The Connection Between Prayer and God's Word

"O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day" (Psalm 119:97).

"Pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

There are times when God leads us to extended and intense seasons of prayer for ourselves or for someone else. And there are times in prayer when the Lord comes so near that He gives a deep, settled peace that the answer is on the way. But we must never think that the power in that prayer is in our ability.

Prayer must be more than an event – it must be a way of life. This comes naturally as we mediate up the Word of God. God reveals truth to us, and we respond to Him in prayer.

Praying through the Scriptures

The Bible is God’s inspired prayer book. If you want to pray better prayers, pray the Scriptures! One of the greatest things I ever learned to do was to take a portion of Scripture and pray my way through it, turning every verse into a conversation with the Author.

• Claim the promises.
• Confess sins as they are identified.
• Worship God as He is revealed in each passage.
• Give thanks for every blessing.
• Talk to the Lord about troubled areas in your life, individuals you are concerned about, and specific needs as God connects His Word to your daily experiences.

Let the Bible be your prayer guide and pray your way through the Scriptures.

The Inseparable Link

Andrew Murray wrote one of the greatest ways to understand the connection between prayer and Bible reading. Read these thoughts slowly, and allow them to instruct your heart.

Prayer and the Word are inseparably linked together: power in the use of either depends upon the presence of the other. The Word gives me matter for prayer, telling me what God will do for me. It shows me the path of prayer, telling me how God would have me come. It gives me the power for prayer, the assurance that I will be heard. And it brings me the answer to prayer, as it teaches what God will do for me. Prayer prepares the heart for receiving the Word from God Himself, for the teaching of the Spirit to give the spiritual understanding of it, for the faith that is made partaker of its mighty working.

It is clear why this is so. Prayer and the Word have one common center- God. Prayer seeks God; the Word reveals God. In prayer, man asks God; in the Word, God answers man. In prayer, man rises to heaven to dwell with God; in the Word, God comes to dwell with man. In prayer, man gives himself to God; in the Word, God gives Himself to man.

In prayer and the Word, God must be all. Make God the center of your heart, the one object of your desire. Prayer and the Word will be a blessed fellowship with God, the interchange of thought and love and life: a dwelling in God and God in us. Seek God and live!