One
of the most popular ways for people to battle all sorts of trials in life is
through PRAYER. Praying is indeed powerful and even Jesus engaged in prayer as
he went through his ministry. However, Jesus DID NOT ONLY pray, he also
listened to his father. Jesus read scriptures. In fact, everything he did was
for the fulfillment of it. It is good to resort to prayers to gain wisdom, or
loneliness, brokenness, emptiness, to express hurt and confusion and feelings
of insecurities. However, praying is only one part of the equation. To win
life’s battles in the long run, we have to be totally equipped with other tools
to victoriously live the Christian life. In this day and age, we talk to God
through prayer and he talks to us through the Bible. Without the latter, the
believer would have nothing to hold on to, nothing stable to rely on. It’s like
shooting a bullet without the gun powder. It’s like endlessly talking to a
friend without reading the letters they have been sending to us. It would be
absurd that all along, we have been missing out on life, on the very messages
we needed to hear because we have failed to take the privilege of listening to
God through His Word.
I cannot overemphasize enough what the Word of God has done in my life. When I was a sophomore in college, I went through a major relational crisis that hit me so badly, I was almost ready to pack up my stuff, call it quits and just go back home. However, one person shared one Bible verse with me that changed my mind completely. JUST ONE BIBLE VERSE. And two years later, I graduated with a degree. There was also a time when I was so afraid of one of my college professors that I would always feel anxious to go to school, then in one of my personal daily devotions, I encountered this Bible verse: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Instead, fear the one who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28)
Forgive me for being blunt but we simply cannot know God without reading His Word on a regular basis, without making it a reference point in all areas of our lives. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,” (2 Timothy 3:16). To me, life has many compartments and aspects but our spiritual life is not one of them. Our spiritual life is not a compartment - it is the central driving force that defines us. We have to pray according to truth, otherwise, we would be spending the rest of our lives praying about something that God has already answered 365 times.
“Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted
by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not
wither—whatever they do prospers.” (Psalms 1:1-3)
