Praying Scripture

This is one of the ideas that came out of the book Kingdom Come by Bobby Valentine and John Mark Hicks.

I remember growing up having people make fun of people who quoted scripture in prayer. The standard response was a snicker and nudge in the whispered line, “Like God doesn’t know what he wrote,” followed by more snickers. This idea has heavily influenced my prayer life.

These past few weeks I have been praying around 9:00, 12:00, and 3:00 each day. It has been a powerful experience. I spend time in prayer followed by a time in meditation listening for God’s whisper. I then jump into the Bible and prayer scripture out loud. This morning I ended up in Jeremiah 17:7, 8.

"Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit."

I have discovered that it isn’t about formula. It is just about availability. There have been times when nothing of any note has happened. I am keeping it flexable. No need to make a formula out of something I say isn't about formula. What I have found is that it isn't about gimmicks or short cuts, just time. Isn’t it funny that I understand that quality time with my children means quantity time?

It is easy for me to think that because I preach and am in the word each week that I will be healthy. What I have come to see in my own life is that I have not been drinking enough from the stream of living water.

I posted earlier that I didn’t know if I could really offer that living water and that was hindering my ministry. Isn't it powerful that God has shown me that it doesn’t take some gimmick? That it isn’t about me getting our mix of contemporary and traditional music? That it isn’t about sprinkling enough a capella songs into the mix to make certain members happy? It isn’t something to be figured out. It isn’t some right way of thinking about it (I am so totally influenced by Modernism) that will carry me through.

No gimmick, just a commitment to 9:00, 12:00, and 3:00. God takes care of the rest. I pray that I make this a new habit because the passage tells me that only through this will I grow and produce fruit.

I know how to offer living water. That may be the greatest blessing of praying scripture.