CHAPTER ONE
THE MEANING OF PRAYER
MATCHING PRAYER AND THE READING OF THE WORD
Psalm 119:147-148 says, “I anticipated the dawn and cried out; / I hoped in Your words. / My eyes anticipated the night watches, / That I might muse upon Your word.”
John 15:7 says, “If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.”
Before we speak concerning the meaning of prayer, let us look at how prayer and reading the Word match each other. The two passages above clearly show 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 from another aspect how we should match our prayer with the reading of the Word. The Lord’s Word shows 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 be done for 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, although 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.
May we look at an illustration confirming this matter. Immediately after Ephesians 5:18-20 says that we should be filled in spirit, it says that we should speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and psalming with our heart to the Lord, giving thanks at all times for all things in the name of our Lord to God. Again, after Colossians 3:16-17 says that we should let the word of Christ dwell in us richly, it goes on to say that we should sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with grace in our hearts to God and in all things give thanks to God in the name of the Lord. While both portions of the Word speak of how Christians praise and thank God, the reasons they do so are different. One is due to being filled in spirit, and the other is due to being filled with the Lord’s Word. By comparing these two portions of the Scriptures, you can see that both the reading of the Word and prayer are something that men experience in the Spirit. You can never separate the Word from the Spirit, for the Word is the embodiment of the Spirit, and the Spirit is deposited in the Word. Under normal circumstances, whenever you have the infilling of the words of the Bible, you also have the infilling of the Spirit. And once you are filled with the Spirit, you cannot help but pray. There are various forms of prayer, such as giving thanks to God, blessing God, singing praises to God, weeping and calling before God, fasting and supplicating before God, etc. All these prayers are due to the Spirit’s moving within man. When you touch the Word, you will surely know the presence of the Spirit within you. Once you realize the presence of the Spirit, you cannot help but pray; otherwise, you are one who quenches the Spirit. Hence, we must always match our reading with prayer.
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