Last week I posted about 9 ways to read your Bible for all its worth. I would like to take the next few months and try to work through each of those.

For a quick review, these are the nine ways we ought to approach the Scriptures each time we open them up and read them.

Prayerfully Joyfully Contextually Expectantly Theologically Anthropomorphically Christologically Submissively Humbly

Today’s post is a discussion of prayerful reading of the Bible. It might seem like a “no-brainer” to some of you, and to others it might seem excessive. But let’s work through what it means to prayerfully read the Bible, but also why it is so important!

We prayerfully approach Scripture, understanding that if God truly is the author, then we are desperately in need for Him to illuminate it. We need His guidance and help in understanding and applying the text.

Prayer is inherently an act of humility and worship. When we pray we are acknowledging God’s rightful position as Lord– and that we are not.

Prayer further is a manner that we also show forth the goodness, compassion, and mercy of our God.

We would not be able to come forward and pray with confidence that God hears us unless God Himself had made a way. He made the way for us to be able to boldly, confidently, and joyfully come before Him by having Jesus Christ be the way to Him. John 14:6 says “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Our ability to be reconciled with God and to be able to pray comes only because of Him. Not only that, but because Jesus is the guarantee of our salvation and standing with God, we are able to enter into God’s very throne room in prayer, with the confidence that we will be heard (Hebrews 10:19-25).

But, back to the point, why do we read Scripture prayerfully?

Or to state it another way: Why, if the Bible is able to be understood through good reading skills, why should we have to pray first, and pray continually when reading it?

As I think about these questions I think about how the disciples of Jesus watched Him for three years, heard the preaching, were able to have one on one conversations, and still did not understand what Jesus meant about various sayings until after the resurrection and/ or the giving of the Holy Spirit (John 2:22; 12:6, 13:12). This is not because the disciples were dumb, but because the disciples are just like us: human.

We need God’s assistance in handling His Word, because His Word is vast.

God promises us that He will aide and assist us in the process of knowing Him and discerning Scriptures and His Will (1 Cor 2:6-13; 2 Cor 3:5-8). This process is called illumination.

“Illumination means that a dynamic comprehension of the significance of Scripture and its application to life belongs uniquely to those indwelt by the Holy Spirit.”[1]

I know this sounds weird to some. It sounds too mystical and ethereal for us 21st century readers of an ancient book. But, we must recognize that God’s assistance is needed in the understanding and applying of His Word to His people.

Illumination is not to be confused with getting a secret word from God that no one else could see. The Bible does not have multiple levels of meaning that are only understood when you are deeper in God or maturity. It isn’t that one person is able to see the meaning one way, while someone else sees it another way because the Holy Spirit shows them a personal meaning of the passage.

Illumination is God guiding you in an understanding of how to apply His Word to your life, and to remember it.

God’s Word has ONE meaning. This meaning is directed by the contexts of the passage: historical, literary, social, grammatical, and lexical.

From that one meaning we then search to see how it applies to our context and our life. This is where we are 100% dependent upon the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit softens our heart and guides us in all humility to being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit makes texts stand out to us that we need to see where it” is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. [To] correct us when we are wrong and teach us to do what is right. [And] to prepare and equip his people to do every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

Let’s regroup, summarize, and conclude.

When we read Scripture we must approach it with prayer. We do so because we are recognizing it as being God’s Word, and we want the very author of Scripture to help us understand it better. We also read Scripture prayerfully because, by doing so, we are worshiping God and glorifying Him through prayer. God honors prayer and desires His people to understand His Word. This does not make it easy to understand.

What it does is set us on the correct path to diligent study and application of His Word.

It takes a long time and a lot of times reading God’s Word to better understand it. Don’t give up!

-Pastor Ben

[1] Introduction to Biblical Interpretation, Revised Edition. William W Klein, Craig Blomberg, & Robert L Hubbard Jr. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2004), 139.