Prepare Your Heart: Seven Bible Verses to Pray Before Studying Scripture

Prayer is an integral part of Bible study. We want to invite the Holy Spirit to guide us in our study, to reveal to us what we are to know about God and what it looks like to walk with Him. I must admit that sometimes I struggle with prayer much more than I do Bible study, and I often dive right into the Word without inviting the Holy Spirit’s guidance first. I’m working on this, and it helps to have specific scriptures to pray as I prepare to study.

1. Pray for God to draw near to you. James 4:8a says, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” We know God is always with us, so this is not asking a distant God to be nearer to us. It is more about recognizing His presence and asking Him to make His presence known and felt as you study His Word. In the context of James 4, this is about humility. It is about submitting to God. The second part of the verse says, “Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” We sometimes have the wrong idea that God does all the work in the relationship, but it is apparent throughout the New Testament that we play a part. Our part is generally in the form of obedience, submitting to what God has said regardless of how we feel about it. As you pray, submit yourself to follow whatever God reveals in Scripture.
2. Pray for wisdom. James 1:5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” Wisdom is needed when we are studying an ancient text written by multiple people over multiple centuries. It is easy to take scripture out of context and make it mean something other than God intended. Ask God to give you wisdom in interpreting and applying the message conveyed in what you are studying.
3. Pray for open eyes and an open heart. Psalm 119:18 says, “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.” The Bible contains a treasure trove of wonders God has placed for us to find. And the treasure is Himself. Studying the Bible helps us know God and His character. Ask God to open your heart and mind to understand what He wants you to know about Him as you study.
4. Pray for transormation. Psalm 139:22-23 “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” Transformation cannot happen without God revealing the truth about the condition of our hearts. Ask Him to use His Word to show you where your heart needs to be transformed.
5. Pray to know God’s ways and to walk in them. Psalm 86:11 says, “Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name.” We study the Bible, first and foremost, to know Him. But the Bible also teaches us how to walk in His ways. When our eyes are opened to His truth, and we are changed by it, we can walk in that truth, fearing Him alone and not fearing man. It takes a lot of courage to do this.
6. Pray for a humble heart. 1 Peter 5:6-7(NLT) says, “So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor.  Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. In “Philippians 2, Paul says to “complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.” If we continue reading Philippians 2, we can see that when Paul says to have the same mind, it does not mean that everyone thinks the same way or has the same ideas. He gives Jesus as the example of the mindset he asks his readers to hold…that of humility. As we study scripture, especially in community, we need to approach questions and conversations with humility, knowing that sometimes we will have differing opinions on what a particular scripture means. When we all come to conversations with humility, we can learn from one another, and often, we will find that we don’t have opposing views but that the Scripture has a fuller meaning than our narrow perspective.
7. Pray to remember what you read and learn. Psalm 119:11 says, “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” This is so important; studying God’s Word but not remembering it cannot transform our lives. James 1:23-24 says, “Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” This is about more than just memorization. You can memorize scripture and not be changed by it. Listening or hearing, in the original language, included doing. It’s like when you tell your kids they aren’t listening. It doesn’t mean they don’t hear what you said, but they aren’t doing what you said.

Praying as we prepare to study God’s Word reminds us that God is present with us. It helps us focus on the primary reason we are studying: to know God and grow in our relationship with Him.