Pray with Me Through Paul’s Letters in 30 Days

The apostle Paul: more letters in the New Testament come from his hand than from anyone else. He’s the leader whose dramatic conversion God used to rock the early church and whose tireless efforts helped spread the gospel to the Gentiles. Historian and author Tom Holland describes Paul’s letters as “a collection of acorns, from which mighty oaks have grown. They are the most influential pieces of writing to have survived from antiquity, and their influence on Christian history, and the present-day character and assumptions of the West, are incalculable.”

Paul’s letters, inspired by the Holy Spirit, continue to radiate joy and deliver wisdom, even today. “The most important thing of all to him,” the ancient preacher John Chrysostom said, “was that he knew himself to be loved by Christ.” That’s why we love Paul. He never got over the fact of his own salvation. He encountered the living Savior and wanted everyone else to know the same joy.

Journeying with Paul

A few years ago, I adapted a centuries-old approach to reading through all 150 psalms in a month, relying on a morning, midday, and evening prayer schedule. The result was a little book called Psalms in 30 Days. I followed that up with a similar structure of praying through selections from the Gospels, called Life of Jesus in 30 Days.

In my new volume, I follow the same structure of prayer but with the letters of Paul. The goal is to embark on a 30-day prayer journey through the letters, gleaning wisdom and insight from this first-century man called and commissioned by King Jesus to take the gospel to the nations.

There’s precedent in the Scriptures for praying three times a day, and there’s spiritual blessing in deliberately punctuating your day with moments of prayer and Bible reading. The three-times-a-day approach takes you back to the letters of Paul so that you lift your eyes above your current circumstances and remember that God’s glory is the blazing center of all things.

Prayers of Faithful Christians

Over the years, I’ve also found the written prayers of faithful Christians who have gone before me to be a help in my prayer life. Our praying the written prayers of saints from years gone by is a lot like children trying on their parents’ shoes. We wonder if our feet will ever fit into the spiritual shoes of the giants who have gone before us. We wonder if our devotion will match the intensity and clarity we find in their words. We want hearts oriented in such a way that we’d ask for and desire the right things.

Praying through Paul’s letters alongside other Scriptures and other faithful expressions of faith over the years is one way of forming our hearts and minds daily.

Letters of Paul in 30 Days

This book features all the letters of Paul, arranged in three-times-a-day readings for 30 days. I’ve taken a generally chronological approach (although it’s debated as to whether Galatians precedes the Thessalonian letters) so that throughout the month you can trace the development of Paul’s thinking and writing.

Every prayer time begins with a call to prayer, includes the Gloria and the Lord’s Prayer, and closes with a biblical blessing.

• The morning prayer guide includes a “confession of faith” taken from Scripture, the ancient creeds, or the “Reforming Catholic Confession,” which was released in celebration of the Reformation’s 500th anniversary.
• The evening prayer guide includes a “confession of sin” and a biblical promise of absolution to all who repent.
• The morning and evening prayers also include psalms, prophecies, or songs from Scripture as well as written prayers from Christians through the ages—all aligning with the specific themes of the day’s readings from Paul’s letters.
• There’s also time set aside for you to intercede on behalf of others and bring your personal requests to the Lord.
• The midday prayer guide is abbreviated and focused on the reading from one of Paul’s letters, since this is the time of day when it may be more challenging to carve out 10 or 15 minutes for prayer.

Suggestions for Praying Through Paul’s Letters in 30 Days

Praying through all the letters of Paul in 30 days is a spiritual workout, much like doing daily exercises. Don’t feel the pressure to make it through all the readings your first time through. If you miss a reading, you can catch up later, or you can skip it and come back to it the next month. If you get behind by a day or two, you can pick up on the day that corresponds to the day of the month, or you can proceed in order, even if it takes you more than 30 days to complete the readings.

Set the book on a desk, nightstand, or table close to your bed, where you’ll see it. Let it be a visual reminder whenever you enter the room, nudging you to spend time with the Lord. Pray the morning selection as soon as you wake up and the evening selection just before going to bed. The abbreviated midday routine is ideal for a brief pause during work, but if you miss it, simply add the midday reading to the evening prayer guide to catch up.

If you only wish to pray through Paul’s letters and not the other selected prayers, jump to that portion of the prayer guide and read the Paul selection three times daily.

My prayer is that this guide will help you make this journey through Paul’s letters a regular spiritual discipline that strengthens your love for God and neighbor. My heart for you echoes the words Paul himself expressed: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 15:13).