PRAYER BIBLE

I had never heard of a Prayer Bible until a video came up in my YouTube feed from The Sisterita Club. This delightful lady has made a series of videos on how to create this useful tool.

Making my Prayer Bible

A little background

My prayer life has been somewhat in the doldrums of late, ending up with a few snatched minutes in the small hours after I’ve got into bed, interrupted by sleep! Not the best way to honour my God and Saviour, is it…

I had been wondering how to carve out a regular time during the day. The best time for most people is first thing in the morning, to get set up correctly in one’s spirit for the coming day, but my lifestyle doesn’t allow for this. My mornings tend to be quite busy and I don’t get going very well in the early morning because of health issues. I usually try to get all my chores and other tasks done before lunch, and have recently been trying to spend the afternoon in creative pursuits, which may spill over into the evenings. In the evening, I try to do things that don’t involve the studio, so that I can relax on the recliner and watch TV with my hubby.

I decided the optimum time to devote to the Lord would be early afternoon, after lunch, and cut the creative time accordingly. So far this has worked very well, and I have found that during the remaining time, I have been extra-productive – the Lord has honoured my decision to put Him first, by seemingly stretching the remaining time, which I did not anticipate!

My new Bible

I have a regular Bible which I bought back in 1995, which is full of markers and marginal notes. I did not want to use this as a Prayer Bible but decided to get a new one to dedicate to this purpose alone.

Jessica of The Sisterita Club recommends a compact Bible for this project, so I got one from Amazon, along with a pack of Bible highlighter pens (more about these later). It measures 7 x 5 inches, with the pages being slightly smaller, of course. This particular one (New King James version which I prefer) has about the largest print of the various compact Bibles on offer, but of course the print size is limited by the overall size of the Bible, and you can’t expect a small Bible to contain very large print! You’d need a TARDIS type of Bible for this (for anyone not familiar with Doctor Who, the TARDIS is his time/space travel vehicle, which happens to be larger on the inside than it is on the outside).

In my studio I have a box containing various bags and pouches that I’ve collected over the years, and I found an ideal one made from black plastic fabric, with a zip fastener and pockets inside. The Bible fits perfectly in this, but the whole thing isn’t that much smaller than my old Bible in its case. The highlighters fit nicely in the mesh pocket.

There are more pockets inside the back cover, and I have put a magnifier and a small bag in there.

My new church

Back in August I had to go to the Breast Unit at the hospital for my annual mammogram post-breast cancer, and Susannah, the radiologist who performed the examination turned out to be a Christian and we had a lovely chat. I had not been attending any church for months and was beginning to feel the necessity – many people on YouTube who I have been following, have been regularly quoting this passage from the book of Hebrews – perhaps the Lord was trying to tell me something!

Heb. 10:24-25: And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

“The Day” referred to is “the Day of the Lord” – the end of the age. The signs are all around us in the world that indicate that Jesus is coming for His true Church very soon, after which the world will be plunged into the Tribulation period, the worst seven years that this world has ever, or will ever, experience. (To see how you can avoid being left behind to experience this literal hell-on-earth, please read my page “New Life in Christ” by clicking the tab in the header of this blog.)

I asked Susannah which church she belonged to, and she told me all about it. I am now attending their Sunday evening service and enjoying it very much.

My normal Bible is not enormous, but in its case, it takes up a lot of room in my bag when I go to church, and I also need to take a cushion to sit on as the chairs cause me quite a bit of physical discomfort for any length of time. The first couple of times I attended this new church, my hubby took me, and I was able to use my wheelchair, but they have now very kindly organised a rota of people who give me a lift, and it is not possible to take the wheelchair so I have to manage with my crutches. I have a cross-body bag to carry my stuff but I really need to make myself another one – I have plans for this so watch this space! (Bonnie Baggie Number Four is soon to arrive!)

Fabric bags

When I had my mammogram, I made a further appointment to go for a bra fitting. When I first got breast cancer two years ago they fitted me with new bras, which are absolutely the best ones I’ve ever owned! The nurse who fitted me at that time said that she buys all her bras from the unit as she likes them so much. Two years on, they were beginning to show some wear and tear, and I’ve also put on a bit of weight again, so I asked to be fitted for some new ones.

They had to order them, and when they arrived and my hubby picked them up for me, each one came in a really pretty pink cloth drawstring bag. These bags went into my bag box in the studio, and I wondered if my new Bible would fit in one of them. It does! This means that I can put the Bible into a really small bag to protect it. I don’t need the highlighters at Church. The little black case is ideal for keeping everything neat and tidy together at home, though.

I was very pleased to see that the brand name of the bras is stamped on the bags – “Trulife”!! What? I have True Life in Jesus! This couldn’t be more appropriate!

John 14:6: Jesus said to [Thomas], “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Using a Prayer Bible

The idea behind a Prayer Bible is that you use the Scriptures to direct your prayers. What people do is to make a list of themes or categories, for instance “Attributes of God,” “Salvation,” “Forgiveness,” “Family and friends,” and so on. You find Bible verses or passages which match these themes and highlight them. You attach a tab to the relevant page. Each theme has its own individual tab, so that as the Bible fills up with these, you can easily identify from the edge of the book which tabs to turn to when you are praying through a particular theme.

You might be praying for a friend’s salvation, for instance. You would use a passage such as this, which is probably the most well-known on the subject of salvation:

[Jesus said] John 3:16-17: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

You personalise the verse thus: “For God so loved Joe (for instance) that He gave His only begotten Son, that if Joe believes in Him, he will not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn Joe, but that Joe through Him might be saved.”

