There’s just no one who helps me more than John Piper. What can I say? I was reading a new article in Decision Magazine entitled, A Taste for Christ: A Conversation with John Piper. I have long struggled with how to read my Bible effectively, and lately I’ve been seeing the need to personalize what I read, to ask God to either make me more like I’m reading, or prevent me from becoming what I’m reading. I read the following and I thought, “Wow, that’s what I want to be more like.” Here is what he had to say about the relationship between Bible reading and prayer:
The Word and prayer to me are constantly interwoven. I don’t read the Bible longer than a minute without praying, and I don’t pray longer than a minute without some Scripture on my mind. If I start churning out prayers that aren’t informed pretty explicitly by the Bible, I’m probably going to wind up praying carnal prayers; and if I try to read the Bible extensively without constantly sending my heart up to God, it will become an academic exercise that doesn’t move my heart. I’m not just reading a document about a historical man, I’m reading an inspired Word from a living Christ, and my prayers are to a real, living person.
That’s so easy to forget, that when we read we aren’t just reading words on a page but are communicating with a living person through a living and active Word. I was encouraged by that. I hope you might be, too.
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