Delights And Disciplines Of Bible StudySample

We Should Study the Bible Because Knowing the Bible Strengthens our Spiritual Life

Prayer and the Word of God must always go together. The prophet Samuel prayed for the people and taught them the Scriptures (1 Sam. 12:23–24). The apostles said, “But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4); and Jesus promised, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:7). King David wrote in Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” The Word of God teaches us how to pray and what to pray for; otherwise, we risk praying in vain. We read the Bible, meditate on its truths, and obey its commands not because we want to debate people about religion or show off what we think we know but because we love Jesus and want to be more and more like Him.

How important is your Bible in your life? It should be more important than food (Job 23:12; Jer. 15:16; Matt. 4:1–4). Do you value the riches of God’s Word more than material riches? They were more valuable to the person who wrote Psalm 119 (see vv. 72, 127). Is spending time in the Word of God more important to you than “sleeping in” or taking a nap? The psalmist put the Scriptures ahead of sleep (119:55, 62, 148, and 63:6). Peter, James, and John went to sleep on the Mount of Transfiguration and also in Gethsemane where Jesus was praying (Luke 9:28–36; Matt. 26:36–46). Our Lord asks us as He asked them, “Could you not watch with Me one hour?” (v. 40).

If we sincerely desire to become more effective Bible students and therefore more effective servants of the Lord, we must have the right priorities; and one of the first priorities is to set aside uninterrupted time for studying the Word of God. It isn’t enough just to read the Word of God, meditate on it, and pray, as important as those disciplines are. We must learn to compare Scripture with Scripture and trust God’s Spirit to teach us the deeper truths that are there. We must delight in God’s Word and say with the psalmist, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Ps. 119:105). The heart of every problem is the problem in the heart.