I am delighted to welcome Sarah Geringer as guest on my blog. Sarah and I have known each other for a number of years through Proverbs 31 Ministries’ COMPEL Training for writers. It’s been wonderful to see how God is using Sarah’s gifts and skills as a writer to encourage others. Sarah is an avid writer and reader.
I’ve been meditating on God’s Word every day for nearly 20 years. But only in recent years have I used this spiritual discipline to inspire my prayer life.
In my conversations with God, I know he loves hearing from me. Whether it’s in short arrow prayers or long, drawn-out words, he adores listening to me. That’s such a blessing, and I can enjoy it whether I only have a few moments or half an hour to pray.
For the longest time, I kept meditating on God’s Word separate from prayer. I would open my One Year Bible in the morning and think deeply about one or two verses from the text. This valuable practice started breaking down the lies I believed and replaced them with the solid truth in the Bible.
My prayers would be different. They would be spontaneous, spoken while I was commuting or falling asleep. Those prayers were precious to God and good for my spiritual development. But I wanted a deeper prayer life, like most of us do.
I started hearing about people using God’s Word to inspire their prayers. I heard them in my interdenominational Bible study, praying Bible verses back to him. This practice intrigued me. I wanted to learn more.
So, I started trying it out on my own. If I found a verse in my daily readings that moved me to pray, I began praying it back to God. I was delighted to discover how combining Christian meditation with prayer strengthened my faith.
Praying God’s Word back to him helped reinforce my belief. It tethered me to the hope and peace uniquely found in the Bible. Saying God’s truth back to him helped me speak to God in his own love language. I think God especially delights in us speaking his words back to him, like a father takes delight when his young child repeats his words back to him.
How can you have prayer inspired by Christian meditation to strengthen your faith? Here are several steps to consider.
- Start with a simple prayer. Before you open your Bible, ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten you to the truths in God’s Word. He will guide you into the verses that are tailor-made for the current struggles in your life – the ones that will turn into powerful prayers.
- Read your Bible. I like using the One Year Bible format to get through the entire Bible in a year. It has readings from the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs, which provide a variety of inspiration for your spiritual growth and prayer life. However, any kind of Bible reading will provide great inspiration. Consistency is the key.
- Choose a verse. Which verse speaks most to you right now, in your current life stage or struggle you are facing? This is the one that can make a big difference in your faith. Focus deeply on it, breaking it down word by word. Repeat it several times, thinking about how it applies to your relationship with God, yourself, and others.
- Write the verse. When you write a verse out, you have a 40 percent better chance of remembering it over simply reading it. If you write it on a sticky note, you have the added advantage of taking it along with you to meditate on pray on it several more times each day.
- Pray the verse. Get creative – restate it in your own words. Personalize it with your own situations. Make it as personal as possible. Speak it out loud for even greater power.
Here’s an example of how to pray one of my favorite verses, which is :
You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.
Isaiah 26:3 NLT
Prayer: Lord, you know I am experiencing anxiety today. I need the perfect peace you promise in your Word. I believe that if I keep my mind steadfast on you, my thoughts focused on you when I am anxious, you will give me your perfect peace in exchange for my anxiety. Help me trust you more each time I choose to focus on you in my mind. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Sarah Geringer is a speaker, podcaster, artist and author of Transforming Your Thought Life: Christian Meditation in Focus and Transforming Your Thought Life for Teens: Renew Your Mind with God. She also has three self-published books. She is on the devotional writing teams for Proverbs 31 Ministries, Hope-Full Living, Kingdom Edge Magazine and Woman 2 Woman Ministries. She has also written for A Wife Like Me and Devotable. When she’s not reading over 100 books per year, Sarah enjoys painting, baking, gardening, and playing the flute. Her daily must-haves are hot tea, dark chocolate, and fresh flowers.