How to Pray Scripture – 5-Day Prayer Challenge – Holiday Edition – Day Three
Lesson: How to Pray Scripture
5-Day Prayer Challenge
Holiday Edition
Day Three Challenge
Welcome to Day Three!
Are you ready to spend a little time focusing on prayer?
For today, you will need the Praying Scripture Worksheet.
You can get the Basic Prayer Worksheet here – Praying Scripture Worksheet PDF
See the end of the post for a link to get the Holiday 5-Day Prayer Challenge Bible Study Guide. This includes other forms, like the Praying Scripture Worksheet, that can be used to learn the methods mentioned in these lessons.
(As always, you are welcome to use your favorite journal or plain paper instead of the forms. The forms are only a guide.)
Praying scripture can be the antidote to vain repetitions and uncertainty about what to say in your prayers.
So, today’s lesson will focus on how to pray scripture. That means using scripture to give you an outline for what you will say in your own prayer.
We learn how the Psalms are designed to teach us how to use godly words in prayer to God.
Today’s lesson will show us how to use Philippians 2:1-7 to form a prayer of our own for the coming holiday season.
Today, your challenge is to use Philippians 2:1-7 for your model.
We’ve talked about how the holidays get crazy and people act crazier. People are rude and selfish. Sometimes, we may be too.
We want our day to go the way WE want it to go.
I believe something we really need to remember is how we are thinking of others as we go about our business.
Are we buying gifts that make a point or just buying what we know they will love?
Are we focusing on appearances rather than substance?
Are we putting our own interests ahead of someone else’s?
Sometimes even in praying for really good things – like praying for someone to make the changes in their life that they need to make – we may still be praying more for ourselves than we are for them.
Are we praying that they do not do A, B, or C because it is not good for them or because it inconveniences us?
While it is possible for both things to be true – which one is our motivation for praying or desiring their change?
As we saw in the first two lessons, our heart is at the very crux of our prayer life. What we bring into it determines whether God will hear it. After all, He knows our hearts. The Spirit can make intercession when we don’t know what to pray, but He won’t make our motivations right for us if they weren’t to begin with.
We have free will. Our desiring good for others must be a choice on our part. Not a happenstance afterthought.
So, take up the challenge.
Write Philippians 2:1-7, or whatever part of that context you choose. And then write a prayer using scripture as your guide.
A petition on your own behalf that you are not selfish and that you put the interests of others before your own might be one place to begin.
Something like, “Lord, my sister and I struggle to have civil conversations. Please help me to find a way to speak in a way that is loving and compassionate. Help us both to be more considerate of one another, and the people around us, when we are together.” takes the attitude that is taught in Philippians 2:1-3 and applies to the here and now. These spiritual attitudes must become actions we live out towards others!
Read the scripture and pay attention to what stands out to you. Then consider how that might be something you could express to God – either as a request for help, a thanksgiving for His sacrifice, an acknowledgment of the promise fulfilled because you have experienced the joy of being like-minded with others, etc.
It’s your prayer. Take it where you need to take it.
Enjoy!
If you would like to have all of the files in one place, you can get a copy of Surviving the Holidays with Grace Study Guide here
You can find Day 2 here –
You can find Day 4 here –