The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Praying "In" God’s Word

Episode Date: April 17, 2026

When you pray with Scripture, you are not guessing what God wants, you are praying from the very words He has already given you. Jeff encourages us to bring our struggles, whether family, health, finances, or anxiety, directly to God by praying through Scripture. Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail]. Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit https://media.ascensionpress.com/?s=&page=2&category%5B0%5D=Ascension%20Podcasts&category%5B1%5D=The%20Jeff%20Cavins%20Show for full shownotes!

This podcast is brought to you by Ascension. To discover even more free Catholic podcasts, videos, and resources, to help you live your faith every day, visit ascensionpress.com. Welcome to the Jeff Kaven Show, where we talk about the Bible, discipleship, and evangelization, putting it all together in living as activated disciples. This is show 478, praying in God's Word. Welcome to the show this week. I'm Jeff Kavans. Thank you for joining me again. Been thinking about you and thinking about everything that's going on in the world today. You know, people watching the news and everything. And in the midst of it, you got to remember that people are having personal struggles as well. Yeah, there's the macro reality of what's going on in the world, particularly in the United States right now.

But there's also drama going on in many lives. and you might be one of them. You might be one of those that things are going on in your life with your marriage, your children, your finances, your health at work, politics, neighbors, unanswered questions, tax extensions, all these things. And today we're going to talk about praying about all these things. And I've entitled the show today praying in God's Word. In other words, using God's word to pray because God's word is God's will.

He reveals himself in word and deed. And we know that if we're going to pray, we don't want to be praying against God's will and expecting some kind of answer. That would be foolish. We want to pray according to God's will. And so if you want to know what God's will is, may I introduce you to the Bible. Bible. And if you don't have a Bible, I would encourage you to order a great adventure Bible right away from Ascension Press. And that is a Bible that will teach you how to read the Bible. Man, it's color-coded and beautifully laid out. It comes in a couple of versions. You can check them out,

but we do have a kind of a faux cover, a blue cover. It's a beautiful cover. And then we also have a brown goat skin covered Great Adventure Bible. Either way, get one and read and start to study the Great Adventure Bible study that we have put together. The new ones out actually, a lot of people don't even know this yet. That I went back and did all 24 lessons and a good portion of it is I'm on location. Mount Sinai in Egypt. I'm in Israel. I'm in Greece. I'm in Rome. We've got some of my partners in this project. We're in Turkey and England, and it goes on and on. Did you know the new great adventure study is out?

And if we take you to the locations, check it out. Check it out. Okay, so if you want my notes today, all you got to do is text my name, Jeff Kavins, one word, Jeff Kavins, to the number 3377. That's two threes and three-sevons. and we'll get you the notes for today. So there are those that I know, my friends, and you might fit into this category,

who have so much to pray for or to pray about. But oftentimes we really don't know how to pray. And I would suggest praying in God's Word. Now, I'm holding in my hand right now the goat, which is the goat-skin Great Adventure Bible. And between the pages of Genesis and Revelation, God reveals himself in word and deed. This book, if it'd be fair to call it a book, it's not really a book, it's a library, but this, what looks like a book, which is a library, contains the revelation of who God is,

his heart, the way he thinks, and he reveals himself in word and deed. And finally, in the New Testament, completely reveals himself in his son, Jesus Christ. wouldn't you like to know how to pray? And so that's what makes the Bible so, so valuable. You know, there's always been this term that I was familiar with, particularly when I was away from the Catholic Church years ago. If you're new, I was a pastor for 12 years of a non-denominational church, two of them actually.

And we used to talk a lot about this. We'd say, you know what, if we're facing problems in our life, we need to take a stand. and we need to stand on God's Word. And that doesn't mean that you put it on the ground and stand on it, even though I've seen some people get kind of silly with that. I have. I've actually seen that before. I wouldn't recommend it, especially to get the goat because it's so beautiful.

So this term was used quite a bit. I'm going to stand on God's Word. And it really meant to walk in faith and pray in faith according to God's Word. Now, here's what's interesting about prayer. And a lot of people, they're not familiar with really what faith is. They have a tendency to define faith as just simply believism. I believe real hard, real hard, you know. I'm really intense and I really believe.

