Bible Reading

 I had a coworker ask me this very question one night. An example came to mind that I shared with him and I’ll share it here now. Imagine if you will, that you are a mother or father (many of you probably are) and your child came to you and said she was hungry. You would no doubt feed your poor little child food. This is an example of us praying to God and Him answering. Now your child has upped her needs and their list of requests begin to lengthen. Mommy, Daddy I’m cold, sad, hurt, afraid, or I want a toy, new room, bike, better friends, and so on. You want to help give theses things for no other reason than you love them and want to see them smile and appear happy. Now imagine every time your little angel came and asked you for something and when you tried to say something to them even if it was words of praise, they would turn around and walk out of the room and close the door behind them. Now the question is how long would you allow this to go on until you started feeling disrespected or even hurt? 

 What we are looking at here is a one way conversation. The little child tells you what they are feeling but never listens to what you are feeling or what you have to say to them. What does this have to do with Bible reading? Simple, our Heavenly Father has given us a way to have a close relationship with Him by allowing for a two way conversation. Praying is our gift from God to tell Him what we are feeling and want, and Bible reading is His gift to us to hear what He has to say and what He wants from us. It is easy to see how frustrated the parent would be in the above story, but what about the little child. At first they may seem happy and content with all their needs met, (as so many young Christians do) but eventually that little child will begin to miss the intimate side of their relationship with their parents and doubt that you really love them, and finally they will start to question if you are even real, since they have never heard your voice. 

 The reason we feel closer to our Heavenly Father when we read our Bible is because that is when He is Talking to us personally. He tells us what He wants, what He loves, how he wants us to behave, who to trust, who to marry, and he even makes promises. Prayers are without question necessary and wonderful, but it is only half of the conversation with God. To get to know God with the fullest intimacy, we need both prayer, to tell Him how we feel and what we need, and Bible reading to listen to what He wants and what He will give us. The Bible will never stop bringing you closer to your Heavenly Father as long as you keep reading it. So many Christians feel alone and depressed and they turn to prayer by itself, only to still feel alone. They have turned in the right direction only to stop half way. There is always a place and time for prayer, but there is so much more. To actually be able to listen (read) to words straight from the all knowing, all powerful, and living God, is an experience most vital for our Christian walk. Well, we are fools if we let one spare moment of our day go by without listening to what God has to say. 

 May God be praised always in our hearts and minds and with our words. Amen