Is it wrong to quote the Bible in your prayer? If yes, why, and if no, why?<\/p>\n
Thanks.<\/p>\n\t
Nowhere in the Bible does it forbid one to quote Bible passages in prayer. As long as your prayers are sincere, humble, with faithfulness, fervent, watchful, praising, and thankful, quoting Scripture is not inappropriate.<\/p>\n
As an example, this prayer was offered up when Peter and John were released from prison:<\/p>\n
“So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: “Lord, You are God, who\u00a0made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them, who by the mouth of Your servant David have said: ‘Why did the nations rage, and the people plot vain things? The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers were gathered together against the LORD and against His Christ.’ For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done. Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus”<\/em>” (Acts 4:24-30).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
There are two passages quoted in this prayer: Nehemiah 9:6 and Psalms 2:1-2.<\/p>\n
However, since man has a tendency to be verbose, problems can arise when one says long prayers that are not sincere. Jesus stated to the apostles, “And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him<\/em>” (Matthew 6:7-8). Avoid rote prayers as denominations use. For example, many denominations misinterpret Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:1-4 and pray the exacting wording of this prayer. In these passages, Jesus is merely giving a sample prayer to illustrate how his disciples should pray. It was not meant to be recited word for word in every prayer, that would be an example of vain repetition as Jesus stated earlier in Matthew 6.<\/p>\n
by James Johnson and Jeff Hamilton<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Is it wrong to quote the Bible in your prayer? If yes, why, and if no, why? Thanks. Answer: Nowhere in the Bible does it forbid one to quote Bible passages in prayer. As long as your prayers are sincere, humble, with faithfulness, fervent, watchful, praising, and thankful, quoting Scripture is not inappropriate. As…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[1510],"class_list":["post-43687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-prayers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":51497,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-the-formerly-blind-man-correct-in-john-9\/","url_meta":{"origin":43687,"position":0},"title":"Was the formerly blind man correct in John 9?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, How are you? Well, I hope. I have a question and this was the only way I knew how to contact you. I was in a discussion earlier today with a man on the topic of the sinner's prayer. I quoted John 9:31 to the man and his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37349,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-christian-believe-in-god-and-not-believe-in-prayer\/","url_meta":{"origin":43687,"position":1},"title":"Can a Christian believe in God and not believe in prayer?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can a Christian believe in God but not believe in prayer? I'm a member of the church but I don't believe in prayer? How do I overcome that? Answer: Let's work backward. You say you don't believe in prayer, yet the Bible says that Jesus taught, \"Then He spoke\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19484,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-refer-to-god-as-jehovah-in-a-prayer\/","url_meta":{"origin":43687,"position":2},"title":"Is it wrong to refer to God as Jehovah in a prayer?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 18, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it wrong or scripturally incorrect to refer to God as Jehovah?\u00a0 For instance, when you pray to Him, to address Him as Jehovah.\u00a0In Matthew 6:9, Jesus is showing the disciples how to pray.\u00a0He starts with \"Our Father in Heaven.\" Since\u00a0Jesus never refers to God as Jehovah and when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47026,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-is-the-temple-called-a-house-of-prayer\/","url_meta":{"origin":43687,"position":3},"title":"Why is the Temple called a house of prayer?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 26, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can you tell me what the phrase \"house of prayer\" means from Matthew 21:13?\u00a0 Is this word used as a synecdoche or is it meant to mean literal \"prayer?\"\u00a0 If prayer was not the only thing they did at the temple, could this word have been used to mean\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":66225,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-proper-for-a-church-to-pray-together-silently\/","url_meta":{"origin":43687,"position":4},"title":"Is it proper for a church to pray together silently?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 28, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day, brother Jeffery, Thanks for always answering questions. They've been helpful to me and the people around me. I want to ask you a question about the orderliness of prayer in the church. Can the church pray such that a time is given during worship, such as 10\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32077,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-proper-to-publish-your-prayers\/","url_meta":{"origin":43687,"position":5},"title":"Is it proper to publish your prayers?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 15, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Pleasant good morning, I'd appreciate some guidance, please.\u00a0I have observed prayers in the comment section under news articles of tragic incidents. When tragedy strikes I could, in the privacy of my home, say a prayer for those involved, and believe that God hears my prayers. However, others are posting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43687\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}