Praying Between The Lines

God is a mystery but walking in His ways shouldn’t be.

I have to admit there was a time when my prayer life and Bible reading was dull and repetitive.

It got to a point that I got tired of hearing me pray the same old dry prayers all the time and re-reading the “same” stories in the Bible all the time.

Little did I know that The Holy Spirit was working (and is still is working by the way) in my life.

The reason my prayer life and the Bible felt like I was drinking from a dry well was because I lacked that next level growth. I was basically stuck on an elementary understanding of the Bible and prayer.

I wanted more and I knew I needed more but I was too lazy to do the work.

Sure there are like a million books written by amazing Christians on prayer but I didn’t feel like reading them. I thought to myself, “while I’m reading all this stuff on how to pray, I might as well just be praying. After all, they’re just going to tell me what I already know.”

Makes sense, right?

Not really. Especially if they could shed light on a seemingly dire situation. However, God is good and His grace builds on our individual nature, so He worked with me– where I was at.

He prompted me to watch and really listen to the Christian preachers and pastors on TV. And I learned something right off the bat…

By learning from others who were more mature in their faith I learned more about what I didn’t have with Him.

All of them said, read the Bible every day.

It’s the easiest way to get to know Him. When I followed their advice I learned that I was only reading the surface of God’s word. I needed to pray between the lines. That’s probably about as clear as mud? Right now, you’re probably saying, “Huh? What does that mean? When you read you can only read the words. It’s not like you can read the white spaces in between the sentences.” I know what you’re saying but that’s not quite what I meant. Let me explain.

My journey started this way….

A long time ago, I asked a friend where I could find some ready-made prayers in scripture to pray at night– she directed me to the book of Psalms. She also pointed out that I needed to be shepherded by a pastor. So she gave me a few names of TV pastors, ( cause I already had a local church I was under utilizing) and a stern talking to and place to start in the Bible.

I started with the Book of Psalms. She said “they’re chock full of prayers for nearly every situation in life.” I was like great! Okay!

So I opened the Bible and went to the book of Psalms. Yep there were prayers, like a lot of them. Interesting ones too.

For example:

“Return to dust, you mortals.”
4 A thousand years in your sight
are like a day that has just gone by,
or like a watch in the night.
5 Yet you sweep people away in the sleep of death—
they are like the new grass of the morning:
6 In the morning it springs up new,
but by evening it is dry and withered.

7 We are consumed by your anger
and terrified by your indignation.
8 You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret sins in the light of your presence.ll -Psalm 90

Wow! That’s powerful but not quite what I wanted to pray before going to bed- at least not then.

As I continued to learn from the pastors and preachers on TV, I asked the Holy Spirit to grow me and to give me the understanding to have a deeper relationship with Him. I also asked that He unlock the scripture for me to let me see what I hadn’t seen before. And I asked for a better prayer life.

Believe me, He delivered.

By that time, I found myself watching the people she recommended. Even though it didn’t happen overnight, but one day while listening to the teachings of preachers and pastors on television, I started hearing with different ears. I started hearing about the application of scripture and how verses can be applied to my life now! Even the seemingly “esoteric” ones. (In my opinion, now those are some of the best ones!)

So now when I read these verses from the above Psalm:

“Return to dust, you mortals.”
A thousand years in your sight
are like a day that has just gone by,
or like a watch in the night.

I, now, see… No matter how long we live and how wise we become after gaining all this experience throughout our existence, it is but a drop of knowledge in God’s sight. Our life is like a blink of God’s eyes. We’re here one moment and in His kingdom the next (there is so much to unpack there! But we’ll explore this later!).

I also see in the above verse that, God is eternal and He is outside of time and that we have been created in a linear timeline.

That’s what is in between the lines. In other words the bonus pack of meaning and understanding about Him and to some extent us.

We have a start on this Earth and we have a finish and then we have a hereafter.

We didn’t always exist but He always has and will continue to be. We need to respect that.

See how much more there is in reading between the lines?

I didn’t just read the text. I looked for the meaning within the text and behind the text. It’s like reading between the lines.

And therefore now I can use this insight and text to inform my prayer life by saying something like–

“Thank you, God for creating me. Even though my life is just a drop in the bucket of eternity, I know you love me and know every hair on my head. You care about ME! Even if others may think of me as insignificant, I know you love me! And I worship you in all of your magnificent splendor because You are eternal, powerful, loving and mighty.

Amen.”

It is my hope that my teaching will help you grow in your understanding, love, and appreciation of God through His word, deed, and nature.

Until next time,

Keep praying between the lines.

-Paula

Bible used is the World English Bible