Praying The Beatitudes Series

PRAYING SCRIPTURE

To complete our study of the Beatitudes, we will now use this portion of Scripture as a template for prayer. Learning to pray Scripture will strengthen your prayer life significantly.

Some of you may have already learned to use the Lord’s Prayer in this way. That is the most important revelation as a guide for prayer because Jesus specifically commended it for that purpose.i It’s not to be mindlessly parroted as a prayer. There is not much value in saying twenty “Hail Marys.” Jesus said in Matthew 6:7, “And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.” Instead, we are to pray with understanding.ii We are to communicate with the Lord out of a heart that comprehends what is being said. When we pray the Beatitudes, we use what we have learned in this series as a resource for communing with the Lord. This is one way we can apply Scripture to our own lives.

If you learn how to use Scripture as a prayer guide, you will never run out of words for prayer. The Bible provides 66 books full of revelation to support our prayer life. A new Christian will typically petition God for his or her needs to be met. For example, “Lord, help me pass my test today at school” or “Lord, I need money for a better computer.” Those prayers of petition are certainly legitimate.iii But we should also learn expressions of prayer such as praise and thanksgiving. We should learn how to speak directly to a problem with authority in prayer. There are many dynamics of prayer we could explore, but today we are focusing on how to pray Scripture. Matthew 5:3-10 is the text we are using for that exercise. I will be less spontaneous than in my private prays because I am teaching the method as well as praying the passage.

When you’re praying any portion of Scripture, allow the Holy Spirit to quicken thoughts associated with the passage. For example, when praying the first beatitude, we will remember that to be “poor in spirit” is to recognize our own inadequacy and to look to the Lord as our source of righteousness, look to the Lord for wisdom, seek the Lord’s strength rather than rely on our own strength. To be “poor in spirit” is to approach God with humility and dependence. Being “poor in spirit” should also characterize our interaction with people. So when praying this beatitude, we may ask God to forgive us for any prideful attitudes that would sabotage personal relationships.

When praying the first beatitude, other scriptures may come to mind, and we should allow those texts to inform our prayer. For example, we might remember that Jesus said in John 15:5, “without Me you can do nothing.” So, while praying the first beatitude, we might acknowledge that. We might say, “Lord, without you I can do nothing of eternal value. I need your grace for this day. Give me the wisdom to continually look to you for the help I need. Let your thoughts become my thoughts. Guide me with your counsel. Let my words to others be filled with love and grace.” The next time we pray this beatitude, different thoughts and different verses may come to mind. In that case, the words of my prayer would be different, even though the theme of the passage would still be maintained.

In a small group, the leader might begin the prayer of a beatitude, then pass the lead to others who would pray their thoughts. Various people could lead out in prayer until there is a sense of completion. Then the leader might begin the next beatitude and process it the same way. The beautiful thing is that we are not only praying, but we are applying the word to our lives and reinforcing our understanding of that portion of Scripture.

Since we are recording a video for the internet, I will pray the Beatitudes as an example of how to pray Scripture. I will only pray briefly from each one since our time is limited. In other settings this prayer could go on much longer as the Holy Spirit would quicken our hearts with various thoughts. We are praying Matthew 5:3-10.

PRAYING MATTHEW 5:3-10

Vs 3: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Lord, we thank you that you have provided everything we need for life and godliness. Our sufficiency is in you and you alone. You are able to do exceedingly, abundantly more than we could ask or think. Forgive us for foolishly relying on our own strength when your strength is available to us through the Holy Spirit. We come to your throne of grace for help today. Help us to walk humbly with you and with others. Break our pride and make us more like Jesus. We humble ourselves under your mighty hand.