Praying Scripture

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And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8, NKJV)

As a college student in a Christian institution, I read of Jonah, David, Paul, and many other notable characters in the Bible who were praying Scripture. It made sense that they would choose God’s inspired, breathed-out words to speak back to Him. After all, what other words would orchestrate the sweetest melody for His ears? I longed to follow in their footsteps. At the same time, their Scripture-focused prayers felt distant and unrelated to my ability to pray. My prayers were timid, lost in an abyss of fear that they would never be good enough. These passages where people prayed Scripture didn’t mean anything to me until the coronavirus outbreak forced me to cling to God’s truth.

While my school was online due to the pandemic, I watched a professor teach us the value of using God’s Word as a source of empowerment and as a guide in our prayers. As he spoke, the monotonous, scarce patterns in my prayers stood in stark contrast to the empowered prayers I had read about. I wanted more. My professor’s teaching enriched my video and phone calls during the height of COVID-19 and later sustained my prayers, interactions, and daily walk with the Lord and others. Going into my junior year, I noticed that my prayers were no longer timid but bold in Scripture. They pursued the truth. They held fast to God’s promises.

Even though I’d prayed many times that God would help me to be generous, 2 Corinthians 9 gave me a more robust template by which I could present this habitual prayer to my Father. With confidence in the finality of 2 Cor. 9:8, right after my graduation, I prayed that God would make all His grace abound toward me so that I could have all the sufficiency needed for every good work.

A month later, God answered my prayer in front of the tiki-themed supermarket, Trader Joe’s. As I exited the store with a bag full of replenished goods, I saw a woman with a sign asking for money to pay rent. Just as He helped the Corinthians see their abundance as a means to supply for the poor in Jerusalem (2 Cor. 8:14), God prompted me to see the abundance I was carrying in my hands and the lack of it before my eyes. I stopped and dug into my wallet; I only saw a $50 bill. Before praying the passage, I would have kept walking, thinking it was too much. However, God quickly brought 2 Corinthians to mind, and I handed her the money with every ounce of confidence that He would bless this act of righteousness (9:10). She thanked me profusely, and, at that moment, God also brought to memory Philippians 1:9, which is a prayer for loving someone based on knowledge. I asked her how much more she needed to pay rent, and she told me $500. I thought I’d emptied my wallet, but as soon as I saw a $100 bill, I handed it to her, praying that God would make His grace abound in her apartment. A tender smile drawn across her face, she uttered the words, “you are an angel.” At that moment, I knew it had been God working His supernatural power through me. He made me sufficient in my understanding and gracious in my giving, just as I had prayed a month before! I walked away, confident that God would sustain her because He said so in His Word.

There’s no other word that moves mountains and empties wallets like the Word of God. Praying Scripture opens our eyes to people’s needs, moves us in compassion, and makes the words we read come alive in every situation. Once we start, our boldness and excitement for advancing God’s kingdom will be evident to all.

Although I felt excited when I prayed through this passage in Scripture, it took time to get to this level of confidence in God’s Word. I saw improvements along the way, but I had to wait and keep patiently praying to see my prayers bear fruit (Luke 8:15). This process can be painful, especially when we have to wait for a long time. Waiting makes us doubt if God’s Word is as true as He says it is. But there is hope in our covenant-keeping God.

He has our names inscribed in the palm of His hands (Isaiah 49:16).

We are His people (Psalm 100:3).

Now, because we are his born-again children, He has inscribed His Word in our hearts so that it may be deeply woven into our prayers and bear fruit in His timing (Jeremiah 31:33).

He is our God (Psalm 95:7).

When He gave us the new covenant of grace, He put himself in a position where He could never break that promise (Genesis 15:9-21).

God wants to surprise us in the way He answers prayers! When I prayed for God’s grace to be evident in my generosity, I thought more about making significant donations or sending valuable gifts to my friends. While He could do those things, He wanted to show me that He could do so much more in His covenant-keeping grace. He also wants to show you that, even as you wait, He is committed to answering your Scripture-focused prayers in a more profound, eternal way than you could imagine. As you grow in this practice, He is also committed to hearing your every prayer, even if it is not soaked in Scripture. His ears will always be wide open to His born-again children (1 Peter 3:12).

If we continually seek God’s Word to enrich our prayer life, it will overflow into the words of our mouths, the thoughts of our minds, and, most importantly, the love of our hearts. However long the waiting may be, I pray that you keep praying God’s final, unfailing Word, for the results will be bountiful if you do so.