August 17th, 2023
“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, end of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)
For intercourse with God, His word and prayer or both indispensable; and in the inner chamber they should not be separated. In His word, God, speaks to me: in prayer, I speak to God. The Word teaches me to know the God to whom I pray: it teaches me how He would have me pray. It gives me precious promises to encourage me in prayer. It often gives me wonderful answers to prayer.
The Word comes from God’s heart, and brings His thoughts and His love into my heart. And then the Word goes back from my heart into His great heart of love, and prayer is the means of fellowship between God’s heart and mine.
The Word teaches me God’s will – the will of His promises as to what He will do for me, as food for my faith, and also the will of His commands, to which I surrender myself in loving obedience.
The more I pray, the more I feel my need of the Word, and rejoice in it. The more I read God’s Word, the more I have to pray about, and the more power I have in prayer. One great cause of prayerlessness is that we read God’s Word too little, or only superficially, or in the light of human wisdom. It is the Holy Spirit through whom the Word has been spoken who is also the Spirit of prayer. He will teach me how to receive the Word, and how to approach God.
How blessed would the inner chamber be, what a power and an inspiration in our worship, if we only took God’s Word, as from Himself, turning it into prayer, and definitely expecting an answer. It is the inner chamber, in the secret of God’s presence, that by the Holy Spirit God’s Word will become our delight and our strength.
“God’s Word in deepest reverence in our hearts, and on our lips, and in our lives, will be a never failing fountain of strength and blessing.”
Let us believe that God’s Word is indeed full of a quickening power that will make us strong, gladly to expect and receive great things from God. Above all, it will give us the daily blessed fellowship with Him as the living God.
“Blessed is the man…….But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night.” (Psalm 1:2)