For the past five years, I have been leading twice-a-week prayer times at The Berdhouse, a residential Christian discipleship community that Trudi and I lead for college students. We normally spend the first 15 minutes of each prayer time reading through a passage from the Bible and responding to that passage with dozens of short prayers. Our times responding prayerfully to God’s Word have frequently been spiritually rich—and since they have been directed by Scripture, often spiritually deep as well.
It has taken quite a few years to identify Scripture passages that work well for such times of prayer. The aim of this post is to share with you my list of Scriptures that have worked well when I have led group prayer. During our prayer times at The Berdhouse, we have prayed through many more biblical passages than those found on the list below, but all of the following passages have been successful in framing our prayers. Some of these passages are somber, others quite convicting, some joyful and celebratory, others doctrinally thick. I share this list with you in case you are looking for helpful scriptural passages to employ as you pray with others.
Genesis 1:1-2:3[1]
Exodus 19:10-25 with Hebrews 12:18-29[2]
1 Chronicles 16:8-36
Psalms 1-2
Psalm 19
Psalm 27[3]
Psalm 34
Psalm 40
Psalms 42-43[4]
Psalm 46
Psalm 57
Psalms 62-63
Psalm 71
Psalm 86[5]
Psalm 90
Psalm 96
Psalms 99-100
Psalm 103
Psalm 119:1-32
Psalm 145
Proverbs 3:1-12
Ecclesiastes 2
Isaiah 25:1-26:9
Isaiah 40:18-31
Isaiah 43:1-13
Isaiah 52:13-53:12[6]
Isaiah 55
Lamentations 3:19-39[7]
Daniel 9:1-19[8]
Joel 2:12-32
Matthew 5:1-16
Matthew 6:19-34[9]
Mark 10:13-45
Mark 13
Luke 1:46-55, 68-79[10]
John 10:1-30
John 14:1-31
John 15:1-16
John 16:1-24
John 17
Acts 13:14-43
Romans 8:1-17
Romans 8:18-39
Romans 12
2 Corinthians 4
2 Corinthians 5
2 Corinthians 6:1-10[11]
Galatians 5:13-26
Ephesians 1:3-14
Ephesians 1:15-2:10
Ephesians 3:14-21
Ephesians 4:1-16
Ephesians 5:1-21
Philippians 2:1-18
Philippians 3:7-21
Philippians 4:1-9
Colossians 1:9-23
Colossians 3:1-17
1 Thessalonians 5
1 Timothy 4:1-5:2
2 Timothy 1:1-14
Titus 2:11-3:11
Hebrews 13
James 1
James 4
1 Peter 1:3-25
1 Peter 2:1-17
2 Peter 1:1-11
1 John 4:7-5:5
Revelation 21:1-9, 22-27; 22:1-5
Whenever you plan to lead a prayer time, select one of the above passages. Don’t work through passages in the order listed above; instead, select a passage that seems appropriate to the moment. You could, of course, use these passages during personal times of prayer as well. But today I am particularly hoping that this list will help those of you who lead prayer meetings to direct spiritually rich times of corporate prayer grounded in the Word of God.
[1] Focus: thanking God for all he has made.
[2] Focus: the awesomeness of God.
[3] Focus: dealing with fear.
[4] Focus: lament.
[5] Focus: lament and/or times of conflict.
[6] Focus: Passion Week.
[7] Focus: lament during sorrow or tragedy.
[8] Focus: corporate confession.
[9] Focus: worry.
[10] Focus: Christmas season.
[11] Focus: suffering.
Kindle Afresh 
Hello Dr Berding. I’m a pastor in Québec. Would you mind sharing some more details about the different steps you use to guide oneself/a group through this way of praying?
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Thanks for your note, Marc-André. One way to pray passages of Scripture is to set aside, say, 15 minutes at the beginning of a small-group prayer meeting. Read the passage aloud. Then encourage people to pray short (short is important) prayers, responding to the passage. Encourage them to pray through the passage from the top down. (In other words, move through the passage together, don’t grab ideas from later in the passage.) Also encourage them to pray frequently. Prayers can be prayers of thanks for something in the passage (probably the easiest type of prayer for most people), or prayers of confession, or prayers interceding on behalf of someone or something suggested by the passage. You will need to remind people each time you do this 1) to pray short prayers, 2) pray through the passage, and 3) pray frequently. That’s about it! Blessings on your continuing ministry in Québec!
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Thank you so much for the kind explanation.
We do a daily prayer challenge as a Church in January, so we will incorporate this format in the 2024 edition. 🙂
Also, when I did my PhD exams in 2018, I remember reading some of your stuff on social-scientific criticism. It was helpful. Greetings from Canada!
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