By Sandra Higley
Praying God’s Word is powerful. Like-minded believers approaching God’s throne of grace in unified, Spirit-led prayer make twice the impact. But how can we get everyone praying together in one accord? One way is to create a Scripture-based prayer guide that gives people a reference point to direct or redirect their thoughts as everyone seeks God’s face together.
As you prepare your guide, you need some essential tools. In addition to your Bible, you’ll want a concordance, topical index, or online Bible program with a search engine. Resources include: biblegateway.com, biblehub.com and biblestudytools.com. You can also type the subject directly into your search engine to find examples in Scripture.
Guide Preparation
Here are some tips to consider as you let the Holy Spirit lead you in preparing such a guide:
- Get rid of your agenda and replace it with God’s. We may believe we’ve been led by the Spirit to pray in a particular way, but those prayers must align with God’s heart. George Müller said, “The Spirit and the Word must be combined. If I look to the Spirit alone without the Word, I lay myself open to great delusions also. If the Holy Ghost guides us at all, He will do it according to the Scriptures and never contrary to them.”1
- Broaden your perspective and find common ground. Rather than create a prayer guide asking God to have the building committee vote to expand the fellowship hall, for instance, acknowledge that God’s plan may lead in an entirely different direction. Find Scriptures that acknowledge His will, ask for wisdom, and bless the people entrusted with the decision to hear His voice—no matter what.
- Find Scripture that directs you to pray through tough things. Giving thanks can be hard when your group is facing dire circumstances. But thankfulness provides a firm foundation for the requests yet to come. Let the scriptural instruction flow into the next Scripture and the next to create your prayer.
Example: “Father, You have told us that it is Your will that we give thanks in every circumstance (1 Thess. 5:18). That’s really hard to do. But we choose to thank You because You are good and Your love toward us endures forever” (1 Chron. 16:34). - Find a similar scenario in the Bible. Let the dynamics of that situation direct you to verses that will lead you through your situation. What was the person experiencing or feeling during that time? Can you sense the greatest needs in that circumstance?
Example: Perhaps you are praying for someone who is suffering. You might pick Scriptures regarding Job’s or Paul’s experiences that will lead you through prayers for perseverance, assurance of God’s love, faithful friends, Kingdom warfare, or God’s glory. - Keep coming back to God’s character. Use Scripture that acknowledges God’s attributes.
Example: “Father, we acknowledge that You are Alpha and Omega—You know the beginning and You know the end (Rev. 22:13). This truth and the fact that You are love (1 John 4:8) assures us that Your plans for this situation are good (Ps. 145:9). - Sift through the prayer request to affirm what you know to be true in Scripture. Rather than praying that X-Y-Z would stop, repeat back to God what you know to be true.
Example: “Father, we know that You are actively orchestrating all the details of our lives for our good (Rom. 8:28). The enemy may be trying to take us down with what’s happening right now, but we know that You are achieving far more than we can imagine (Eph. 3:20–21). We humbly ask that You remove this difficulty from us, but if that is not Your will, we rejoice in Your never-ending grace (2 Cor. 12:8–9). - Find “so that” Scriptures to turn into prayers. The apostle Paul frequently prayed for one thing so that another would occur. An example of one of Paul’s “so that” prayers is Philippians 1:9–11. To focus your prayers, use Scripture that shares a process and a result.
Example: “Father, we know that Your Word will always accomplish what You purpose (Isa. 55:11). Help us to stay in Your Word so that transformation will occur” (Rom. 12:2).
Writing a Scripture-based prayer guide will become easier the more you do it. Keep a notebook handy as you spend time in God’s Word and jot down Scriptures that can easily be turned into a prayer for future use. Above all, ask God to direct your thoughts and bring them into alignment with His will.
1George Mueller, Answers to Prayer (Chicago: Moody, 2007), 14.
SANDRA HIGLEY was one of the founders of Pray! magazine. While at NavPress she wrote many popular Scripture-based prayer guides, including Targeted Prayers for Your Church, available from prayershop.org.
