Sing God’s Word in your prayers, and turn your praise into a powerful, personal conversation with Him.
SHAUNA: Welcome to Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope. And here’s our friend Joni with a word, no, no, rather a song about prayer.
JONI: Because you know, I love to sing and I love to pray, so you know what I will often do? I will open my prayer with words to a song. Like this morning on the way to work when Ken [excuse me, Ken Tada is my term of endearment for my husband Ken], so Ken Tada was driving me to work and I quoted the words to “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” – because that hymn is filled with so many wonderful references to God’s power and might. So, if I'm out of words in prayer, if I’m looking for fresh words with which to praise the Lord I think it’s always good to open any prayer with words to a hymn. And when I’m in search for that I’ll often borrow the stanzas of a really good hymn like opening my prayer this way: This morning I said: “You, God, are a mighty fortress, you are a bulwark never failing. Oh God, you are our helper amidst every flood of mortal ills prevailing,” You get the point – so on, and so on I went. Or I might open my prayer with, “Guide me oh Thou great Jehovah, for I am a pilgrim in this barren land. I am weak but Thou art mighty, hold me with your powerful hand.” True, these are old hymns, but those words add so much richness [and I mean fresh richness] to your time of praising God.
But as I said on the onset, I also love to open my prayer by singing and by singing Scripture. After all, the Word of God is alive, it’s active, and when you infuse it into your prayers, you are infusing Godly vitality into your praise and petitions. Plus, Jeremiah 23 says that God’s word is like “fire, it’s like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces.” So, to use God’s word in prayer is to release [literally release] God’s divine power in breaking strongholds and demolishing the strategies of the enemy. First Thessalonians 2 says that God’s word is at work in our lives. And if that’s true – and of course it is – then think how much more God’s word works through your prayers. All this is to say, it’s so good to use Scripture and open up your time of prayer with words of praise.
But, like I said, I also like to sing those Scriptures. and, well, I kind of make up the tune as I go along. Like the other day I used the 23rd Psalm in my time of praise. And so I sang, [and I’m going to try to remember this melody as best as I can, I can’t really recollect the tune I invented, but it kind of went]: “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want; He makes me down to lie in green pastures, He leads me beside still waters and He restores my soul.” See what I mean? It’s a senseless tune, I just kind of made it up, but [I don’t know] it’s just a different way, a fresh and very personal way of bringing God’s Word into your prayer. And it’s personal because [guess what] you make up the tune, and don’t worry; nobody’s listening, nobody cares if you’re off-key or not on pitch, if the rhyme doesn’t make sense. You’re just making a joyful noise to the Lord: a joyful, powerful, personal, noise because you’re speaking. Because you are speaking, that is, you are singing to God in His own language.
So, try it the next time you pray. Because we all want to exhibit greater faith in prayer, right? So how do we gain greater faith? Well, faith comes by hearing the Word of Christ. And when you salt and pepper your prayers with references to verses you’ve memorized, it is a way of using God’s language when you talk to Him. So, let me encourage you to bring the alive and active Word of God smack dab in the middle of your intercessions and your confessions, and your petitions and your praise.
SHAUNA: Listening friend, if Joni’s thoughts on prayer today have blessed you in any way—well, why not share this program with a friend? Just go to joniradio.org where you’ll find this program and so much more.
© Joni and Friends