Prayer points with Scriptures · 23 points
Prayer Points for the Word of God
These prayer points for the Word of God are for anyone who wants to love the Bible more, read it more and live it out: prayer teams, Bible study leaders, pastors, small groups and believers on their own. They pray for a real love for Scripture and a hunger to read it, for understanding and obedience, for the Word preached in our church and taught in our homes, and for the Bible to be translated and spread into every language.
For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return without watering the earth, making it bud and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat, so My word that proceeds from My mouth will not return to Me empty, but it will accomplish what I please, and it will prosper where I send it.
Isaiah 55:10-11 (BSB)
Pray one section before a Bible study or a Sunday service, or take one section a day for six days as you begin your own reading. Read the verse, pray its short prayer, then pause and ask God to speak to you through the passage you are about to read. Leaders can let the group add one-sentence prayers after each point.
A love for God’s Word
1Thanks for a perfect, trustworthy Word
LORD, thank You that Your law is perfect, reviving the soul, and Your testimony is trustworthy, making the simple wise. When I come to the Bible tired or confused, let Your words revive me, bring joy to my heart and give light to my eyes.
The Law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the LORD are right, bringing joy to the heart; the commandments of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes.
Psalm 19:7-8 (BSB)2Delight, not just duty
Lord, I want my delight to be in Your word, not only my discipline. Where reading the Bible has become a box to tick, warm my heart again, and teach me to turn Your word over in my mind by day and by night.
Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or set foot on the path of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the Law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night.
Psalm 1:1-2 (BSB) · Pray this verse →3Your words became my joy
LORD God of Hosts, Your words became Jeremiah’s joy and his heart’s delight, even in a lonely calling. I carry Your name too. Let me take in Scripture like food I cannot do without, until it is not a weight to carry but the joy of my heart.
Your words were found, and I ate them. Your words became my joy and my heart’s delight. For I bear Your name, O LORD God of Hosts.
Jeremiah 15:16 (BSB)4Comfort in hard seasons
Lord, in affliction let Your promise give me life. When the diagnosis comes, the money runs short or grief settles in, bring Your words back to mind, and let them hold me up when my own words run out.
This is my comfort in affliction, that Your promise has given me life.
Psalm 119:50 (BSB)
A hunger to read it
5Living on every word from God’s mouth
LORD, You taught Israel in the wilderness that we do not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from Your mouth. Make me as hungry for Scripture as I am for breakfast, and let me not go a day without it.
He humbled you, and in your hunger He gave you manna to eat, which neither you nor your fathers had known, so that you might understand that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
Deuteronomy 8:3 (BSB)6Sweeter than honey
Lord, Your words are sweeter than honey. Forgive me for filling up on headlines, feeds and noise until I have no appetite left for You. Give me a taste for Scripture again, so that I reach for my Bible before my phone.
How sweet are Your words to my taste—sweeter than honey in my mouth!
Psalm 119:103 (BSB)7Eager every day, like the Bereans
God, the Bereans received Your message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day. Give our church that eagerness. Let us open our Bibles daily, test every teaching by them, and never take a sermon, book or video on trust alone.
Now the Bereans were more noble-minded than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if these teachings were true.
Acts 17:11 (BSB)
Understanding Scripture
8Open our minds to understand
Lord Jesus, after Your resurrection You opened Your disciples’ minds to understand the Scriptures. Open my mind as I read. Where a passage is hard or unfamiliar, give me patience to stay with it, and help me see You in it.
Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.
Luke 24:45 (BSB)9Light as Your words unfold
Lord, the unfolding of Your words gives light, even to the simple. I do not need to be clever to understand You. Unfold Your word to me, to new believers, to children and to everyone who finds the Bible hard to read.
The unfolding of Your words gives light; it informs the simple.
Psalm 119:130 (BSB)10Guided into all truth
Holy Spirit, You are the Spirit of truth who guides Jesus’ disciples into all truth. Be my teacher as I read. Where I have misunderstood, correct me; where I have bent a verse to suit myself, show me; and lead me in what is true.
However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come.
John 16:13 (BSB)11Handling the word of truth with care
God, I want to handle the word of truth accurately: reading verses in their context, not pulling them out to prove my point. Make me a careful, unashamed workman, and keep me humble enough to go on learning.
Make every effort to present yourself approved to God, an unashamed workman who accurately handles the word of truth.
2 Timothy 2:15 (BSB)
Doing what it says
12Doers, not hearers only
Lord, I do not want to read Your word, close the cover and forget it, like a man who walks away from a mirror. Make me a doer and not a hearer only. Show me one thing to obey today, and give me grace to do it.
Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves. For anyone who hears the word but does not carry it out is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror, and after observing himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom, and continues to do so—not being a forgetful hearer, but an effective doer—he will be blessed in what he does.
James 1:22-25 (BSB)13Building on the rock
Lord Jesus, You said that whoever hears Your words and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. Before the storms of life come, let my obedience go deep, so that my house stands when the winds blow.
Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because its foundation was on the rock.
Matthew 7:24-25 (BSB)14Understanding that leads to obedience
LORD, give me understanding so that I may obey Your law and follow it with all my heart. I do not want knowledge that only fills my head. Let what I learn in Scripture change how I speak, spend, work and love.
Give me understanding that I may obey Your law, and follow it with all my heart.
Psalm 119:34 (BSB)15A word that searches the heart
God, Your word is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, and it judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart. When it cuts close, keep me from looking away. Let it expose my excuses and lead me to repent.
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Hebrews 4:12 (BSB)
The Word in our church and homes
16Pastors who preach the word
Lord, keep our pastors preaching the word in season and out of season, when it is welcome and when it is not. Let them correct, warn and encourage with patience, and keep the Bible open at the center of every service.
Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and encourage with every form of patient instruction.
2 Timothy 4:2 (BSB)17Read clearly and explained well
God, in Nehemiah’s day Your law was read aloud and explained so that the people could understand it. Let Scripture be read clearly in our church and taught well, so that everyone, from the child to the newcomer, understands what is being read.
So they read from the Book of the Law of God, explaining it and giving insight, so that the people could understand what was being read.
Nehemiah 8:8 (BSB)18Received as the word of God
Father, when Your word is preached among us, let us receive it not as the word of men but as it truly is, the word of God. Let it keep working in us who believe long after Sunday, at home and at work.
And we continually thank God because, when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it truly is, the word of God, which is also now at work in you who believe.
1 Thessalonians 2:13 (BSB)19Your words on our hearts and in our homes
LORD, put Your words on our hearts first, then help us teach them to our children: at the kitchen table, in the car, at bedtime and over breakfast. Make talking about Scripture as natural in our homes as talking about the weather.
These words I am commanding you today are to be upon your hearts. And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
Deuteronomy 6:6-7 (BSB)
The Bible translated and spread
20Scripture in every heart language
God, at Pentecost people from many nations heard Your wonders declared in their own native languages. Bless Bible translators, consultants and the local believers who work beside them, and let every people read Your word in the language they think and pray in.
both Jews and converts to Judaism; Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”
Acts 2:11 (BSB)21Faith that comes by hearing
Lord Jesus, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by Your word. Put Scripture within reach of those who cannot read, have no Bible or have never heard it: through audio Bibles, radio, apps and friends who read it aloud.
Consequently, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
Romans 10:17 (BSB)22The word spreading where it is opposed
Lord, when Herod set himself against the church, Your word kept spreading and multiplying. Where Bibles are banned or burned today, keep Your word moving through house groups, shared pages and memorized verses, and protect those who carry it.
But the word of God continued to spread and multiply.
Acts 12:24 (BSB)23The word that stands forever
God, the grass withers and the flowers fall, but Your word stands forever. When Scripture is mocked or ignored around us, give us quiet confidence. Trends and opinions will pass; Your word will still be standing.
The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.”
Isaiah 40:8 (BSB)
A closing prayer
Father, thank You for speaking to us in Your word. Give us a love for it, a hunger to read it, minds to understand it and hearts to obey it. Bless every pastor who preaches it, every parent who teaches it and every translator who carries it into a new language. As the rain waters the earth, let Your word go out and accomplish what You please, in us and through us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Pray with a voice
Short prayers with a voice to pray along with, each drawn from one passage.
Questions
Why pray about the Word of God?
Because understanding Scripture is God’s gift as well as our task. The psalmist asks God to open his eyes (Psalm 119:18) and give him understanding (Psalm 119:34), Jesus opened His disciples’ minds to understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:45), and Paul asked a church to pray that the word of the Lord would spread quickly (2 Thessalonians 3:1). Praying about the Bible keeps us reading it humbly.
What does the Bible say about itself?
That all Scripture is God-breathed and useful for instruction, conviction, correction and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16); that it is living and active (Hebrews 4:12); that it stands forever (Isaiah 40:8); and that God’s word will not return to Him empty (Isaiah 55:11). Jesus prayed to the Father, “Your word is truth” (John 17:17).
How can I start reading the Bible every day?
Pick a set time and place, start small and follow a plan. Many people begin with the Gospel of Mark or John and add a psalm a day. Pray before you read (Psalm 119:18 is a good prayer), read slowly, and write down one thing to thank God for or obey. If you miss a day, simply pick up where you left off.
How many languages have a complete Bible?
Fewer than one in seven. By the yearly counts of Bible translation agencies such as Wycliffe and the United Bible Societies, the full Bible exists in fewer than 1,000 of the world’s more than 7,000 languages, with the New Testament or portions in a few thousand more. Translation work is under way in thousands of languages.
More prayer points
Every verse on this page is quoted word for word from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), which its publishers dedicated to the public domain. Copy, print and share these prayer points freely with your church.