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SHEPHERDSVILLE, Ky. Don Whitney wants you to stop seeing yourself as a second-rate Christian.
Having been in the same place most every believer at some point finds himself—repeating the same methodical prayers to a point of boredom—Whitney knows how easy it is to yield to the temptation of thinking, “Something must be wrong with me if I get bored in something as important as prayer.”
The author of five other books on spiritual disciplines maintains that “truly born-again, genuinely Christian people” often do not pray simply because they do not feel like it. “And the reason they don’t feel like praying is that when they do, they tend to say the same old things about the same old things,” he reasoned.
A professor of biblical spirituality and associate dean at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary since 2005, the native Arkansawyer credits his former teacher at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, T. W. Hunt, with teaching him much about prayer by example. A few years later while serving his first pastorate, Whitney learned a profound yet simple lesson from R.F. Gates who held up the Bible and said, “When you pray, use the prayer book.”
Whitney isn’t one to fault the believer’s spirituality, but rather the method of prayer, when trying to counsel anyone struggling with an effective prayer life. “It has to be fundamentally simple,” he explained, applicable to the 9-year-old Christian with an eagerness to grow as well as the 39-year-old saint “with a heart encrusted by the traditions and experiences of the years.”
He is convinced that when the Holy Spirit enters any person, he brings his holy nature with him, resulting in a new hunger for the Word of God, fellowship with the people of God, and a longing to live in a holy body without sin. “The ever-fresh, ever-green work of the Holy Spirit” is manifested in every person in whom he dwells, Whitney reminded.
Christians tend to repeat prayers they have recorded in their minds or heard others recite when interceding for the same half-dozen things, Whitney explained, referring to typical pleas for family, future, finances, work, Christian concerns and the current crisis in their lives.
“These are the areas where you devote almost all your time,” he explained. “Moreover, these are the great loves of your life, the places where your heart is.” The problem does not come from praying about the same old things, he said, but rather, “it’s that we say the same old things about the same old things,” leading to a boring prayer life, and ultimately not even feeling like praying.
After setting that stage, Whitney devotes his book Praying the Bible to what he calls a fundamentally simple solution applicable to Christians of any age, intelligence or resources. He introduces the psalms as “the best place in Scripture from which to pray Scripture.” In praying the Psalms, Whitney explained, “We are returning to God words that he expressly inspired for us to speak and sing to him.”
Furthermore, he added, “You will never go through anything in life in which you cannot find the root emotions reflected in the Psalms. Exhilaration, frustration, discouragement, guilt, forgiveness, joy, gratitude, dealing with enemies, contentment, discontentment—you name it: they are all found in the book of Psalms.
From the feedback he has received in teaching this method of prayer, Whitney has heard folks say it was easier to stay focused, “pray more about God and less about me,” pray for longer periods of time, approach God conversationally and meditate on his Word. The content of their prayers was applicable to life, centered on God’s will, broader in scope, heartfelt and fresh.
Turning to Psalm 23, Whitney suggested a woman might pray for God to “shepherd” her children or grandchildren in various ways. On another day she could find in 1 Corinthians 13 an appeal for God to develop in her family members the kind of love taught in that chapter. From Galatians 5 she could plead with the Lord to develop the fruit of the Spirit in her children.
“The heart of her prayer—‘Bless my children’—remains unchanged, even though her words change,” Whitney wrote. “By filtering that prayer through a different passage of Scripture each time, her prayer changes from a mind-numbing repetition of the same old things to a request that ascends from her heart to heaven in unique ways every day.”
To put it more simply, Whitney encouraged readers to take the words that originated in the heart and mind of God, “circulating them through your heart and mind back to God.” That exercise allows God’s words to “become the wings of your prayers.”
