I often feel like an asthmatic Christian. I’ll be struggling for air, but I won’t open my airway to breathe in. Once my lungs fill up with the cold, dry air of busyness and self-reliance, I start gasping for air. Ole Hallesby, a Norwegian theologian from the 1900s, wrote that “prayer is the breath of the soul, the organ by which we receive Christ into our parched and withered hearts.” When I am not praying, I’m not breathing.

When I am physically dealing with asthma, I have to slow down, find my inhaler, and catch my breath. Spiritually, though, I will often ignore the warning signs for far too long. I’m either too stressed to think straight, or I think I’ve got my life under control. I’ll either feel as though the world is caving in on me, or I’ll live as though I’m the cornerstone keeping it all together. Prayer keeps me from either extreme, and Jesus’s words in John 15:5 often reverberate through my thoughts when I’m in either place. Apart from Me you can do nothing. Despite my head knowledge of this reality, sometimes my heart just simply doesn’t keep up. More often, my lifestyle and habits crowd out time for prayer. The cares of the world grip my throat like a fierce opponent trying to keep my from taking another breath.

I want to live, and I know that through dependent, earnest, and thankful prayer I can continue to breathe and not starve my soul of its oxygen. On this journey to pray more fervently and more often, I am learning to pray through the Bible. As I reflect on the books, articles, and examples from the Christians in my life, I’ve found at least 3 helpful methods for praying through Scripture. I want to share them in hopes of helping you find more joy and life in your prayers.

Pray (nearly) the exact words of a passage. 

The most straightforward way to pray the Bible is to open to a passage and pray straight through it. The benefit of this method is that we’re praying God’s words back to Him. For example, you could pray Psalm 1 back to God as you reflect on your desire to follow the blessed man, Jesus. Perhaps you could pray through Ephesians 2:1-10 in the first person, starting with, “And I was dead in my trespasses and sins…” and so on. This is a great way to talk to God using His words and His desires for us.

The Psalms are great for praying directly through a passage because many of them are actual prayers penned in Scripture for us to read, sing, and pray back to God. You may need to replace some of the circumstances with your own spiritual or physical circumstances. For example, you may not be under physical threats of violence, but you can cry out, “You are my shelter, my portion in the land of the living… listen to my cry, for I am very weak. Rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me…” (Psalm 142: 5-6). The Psalms give words to our worries and pleas for our problems.

Other written prayers throughout the Scriptures are great for this style of praying, too. We can reflect and strive to get our hearts in line with God’s Word as we pray truthful and powerful words from saints throughout biblical history from Moses to the saints rejoicing in the new heavens and earth.

Pray your own words with the Scripture as your guide. 

Another way to pray through the Bible is to allow the Words of Scripture to be your guide.  When Jesus gave his disciples the model prayer (Matthew 6:9-13), He provided a model for prayer. I learned how to pray through the Lord’s prayer from writers and preachers throughout church history. They taught me how to pray through this prayer in a way that could nourish my soul daily and bring my heart in line with God’s will. Rather than just praying through it from rote memorization and mouthing the words, they teach that we can let the various petitions guide us into themes and topics to pray for. 

For example, when we start the prayer “our Father in heaven…”, we can slow down and pray about the fatherhood of God. We can thank God that He is indeed our Father in heaven, greater than any earthly father. If we’ve been living as spiritual orphans, we can pray that we would view God as the Father He is and thank the Holy Spirit for being the Spirit of adoption in us. We can thank Christ that He gave His life for us in order to be brought near to God.  We can pray to be better parents in light of the fatherhood of God. We can even pray evangelistically that God would be the Father of the unsaved people we know and love.  After praying through the fatherhood of God, we can continue by praying that God’s name would be hallowed. Piece-by-piece, then, we work through the prayer until we have reached the end. This can be a short 5-minute time of prayer, or it can extend much further. 

