Pray the Word!

My husband brought a summer traveler into my room the other night.  She is in the final stages of her life and has been impregnated in order to pass on her life to another future generation.

As she is perched atop my study bible, I can't help but hear;

"Pray the Word!"  

If I could pass on something to future generations that the Spirit of God has impregnated me with, it would be to pray the Word of God back to Him!

Regular reading of God's word should always be an integral part of every follower of Jesus' day.  From it we draw strength, are fed wisdom and refreshed and renewed by the washing of the water of His word.

Although reading is of primary importance, applying the Word is the main point that God wants us to get as we read.

James 1:22-25

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, 

deceiving yourselves.  For if anyone is a hearer of the word 

and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.  For he looks at himself and goes away 

and at once forgets what he was like.  But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

As we read the word of God we can immediately pray that God would do in us what the word says.

Ephesians 6:17-18 encourages us to pray at all times in the Spirit 

and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.  To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,

We can wield the Sword by praying in the Spirit!  

Romans 8:26

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness.  For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groaning too deep for words.  

Jude 20

But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit,

ESV study Bible says;   That is, in the sense of praying in harmony with the leading of the Holy Spirit, rather than according to one's own agenda.

So if all scripture is God breathed and used to prepare and equip his people for every good work, then why would we not use the very words of God in prayer?

When we actively turn to the word in prayer we are agreeing with the Spirit of God.  Our thoughts are quick to wander and fizzle out but if we are using the word of God as a resource for our prayers, our prayers will be empowered by the Spirit of God, not because we are doing something right but because God's word never returns void!

Isaiah 55:10-11

"For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;  it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.  

The Word of God provides a wealth of  prayers  that we can just pray verbatim but we can also allow the word of God to inform our prayers.  As we meditate on the Word of God we can pray the Word back to God and watch Him move on our behalf.  Not because we are worthy but because as we stand righteous in His sight by His grace through the redemption that is found in the atoning work of  Christ Jesus' blood, we have obtained His mercy and favor!

Father, I thank you that you hear our prayers and that you are a rewarder of those who diligently seek You.  Establish the works of our hands today and rend the heavens and pour our Your presence on our lives afresh so that as we see you we will become more like you.  Let the fruit of Christ spring forth from our lives as the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding and the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.