Bible

Pray Scripture

Turn the words of the Bible into your own prayers.


Praying scripture means taking a passage of the Bible and saying it back to God as your own prayer. You are not inventing words to impress God; you are saying his own words back to him and meaning them.

How to pray a passage


  1. Pick

    a passage that fits what you are facing. Read what comes before and after it so you know what the writer was going through.

  2. Personalize

    it. Put your own name, your own trouble and your own thanks into the words.

  3. Pray

    it aloud. Read it from the page, or say it from memory. Pray it every day for a week, when the fear, the anger or the temptation comes, and when it has not come yet.



You do not have to memorize it first

Open a passage, read it slowly, and pray it with the page in front of you. That is praying scripture, and it is where most people begin. Nothing needs to be memorized before you start.

Where memorizing fits

Memorizing is a help, not a requirement. A passage you have read can be prayed while it is open in front of you. A passage you have memorized can be prayed anywhere: in the car, in a hospital corridor, at three in the morning, in the middle of a hard conversation, when there is no Bible to open. That is the reason to memorize: so the words are ready at the moment you need them. Read and pray today, and memorize the passages you find yourself coming back to.


An example


Here is a passage many people pray when they are worried:

The passage

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6–7

Prayed back to God, it might sound like this

Father, I am anxious about this, and I am bringing it to you. Thank you for what you have already done for me. Here is what I am asking you for. Guard my heart and my mind in Christ Jesus with your peace, the peace that is beyond my understanding.


The words are still the passage. You have put yourself into them.

Prayers in the Bible to start with


These passages are already prayers. Open one, read it, and pray it as your own.

Pray by topic


Looking for a passage that fits what you are facing? The passages in the Memorize section are gathered by topic, such as anxiety, temptation, forgiveness and marriage. Every one of them can be read and prayed, whether you go on to memorize it or not.

What the Bible tells us to pray for All topics


The first Christians prayed this way


When the apostles were threatened, they prayed Psalm 2 aloud together (Acts 4:24–26). Paul puts the two side by side: take up “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,” and pray “in the Spirit at all times” (Ephesians 6:17–18).

Scripture text: Berean Standard Bible.