Most of the words in Scripture are not prayers but narratives, wisdom, poetry, prophecies, and epistles. These passages are still useful in prayer, but they may be more useful as prayer prompts than direct prayers. We can pray through these Scriptures, letting the words of Scripture prompt us to pray in light of what we’ve just read. Donald Whitney advocates for this method of praying in his book Praying the Bible, and it has been helpful in my life as well as the lives of thousands of Christians who desire to spend more time praying and seeking the presence of God. 

Pray the broad themes of a passage of Scripture.

If you’re reading through the Bible in a year or walking through narrative passages, you get to enjoy reading through larger sections of Scripture each day. Sometimes those longer sections, especially narratives, parables, or prophecies don’t lend themselves to word-for-word prayer. It might be a little odd to pray, “When the boys grew up, Esau became an expert hunter, an outdoorsman” (Gen 25:27).  In the rest of this paragraph, however, we see Esau nearly starving to death, Jacob selfishly requiring a birthright in place of bread and lentil soup, and Esau’s folly in a moment of desperation. You could reflect on this passage and notice the themes of wisdom, selfishness, deceit, and desperation (Gen. 25:27-33).

After making a note of these themes, you could pray for yourself and others. In reference to Esau’s folly, you may want to pray for God to give you the wisdom to navigate this life according to His will and not the will of flesh. You might need to repent of selfishness that you’ve seen in your heart lately and thank Christ for His selflessness in going to the cross for you. You could lament the deceitfulness you’ve seen in the world, and ask God rescue a family member who has recently been deceived by false teaching. Finally, you can praise God for being self-sufficient and never desperate like Esau was. You may be drawn to then ask for Him to keep you from despairing of your life so much that you’d give up your faith or making a foolish life decision. 

This method allows you to take the broad themes of the Bible and pray through them as you see their relevance in your life. This pulls more of God’s Word into your prayer life and keeps your prayers fresh.

We Don’t Have to be Bored or Distracted in our Praying

Sometimes our prayer lives are weak and boring because we’ve built a habit of praying poorly. We know how to cry out to God when things are tough. We’ve figured out how to thank God for meals. We can toss up a quick thanksgiving to God when something good happens. But when it comes to digging deeper in prayer, we just can’t seem to figure it out. Jesus’s 12 disciples felt the same way and asked Jesus to teach them how to pray (Luke 11:1)! Without direction, we can expect to feel like we’re saying the same old things all the time. Perhaps our prayers become boring, bland, and repetitive because we come to God without His Word and His purposes in mind. Donald Whitney puts it like this: “the problem is not that we pray about the same old things; rather, it’s that we say the same old things about the same old things.” 

Let the Word of God refresh your prayer life. Try praying the Scriptures the next time you spend time alone with God.

What are some tips or strategies you’d share with people desiring to grow in prayer?

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko: https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-in-blue-dress-shirt-praying-6860411/

I’m sitting in my comfortable chair, sipping some warm chai tea, and reading Acts 7 on this cool winter morning. This morning I’m fascinated by the way God orchestrates the small details of my life for the good of my soul. One of my closest friends sent me a text of his Bible reading thoughts on Genesis 12, and it read, “what faith it would take to just up and leave to go where God calls you.” He was writing about Abraham leaving the comfort and safety of his home to follow a God he had never known or worshiped. What a powerful testimony of faith! Stephen preached about this same faith in his famous sermon in Acts 7.

The connection between my friend’s Bible reading and my personal bible reading reminds me of a powerful truth from the first psalm. The blessed man delights in the law of the Lord and on it he meditates day and night (Psa. 1:2). Through the everyday habit of daily Bible reading, God brings me genuine delight. The year has just begun, but God has been meeting me here and bringing me joy.

I’ve recently experienced a blend of lament and rejoicing, and I hope to help someone out there who is struggling to read and enjoy the Bible consistently. You have hope, and God is holding out the promise of delight to all who seek Him and meditate on His Word. The God who spoke the Bible works in the hearts of believers, drawing us to His Word and giving us unexplainable joy.

