HOW TO USE THE SCRIPTURES
Sometimes it’s great to
review our methods of prayer. Here’s a three-step way to be effective. The
third step is one that I need to be reminded of the most, especially for my
prayer before bed.
Step 1: Find the scripture
that speaks to your heart regarding your issue. Sometimes that’s not as easy as
it sounds. Sometimes the terms we use today aren’t written in the older Bible
versions. We’ll need to look up something in more general terms. Where do we
look them up?
There are two online
sources that I use: Bible Gateway is the first. It’s easy to use. I type the
word I want into the search box, and it
comes up everywhere it’s used in the Bible. The second resource is the Blue Letter Bible online. I can see the
definitions of the words from the original Biblical texts. I’ve put the links
to these two sources at the end of this article. The information in these two
sources is also available in traditional
books.
Even though it takes a
little effort to find a scripture or two, it’s worth it. God speaks through
revelation when we go to His written word.
Once we find a scripture
that speaks to us, we read it and thank God for helping us to receive what it
says. Even if we start off pleading with God, that’s okay. In Isaiah 43:26 God
tells His people: “Put me in remembrance: let
us plead together.”
The more we pray with
honesty and openness, the closer our relationship with the Lord grows. We learn
to trust God because we see that He hears and answers us.
Step 2: Realize we have an
enemy. The devil has always tried his best to stop people from praying. Then
when they do pray, the devil tries to get them to doubt that God has time to
listen. But if we’ve found the scripture that says we can have something from
God, then we use that scripture as a sword against “the wiles of the devil”
(Eph. 6:11).
Jesus showed us how to use
Step 2. When the devil fought Jesus mentally and emotionally in the wilderness,
Jesus came back at him with: “It is written!”
Satan is the one who stands in the way of our godly answer to prayer, but God
Almighty’s words are weapons that don’t break. Jesus spoke directly to Satan: “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord
thy God, and him only shalt thou serve’” (Matt. 4:10).
God stands behind His
Word. He calls it a sword and buckler (Eph. 6:17 and Ps. 91:4). A sword is an
assertive hostile weapon. Generally, we think of a buckler as an implement that
will shield us. That’s true, but it also has projections on the front to pierce
and injure the enemy. We push Satan back with the sword and buckler. Jesus
said, “It is written,” to confront the
enemy with truth directly. We remind Satan that what God has written is true,
and he has no power to stop it. And that brings
us to step 3.
Step 3: Say the scripture aloud.
Saying something aloud is a double-whammy. You use two senses – your mouth and
your ears. This step is self-confirming, and it helps especially when our faith
may be a little weaker than you want it to be.
Using this three-fold way
of praying makes it real. It strengthens prayer life
and helps bring the results we desire.
Love, Carolyn
These are the links to the
resources I mentioned above:
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