That's not faith. That's style and believism. And that's not what the Bible talks about. Good for a community theater, bad for real life. So faith is really twofold. and Pope Benedict really does a fantastic job of laying this out for the faithful. There's two different aspects to it. One is mental assent.

Whatever it is that God has said, whatever its will is, we say to ourselves and to God and to those around us, I believe. I concur. I'm with you. I'm on board. Okay. So if God says something in his word, faith is not just agreeing with it. It isn't. That's part of it. Mental assent. You and I God are on the same page. But it's what the second aspect, the second part of faith, that's where this is completed. And that's where the difference is made. First is mental assent. The second is a personal entrusting of yourself to that truth. That means you believe it. Oh, for sure. And by the way, the devil believes and trembles, James says. But he doesn't entrust himself to God. that's what's different about us.

We believe, he believes, I entrust myself to you, God. He does not. There is an ocean of difference there between the two, between you and Satan, between me and Satan, in terms of believing. Now, you are walking in or standing on scriptures in prayer. We're just going to use that phrase. We're going to praying in God's word. We're going to stand on God's word. We're going to take our stand there.

and we're going to pray according to his will and say your will be done, oh Lord. Now, I can't tell you exactly what God's personal will is for you in your life, but I can tell you that the Bible gives you some basic guidelines about what his will is. And I think that's where we need to be. That's the lane we need to be in if we're going to pray effectively. So you are praying the verses, right, standing on God's word for yourself, and the word of God is God breathed. So it's your starting point for praying for God's will in your life.

And I'm going to go through some categories here today for you. I think it'll be helpful. But it's your starting point. The Word of God is your starting point for praying for God's will in your life. And when you pray from God's Word, guess what? You actually learn how to pray by praying from God's Word, whether it's Lexio-Divina or whether it's just taking a verse and saying, I'm going to use this as my reference point for prayer. I like what it says in Matthew 1819.

Again, Jesus says, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my father in heaven. Now, I've highlighted verses in my Bible that I use to pray. Okay. Now, sometimes I'll write the verse on an index card, carry it around with me during the day. Put it in the car.

And I'll just look at it and I think about it. throughout the day. Do anything you can to get what God's word in your heart. The Bible is God's word and reveals the Father's Heart and Plan. Those two things are great to know when it comes to praying. You want to know his heart, right? You want to know his heart as a Father who loves you and you want to know the Father's plan. That's called in Greek, Oeconomia, the economy of God. That is the Father's household plan. That's where that word originally started. Now we know we just think of economy and oeconomy as finances and buying and selling and all that. But it started with the father's family plan. Now let me start with this. Joshua 1-8. I love this. Joshua 1-8.

Then we'll get into some of the topics here. Joshua 1-8. This book, God says Joshua, Moses, all this is for all of them as they were getting ready to cross the Jordan River, of Moses didn't, but Joshua does. This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it, for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success. Pretty good, huh? So right as Joshua was getting ready to start his ministry of crossing the

Jordan and Moses was back on Mount Nebo, he wouldn't make this journey because of disobedience. This is what Joshua is told. Joshua 1-8. All right, we're going to take a break. When we come back, we're going to look at some categories. I'll give you some scriptures. It's going to be fast and furious, but it's going to be good. And I'll show you some ways where you can pray according to God's word.

You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. So often during mass, we can go on autopilot. We are physically there, but mentally we're somewhere else. We're distracted, we're bored, or we're just going through the motions. A lot of Catholics think that the problem's them. They might say, oh, I'm bad at prayer. I'm just not spiritual enough. But we want to realize is that at every mass, something extraordinary is taking place in our souls.

That's why Dr. Ed Sree and I co-wrote a book on the Mass called Pocket Guide to the Mass. And in the book, we walk through the Mass, step by step explaining what the Mass is, what's happening, why we say what we say, do what we do, and how we can more deeply enter into the sacrifice of the Mass, and more fully received the gift of the Eucharist. It's a simple, faithful, and small enough guide to bring with you at every Mass. And if you want to understand the Mass more deeply and pray it more intentionally, I'd like you to check out pocket guide to the Mass at ascensionpress.com. Welcome back. We're talking about praying in God's Word. Using God's Word is the guideline for how to pray. And so you really have two ways of going about this.

