Bible:
Praying Daily with the Bible
“From the Holy
Scriptures you can learn the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith in
Christ Jesus. Scripture is inspired by God and can profitably be used for
teaching, for refuting error, for guiding people’s and teaching them to be
holy… This is how the man who is dedicated to God becomes fully equipped and
ready for any good work”. (2 Timothy 3:15)
The Lord Speaks to us
in the Scriptures. So when we pray with the Scriptures we are not setting out
to analyse the text, but to listen to God and allow him to speak to us
directly.
You need personally to fix
a time and a quiet place. Some people prefer to pray in the evening whilst
others prefer the early morning like Jesus who followed the Jewish practice.
For people with a young family it is impossible to get up early without waking
the whole family and bringing the quiet time to an end. So if they wish, they
can stay in bed to read and meditate there. The Psalmist did! See Psalm 63:6
In the place you
choose, you can put the Bible in a visible place to remind yourself to read and
pray daily. Leaving it open at John 1:1 is an idea: “In the beginning was the
Word”.
When we read, God
speaks to us. When we pray, we speak to God. You can also have a candle, a
cross or an icon. Even incense is an aid to prayer. See Psalm 141-the ‘incense
Psalm” or Apocalypse 8:4. ‘Incense is reserved for God alone’. (Exodus 30:37)
To pray with the Bible,
relax at the time and in the place you have chosen. Choose your text – a
chapter or just a few verses e.g. Matthew 6:24-34. As people of the New
Covenant it is best for us to begin with the New Testament and the Good News.
“The New Testament is concealed in the Old; the Old Testament is revealed in
the New”. (St Augustine)
First invoke the Holy
Spirit in prayer to enlighten your mind. The Bible was inspired by the Holy
Spirit and so we need the same Spirit to help us understand it.
·
Read the passage through slowly.
·
Read it again even more slowly. Mull
over each word or phrase that touches you or catches your attention. When the
Virgin Mary is said by Luke to “ponder” in her heart the mysteries of her Son’s
birth (Luke 2:19), the word used is symballo,
meaning that she was putting things together and seeing the pattern in them.
·
Stay with whatever feelings,
inspirations, thoughts come to you.
·
Allow God to speak to you in silence.
“Be still know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10)
·
Respond to God, share your feelings and
thoughts with him. You may want to offer a prayer of praise or thanksgiving. In
MENTAL PRAYER we unite our hearts with God while thinking of His holy truths.
Mental prayer usually begins with MEDITATION, which means thinking about God to
move our hearts to love him. Our hearts then speak to him in our own words even
without words. Then we listen to God in silence, not only of lips, but of
heart. This is the highest form of prayer. Traditionally the 4 elements of
prayer are: Adoration. Contrition. Thanksgiving. Supplication
or ACTS.
·
Decide if there is something you may put
into practice as a result of your prayer. It is good to note this down in a
notebook lest you forget. Also note people and things to pray for, especially
enemies if we want to avoid psychosomatic problems! (Matthew 5:44; Romans 12)
niggling things e.g. uncollected items at the drycleaners: noted down, then
deal with it later.
For beginners the Quiet
time can be 5 to 10 minutes. But beware – it becomes addictive! We may not feel
any different after it, we may even battle to stay awake. But be assured – the
day ahead of you will be blessed at work, school or at home as you put God
first in your life, for God honours those who honour Him. And remember:
‘Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Jesus.’ (St Jerome)
NOTE OF EXPLANATION:
Some books may be missing from your Bible e.g. Tobit, Sirach, Wisdom, Maccabees
et cetera. These books are called the Deuterocanonicals and were in the
Septuagint Bible used by Jesus and the early Church. The Protestant reformer,
Martin Luther removed these books from his Bible as well as the Apocalypse,
Hebrews, James and Jude from the new Testament! On his death his fellow
reformers, mindful of Apocalypse 22:18, quickly put back the New Testament
books but not the Old Testament ones – yet! Since Catholics, Orthodox and
Anglicans revere the Deuterocanonicals, and they make up the majority of world
Christians, so the majority of Christian Bibles contain those books.
