Praying the Psalms: Growing Emotionally Closer to God and Those You Love
Praying the Psalms Will Draw You Closer to God
...and to the People in Your Life
Your emotions are powerful. They can enrich your life and strengthen your relationships—especially with God. The writers of the Psalms knew this and were honest with God about whatever they were experiencing—love, anger, worship, loneliness, fear—and many other emotions. As they did this, they found joy in spite of struggles and turned their laments into praise. Above all, they drew closer to God.
Praying the Psalms will help you to do the same by giving you words to reflect the deepest cries of your soul. You'll discover that God delights in hearing your most honest prayers and uses them as the starting point for transformation. Learning to emotionally connect with God in greater intimacy will also lead to relational breakthroughs with others.
As you read and apply this book, you will
- learn to pray the Psalms in an enjoyable and effective manner
- discover how the wisdom of the Psalms relates to insights from pioneers in emotional intelligence, emotionally focused therapy, and emotionally healthy spirituality
- form a more intimate attachment to God than you've ever experienced before
If you desire to grow closer to God and others, praying the Psalms is a great place to start. You might even grow to understand yourself better in the process.
Top Highlights
“As we approach God through Psalm 1, we begin by reading the Psalm as a prayer, and at the same time circling or highlighting the emotional words or phrases. Read/pray Psalm 1 (see below) and highlight anything in your own Bible that strikes you as emotional. I encourage you to do this in your Bible so it will become a spiritual/emotional journal as you pray the Psalms.” (source)
“The first step in our approach is to simply pray a Psalm by reading it aloud to God, word-for-word as it appears in the Bible, and searching for emotional words and phrases during this first go-through.” (source)
“By investigating what we are passionate about, we find our passions, that is, our emotions” (source)
“Step Four: Finally, write a short prayer, based on the emotional words you have annotated. Then pray your emotionally personalized Psalm aloud, filling in whatever words or phrases are needed, as I have modeled throughout this book.” (source)
“In this final step we pray through the Psalm, consciously pausing and alighting on the emotional words, asking God, ‘Which part of this Psalm do you want me to pray through today?’” (source)
Product Details
- Title : Praying the Psalms: Growing Emotionally Closer to God and Those You Love
- Author: Stedman, Rick
- Publisher: Harvest House Publishers
- Publication Date: 2016
- ISBN: 9780736960748
Dr. Rick Stedman is a collector of classic-rock vinyl LPs, bookaholic, author, pastor, and devoted husband and father. He founded and for two decades led Adventure Christian Church in Roseville, CA, a church that grew from 0 to 5,000 in ten years. He has graduate degrees in theology, philosophy, and ministry, and is the author of Praying the Armor of God and Praying the Promises of Jesus.
