Read To Love

I found these ads recently and thought they were funny.

I especially liked the one about the family.
Even though the answer should be the happy family in the bottom row, I couldn't help to think perhaps it could be the family on the top row for our day and age.

I'm not sure if these ads would spark a reading craze if they were used today, but it did make me realize we all need a push in regards to reading. Not just reading any book, but especially THE book (a.k.a. the Bible).

I asked our group a week ago why we struggled to pray and I was really glad a lot of us shared different things that hindered our prayer lives. Honestly, I wanted to rattle off answers that seemed pretty simple to me in response, but I had to stop myself because if it were really that simple, wouldn't we all have already discovered it? We wouldn't have needed that discussion in the first place because we would have known the answer.

Perhaps that's what led me to start reading, "Christian Basics: An Invitation to Discipleship", by John Scott, which is pretty much a Christianity 101 kind of book for new believers. The chapter devoted to "Bible Reading and Prayer" caught my attention and he does a great job explaining how those two disciplines go together:

"If these times of quiet waiting upon God are to be balanced, they will consist of Bible reading and prayer - in that order. First, we listen to what God may have to say to us through His Word. We ask Him like the boy Samuel, "Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening" (1 Samuel 3:9-10). And we seek to imitate Mary of Bethany, who "sat at the Lord's feet listening to what He said" (Luke 10:39). Then second, we speak back to Him. There will be much to talk about, especially after He has spoken to us. It is like the swing of a pendulum. It is a two-way conversation, by which our relationship (even friendship) with God matures." (pp 86-87) 

After reading that I realized why there wasn't a simple "do this and you'll be fine" kind of answer to the struggles with prayer.What John Scott says in the end pretty much sums it up: we do all of this in order to build relationship with God.

Meaning we don't do these things because we know it's just the right thing to do and just simply "do it" won't solve the issues that we all face. If we were to just focus on praying, it would be clearly a one-way relationship in which we just say a bunch of things to God and hope for the best but that's not a relationship.
We need to know the God we speak to and we need to hear from Him.

I tend to be a listener, but if a friend told me, "Ok, so you're just going to listen to everything I have to say and grant whatever I want since you're my friend and by the way, you're not allowed to talk back to me."
I wouldn't think that would be much of a friendship, let alone any kind of relationship with another person.
God made a way for us to hear from Him and the best and surest way is through His Word.

If we're serious about having a relationship with God, there's really no way around it: we have to read His Word.

After reading the Word to hear from God, then we can speak to Him through prayer. Eventually that will start looking more like a relationship than us just thinking that we've done our Christian duty.

I know I struggle to keep up in all both areas of Bible reading and prayer, but I've come to realize when I read the Word more, my prayer life is strengthened because I come to know God's ways and His Word confirms and gives me hope for the things to come.

We read His Word because we desire to know the One who has saved and redeemed us.

Read to build and fortify that relationship of love.