Praying Over the Bible
April 26, 2017
“Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. “ Psalm 119:18
Before you read, pray.
This grand and simple prayer is an expression of expectation and faith. Our level of discovery in scripture will seldom exceed our level of expectation. It is seekers who find according to Jesus. David expected wonderful things from the law of God. He, in turn, found wonders beyond anything he could have dreamed.
Dr. Martin Luther King said, “Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.”
Dr. King, approached the scriptures to be instructed and informed. As he formed his philosophy of non-violence from the example and teaching of Jesus, so we must be willing to be shaped and molded by words we have never read along staircases of truth we have never traveled.
Dr. King also said on the night before his death, “I just want to do God's will”
In the same way, we must approach God’s Word in search of His will with a desire to receive it and do it whatever it may command.
Dr. King once wrote, “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
Much worse is willful ignorance and arrogant stupidity. Our prayer over scripture and our reading of the same must not be arrogant and all-knowing. We come to God for instruction and apart from that instruction, we remain willfully ignorant. We must come humbly, willingly, and prayerfully. The psalmist speaks of his own longing for God’s Word in verse 20 and of God’s rebuke for the arrogant who think they already know it all in verse 21.
In verse 24 he speaks of God’s laws as his counselors. Because that is so true, we bow before God before we even open his Word, asking that He guide us and teach us. Martin Luther King is but one example of what God can do through the life of a person who comes prayerfully to the scriptures for instruction and enlightenment.