I have learned to . . . season my prayers with the word of God. It’s a way of talking to God in his language — speaking his dialect, using his vernacular, employing his idioms.

—Joni Eareckson Tada

When the Holy Spirit indwells us, he causes us to cry, “Abba. Father!” (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6). The Spirit creates in all believers a new heavenward, Fatherward orientation. In other words, all those indwelled by the Spirit really want to pray.

Eventually, though, most believers fall into varying sorts of routines in their prayers. This is quite normal, but there are both helpful and unhelpful prayer routines.

The Problem: Dry Prayers

One of the most common and problematic prayer habits is the tendency to say the same old things about the same old things. For many, this results in boredom in prayer. Words without variety tend to become words without meaning. Jesus himself warned about the problem of heaping up “empty phrases” in prayer (Matthew 6:7). When we do, we usually suffer from wandering minds and cold hearts more than benefit from communion with God.

The problem is not that we pray about the same old things. Most days are dominated by thoughts about the same things — family, future, finances, work or schoolwork or other daily labor, church or ministry, and the current crisis in our lives (such crises can be good, such as a new job, or bad, such as job trouble). Thankfully, most of these don’t change very often.

So, on a given day, when you go to pray about your life, it’s not unusual to pray about the routine matters that make up everyday life. The problem consists in saying the same old things about the same old things. Before long, these prayers can formalize into merely memorized mental scripts that produce a heartless, unsatisfying prayer life. We know prayer shouldn’t be a dry repetition of routine phrases, but either we don’t have the time or mental energy to think of new ways to pray, or we simply have no idea what to do about the problem.

Personally, I’m convinced this is an almost universal experience. But take heart: if you are indwelled by the Holy Spirit, there is a simple, permanent, biblical solution.

Simple Solution

Since the Holy Spirit makes every believer a praying person, then prayer must be both simple and meaningful. God’s people span all ages, educational levels, mental capacities, and degrees of Christian maturity. And yet, if each of us is to pray, then prayer must be fundamentally simple. And could any believer think that God intends prayer to be boring? Of course not. Prayer, since it is talking with God himself, should be deeply meaningful.

So, I hope you are convinced that every Christian — including you — can have a nourishing, satisfying prayer life. And I want you to believe there really is a simple, permanent, biblical solution. And here it is: When you pray, pray the Bible. Turn the words of Scripture into the words of your prayers.

Your Prayers in God’s Words

The easiest place to begin is in the Psalms. So let me show you what it might look like to pray through Psalm 23. You read the first line: “The Lord is my shepherd.” Then you could pray something like this:

Lord, I thank you that you are my shepherd. You’re a good shepherd and have shepherded me all my life. Would you please shepherd my family today as your sheep? Guide them into your ways. Cause them to love you as their shepherd as I love you as my shepherd. And would you please shepherd me in this decision I have to make about my future? I want to do your will. And shepherd our undershepherds at church. Shepherd them as they shepherd us.

And then you continue praying about whatever comes to mind from the words “The Lord is my shepherd.” When you can’t think of anything else to say, you can read the next line: “I shall not want.”

Thank you, good shepherd, for never leaving me in want. I haven’t missed many meals. All that I have and all that I am is from you. But I do know some who are in want. Would you please provide for them? Is there some way you would use me to help meet their needs?

“When you pray, pray the Bible. Turn the words of Scripture into the words of your prayers.”

When nothing else comes to mind, then go to the next verse. Maybe you don’t understand the next verse. Fine — skip it. Maybe you understand the next verse perfectly, but it doesn’t prompt anything for you to pray. That’s okay; feel free to move on. You continue in this way until either you run out of time or you run out of psalm. If you run out of psalm but still have time to pray, you might go to the next psalm.

See how easy that is? Anyone can do that — even a child. Regardless of how well you know the Bible, you can do that.

Vital Conversation

To pray this way doesn’t require you to memorize a method or an acrostic. You don’t have to remember any notes. All you need to do is open your Bible and talk to God about what you read.

Best of all, when you pray the Bible, you never again say the same old things about the same old things. And you don’t have to think of new things to say or different things to pray about. You’ll pray about the things you do want to pray about daily, but you’ll do so in new ways. Instead of saying, “Bless my family” every day, you’ll pray, “Shepherd my family” when you pray through Psalm 23. And you’ll pray things like, “Help my family experience your presence wherever they go today” when you pray through Psalm 139. And the prayers are not merely different each day (though that alone makes praying the Bible worthwhile); there’s also something about praying the living words of Scripture that awakens your heart in daily prayer for yourself, your family, and everything else you pray about.

And not only will you pray differently about the same things, but when you pray the Bible, you’ll also find yourself praying about things you’ve never prayed about before because the text prompts you to do so.

When you pray this way, you’ll be more focused and find your mind wandering less. Your prayers will be more God-centered. You’ll be encouraged, convicted, edified, and taught because you are praying the word of God — experiences that seldom occur when you say the same old things about the same old things.

You’ll also find that you experience prayer for what it really is: a real conversation with a real Person. No longer will prayer be merely a recitation of what you want to say to God, but you’ll be talking with God. The Bible is God’s word, God speaking. He speaks to you in his word, and you respond to what he has said — just as you would in a real conversation with a real person.

Spirit of Prayer

George Mueller (1805–1898) is widely considered one of the greatest men of prayer and faith in Christian history. For the first ten years of what he called his “life of faith” (by which time his prayer life was already legendary), he said that when he would begin to pray each morning, it would take him up to an hour before he got into “the spirit of prayer” because his mind wandered so much. And only then, Mueller said, would he really begin to pray. But once he learned to pray the Bible, he said he “scarcely ever” had this problem again.

What about believers during New Testament times? In Acts 4:24–30, while praying in response to persecution, the church in Jerusalem wove the words of Psalm 2:1–2 into their prayer. “And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken” (Acts 4:31).

What about Jesus? On the cross, he spoke briefly seven times. And when he cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34) and uttered his final words, “Into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46), he prayed the Psalms (22:1 and 31:5).

One of the most prayerful Christians ever, George Mueller, prayed the Bible. Christians in the early church prayed the Bible. Jesus prayed the Bible. Why not you?

Why not open your Bible, or recall a verse you have memorized, and try it now?