Praying using the Scriptures is the best and most effective way. God’s words are perfect. Of course it is OK to use prayers written by men – there are many superb examples, and you can obviously pray in your own words, but above all, the Bible is best. There is always the danger, though, of taking verses out of context, so what I am doing is choosing the verses and passages very carefully. For instance, many promises in the Old Testament relate uniquely to Israel and would not be appropriate to apply to anyone else in prayer. What I am doing is to find my highlighted verses via their tabs, and not only praying that particular verse, but making sure that I read the verses surrounding it, and maybe even the whole chapter, or more.

This has the advantage that I am actually reading the Bible more than I would normally be doing, which is a huge bonus for my spiritual walk! Win-win.

How I am making my Prayer Bible

Many people use ready-made tabs, for example those made by Avery, which are different colours and which have transparent self-adhesive edges to stick to the page. However, I didn’t want to use these because a) I didn’t want to have to buy extra stuff, b) I have a huge amount of scrap paper and card and can easily make my own, and c) they are rather large. This Bible is quite small and having made my list, I know that there is going to be a huge number of tabs by the time I’ve finished, and I need to economise on space as far as possible! So I am making 1-inch wide tabs instead of ready-made 2-inch ones.

The first ones I made were for the theme “Salvation.” They were a bit complicated to make so the remainder are all going to be rectangular with rounded corners. The “Salvation” ones do therefore stand out a bit, which is fine, because they are semi-circular rather than rectangular.

I used one of my edge punches combined with a 1-inch circle punch to make these.

Inking the edges of the tabs really improves their appearance, as is so often the case with paper projects.

I am using my quilting ruler and a rotary cutter for making the tabs. The dark red card is one of a huge number of coloured card strips in my stash – I have used quite a few of these for my decorative strips project.

The strip at the top in this photo was what I cut off from the strip of tabs at the bottom. I eventually used this to make another set of tabs.

Highlighting the verses

You write the theme on the page for quick reference. I am doing this in pencil. I experimented with various pens on a page at the very back of the Bible to test for bleed-through and most were no good so I am writing in pencil, which has the advantage that I can erase it if I want to write it somewhere else (when new themes are added, for instance).

The highlighters I have bought (also from Amazon) are designed for use in Bibles with thin pages as there is no bleed-through. They are more like wax crayons than regular highlighter pens, and you can twist them up from the bottom as they wear down. The colours are a pretty pastel which does not obscure the text, even the red-letter spoken words of Jesus in the Gospels.

They feel slightly tacky when you first use them but they dry quickly, and you cannot feel them and they leave no residue. They do not smudge.

Adding the tabs

This is how far I have got so far.

I am not only using scraps of coloured cardstock, but also cutting paper from the large quantity of gift carrier bags that I have. I have kept them over many years because the paper can be really pretty – often metallic or glittery, but there’s a limit to how many one can recycle and use as gift bags. I have quite a lot which contained bottles, which I really have no use for, so I thought I would cut into these. I have a small punch with interchangeable shapes (I am using the heart, the star and the flower) and I am punching these out and sticking them onto the tabs as well.

I did think of making an index so that I would know what tab relates to which theme, but as I am using it, I am already getting familiar with them so I may not need to do this. I can always turn one up, anyway, and see what I have written at the top of that particular page, if I am in any doubt.

The edge of the Bible is beginning to look really pretty!

I know that the thickness of the tabs is creating the “crocodile mouth” effect that so many album and journal makers hate, but I don’t mind about this. The Bible is beginning to feel chunky – Jessica called hers a “chunky monkey” lol!

I am planning to stick some extra pages into the Bible, printed on acetate or vellum, decorated with art work, favourite verses or words from favourite hymns and so on. This little Bible is not big enough for full Bible journaling but there are numerous blank spaces, for instance at the end of a book, or beside the title of the next book, which would lend themselves to embellishing. I am not keen on adding pictures over the top of the text (highlighting is another matter) because I do not want to obscure the words or draw too much attention away from them. I would like to beautify the pages, though.

I still have quite a few themes to work through, but I am already using this Bible as a prayer guide and immediately finding it extremely helpful. My prayer life has been enriched through this practice straight away, and it is now back on track as it should be. The time simply races by and I could easily spend all day with the Lord in this way – it is a total joy.

Illuminated magnifier

In one of the photos above, you will see that I have a Fresnel lens magnifier tucked into the pocket of the case. I have been using this to help me read the text, especially at church. For some reason they always dim the lights during the teaching session, probably because the screens show up better, but I like to follow along with my Bible, and with my cataracts, small print combined with dim light, is not helpful!!

I decided to invest in a pocket illuminated magnifier, and found this neat little one on Amazon.

You open it up to reveal the lens. Of course, being so small, it doesn’t magnify as much of the page as my other magnifier, but I can move it along as I read, which is fine.

If you open it up a bit further, it turns on the little LED light underneath. Brilliant! In every sense of the word!

I tried it last night and asked my hubby if he found the light distracting, which he did not. It is very small, so it shouldn’t disturb the people around me.

I tried putting it in the little neck purse I made recently, and it’s a perfect fit. You have to push it a little to get it in, which is good because that way, it is not likely to drop out.

So handy!

I am looking forward to trying it out tomorrow evening at the service. I also hope to get the opportunity in the coming weeks to share with others at church the benefits of a Prayer Bible, and how to make one.