You can pray on your own, kind of come up with your own ideas, hit and miss, hope you get it right according to His Will, or you can go straight to His Will and start praying. That's what I'm suggesting here today. Okay, so there's a lot of categories that you might be praying about. Let's go through some of them, shall we? Number one, children. Children. Well, here's a few verses for you.

And this, now, once again, what I'm saying here is this helps you pray. It reveals God's will. And if you say, Lord, I am going to pray according to your will. And by the way, did I mention this to you about Matthew 1819? Again, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them, but my father in heaven. I mentioned that, Matthew 1819, because just you praying is great. Don't get me wrong.

But there's something about praying with other people and agreeing. And you might want to do that on. some of these items like children. Isaiah 54.13, all your sons shall be taught by the Lord and great shall be the prosperity of your sons. Well, I could take that and pray

that the whole morning over my children. Lord, you have said that my sons, my daughters, shall be taught by the Lord and great shall be the prosperity of your sons. Lord, help me to be that teacher, to know your word and to spend time with them. Lord, help me to look

for opportunities to be with my kids and to teach them your ways. Lord, I bind all the contrary philosophy of this world that is trying to latch on to my children's minds. Lord, I put a hedge of protection around them, protect them today, Lord. You see, I can pray because I know God's word here. God wants my children to be taught by the Lord, which means I need to bring my children to the Lord. don't miss Mass. Don't miss Holy Days. Don't miss confession. Don't miss family prayer.

Love your wife. Love your husband. Be the stage on which God demonstrates his faithfulness. How about this? Third John 1-4. When was the last time you read Third John 1-4? If you got two minutes, you can do it. He says, no greater joy can I have than this

to hear that my children follow the truth. Oh, we can pray on that for a while. right? Oh, God, I want to, I want that joy. I want that joy. No greater joy can I have than this to hear that my children follow the truth and then begin to pray it out there, begin to develop that prayer about the truth, and your children being exposed to truth, making friends who care about the truth, knowing the difference between truth and error, between the common and the uncommon, according to Leviticus. And then Philippians 413, I can do all things in him who strengthens me. I can do all things in him who strengthens me. There's three verses right there that you can

pray out for your children. And I'm not talking about just reading and saying, okay, Lord, that's what I want. I'm saying, use your head. Use your heart. Start conversing with God. It's a conversation. It's a relationship. It's not a formula. It's not AI. It's there because of the relationship you have with God. Use it. Explore it. Celebrate it.

Share it. What about marriage? We probably should have done that one first because children come after marriage. But how about this? Genesis 224, therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife and they become one flesh. Oh my. In that one verse, you have three things that you can pray about in your marriage.

Get it? Therefore, a man leaves his father and his mother, cleaves to his wife, and they become one. There it is, leave, cleave, and become one. Let me ask you a question. You having problems in your marriage? Are you one of you having a problem with leaving your father and your mother or leaving your high school girlfriend on Facebook? How about cleaving?

That's hotly pursuing each other. Is there a problem there? How about becoming one flesh in everything? not only one flesh, but one in vision, one in purpose, one in a plan for your home. You can pray over that for an hour right there. Write it down. Take it with you today. That's your assignment.

So that is a very good one right there. How about healing? Here's three verses on healing. Psalm 6-2, Be gracious to me, O Lord, for our I am languishing, oh Lord, heal me for my bones are troubled. Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am I, I'm languishing. Oh, Lord, heal me for my bones are troubled. You can extrapolate on that and you can make that a prayer for health in your life. Or Psalm 41.3, the Lord sustains him on his sickbed. In his illness, thou healest all his infirmities.

Are you on the sick bed right now? Begin to pray this. The Lord, this is the desire of my heart, that you would heal me, that you would make this right. And I will use this experience for your glory. I will offer up my suffering. And at the same time, I thank you for healing me, putting me back together, making me whole. 1. Peter 2.24, he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness by his wounds, you have been healed.

