The Riches of the Glory of Christ: Some Practical Tips on Prayer-Reading the Bible

[3] And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 

(John 17:3 ESV)

Introduction

  As Christians our greatest pursuit in life is to grow closer in our relationship with the Lord. There is no higher calling in the life of a believer than pursue intimacy with Jesus. Christianity is not about a list of “what to dos” or how to act so that we can call ourselves Christians. Christianity is primarily a relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. 

  In our day to day relationships our intimate knowledge of someone, through time spent with them, is how we grow closer to that person. This principle is true about our relationship with Jesus. If we desire to grow closer in our relationship with Jesus we must, by all means necessary, glean all that we can from page after page of His Word about Himself. Just as a lover desires to know everything about his beloved so also it is indispensable to pursue detailed knowledge of our Lord. It is through this means that we will increase in our love for the Lord. 

   In this article I would like to give some tips on how to position ourselves for an encounter with the Lord through His Word. There are generally two types of Bible studies that I do: (#1)Reading through the Bible book by book (which helps a lot in seeing the big picture) and (#2) prayerful-meditation on a passage or a verse (In other words, communing with God as we read through a passage or a verse). In this blog entry I would like to talk about the latter (#2).

Some practical steps on prayer-reading a passage or a verse in the Bible

1.  The first thing that we need to do is the be aware of God’s Presence. He is Person inside of us called the Holy Spirit. He is also a Jewish Man, who is alive right now and is seated at the right hand of the Father. And He is also the Father who seated in heaven. If you are having trouble realizing this truth ask the Holy Spirit to make this reality become more real to you. I find that it is helpful for me to close my eyes for a few seconds and to tell him, “Thank you for being with me” and “I love you.” Being aware of the Lord’s presence makes a big difference in reading through His Word. 

2.  Ask the the Lord to reveal Himself to you as you pray-read through the passage. “Holy Spirit, I ask that you would reveal to me what Jesus is like. Show me His desires/will.” You can also add your own requests to the Lord. I also like to pray Colossians 1:9-12 before I pray-read through a passage in the Bible.

3.  Ask the Lord to quicken all of your senses as you read and meditate on a passage. You want to see, touch, hear, smell, taste, and feel and know what the characters are feeling and thinking. Ask God to quicken your powerful imagination. I believe that this is one of the best ways to permanently write the word of God in our hearts. The impact of a passage will be more powerful and we will be able to remember it better if we actually experience it through the help of the Holy Spirit.

4.  As you are reading through a passage or a verse, speak with the Lord about it. Remember to be aware of His presence and that He is a real Person living inside of you. =) He loves to hear your voice. Ask Him questions. He loves a curious heart. Listen to Him...what is He telling you? He loves to talk about Jesus. Is He highlighting something in your life that He is encouraging you in? Do you need to change something? Ask Him to help you in obeying Him. A lot of times He simply just wants to be with you as you contemplate on His beauty through His Word. Remember to speak to Him as if He is present in the room with you, He is living inside of you.

Other helfpul insights

You should be able to prayerfully-meditate with any book of the Bible. Doing historical research on a certain book or passage of the Bible will also help in making it come more alive (which is why it is important to read the Bible in its historical context). 

 Also, there will be times when you feel like you are “soaring above the clouds” as you are prayerfully-meditating on a passage. But there will also be times when you won’t feeling anything. Don’t let that discourage you, the fact that you are spending time with Him, whether you feel Him or not, moves His heart. He really likes that. You may not feel the impact that this has in your life while you are reading it, but you will start to notice something different about the way that you view God, yourself and other people. The effects of this spiritual discipline may not be noticed until weeks, months and maybe even years; But this will cause you to grow in love, which is what we are called to.

  As you pray-read through the Word, remember to take your time. You don’t need to be in a rush. If you end up spending a whole hour on a few verses that’s okay =). When that happens, it’s usually because the Holy Spirit wants to speak with you regarding those verses or passage.

  All four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) and the Song of Solomon are great places to prayerfully-read the Bible.

Let’s do this together

Let’s go through this together in the scene where Jesus Prays in the garden of Gethsemane.

[36] Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” [37] And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. [38] Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” 

(Matthew 26:36-38 ESV)

You have done steps 1-3 and now you are engaging yourself in the scene. As a friend of Jesus you want to know and feel what was in His heart as He went to the garden. What were you thinking and feeling Jesus? It was the night before His death and I can imagine that it was a cold and dark night. What was the atmosphere around Him like?

Remember to take your time..Don’t be in a rush.

As you are meditating through this passage ask Him questions and listen to Him: Why did You tell the other disciples to sit by while bringing Peter, James and John (the two sons of Zebedee) with You? Why were you more vulnerable with your heart with these three men? What set them apart from the other disciples? Why were you sorrowful? How can I position myself to be a friend with whom you can share the deepest things of your heart with? ask..ask..ask...There may be times that the Holy Spirit will help you on what question to ask.

There will be times when all you can do is to gaze upon Him and tell Him that you love Him because of what He did for you. Speak back to Him. Tell Him what you liked. Speak His words back to Him. Do you need to ask him for help? Does He want you to go deeper in Him? Are there any areas of sin that the Holy Spirit wants to help you in?

Wrench out everything that you can about in this passage. Let the Holy Spirit write it in your heart. He will transform you from the inside-out. 

Let the text of the passage speak for itself. But this also doesn’t mean that we can’t take part in the scene and ask Him questions that are not explicitly revealed in the text. It is not like we are trying to build foundational church doctrines on these things. My point is that the heart of a true lover desires to know every intimate detail about the one whom he or she loves. Imagine seeing Jesus face to face in the age to come as He recalls to your memory that one night when you were sitting in your room meditating on Him through His word. I can picture the smile of a Friend and Him saying, “Do you remember what I told you that one night?” Let’s know every detail that we can about Jesus.“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.” Proverbs 25:2 (NKJV)

Remember to be aware of His Presence. The Father and Jesus in heaven, and Holy Spirit inside of you. Remind yourself that Jesus is a real human being right now. He has real memories associated with the emotions that happened to Him that night. He wants to share His heart with a friend even though this happened 2000 years ago. He is alive right now and He vividly remembers the passing hours before His crucifixion. The Holy Spirit loves to speak to us about the things in Jesus’ heart. “...when the Helper comes...he will bear witness about me.” (John 15:26)

Testimony of Bernard

“His [Bernard of Clairvaux] continual exercise was meditation on the sufferings of Jesus Christ. He compared this exercise to the bundle of myrrh which the bride in the Canticles gathered, with pious care, to place in her bosom (cf. Song of Solomon 1:13). He speaks thus upon this subject: ‘For myself, dear brethren, from the first beginning of my conversion, seeing myself to be wanting in all virtues, I took to myself this bundle of myrrh made up of all my Saviour’ s bitter sufferings, of the privations He endured in His infancy, the toils He underwent in His ministry, the weariness He suffered in His journeyings, His watching in prayer, His fasting and testing, His tears of compassion, the snares laid to catch Him in His words, His perils among false brethren, the insults, the blows, the mockeries, the nails, the sorrows in short of all kinds which He endured for the salvation of men. I have found wisdom to consist in meditation upon these things...Therefore, also, it is that I have them always in my mouth as you know, and that I have them always in my heart, as God knows; they are ever on my pen as all men may see; and the most sublime philosophy which I have in this world, is to know Jesus, and Jesus crucified.”

¹ St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Abbe Theodore Ratisbonne, (Rockford: TAN Books and Publishers, 1991), 29-30.