This ambassadorial role that we have as christians, this place of representing Christ will only be enhanced if you use our bible in the private place of prayer.
I don't think you can separate the two, I try to approach the bible with prayer and try to approach prayer with the bible.
My private prayer place is the greatest place to study the bible.
Texts and verses that I read can often prove a little difficult to understand, in prayer I can work yourself into the text.
As I stumble upon verses I mull them over in prayer, I get into them and they get into me, I love this process.
Waiting upon God often turns the darkness that we sometimes feel when reading the bible into light.
When Jesus was with his disciple after His resurrection this happened: Luke 24: 45 "Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures."
It’s in prayer and close communion with God that the scripture comes alive, Jesus somehow opens our minds!!!!.
An old preacher was seen at a conference and he was noted to keep writing all the time, when some men looked over his shoulder he had written next to the verses he was looking at “More light Lord, More light Lord”
I've started to use this phrase a lot.
Robert Murray M’Cheyne was asked about his diligent approach to prayer and the bible when preparing for a sermon his response was “Beaten oil – beaten oil for the lamps of the sanctuary”
This comes from Exodus 27: 20 "Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning.
King James Version: that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always.
What you bring to others has to have been purified and refined in you. Do we beat what we have been reading do we squeeze it to get all the goodness out of it? This is what we need to do
Matthew 5 says We have been called to shine as lights, burning lamps, we will shine more greatly if we spend time alone with God and the Bible, getting more light and refining what we are reading .
2 comments:
Dude, I love this post and the previous one. I can't think of anything intelligent to add to the discussion right now, but I do resonate very much with what you're saying. It is so critical and life-giving to meet God in secret and spend time there. Right on.
good post. i like the link you draw between prayer and the bible. too often i feel, for me and others, it seems like its one or the other!! how i need more balance...
Post a Comment