4 Week Prayer Challenge: Praying The Scriptures

“The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (James 5:16).

Something I’ve been wanting to start doing for a while now is to incorporate more scripture into my prayers. Every time I read my bible I’m reminded of something I need to work on, the things I should be doing to make my relationship with the Lord deeper, or a verse I would love to remember the next time someone asks me a question about being a Christian or who God is. As I read over these verses I always say a little prayer for God to help me remember the words and to live them out in my life. Even though I say this prayer in my heart and I mean it, it usually doesn’t end up being included or added into my daily prayer with the Lord. Since it doesn’t become something I’m always praying for or something I’m always being reminded of it’s easy to forget about it.

I want to stop forgetting those words of God that minister so deeply to my spirit. I want to pray more often and for more of the things that God wants. I want my prayer vocabulary to mature and my knowledge of the Word to deepen. I want His Law to be in my heart and written in my mind. I not only want this for myself, but for all of us. This is why I decided to start praying the Scriptures in my own prayer life and why I created a 4 Week Prayer Challenge that I hope you’ll join me in!

What Does It Mean To Pray The Scriptures?

Before I introduce what the challenge is I first want to explain what it means to pray the Scriptures and why it’s important for us to do so. Praying the Scriptures can mean to pray the prayers of the bible word for word, to pray for the things God tells us we should be praying for, to personalize portions of Scriptures, or to pray through various topics of the Bible. Let’s look at an excerpt from one of Paul’s prayers in the book of Colossians to gain a better understanding on what praying the Scriptures look like: “and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:9-10). To pray this Scripture we could pray it exactly as it is for all believers or we could personalize it for a specific person (including ourselves) or situation.

There is power in praying the words of the Scriptures because when we do we are praying for the will of our Father to be done. In 1 John we are told that “if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him” (1 John 5:14-15). When we pray the Word of God we also are able to experience the transforming power the words of God can have over our very being. In the book of 2 Timothy we are told that “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (1 Timothy 3:16-17). When we pray the Scriptures we are cementing the words of God within our hearts and minds. Also, as our prayers become saturated with more and more Scripture our hearts will slowly be molded to be more like the heart of our Savior. Our perspectives will switch from the temporal to the eternal as we fix our eyes and pray for God’s larger purposes to be done here on earth.

The 4 Week Prayer Challenge

Every month I’m going to choose a new passage of Scripture that we will focus on and pray every day for 4 weeks. Sometimes it will be an actual prayer (which will be a bit longer in length) and other times it will be a single verse. This month the verses we will be focusing on are 1 Timothy 2:1-6: “I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet life and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and Men, the Man Jesus Christ, who gave Himself a ransom for all.” I really prayed and sought the Lord as I was choosing this first scripture and I believe that it is very timely considering everything that is happening in our world today.

Whether it’s natural disasters, nuclear threats or hate dividing and blinding people there are so many people who need to be prayed for and we are commanded to do so! Whether that means praying for protection and safety for those in Houston, Texas and those who already have or will be affected by Hurricane Irma or praying for our nation’s leaders. For those men and women to have discernment and wisdom in dealing with foreign threats and domestic issues and for them to also have the energy and strength to lead our nation (it’s easy to forget how hard of a job they really have). And our prayer above prayers always needs to be for every person to come and accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. That is the heart of our Lord. He desires that every person would come to know Him.

Now, I know that both you and I have the best intentions of praying 1 Timothy 2:1-6, but we all know how busy life can be and how easy it is to forget. If we want to successfully pray 1 Timothy 2:1-6 every day for the next 4 weeks we need to have a plan that will help hold us accountable. We also need to have a visual daily reminder of our goal.

This is why I created a 4 Week Prayer Bundle that includes a beautifully designed art printable of 1 Timothy 2:1-6 that you can easily print out and hang or frame somewhere in your home (shown in the picture above). Make sure you place it somewhere you will see it every day like on your bathroom mirror or your bedside table. This 4 Week Prayer Bundle also includes a 5 page prayer packet full of worksheets that will help you think deeper and gain more insight into 1 Timothy 2:1-6 by:

1. Helping you understand terms you may not be familiar with.
2. Understanding the context of the verses.
3. Guiding you in searching your own heart about the issues you’re praying about.
4. Giving you space to actually write down the passage in its entirety once every week (the act of writing it down will help your mind to store the prayer in your long term memory vs your short term memory).
5. Including an art printable of 1 Timothy 2:1-6 which you can print out and hang somewhere that you’ll be able to see it every day and be reminded of the the prayer challenge.

1 Timothy 2:1-6 Prayer Bundle

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One Last Thing

When you first start praying 1 Timothy 2:1-6 you’re not going to have it instantly memorized. Feel free to look over the verses as you pray. Don’t worry, it’s not like you’re cheating if your eyes are open 🙂 If you stay faithful, by the end of these four weeks you’ll know this Scripture like the back of your hand and will be able to include it in future prayers. I will be praying for you and please pray for me and all the other women who will be taking part in this challenge as well. I pray that this will increase godly living in all our lives and that our knowledge of the Word and who God is would grow. I want to leave you with this Corrie Ten Boom quote on prayer:

“Don’t pray when you feel like it. Have an appointment with the Lord and keep it.”