11. Concern with including certain aspects of prayer, such as those found in the ACTS approach, raises the question of the “Model Prayer”—also known as “the Lord’s Prayer”—found in Matt. 6:9–13 and Luke 11:1–14. How can we suggest that people utilize the Psalms or other parts of Scripture to guide our prayers when Jesus gave us an explicit model for prayer? In Luke 11:2 we do find justification for praying the words of the prayer verbatim, for Jesus says there, “When you pray, say: . . .” So it is a biblically sound practice, both in a private and a congregational context, to pray the Lord’s Prayer. But in Matt. 6:9 Jesus says, “Pray then like this . . . ” meaning that our prayers should be like or similar to that one. In other words, Jesus’s prayer in Matt. 6:9–13 is an example or model of the way we should pray, a prayer that contains the elements of the kinds of prayer that pleases God. Clearly the apostles understood Jesus to be giving an example and not prescribing the only prayer his followers should pray, for we do not find them repeating these words in any of the prayers found elsewhere in the New Testament. For the purposes of this book, the point is that if a person regularly prays through passages of Scripture, he or she will be led by the text to pray the kinds of things Jesus includes in the Model Prayer. Perhaps not each of the elements of the Model Prayer will be prompted by every text through which a person prays, but generally and routinely the Bible will bring before the praying Christian’s mind everything found in the Model Prayer.
12. John Piper, “Should I Use the Bible When I Pray?,” http://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/should-i-use-the-bible-when-i-pray (accessed October 31, 2014).
13. I describe seventeen different methods of meditation on Scripture in my Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2014), 56–68.
14. How does one use a prayer list when praying the Bible? Some who pray the Bible do use a prayer list, while others simply let the text suggest their prayer list for that day. In other words, instead of organizing their prayer concerns by means of some sort of list, they pray with a more impromptu approach, speaking to God about whatever comes to mind as they read the text, unconcerned about whether they remember to pray about certain preplanned matters. If you are accustomed to praying with a list but, after experimenting with more spontaneity, you realize that you are not praying for certain people and situations as often as you’d like, then return to a prayer list. If you prefer a systematic plan, one way to incorporate that into praying through a passage of Scripture is to place your prayer list beside your Bible, and as you pray through the text, pray for those people on your list in accordance with what you read in the Bible. So, for example, if you pray through Psalm 23, when you read “The LORD is my shepherd,” you ask, “Who on my prayer list needs shepherding?” Then when you read, “I shall not want,” you pray for those on your list who are in want, and so on.
15. Of course, after reading these reports many were prompted to give to Mueller’s ministries, so that the reports served indirectly as means through which Mueller raised support.
16. Roger Steer, ed., Spiritual Secrets of George Muller (Wheaton, IL: Harold Shaw, 1985), 62.
17. Ibid., 61.
18. C. H. Spurgeon, The Salt Cellars: Being a Collection of Proverbs, Together with Homely Notes Thereon, Vol. I: A to L (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1889), 58.
19. From March 1, 1985, through the publication of this book in mid-2015.
20. While the Gospel writers describe a number of the things that occurred in connection with the crucifixion, such as the mockeries of the Jewish leaders, the activities of the soldiers, or the words uttered by the two thieves crucified with Jesus, they actually provide very little explicit information about his physical sufferings, such as the kind revealed when he said, “I thirst” (John 19:28).
21. British Bible commentator Gordon Wenham goes further: “It has been suggested that our Lord was just praying his way through the Psalms as he hung on the cross. . . . This would have been a very appropriate thing to do, for so many of the early psalms are the prayers of a good man suffering and crying to God for help.” Gordon Wenham, The Psalter Reclaimed: Praying and Praising with the Psalms (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013), 38–39.
General Index
ACTS, 66–67; A (adoration), 66; C (confession), 66; T (thanksgiving), 66; S (supplication), 66
Acts, book of, Christians praying the Psalms in, 88–89
Athanasius, 54
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, 63
Carson, D. A., 59
crucifixion, the: the Gospel writers’ description of, 85–86, 99–100n19; Psalm 22 as the longest and most explicit Old Testament prophecy about the crucifixion, 86–87
exegesis, 34
Goldsworthy, Graeme, 52
hermeneutics, 34
Holy Spirit: indwelling of, 12–14; indwelling of and the prompting of the heart cry “Abba! Father!” 14, 21, 97n1; indwelling of and the prompting of prayer, 14, 20–21, 48; and the inspiration of Scripture, 69; the “preserving work” of, 20–21
Jesus, praying of the Psalms from the cross, 85–88
Langley, Ken, 81
Leeman, Jonathan, 93
