Praying the Bible...Two Possible Ways
Two ways to pray
If you're anything like me, you need help finding words to pray. Prayer, like any discipline, requires exactly that - discipline. I simply mean that we need to stretch that "muscle" and practice prayer like we would any other vital aspect to our lives. It won't come naturally as we'd like to. Of course, you'll find many who seem to be naturally inclined to pray long and pray deep, but then again, it always looks like that from our angle. What I have learned over the years is that those men and women who have blessed me most, and have led me the best, in the area of prayer have all practiced the discipline well. If you'd like to grow in this, here are two ways I think you can stretch the muscle of prayer.
Praying the Bible
The best book I've found on this was written by Donald Whitney and can be found here. It has been celebrated as the number one best way to carry the devotional life of many great Christian's in the past. It employs the book of Psalms mainly, but can be extended to any book or passage of the Bible. Here are the class notes to the class we teach on "Praying the Bible."
A.C.T.S.
This might be one of the more taught disciplines on the college campus, and it does have a much more systematic approach that what's listed above. I used this for years, mainly in the form of written prayers (journaling), but it can easily be used for vocal prayers and meditation sans journaling. You can find our class notes on this here.
Books
Praying the Bible, Donald Whitney
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, Donald Whitney
Recapturing the Wonder, Mike Cosper
Liturgy of the Ordinary, Tish Warren
