Praying the Bible

Correctly handling the Word of God does not permit making the text say what we want. To understand the Bible accurately, we must discover (or “exegete”) the single, God-inspired meaning of every verse before us. The text of the Bible means what God inspired it to mean, not “what it means to me.”

When praying the Bible, our primary activity is prayer, not Bible intake. Bible reading is secondary in this process. Our focus is on God through prayer; our glance is at the Bible. And we turn Godward and pray about every matter that occurs to us as we read. 

Don Whitney, “What’s the difference between interpreting the Bible and praying the Bible?”

2 thoughts on “Praying the Bible”

  1. My question would be, “Where in Scripture are we instructed to ‘Pray The Bible’?”

    The Bible contains many prayers and calls to pray, but I tend to see teachings like this as dangerous in that they attribute mystical powers to Scripture beyond the simple truth contained in the words God has given us.

  2. That’s a good concern, and I think Whitney pushes back against mysticism in his writing. I understand that we are told to pray using Scripture by the example we get from Scripture. The Psalms are prayers or prayerful. Didn’t the Jews repeat psalms as prayers?

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