Lament: I Let Life Steal From Me

Adrian Rogers once said, “If Satan can’t make you bad, he’ll make you busy”. In C.S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters, one demon wrote of humans: “Whatever their bodies do affects their souls. It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality, our best work is done by keeping things out”. For over a year, God’s Word was mostly kept out of my daily habits and routines, and my soul paid dearly for it. 

I started a new job in early 2021, and work was pretty busy. I often found myself gravitating toward health and wellness podcasts rather than the biblical episodes I used to download. Instead of reading Christian books during the cracks and breaks throughout the day, I read books on sleep and diet. Too often, I gave myself extra time for sleep, jumped straight into a coffee shop meeting or exercise, and then jumped straight into work. Rather than pursuing God and His presence to strengthen my soul throughout the day, I gave myself to working, googling things, scrolling social media, reading weather blogs, and chasing anything else that would distract my soul. C.S. Lewis’s words proved true for me. I was caring far more for my body than my soul, and God’s Word ended up being pushed to the side.

The scariest part about my year is that I hardly noticed that I was starving my soul. My body was languishing. I gained 17 pounds, got COVID, found out I had undiagnosed sleep apnea and insomnia, dealt with intense anxiety, and developed a skin abscess. I truly felt the weight of physical struggles and ailments in 2022, and these struggles took up a lot of my focus because they made my life difficult. But what about my spiritual difficulties? 
 
Last year, I had several spiritual highs which gave me a false sense of spiritual depth. I attended the final T4G conference, served faithfully as a pastoral resident, and took steps toward church planting. Those times were extremely fruitful and good for my soul. God was gracious in them all. He gave me the diligence to preach, teach, and lead in ways that are impossible without his help. 

Despite these blessed times, I lacked the devotional rhythms and ongoing communion with God necessary for the valleys that came between the peaks. I spent far too little time with God. I often neglected time for prayer, Bible reading, writing, fellowship, worship, and discipleship to do less important things. 

Rejoicing: God Gave Back What I Gave Up

God didn’t leave me last year, but He allowed me to starve my soul on a diet of junk food and quick-fix supplements for much of the year. By the grace of God, I finished out the year with a God-given desire to care for my soul in 2023 (Phil. 2:12-13). He got my attention and reeled me back in with a different perspective. Despite my being distant and distracted, Christ was always here. He didn’t let my soul shrivel up like chaff and throw me into the fire. Rather, my Good Shepherd struck my back with His gracious rod of correction and led me back to green pastures and still waters—the Living Water to be precise (Ps. 23:2). He knows more than any earthly parent how to give good gifts to those who ask Him, and I was desperate for His help (Mat. 7:11). 

I spent a short season praying for delight without pursuing it. God graciously sparked my hunger for communion with Him in ways that I couldn’t have imagined at the time. As my soul hungered for the Word, God drew me to the path of delighting in Him. Here’s what God did:

1. God used the Redeeming Productivity Academy. Near the end of 2022, Reagan—the founder of Redeeming Productivity Academy—and several users in the academy posted articles and tips for starting Bible reading plans in the new year. These posts and articles helped me get focused on growth in 2023. 

2. God used year-end reflections. I reflected on 2022 and lamented the state of my soul. After reflecting on my complete failure in setting and keeping the 38 goals and interventions I set last year, I decided to forgo my annual goal-setting and opt for emphasizing daily habits that would help me live the life I need to live in 2023.
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3. God used some of my closest friends. At the end of 2022, three of my closest friends committed to using Bible reading plans—one convinced me to read the M’Cheyne with him again this year. Another close friend stopped using drugs a year ago and began reading several pages of his Bible every day. His life is a testimony of devotion to God. Another friend, who is busy with a full undergraduate load, read the whole M’Cheyne plan last year. These men spur me on daily to read and seek God’s face in His Word. 

A Journey: I Haven’t Arrived

What does all of this have to do with reading Acts 7? I wouldn’t have been reading that chapter without God helping me cultivate the spiritual habit of daily Bible reading. 

