How To Study The Bible (Foundations)ናሙና

Great Bible Study is Bookended By Prayer

To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing. – Martin Luther

One of my favorite meals is grilled marinated chicken. Last summer, I looked up the process of marination because I wanted to know what was happening to the food to make it taste so good. Here’s what I discovered.

When you marinate food, usually a protein like chicken, you cover it in an acidic liquid (like vinegar or lemon juice). The acidic liquid breaks down the outer layers of the meat so that the flavorful seasonings can work their way in deeper.

Marination takes time. You can’t just drop a chicken breast in a marinade for a few minutes and expect it to hold the flavor. You have to give the process time to work.

Prayer is Christian marination. Praying with and in the Bible allows us to sit in God’s truth for an extended period in such a way that allows it to break through our outer barriers and “flavor” us beyond what we were capable of becoming on our own.

With this in mind, let me share with you the prayer I say every time I pick up my Bible:

Lord, please open me up to your Word, and open up your Word to me.

This sets the stage in my mind and heart for something to happen during my daily habit. I want to be changed. I want the Holy Spirit to illuminate the Word. And I make these intentions clear by voicing this short prayer.

There are (quite literally) hundreds of ways to incorporate prayer into and around your Bible time. For now, I encourage you to try this short prayer and see what changes take place.

Pro-Tip: Do you find yourself frustrated in prayer because you don’t feel like God hears or answers you? Let me give you the advice my pastor gave me: lower your threshold. Most people think that hearing from God is a miraculous, life-altering event. In reality, God and the Holy Spirit are speaking to you every day (and even multiple times per day!). Lowering your threshold means (1) expecting God will speak to you and (2) actively looking for small ways in which He does. You don’t need a burning bush experience to encounter God; sometimes the right song on the radio can accomplish the same thing.