Whole counsel of God: Reading the Bible and prayer
There is the old saying "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink." The same principle exists with the Word of God. Psalm 119 for instance is the longest chapter in all of scripture and incessantly talks about loving God's law. Hungering and thirsting for the Word is something said to characterize the last days ( Amos 8:11-12). This verse talks of a famine for God's word; but we also see Jesus talking about "hungering and thirsting for righteousness ( Matthew 5:6).
It seems counterintuitive or a "no brainer" to consider reading scripture and prayer as something a believer should do; but it has been my experience the enemy will use all sorts of tactics to dissuade believers from focusing on the Word and probably even more so on prayer. It is easy for the enemy to allow us with minimum distractions to read the Word of God because we can easily go into our own error in making it merely an intellectual exercise or feed off it to divert to the latest conspiracy theory or politics or whatever is trending. Prayer of course has it's own ways that it can deviate from scriptural standards; but from my experience it is the lack of prayer that seems to be a common denominator in many congregations. Yes; someone can try to use prayer as a means of spreading gossip or trying to get attention. It seems that too often there is a planned schedule for prayer and it is almost unheard of for it to extend any length of time beyond that planned timeslot even when nothing is pressing. Just to find one or two people who have an urge to pray before a service or for others when needs are expressed and can do it "on the fly" in my mind can literally mean the life or death of a local congregation. If we can't be as a weapon of warfare prepared at all times then we simply will in one way or another be compromised and heading for defeat in having any real impact on individuals or a local community.
There is the old saying "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink." The same principle exists with the Word of God. Psalm 119 for instance is the longest chapter in all of scripture and incessantly talks about loving God's law. Hungering and thirsting for the Word is something said to characterize the last days ( Amos 8:11-12). This verse talks of a famine for God's word; but we also see Jesus talking about "hungering and thirsting for righteousness ( Matthew 5:6).
It seems counterintuitive or a "no brainer" to consider reading scripture and prayer as something a believer should do; but it has been my experience the enemy will use all sorts of tactics to dissuade believers from focusing on the Word and probably even more so on prayer. It is easy for the enemy to allow us with minimum distractions to read the Word of God because we can easily go into our own error in making it merely an intellectual exercise or feed off it to divert to the latest conspiracy theory or politics or whatever is trending. Prayer of course has it's own ways that it can deviate from scriptural standards; but from my experience it is the lack of prayer that seems to be a common denominator in many congregations. Yes; someone can try to use prayer as a means of spreading gossip or trying to get attention. It seems that too often there is a planned schedule for prayer and it is almost unheard of for it to extend any length of time beyond that planned timeslot even when nothing is pressing. Just to find one or two people who have an urge to pray before a service or for others when needs are expressed and can do it "on the fly" in my mind can literally mean the life or death of a local congregation. If we can't be as a weapon of warfare prepared at all times then we simply will in one way or another be compromised and heading for defeat in having any real impact on individuals or a local community.
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