Praying the Bible

Praying the Bible by Don Whitney was published by Crossway this year.  It's been available in print in the US for a bit but is only available in the UK on Kindle until 21 August when the print version will come out here.  I first heard of this book probably in  Crossway's posts on Facebook.  The descriptions intrigued me and the more I looked into it, the more I wanted to read the book and learn what Don Whitney was teaching, so even though I much prefer print for such a book, I bought the Kindle version earlier in the summer so I could get started on it.  I was not disappointed.  The book is informal and conversational but the topic is still handled with seriousness and the Scriptures are held in reverence.   

It turns out that it's not so much a new technique that is taught, but rather an old method of praying, taught in a fresh way, and it is reaching a lot of people who have never heard of or understood the idea of praying the Scriptures.

The first chapter describes the problem that many of us have, which is our prayer life suffers because we get bored or just discouraged praying the "same things about the same things."  We think there is something wrong with ourselves, that we are not good Christians, because we find prayer so difficult, and frankly, boring so often.  

Dr. Whitney explains that praying about the same things is normal, because our lives are usually rather routine, with disruptions occurring only once or twice a year.  So, our concerns, and therefore our prayers,  usually are the same, year in, year out.  He points out six typical things we pray for:
1.  Family
2.  Future (either needing direction, or upcoming situations)
3.  Finances
4.  Work/studies
5.  Christian concerns such as church, missions, individuals
6.  Current crisis in our life

He also explains that the Holy Spirit's "preserving work"  in believers, helps them to persevere in their spiritual lives, which is why Christians continue to want to pray even when they feel so discouraged about it. 

In chapter 2 he begins talking about the solution.  He points out that if God wants His children to pray, He will not have made it too terribly difficult to do.  It would have to be something that people with all sorts of backgrounds and abilities can do.  Dr Whitney introduces in this chapter the idea of praying through passages of the Bible, especially from the Psalms.

At this point he had convinced me that this was what I needed to do.  But I needed to know how to do it.   Happily, in the rest of the book he explains to the reader the method he is recommending.  He gives an example of how he might pray through Psalm 23.  He explains that praying is different from exegeting, where you are trying to understand the meaning of it.  Although understanding it is good, in prayer it is alright if, when you are praying through a passage, things come to mind not directly related to the verse you are reading, and you pray about them.

There is a chapter on how to choose a Psalm of the day, and how to pray over other parts of the Bible. The epistles (letters from the apostles) are easy to pray from, but the Gospels and other narrative parts of the Bible will be approached differently. 

I really recommend doing the exercise he suggests in one chapter, before going on to the others.  

In chapter 8 where the reader is to evaluate his experience, I found my own experience of the exercise varied from the norm, but that is probably because there was a very specific concern I had that morning, and none of the suggested passages seemed to be much help.   However because of the videos (more on those later) I had already begun to pray through Scripture and on those previous occasions I found my experiences matched up more with those he described that other people had had. 

Praying the Bible - using the words that God has already given us - helps us to pray more according to His will and gives us more variety in our thoughts and words even when we pray about the same things we normally do. 

I'm so thankful to have learned about this book and to have been able to get it.   In June when I was back home a dear friend asked what she could be praying for me about, and I responded by requesting she pray for the improvement of my prayer life.  I feel this book was at least part of the answer to those prayers. 

If you can't get the book (but I hope you can) and even if you do get the book, I can recommend the series of short videos Dr. Whitney has made, to explain this technique and take the viewer through various examples.  You do need to sign up to get the emails which will have the links to the videos.  I normally hate having to sign up for things, but in this case I think it was well worth it. 
Link for videos

If you read the book, and or watch the videos, and actually begin to pray the Bible, I would love to hear about your experiences.

More about Dr. Whitney here.