Psalm 119:147-148 says, “I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried: I hoped in thy word. Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word.”
John 15:7 says, “If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall come to pass to you.”
Before we speak concerning the meaning of prayer, let us look at how prayer and reading the Word match one another. The two passages above clearly show us that these two matters-prayer and reading the Word-go hand in hand. In Psalm 119 there is a seeker of God who lives before Him. He matches his seeking for the Word of God with his calling, that is, his prayer, before God. In John 15, speaking of the promise of answers to prayers, the Lord shows us from another aspect how we should match our prayer with the reading of the Word. The Lord’s Word shows us that a prayer will be answered on the basis of two things: one is that we abide in Him, and the other is that His words must also abide in us. He promises that if these two basic conditions are present, we may ask whatever we will and it shall come to pass to us. Hence, here it speaks of matching prayer with the reading of the Word.
Brothers and sisters, to a normal Christian, these two things-reading the Word and praying-are the two aspects of his living; both are indispensable. We can see that in God’s ordination almost everything in the universe is two-sided. For example, above and below, left and right, yes and no, day and night, male and female-all are two-sided, or you may say they are counterparts for full and proper function.
Our human body gives us many examples of this. For instance, I have two legs which make it very convenient for me to either stand or walk. Suppose I had only one leg. Then I would not be able to stand well, and I would have even more trouble walking. Not only so, but our hands, ears, eyes, and nostrils are also in pairs and symmetrically arranged. The practical living of a Christian before the Lord also has two sides: one side is the reading of the Word, and the other side is prayer. When we walk, we must use both feet simultaneously in order to maintain our balance. We should not walk twenty steps with our right foot and only two steps with our left foot. As a Christian living before God, we also need to read the Word and pray simultaneously, thus keeping the balance.
Unfortunately, however, once God’s ordained laws get into our hands we often make them one-sided. God ordains that a Christian should give equal importance to both reading the Word and prayer. Nevertheless, some brothers and sisters enjoy only reading the Scriptures, but not praying. When they read the Bible, they may bury their head in it from morning to evening; the more they read it, the better it tastes. Every page of their Bible has been drawn with many lines-some heavy, some light, some red, and some blue; the whole book is nearly filled with lines. Some have marked two or three copies of the Bible, though they have been saved for only four years. But strangely, they pray very little, and sometimes even when they are moved by the Holy Spirit, they still will not pray. The enjoyment is unlimited when they read the Word, but when they pray it is like taking bitter medicine. On the other hand, there are some who just enjoy praying. The minute they kneel down they are moved to tears, and may sing spiritual songs. They feel so marvelous and energetic when they pray. But if you want them to read the Bible, they immediately doze off. They would rather pray daily than read the Word. You see, again, this is one-sided.
Brothers and sisters, if someone reads the Bible more than he prays he will often fall into letters and regulations which bring a dead, dry spiritual condition. But one who leans to the other side and prays more than he reads the Bible will become spiritually unbalanced. If we want to maintain a normal Christian life, we must give equal attention to both reading the Word and prayer. Just as we use both feet equally when we walk, we should always both read and pray, pray and read. Whenever we pray we must touch the Word of God, and whenever we read the Scriptures we must match it with prayer.
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