewish synagogues. He would have learned them as a child and prayed and sung them often throughout His life. While we can pray many parts of the Bible fairly intuitively, the Psalms are the natural place to land since they actually are prayers.

So how do you pray the Bible?

As an example, let’s use the first part of Psalm 42.

Verses 1-4 read: As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.

Turning this into prayer could look like: God, I am desperate for life. All I know is death right now. Death of my baby, my joy, my purpose, my relationships. Before my loss I knew so much  hope and joyful expectation. And now I am covered in grief. I am desperate for You, and Your intervention. Preserve me as I withstand others’ doubts about Your goodness–they want to give a reason for my baby’s passing and are shaking their fists at you. I sometimes want to do that too. 

The psalm continues in verses 5-6: Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.

But, God, though my heart is broken and tears won’t stop falling, I cannot turn my back to you. I KNOW You to be good, abounding in love, and full of purpose for me. I remember how You have done that in my past. You have saved me from ruin, from broken relationships, from sin’s grip. You have worked wonders in my life and in the lives of all the saints before me. You are my salvation and my God, even in this.

You’ll notice the psalm includes references to geographical places; even if you are not familiar with some of the names, you can still get the psalmists’ intention and pray accordingly. To further the depth of your prayers, though, consider researching what those references mean and why they would have been included in the psalm.

If Jesus prayed the Scriptures and found refuge for His soul, it follows that they would bring living water to us too. I recommend starting with the psalms of lament (e.g. Ps 6, Ps 13, Ps 22, Ps 30,  Ps 31,  Ps 69 and Ps 142). 

I pray that He would open your eyes to see the wondrous things in His Truth; that he would strengthen your weary soul with His Word (Ps 119:18,28). 

If you want more guidance on praying the Bible, you can check out this resource, Praying the Bible by Donald S Whitney.

Kelly is the Ministry Support Lead for Hope Mommies. She and her husband Dan live in Brenham, TX with their two earthside children, Annabelle and Eli (and lots of pets). Their firstborn, William, went to Heaven in July 2017. To balance out the fullness of life, Kelly enjoys gardening, yoga, and sipping on some matcha while reading historical fiction. She considers herself beyond privileged to share the amazing news of Jesus’ Hope to all who need it, and loves that William gets to be a part of that message.