As Christians, we all want to be at the center of God’s will for our lives. As I began to reflect, I came back to this verse. To understand the will of God, we are to renew our minds. How? Prayer and Scripture. But too often, this leads to frustration. How many of you have ever made a New Year’s Resolution to read the entire bible in a year or to pray for one hour every day? What happens? We get up an hour earlier, and we do really well for a while. But then we miss a day. So we do twice as much to catch up. Eventually, it becomes an immense burden.
And that’s where the frustration comes in. That is when I realized that we are coming at the whole thing wrongly. Where in the bible does it tell us we are to read the bible in a year or pray for an hour every day? You see, when we use that approach, prayer and study of Scripture become burdens that the enemy uses against us, making us feel inadequate. Instead, we need them to be there to empower us...to transform us. The problem comes from our view of prayer and scripture. We need to realize that prayer and scripture reading is really two parts of a single conversation. Read Word, (find out what God is saying) then pray! How do I start to pray? It’s easy. Just let him start the conversation in the word. To do this, we need to approach reading the bible differently also. We need to quit reading for distance and begin to read for depth. To illustrate this, let's look at the analogy of a road trip.
Six things to do when going on a road trip
1. Fill up your tank. You need gas to get where you’re going. Spiritually, that means asking the Holy Spirit to guide us and teach us while we read. Without his guidance, it just won't make sense. Begin with a short prayer: God, let your Holy Spirit teach me from Your word today. Amen.
2. Choose your road. If you want to go to New York, you might want to go East instead of West. In the same way, you need to be intentional about picking your starting place in scripture. The story is told about one man who used the “Point and read method” He let the Bible fall open and pointed – it said, “Judas hung himself” Well, he tried again – “go and do likewise.” We need to read the Bible in context and to do that we need a starting point. If you don’t have a favorite book to start in, try starting with a gospel like Mark or John.
3. Slow down and take in the scenery. Too often, we miss the scenery in a hurry to reach our destination. When we read scripture, don't worry about getting to the end of the chapter or even the end of the verse. Read slowly and look at the scenery. Use your imagination a little bit. Can you hear the crowd? Can you smell the fish on the sea shore? Can you see the crowd pressing in on Christ? Try to engage your senses when you read and look at the scenery.
4. Pull off at a scenic viewpoint. On a road trip, these Historical markers or particularly stunning part of nature. When a particular verse or phrase really grabs your attention, stop. Focus on that verse or phrase. Try putting the emphasis on different words and see how the meaning changes. Try putting it in your own words.
5. Take a picture of yourself. What does this particular passage or verse seem to say to you today? Is it speaking to you? What is it saying? Write it down so you can preserve it, just as a picture preserves a moment on a trip.
6. Send a postcard home--Move into prayer. God spoke, now just tell him what you heard, where you've been, and what you saw. As things come to mind, put them into the prayer. Again, it doesn’t have to be a long prayer; rather, it should just be a natural extension of your study.
(Actually there is a step 7.) When you've said all you need to say, go on to the next scenic viewpoint. Go back to step 3 and continue reading until you get there. When a verse or phrase speaks to you, move into prayer and tell God about it.)
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