There you go. Okay, how about this? Needs in our life. Needs in our life, which, let's just be honest. That's what people usually are praying about, isn't it? How many people are in daily intercession to become loving, kind, just, pure, patient? No, I want a new car. I want my house paid off.

All that kind of stuff. It's good to want that. But let's let God's word lead us, shall we? Philippians 419, and my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Isaiah 4110, fear not for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you.

I will uphold you with my victorious right hand. that's something to confess. That's something to stand on. That's something to pray. Romans 12, too, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed. How? Well, by watching YouTube videos. No, by the renewal of your mind that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Where are you going to find that? You're going to find that in God's word. That's where you're going to find it in God's word. How about peace? Do you need some peace in your life?

Well, here's three verses. Isaiah 263. By the way, these are in the show notes. Thou dost keep him in perfect peace whose mind has stayed on thee because he trusts in thee. First Peter 5.7 cast all. Oh, this one's a good one. This is a good one for fishermen particularly. Cast all your anxieties on him for he cares about you.

That's right. Cast all your anxieties on him. Go to prayer and cast, you know, like a, that was an imitation of a rod and reel with a lure. But cast all your anxieties on him, for he cares for you and do yourself a favor. Don't reel it back in.

Cut the line. You cast your cares upon the Lord, not so that you can pick them back up at the end of the day and try to go to sleep at night. No, cut the line. cast your cares on him. Or one of my all-time five favorite verses, Matthew 1128, come to me all who labor and are heavy-laden and I will give you rest.

Pray it, mean it, talk to God about it. Rest in it. Pray in God's word. And then finally, we've got wisdom. I'll give you three there. Proverbs three, five, and six, trust in the Lord with all of your heart and do not rely on your own insight in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths.

That is God's will, my friend, that is God's will for you. I can't give you anything else. I can't give you anything better. There is no motivational speaker in the United States or in England or Australia, the Philippines, New Zealand, the islands, France, Germany, there's no motivational speaker who can top this stuff. This is God's will. How about James 1.5?

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives to all men generously and without reproaching, and it will be given to him. You need wisdom? How about Proverbs 1616? That's an easy one to remember. Proverbs 1616 says, to get wisdom is better than gold. Some people are thinking right now,

I might challenge that. Well, go ahead. But it's not God's will. To get wisdom, it doesn't say to get wisdom is on par with getting gold. It doesn't say that it's just subpar. It says to get wisdom is better than gold. How much time do we spend trying to gain, quote unquote,

gold, finance, riches. Well, to get wisdom is better than gold. To get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver. Now, here's the deal. Just that one verse right there, we could spend an hour on this one just right now. We could have on any of them, but this one particularly pops out at me. What is the difference between knowledge, wisdom, and understanding? What is the difference there? Well, there's a lot of knowledge in the world. Go on the interwebs. You can get all the knowledge you want in one day. It's all there. It's obviously not changing a lot for a lot of people.

It's just having some knowledge. So what is wisdom? Well, wisdom is the godly application of sound knowledge. That's what it is. Wisdom is the practical application from God's perspective on sound knowledge. Solid knowledge. What's the result? understanding. A lot of people with no understanding these days, because a lot of people are just stuck

at gathering knowledge. Oh, trivia, my life's filled with trivia. Listen, did you know this? Do you know that the longest river in the world is? And that's where they stop. But we want understanding. And so this takes prayer. This takes patience. This takes a relationship. It takes time in a place. and that is what I wanted to share with you today. So let's pray. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. Lord Jesus, I thank you for giving us your word. And I thank you, Lord, you have called us into your word to read it,

meditate on it, to marinate in it. So we can know your heart, your mind, that we can know your wisdom and understanding. Lord Jesus, I pray that we will take time today in this week to perhaps take these notes or scriptures from the Bible to stand on them by praying in them. And I pray, Lord, you will be glorified in all that we do. And we ask for the intercession of our mother, Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. it. Love you. Look forward to talking to you later. God bless.