Praying Scripture

1. Preparation: Pray and Read Through Your Passage
Record your prayer for God’s help.

• We can sing the heavenly hallelujahs during the dark nights because the King is coming to judge sin and to marry sinners. Open the eyes of my heart to the ugliness and heinousness of sin as well as to the fair beauty of my heavenly Bridegroom who is coming for me! Just like Wesley came for Buttercup in the Princess Bride, Jesus will come for me. AMEN.

2. Adoration: Praise God for Who He Is

What should you praise God for based on your passage?

• We praise God for his absolute, sovereign power. “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God
the Almighty reigns” (Rev. 19:6).
• We praise God because he will deliver his people by judging sin. Who is the great prostitute corrupting the earth with immorality and violence? This is an eternal judgment – “the smoke from her goes up forever and ever” (Rev. 19:3).
• Because God will judge all sin, we are called to remember who we are – We are his servants, and to remember what we are to do – Fear Him… a reverential, affectionate awe at who the Lord is and what our Lord will do.
• We praise God that he will consummate human history by officiating a wedding where the Lamb will marry his beloved bride that he purchased with his own blood.
• We praise God that he even provides the clothing for us to become the bride of Jesus.
• We praise God that he has given us the ultimate blessing – an invitation to this wedding feast.

3. Confession: Acknowledge and Turn from your Sinfulness
What sin should you confess based on your passage?
• I have not hated porneia in all its forms. It has a corrupting influence. Forgive me for tolerating what you hate and dabbling in what you will judge.
• I have not been as diligent as I should be in readying myself for my ultimate wedding day. I forget to wear the robes of Christ’s righteousness and succumb to the accusations and temptations of the devil.
• I am often distracted in my service for my bridegroom and have not given myself zealously to purposeful service for Christ.

4. Thanksgiving: Express Gratitude for God’s Works and Gifts
What should you thank God for based on your passage?

• History is going somewhere. The consummated kingdom of God is like a wedding feast.
• I thank you that you want an intimate friendship with me… to be perfectly loved, intimately known, and sacrificially served.
• I thank you for awakening me to the privilege of this ultimate beatitude – an invitation of the marriage supper of the Lamb.

5. Supplication: Ask God to Meet Your Spiritual and Physical Needs
What should you ask for yourself based on your passage?

• I would seize every opportunity to add my voice to the heavenly, hallelujah chorus that never ceases to praise our great God.
• Help me to take comfort in the promise that ultimate, perfect justice is coming. Sin and evil will be judged. When evil appears to be winning, know that the Lord of perfect justice has the last word.

6. Consecration: Commit to Obeying God’s Will
What should you commit to doing based on your passage?

• Cultivate a readiness to worship God. Give me a heart whose pulse may be your praise for you are a God of perfect justice and abounding grace.
• According to the Apostle John, what are the righteous deeds of the saints? One thing for sure is holding fast to the testimony of Jesus and serving Him.
• Invest my life in purposeful acts of service for the honor of my heavenly bridegroom.

 
7. Intercession: Ask God to Meet the Needs of Others
Record your prayer for God’s help.

• So move in the hearts of those I love to hate sin, since sin elicits the perfect justice of a holy God.
• Cause the hearts of all whom I love to cherish, love, and adore their heavenly bridegroom.
• May all whom I love resolve to ready themselves for their eternal marriage to the Lamb.
• May they be dressed in the perfect robe of Jesus’ righteousness.