Some Thoughts on the Importance of Bible Study and Prayer

I have just finished reading through the New Testament and had some thoughts I have to share. I was struck—partly because I just finished reading the Revelation to John—by the great number of warnings about our being deceived and the severe warnings about such deceit and its consequences. God’s written word is very clear. We will face many forms of trickery and deceit as we walk our daily Christian walk. Satan is alive and well on planet Earth. I also think we may be more vulnerable to this deception now than at most other times in our history. We are “fat, dumb, and happy” with little need for God. However we express it, we are certainly vulnerable. We find it very easy to keep God out of our lives except in a rather superficial form. We attend church, lead a fairly decent life, and feel fine with our relationship with Him. Is that really the walk God has called us to? I don’t think the Bible gives us that impression at all. I think we have chosen that lifestyle and have it regularly reinforced by our Christian brothers and sisters, and even church leaders. We all just want to get along.

I find myself wanting to be very tolerant of all things and all people. Tolerance is a usually a good quality. Intolerance has led to many wrongs, and religious intolerance, especially Muslim extremism, is the source of much of our turmoil in the world today. However, being tolerant of sin, my own sin or others, is not really a good idea, and we have become very tolerant of most all sins. We rarely call anything a sin. We have many euphemisms to make everything sound much better than it really is. We say someone has “strayed” when they really have committed adultery, which is an awful sin before God. We seemingly have a thousand euphemisms for lying. For example “being disingenuous”, “misleading”, “not being forthcoming”, etc. are all forms of lying, and the Bible says clearly that God hates a lying tongue; liars will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

We are warned to be vigilant and on guard. The deceit is often described as some form of religious deceit. We are warned of charismatic leaders who will arise and do miraculous-appearing things, seeming to be God-like. They will appear to be followers of God, but will lead the unsuspecting astray. We can see some forms of that in today’s religious world. There is no question that many in the world are very anti-religious and anti-Christian. It is definitely not cool to be a committed Christian in the eyes of the world. We can be tempted to hide our faith, rather than openly express it. The Bible gives lots of different descriptions of the deceit we may encounter. We are warned to be on guard at all times.

Bottom line: We need to be serious students of the Word! I am convinced that if we commune with God regularly by reading (studying!) the Word and praying diligently we will be far more likely to escape the lure and trickery of Satan. That is my challenge to myself, and to each of you. Be students of the Word and prayer warriors. God is good! He will keep us safe if we truly seek to follow Him each day. It is my earnest prayer that we will each seek to follow Him every day of our lives.