Lord’s Prayer, the. See Model Prayer, the
M’Cheyne, Robert Murray, 37–38
Miller, J. Graham, 65
Model Prayer, the, 98n11; as an example and not a prescription, 98–99n11
Moore, T. M., 23
Mueller, George, 81–84, 89; how he prayed, 82–84; specific recorded answers to prayers in his journals, 82; work of with orphans, 81–82
Patterson, Ben, 45
“Personal Spiritual Disciplines” course, 41–42
Piper, John, 11, 33, 55, 68, 79
prayer: bringing “everything by prayer” to God, 34; every Christian can have a meaningful, satisfying prayer life, 24–26; the mindless repetition of prayers, 11–12, 14–17, 20–21, 25, 37, 42, 67, 68, 77, 79; praying the prayers in the Bible, 27, 55–56, 98n11; as talking with the person of God himself, 68. See also prayer, the normal subjects of; praying the Bible
prayer, the normal subjects of, 17–20; Christian concerns, 18–19; current crises, 19; family 18; finances, 18; the future, 18; work or schoolwork, 18
praying the Bible, 11, 23, 26–27, 33–34, 38–39, 55–56, 65, 79–80, 84–85; benefits of, 41–43; and confidence in the Word and the Spirit of God, 37–38; as a conversation with God, 68–70, 77; and focus, 66; as a God-centered way of praying, 66–67; and the inclusion of inspired words, 42–43; interpreting the Bible versus praying the Bible, 34–36, 97n2; as a method of meditation on Scripture, 70–73; and praying in conformity with God’s will, 73; and praying about matters that would never come to mind otherwise, 73–74; and praying about normal concerns in fresh ways, 74–76; teaching the method to others, 77–78, 98n10; and time spent in prayer, 42, 67–68; and the use of a prayer list, 99n14. See also praying the Bible, with a group; praying the Bible and Psalms, responses to; praying narrative passages; praying the New Testament letters; praying the Psalms
praying the Bible, with a group, 93; benefits of, 95–96; the best way, 95; a better way, 94; a good way, 94; the importance of preliminary individual experience in praying the Bible before doing so with a group, 93
praying the Bible and Psalms, responses to: “I didn’t say the same old things about the same old things,” 76–77; “I had greater assurance that I was praying God’s will,” 73; “I prayed about the things I normally do pray about but in new and different ways,” 74–76; “I prayed about things I normally don’t pray about,” 73–74; “I thought more deeply about what the Bible says,” 70–73; “it seemed like a real conversation with a real person,” 68–70; “my mind didn’t wander,” 66; “my prayer was more about God and less about me,” 66–67; “the psalm spoke directly to the life situation I am in right now,” 70–71; “the time was too short!” 67–68
praying narrative passages, 60–61; and the big picture, 60–61; praying John 5, 60–61; and the punch line, 61
praying the New Testament letters, 55–56, 97–98n8; praying 1 Corinthians 13, 80; praying 1 Thessalonians 2, 56–59; praying Galatians 5, 80
praying the Psalms, 27, 29, 45, 55, 63, 67, 69, 81; benefits of, 50–51; Christians in the book of Acts praying the Psalms, 89; and God’s inspired purpose for the psalms (for us to put them in our words to him), 45, 46–48, 54; Jesus’s praying of the Psalms on the cross, 85–88, 89, 100n20; praying the imprecatory psalms, 39–41, 51; praying Psalm 1, 80; praying Psalm 20, 51–53; praying Psalm 23, 29–32, 35–36, 39, 75, 80, 99n14; praying Psalm 37, 95; praying Psalm 51, 75; praying Psalm 130, 35; praying Psalm 139, 73, 80; the “Psalms of the Day” method, 48–50, 91–92 (chart). See also praying the Bible and Psalms, responses to
Psalms, book of, 45–46; the applicability of the psalms to believers’ life situations, 70; as the “book of praises,” 45; the entire range of human emotion in, 54; God’s inspired purpose for (for us to put the psalms in our words to him), 45, 46–48, 54; imprecatory psalms, 39–40; as “like a little Bible,” 54; as the songbook of Israel, 45. See also praying the Psalms
“psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,” 46, 97n5
Scripture: as God speaking, 69; inspiration of, 69; interpretation of, 34–35
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (Donald S. Whitney), 99n13
Spurgeon, Charles, 84
Tada, Joni Eareckson, 42–43
Wenham, Gordon, 29, 100n20
Scripture Index
JOSHUA
1:8
72
PSALMS
1
80
1:3
72
2:1–2
88
3:3
46
8:1
46
16:11
46–47
18:1
55
20:1
52
20:2
53
20:3
53
22
86, 87
22:1
86, 87
22:7
86
22:8
86
22:14a
86
22:14b
86
22:15b
86
22:16
97
22:17
87
23
29, 36, 75, 80
23:1
29–30, 60, 99n14
23:2a
30
23:2b
31
23:3
31, 35–36
31:5
87
36:7
47
37
96
37:3
95
37:4
95
37:35
95
51
75
51:17
47
58:6
39
58:8
40
71:19
47
77:13
47
86:5
47
104:1–2
47
119:105
47
130:3
35
137:9
39, 94
139
75, 80
139:1–2
47
145:13
48
146:6
88
JEREMIAH
23:29
85
MATTHEW
5:44–45
40
6:7
17
6:9
98n11
6:9–13
98n11
27:35
87
27:39
86
27:43
86
27:46
86
LUKE
11:1–14
98n11
11:2
98n11
23:46
87
JOHN
3:16
40
5
60
5:1
60
5:4
61
5:5
61
6:63
43
19:28
86, 100n19
19:31–33
86
19:34–35
86
ACTS
4:23
88
4:24
88
4:25
88
4:31
88
ROMANS
8:1
56
8:15
14, 97n1
1 CORINTHIANS
1:26
23
6:19
13
13
56, 80
GALATIANS
4:6
14, 97n1
5
80
EPHESIANS
1:13
13
1:15–23
27, 55
3:14–21
27, 55
5:18–19
46
PHILIPPIANS
1:9–11
27, 55
4:6
34
COLOSSIANS
3:16
46
1 THESSALONIANS
2
56
2:1
57
2:2
57–58, 59, 60
2:3
58
HEBREWS
4:12
43
1 PETER
2:2
13
1 JOHN
3:14
13
5:14–15
73
REVELATION
4:8
13
Praying the Bible Page 7
