Praying for Bible Prayers!

If you've saved this blog as a Fav, you might notice the new URL. We're now a website with an exciting new adventure on the way, we pray!

Please ask your friends to follow us as we pray actual Bible prayers - prayerfully paraphrased (pray-er-a-phrased) into contemporary language.

Just click the hotlink above or copy/paste - http://www.bibleprayers.net - into your browser.

May God bless you and give you the prayers to pray.

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Praying God's promises through a storm

As Hurricane Dorian approaches the United States, fear can sweep over us like a tidal wave! God knows this and has already given us comfort in these words:

Proverbs 3:24-26, Contemporary English Version (CEV)

…you will rest without a worry
and sleep soundly.
So don’t be afraid
of sudden disasters
or storms that strike
those who are evil.
You can be sure
that the Lord
will protect you from harm.

As you read and re-read those comforting words from God’s Word, what words would you use to claim that promise in prayer? For example:

Heavenly Father, no matter how scary things seem, we claim Your protection for we truly believe You want only good for us and not harm. Thank You for letting us know we have nothing to fear as we rest in the strength of Your love. Praise You, Lord, for protecting me and my home, church, community, and loved ones in Jesus’ Name, amen.

Mary Sayler, ©2019

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Praying Bible prayers and Bible promises

For several years, the Bible Prayers blog has focused on actual prayers in the Bible – prayers that have been prayer-a-phrased (prayerfully paraphrased) into contemporary language after gathering and comparing prayers in the many translations found in my home and on the Bible Gateway website.

If you’ve followed this blog (thank you very much and God bless you!) you’ve probably noticed long gaps between posts, which I pray will be only temporary.

Meanwhile, however, I’ve been collecting and paraphrasing Bible prayers for a book, which I hope will be accepted soon by a traditional Christian publishing house. Otherwise, I hope to publish the book myself because I believe so strongly in its importance – first as a means of making available and up-to-date the actual prayers in the Bible in one easy-to-read book for you (and me!) and also because praying those prayers means we automatically have prayer partners from the past, present, and future, who agree in prayer as two or more of us come together in Jesus’ Name.

In addition to that goal, a thought recently came to remind me that powerful, timeless, and relevant prayers are also available to us as we appropriately claim God’s promises in the Bible. So, Lord willing, I hope to explore that in this blog.

For example, consider Psalm 119:165 in the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible: “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.” Or, according to the Amplified Bible (AMP), “Those who love Your law have great peace; Nothing makes them stumble.” Or, the Contemporary English Version (CEV) says, “You give peace of mind to all who love your Law. Nothing can make them fall.”

With those translations and others in mind, a prayer that claims this biblical promise of God might go like this:

Oh, Lord, we praise You for Your encouraging Word to us through scripture. Thank You for promising to give us great peace of mind if we take Your will to heart and mind and spirit. Thank You for showing us what Your will is in the instructions and commandments You’ve given us in the Bible. Praise You for the guidance of Your Holy Spirit, for the strength of Your Word, and for Jesus Christ, Who keeps us from falling away from You. In His Name we pray, amen.

MarySayler, ©2019

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Last prayer in the Bible

Revelation 22:20-21

Marana tha—

Our Lord, come!

May the grace

of our Lord Jesus Christ

be with you all.

Amen.

prayer-a-phrased by Mary Harwell Sayler, (c) 2019

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The Catholic Youth Prayer Book

This second edition of The Catholic Youth Prayer Book, which Saint Mary’s Press kindly sent me to review makes a highly appropriate gift for Easter or any time of the year – not only for Catholic teens and young people but Christians of all ages.

Divided into four sections, the book includes:

Part I Prayers for Daily Life

Part II Prayers from the Catholic tradition

Part III Methods for Personal Prayer

Part IV Liturgical Prayer

Throughout the book, Bible prayers appear, often from the Psalms but also Ezekiel, Matthew, Philippians, 1 Peter, and other books found in Hebrew scriptures or the New Testament. In addition, you’ll find creeds of faith and prayers from spiritual giants such as St. Augustine, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Jerome, Ignatius, and more.

As you might imagine, Part II, Chapter 5, “Prayers and Devotions to Mary,” is most apt to cause concern for non-Catholic Christians, who have assumed the honor given to her is a form of worship, rather than the devotion, respect, and just plain love rightfully due the young woman who humbly and willingly gave her consent to become the Mother of Jesus. Even an angel – a messenger of God – called her “Blessed!”

In those poetic words, which begin the Rosary, we learn to pray through stages of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. (If you don’t have a string of beads to help you keep track of where you are in your prayers, you can always use your fingers!) Regardless, the chapter includes instructions and an illustrated “Guide to Saying the Rosary,” which, Catholic or not, has been known to move mountains and help people with insomnia sleep better at night!

“Chapter 6: Prayers about the Holy Spirit” includes an insert, “Scripture Tells Us about the Holy Spirit,” which encourages Bible readings in the epistles and the prophet Joel. For example

“You will do great things! ‘It shall come to pass/ I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh./ Your sons and daughters will prophesy,/ your old men will dream dreams, / your young men will see visions,” (Joel 3:1).

In Chapter 7, “Prayers from the Saints,” you’ll find prayers that speak to or for you so well, you might want to check out other works from those early Christians. For example:

“Take Me, Give Me

Lord, take me from myself and

give me to yourself.”

Saint Catherine of Seina

Or, for another example:

“In God’s Service

Lord God,

whose we are and whom we serve,

help us to glorify you this day,

in all the thoughts of our hearts,

in all the words of our lips,

and in all the works of our hands,

as becomes those who are your servants,

through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Saint Anselm

In the third section on personal prayer, the chapters and “methods” include:

Praying the Lord’s Prayer

Praying with Scripture: Lectio Divina

Praying with Guide Meditation

Prayer and Journaling

The final section gives liturgical prayers used in the church community and ones for a month of private devotions too. Typically those personal times of prayer begin with:

“Call to Prayer

God, come to my assistance.

Lord, make haste to help me.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:

as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.”

And end with a “Closing Prayer,” followed by:

“Dismissal

May the Lord bless us

and protect us from evil

and bring us to the joy of Heaven.

Amen.”

Yes and amen.

Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2019, poet-writer and pray-er

Click to order: 

The Catholic Youth Prayer Book, imitation leather cover

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Nehemiah’s Prayer is surely ours

“Great Lord, God of heaven,
Who inspires us to awe,

You always keep Your Word,
Your love, Your promises
with mercy shown
to those who love and obey You.

So now I ask You to open Your eyes,
Your ears to this prayer as I pray -
night and day - for Your servants,
Your children.

Lord, I confess we have sinned
against You,
and so have those before us.

How greatly we have wronged You!

We have failed to obey
Your commandments and laws given
to us through Your servant Moses.
But, Lord, do You remember what
You told us back then? You said,

‘If you are not faithful to Me,
I will scatter you among the nations.

But if you return to Me
and obey My commands - even
if you are as far away as you can go -

I will come and get you.

I will bring you to the place I have chosen
for My Name’.”

Nehemiah 1:5-9

as prayer-a-phrased by Mary Sayler after reading various translations on Bible Gateway

©2018

Praying for Christ to be glorified in you!

And so, with the Apostle Paul:

we’re always praying
for God to make you worthy of His calling,
fulfilling every good purpose
and every work of faith
by His power.

And then, the Name
of Jesus Christ our Lord
will be glorified in you –
and you in Him,
by the grace of God and Christ Jesus.


Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2018, prayer-a-phrased 2 Thessalonians 11-12 using scriptures from various translations provided by Bible Gateway.

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