Praying the Scriptures
April 27, 2020
I was reading the Psalms several months ago and "concerning myself about certain issues" in my life. A thought came to me to ‘Pray the Scriptures’. And I decided to act on it. In hopes that it would solve the problem :-)
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Now several months later, I am still not sure if it was the devil or God who spoke to me that day. And so, I am unsure whether I should place these images up. This scripture comes to mind as I write. "God has not given you a spirit of fear but of power, of love and of a sound mind."
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I went for my bible to search for the exact words to quote it to you 😊. I opened the bible and found myself staring at these words “Do not be afraid” that I had underlined many years ago while reading. I laughed because, I know, all of these “Signs” don’t necessarily mean “it is from God telling me to do it ”.
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And so I find myself reluctant, quite hesitant to place this blog up and yet that is one of the reasons why I have chosen to place this blog up. For I think I should.
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Why am I reluctant to talk about God and prayer? I ask myself. Reasons being:
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(1.) I think it is because it is religious. I try to stay away from discussions about ‘God’ and 'Religion'
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(2.) I may just be losing the very faith that made me started creating the “praying the Scriptures” images in the first place. Strange but true. I find that, one can know all the stuff in one’s head about God, but the heart is another matter. My heart isn't in it as it use to be. And I am told one must have faith for prayer to work. Which I have proven to be true.
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(3.) We all know appearing to be Good and being good are two different things. We know, that at times, "religious things" appear to be good but turns out to be the opposite. I am not okay with just appearing to be good. It is either I am being good or I am not. Yet, I find even the term “Being Good” is relative in people’s view and in mine. But that whole discussion, “Being Good” is for another conversation.
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So in a nutshell what I am saying is, I'm a bit weary of "religious things" and "good intentions" which this blog seemed to be - Good Intention.
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(4.) I find that it is easier to present to you a blog that talks about anything else but “God”. Less struggle. For I find that it seems as though I am in a "fight" spiritual or otherwise 😊, just to write these blogs and create these images which makes no sense to me, this fight (I have written only 6 so far).
It is clear that I am not getting something right.
There is no fight if and when I choose to talk about sex or anything else non-spiritual.
Is it mental/spiritual/physical I am not sure, maybe all of the above. And
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(5.) We also know that “the devil is in the details” so I’m pretty sure he’s here somewhere. But the image titled Knowing God says it all. So I leave it in God's care.
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I don’t normally pray the scriptures; in fact, I think that day was the first time I heard about praying the scriptures. However, when I gave it some thought, I surmised that chances are, I may have heard it mentioned previously, in passing, whether on the television or the radio or from someone who prays.
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I didn’t give it much research. After all, prayer is just you talking to God telling him how you feel and “actually” expecting him to hear you and come do something about it. How hard could it be in praying the scriptures? I thought. So, what I did was. I began to pray the scriptures – mainly Psalms and discovered a few things.
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As a result, before I share with you all the images that I "end up" creating over these several months, was reminded of a few facts as I created and learned a few lessons while creating. I feel the need to state a few things, some of which I think most of you may already know, so it is for those who do not know.
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Firstly, let me define the word prayer and psalm, Google gives this definition for Psalm,
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“a sacred song or hymn, in particular any of those contained in the biblical Book of Psalms and used in Christian and Jewish worship.”
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The Holy Bible, New International Version, Zondervan (1994) states that the traditional Hebrew title means ‘praises’, even though many of the psalms are prayers.
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It goes on to say that, the names ‘Psalms’ and ‘Psalter’ come from the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old testament). Both names originally referred to stringed instruments (e.g. harp, lyre, lute), then to songs sung with their accompaniment. It also states, the Psalter is not a book of catechism or doctrine. It is rather for the most part a book of prayer and praise. It speaks to God in prayer and of God in praise and in professions of faith and trust.
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Now on to the definition of prayer.
The WHSmith/Collins English Dictionary give these two definitions for Prayer:
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(1.) A personal communication or petition addressed to a deity, esp. in the form of supplication, adoration, praise, contrition, or thanksgiving.
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(2.) An earnest request or entreaty.
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Secondly, I also feel the need to state what I was taught about 'How to pray' which is also one of the reasons why at first, I was so "iffy" about creating these images and placing them up, after all we pray in secret. And secret means NOT PUBLIC (I said to myself). So I refer you to the three images below (Matthew 6 vs. 5 -15) where Jesus basically gives you advise on how best to pray. (these images were created by me many years ago when I had more faith :-)
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What it's really saying is that prayer must be genuine.
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Prayer is to God not to man so whether spoken out publicly or privately it must be genuine. God knows the heart of man, hence he knows when it is genuine.
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John 4:24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
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So, when the thought came to mind, I was iffy about doing it because it is public and though I have prayed publicly before I don't normally do so. As I did the praying the scriptures images, I got a better understanding of praying publicly. I still see that prayer is a private matter between you and God even when said out loud, in public.
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Now that I have defined what prayer is. Let me state some of the things I discovered while I was "praying the scriptures" by creating the related images.
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(1.)
