The Commitment to Reading the Bible and Prayer.

One of the many things I struggle with is the commitment to reading the Bible and constantly being in prayer. I figure that this is actually a struggle for most young Christians and also mature Christians. The idea of sacrificing a large amount of time, if not most of the time to either meditate on the Word of God or prayer is very foreign to the American culture. Now of course this is not always the case for Christians in America but I and many Christians I know do struggle with this. To show that I am not making this idea of constantly being in prayer or meditating on the word I have some scripture to back me up on this. Psalm 119:15 says, "I will meditate on your precepts and consider your ways." Also, in Joshua 1:7-9,  “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid;do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” These two scriptures imply that we should be in the Law, or Bible, so that we can live our lives to the fullest to fulfill the calling the Lord has given each and everyone one of use.  In I Thessalonians 5:15-19 it says, "See that no one repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." There were a lot of commands given in that passages but notice the underlined sections. This verse is a command to pray continually, among other things. How do we do that you might ask? Well if you think about it, prayer is just talking to God. So, if you have always found prayer awkward or weird, just talk to God as you would any other person. You also don't have to do the "classic" form of prayer were you fold you hands and close your eyes. Though you can do this, it is not a needed thing to pray. As you walk around your school, walk around at work, driving to work, ect. the list will go on and on. These are all times you can exercise prayer. Now moving onto meditating on the Bible. The big issue I find in my life is I don't want to give my time to study God's Word. This is a tough thing to do and like I said I struggle with this on a daily basis. The ultimate thing that will get you studying the Bible is this, You just got to do it! You might ask what is the point of doing all this praying and reading of the Bible stuff any way? Well, it is two fold really: First, we, as Christians, are commanded to to both of these things. Second, this is the only way we will really grow as Christians and grow more mature. I hope this has been helpful. 

                                                                                                                                       - The Baptist