Praying Scripture With the Right Focus

Praying through the Bible is most effective when we keep the Bible's true message and focus at the forefront. When we concentrate on secondary issues or misinterpret the text, our prayers may suffer because we miss the intended message. To clarify, I’m not trying to limit our prayers, but if we want our prayers to be informed by the Bible passage in front of us, we should focus on the message of that passage.

Let's consider an example: The story of David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17) is often misunderstood because we tend to see ourselves as David, the hero. As a child, I was taught that the moral of the story is about overcoming the giants in our lives and being like David.

However, the story is actually about how God raised up an unexpected savior after Israel longed to be ruled by an earthly king and then found themselves at the mercy of their enemies. This savior, David, defeated the enemy leader, Goliath, in a highly unexpected way—using a sling and the enemy's sword. As a result of David's victory, Israel and Judah rose up and pursued their enemies.

This story clearly foreshadows how God would raise up the ultimate Savior, Jesus, who would defeat Satan in a very unconventional way—through His death. Those who are rescued will then pursue the enemy as a result of Jesus' victory. This event reveals the gospel and God's mercy toward sinful people.

The point is this: we can pray through the story of David and Goliath with a self-focused understanding, identifying with David, or we can read the story and marvel at God's salvation through an unexpected Savior. In this story, we should identify with those who need saving and see David as a type of Christ. The story of David and Goliath is really about Jesus.

So, how would you pray through 1 Samuel 17?