We pray the scriptures all the time, though we may not call it by that name. We do so, when we sing those familiar gospel songs that touches our hearts, when we recite those bible verses in prayer whether in outspoken heartfelt prayer or silent mutterings. And in those conversations with God, where we remind him of the promises he has made to us using those very scriptures. (Which means I have been praying the scriptures all these years without even realizing it. 😊)
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(2.) Several benefits of praying the scriptures are:
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It helps in keeping one’s mind on God, what God is, what he has done, can do, will do and has promised to do.
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It is a good starting point for those who are having difficulty in praying
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It also ingrains the scriptures in your mind, so they come to​ remembrance when negative thoughts invade your mind and you need to counteract those evil thoughts.
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Jesus’ temptation (Matthew 4) also comes to mind as another example of praying the scriptures. Although it is not mentioned that he prayed the scriptures, he and the devil did contend using the scriptures.
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Before I wrap this up, this must also be said:
it is difficult to continue praying and believing when “all hell breaks loose in your life and seems to continue to stay loose ”, but we normally still believe or hope that:
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(1) there is a God
(2) we go to him as we are
(3) he answers prayers and
(4) We know that praying to God changes you and your circumstances not God.
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After I had finished writing the above,
it crossed my mind that the confession list that I did sometime ago,
inspired by reading Joyce Meyer's book, "Me and My Big Mouth!"
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is also similar to "Praying the scriptures" and can be used as praying
the scriptures as well. So I have included the link here:
Confession List: Declaring the decree
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As you may have noticed in reading this blog, I went and did some research afterall.
I went and read a few books about praying, which I had bought several years ago and had not read then *sml*.
A Divine Revelation of Prayer,
A Divine Revelation of Spiritual Warfare,
A Divine Revelation of Angels and
A Divine Revelation of Deliverance all written by Mary K. Baxter et.tal.
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And I even created some images from those books.
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However, as I have mentioned earlier, it is taking me a while to write this blog because I am having some problems doing so. (2 mths. in writing the blog and if I include the images it's more than that - wow)
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I have also stated before that I am unsure if it was God or the devil who made that suggestion to me that day. For while I am sure that the devil (evil) is giving me advice on what to do and how to do it, hearing, recognizing and following God's (good) voice/advice is a little bit more difficult at times and takes a "developed skill" that I am sure I have not mastered as yet.
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A little bit of self-mockery here with the confession list image that you see.
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It would be good for me to know God's voice and listen and obey what he tells me for God has my best interest at heart. Isn't that what we are taught?
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So when I had already completed all that I thought I should have done to get this blog up and published. All images for Mary K Baxter already prepared and ready to go ( I had done them before I wrote this blog). It dawned on me that I still had not done something *sml*.
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I created quite a few images from those books and I do like the way they came out, how I end up creating them (It was enlightening) and took several months of "learning".
I think of them as notes that I jutted down to share with you.
They helped to remind me and inform me of some stuff about prayer, angels and God, yea about the devil as well.
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However, after I had completed them (the images from Mary K. Baxter's book that gives some info about prayer, God & angels), I realized that I should have gotten the permission before I did them, somehow I didn't see that note that says so in the front of the book until I had finished doing everything, funny😊.
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That's when it dawned on me what I should have done before I started.
The fair use of copyrighted material may come into play here but I have not done the research on that as yet. I will tell you about that in another blog when I have done the research.
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It's far more easier to just get the permission from them. So, I have written to the Mary K. Baxter's team and ask for their permission to use the quotes from the books that I have used.
As I have mentioned earlier, I am having a problem writing this blog so here I am trying to solve one of the problem that arose.
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okay, January 24, 2021 update
Still have the problem that made me did the praying the scripture in the first place. Though it is still there I can say doing the 'praying the scripture series' has served its purpose when I had done it.
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I wrote Mary K. Baxter's team but didn't get a response. I am guessing I didn't do something right, something went wrong with me that day, I didn't write the letter right that is for sure 😊.
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So seeing that others have already seen these images I have decided to place them up as well.
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You are already seeing some of the images in this blog. The rest you will find here
Quotes from Mary K. Baxter's books
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With the above now mentioned and explained, here are the images that "I end up creating". Hope they are of use to you as they have been to me.
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PRAYERS
Miscellaneous
Praying the Scriptures - the mind
 create in me a clean heart |  search me O God |  my mind is mine |
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 prayer for God's help with the mind |  prayer for a sound mind |
Praying the Scriptures - the mouth
 guard my mouth lord |  a prayer about the mouth - 1 |  you are my hope |
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 a prayer about the mouth - 2 |  prayer concerning the mouth - |  Joyce Meyer's prayer of commitment to co |
Praying the Scriptures - Crying Out for Help
Praying the Scriptures - Guidance
 teach me your way |  lord help me make wise choices |  prayer asking for guidance |
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 a prayer for guidance |  prayer - guidance |
Praying the Scriptures - Trust
 a prayer of trust - you are my shield |  you will keep me safe |  a prayer of trust |
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 a prayer of trust - you are a shield |  In God I trust |  prayer of trust - in God I trust |
 the lord hears the needy |  a prayer of trust - Ps. 71 |  the lord is with me |
Praying the Scriptures - Praise