He drew me back into the daily spiritual disciplines I had so quickly forgotten. For some, the word discipline screams legalism, danger, and red flags. For others, discipline feels like a spiritual straitjacket that robs people of their true freedom. I view the spiritual disciplines as the gutter guards at the bowling alley. I have a destination, and without discipline, I end up in the gutter. In the words of Don Whitney, “discipline without direction leads to drudgery, but discipline with direction leads to delight.” I thrive when I have discipline and direction because I can find delight in the right place—God Himself.

I want to reiterate that I haven’t arrived. I’m writing this on January 10th. I have 355 days to keep striving in Christ’s strength to commune with him.  I also have 355 days to lose focus and either follow the disciplines for fleshly reasons or lose sight of them altogether. My hope and prayer, however, are that God continues to teach me how to delight myself in Him. Only then will I truly have the desires of my heart (Ps. 37:4).

What about you? Are you delighting in the Lord in this season of life? What is holding you back? How is God at work to draw you back to Himself?

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I have often uttered the phrase, “New year, new you” in early January. I love it because it’s catchy, and it captures the idea that when the clock rolls over into a new year, I have a new chance to put off bad habits and put on new better ones. I love to plan and set goals, so the notion of a new me in the new year is exhilarating.

As I reflect on the previous 365 days (or 366 on leap year!), I often look back with sadness and negativity. Some people view the world through rose-colored glasses—not me. It’s not that I’m a complete pessimist who can’t see the good in a situation or season. It’s that I often battle seasonal depression, and my year end reflections are often grey and cloudy like the December skies I see when I peer out the window.

Far more often than I’d like to admit, melancholy and self-deprecation haunt my year-end reflections and stimulate me to pursue radical change going into January 1. Have you figured out yet how this could be destructive for me moving into the new year? Self-examination is vital for the Christian life, but only when the gospel is in full view and the lens we use is accurate (2 Cor. 13:5).

Deadly Resolutions

New year goals and habits are deadly when the gospel is missing.

Don’t breeze too quickly past that last sentence. Let me lean in, look you in the eyes, and say it again.

New year goals and habits are deadly when the gospel is missing.

When we only give lip service to the gospel, we may say that we create our goals and resolutions for the glory of God, but if we actually achieved them and stayed true to our words, who would get the credit first in our hearts and minds? Would attaining your goals in the next 365 days cause you to celebrate the goodness and grace of God more?

I’m hoping your answer is that God would get the credit first and foremost. I hope that would be my answer too. But if you’re afraid it won’t be, the Word of God has some encouragement for you today:

”…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose.” -Philippians 2:12–13

Work Out Your Own Salvation

At first you may be wondering, “Where’s the hope in this?! If I have to work out my own salvation with fear and trembling, I better get to work!” However, don’t miss the gospel bomb in the passage: “For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose.”

When Paul says, “Work out your own salvation”, he isn’t calling for Christians to save themselves. Some scholars argue that Paul is calling the Philippians corporately to work out their salvation by pursuing unity. Other scholars argue that the call to work out your own salvation emphasizes the individual call to pursue godliness. The big picture seems clear: putting on the mind of Christ and caring more for others than ourselves is a powerful way to work out our own salvation (Phil 2:3-4).

This is a call to radical obedience. To love others is to fulfill the entire law of Moses (Rom. 13:10, Jam. 2:8). It is the call to love our neighbors as ourselves—the second greatest commandment (Mat. 22:39). It means refusing to be irritable or resentful toward others (1 Cor. 13:5). The call to put on the mind of Christ and forfeit our desires, preferences, and opinions for the good of others is a monumental task.

Who is fit for this work? God is.

God is at Work

As a man who has been able to dunk a basketball since I was in 9th grade, it has been painful to reach my early 30s and not be able to bounce like I used to. I now have fight to get a clean dunk, and if I go a few months without working out, it will take me several weeks of training to be able to dunk again. Yet for many, slamming a basketball through the rim has never been attainable, and no amount of strength or willpower can get them to the rim. Hearing “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” is like trying dunk at 5’2 with a 30-inch vertical.

Not only is it impossible for us to work out our salvation on our own, but we reach the frustration point pretty quickly when we try. Paul knows this because when his eyes were opened to the gospel, he realized that his pharisaical ways were futile with regard to true righteousness. We can only be right with God in and through Christ. He reminded the Galatians that as our faith walk began with the Spirit, it must also continue by the Spirit. We are not perfected by the flesh but by the Spirit (Gal 3:1-6).

Therefore, Paul says to the Philippians, “work out your salvation with fear and trembling… for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2: 13). Christian, our great hope is that God will work in us to both will and work for His good pleasure! This doesn’t mean that we sit back and relax, waiting for the impulse to do good. Not at all! Rather, we strive with all of Christ’s strength to live fruitful and godly lives (Colossians 1:29). Yet, we give Him all the glory because it is He who works and wills the good that we do! This is encouraging and exciting!

For His Good Pleasure

Let us not move too quickly or we will miss a key phrase in this passage: for His good pleasure. God stirs up desires and brings fruit from those good and glorious desires in us for His good pleasure. Far too often, when the road gets rough we can feel as though God is against us rather than for us. Compare this mentality with Romans 8:31.

Our Bible reading plan gets to Leviticus and Numbers and the New Year’s energy has worn off. We yawn and doze as we try to our work our way through the passages. Then we hear the self-pity and mockery. You lousy person! How can you call yourself a saint when you can barely wake up and read the Bible each day! You’ll never reach your goals because you might not even be saved. God despises you because you don’t delight in Him or His Word!

Yet what does our text say? When we are pursuing the love of God and the love of others, it is God who is at work in us to will and to work for His good pleasure. This includes our Bible reading and prayer times! He is pleased to see us complete our Bible reading plan. He welcomes us to the throne of grace in prayer. He rejoices to see husbands love their wives. He gets glory when fathers love and lead their children. He delights to see His saints worship together.

When we believe that God works in and through us for His good pleasure, we have wind behind our sails that allows us to keep pushing when the going gets tough. When the days are hard and we don’t feel like working out our salvation with fear and trembling, God is still at work in us for His good pleasure. He’s not helping us begrudgingly, either! He is ready and willing to help us because our sanctification brings Him glory from start to finish.

God’s Grace in the New Year

In light of Philippians 2:12-13, here are three ways to glorify God as you plan your year and fight to meet your goals:

1. Prioritize obedience to God over personal preferences and goals. Setting goals for our jobs is good if our aim is to work heartily as for the Lord and not for men (Col. 3:23). Developing an exercise habit glorifies God if we are caring for our temple (1 Tim. 4:8). However, if you’re neglecting the time needed to cultivate love for God and others, you should consider prioritizing your spiritual goals first and foremost. It’s not that the others are unimportant. Rather, we are called to work out our salvation with utmost seriousness and reverence for God. Let today’s habits be reasons for rejoicing a million years from now.

2. Pray frequently and fervently for God to work in you. Too often we fail to reach our goals and keep our habits because we simply don’t pray. He have not because we ask not (James 4:2-3). We need to be often asking God to strengthen in order to persevere in our goals and habits. And if He is not granting us success, we may need to search our hearts, goals, and habits to see if God is truly at the center of our plans for the new year. James 4:2-3 says, “You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” Let us ask for help, and seek God’s help for the right reasons.  ​

3. Praise God regularly when you see success in your life. If we aren’t diligent in developing hearts that look often for opportunities to praise God, we will find ourselves excited as though we achieved righteous works in our strength. Jesus is clear that apart from Him we can do nothing (John 15:5). By reflecting on our goals and achievements, we are able to see successes and failures. When we see failures, we can draw near to God in humility and earnest prayer. When we see successes and check off all the boxes, we can draw near to God in praise for His transforming and empowering grace.

As the new year begins, don’t neglect to establish good goals and habits. We are called to make the best use of our time (Eph. 5:18). Set grand goals! But in this new year, fight to obey God, rest in His power, and give Him the glory in your successes! And never forget that He’s working in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure and glory (Ps. 115:1).