Go Beyond At Home
28-Week Prayer Guide
scripture reading
Hello all. I am so grateful to be able to share this week’s prayer guide with you. This week we continue to focus on spiritual disciplines, and specifically the practice of Scripture Reading. When you hear the word “Bible Study,” what comes to mind? Maybe you think of the captivating or inspiring Bible studies you have heard taught. Maybe you think of a time when you were studying the Bible on your own and felt alive and fed. But I am guessing most of us are carrying around with us a vague sense of guilt about not studying the Bible more. We know we should, but we don’t. The reasons we give are many—too tired, too busy, too whatever. Chances are we even feel bad about our excuses. The truth is that we find the Bible confusing, don’t know how to read it, and so we go to someone who does or turn to something easier to digest. We are like people going grocery shopping in a foreign country. We don’t know what any of the labels say and can’t figure out what anything is, so we leave befuddled and go to the nearest McDonald’s for some already made, less-confusing food even if it isn’t as nourishing as we would have liked. My hope is that this week we will rediscover the joy of hearing God speak by reading His Word.
Week 26
Day 7
August 31
“But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face in a mirror. For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was. But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who works—this person will be blessed in what he does.“
— James 1:22-25
REMINDER: We study the Bible not just to know God but to know what He wants us to do as well. Knowing the truth is not enough; we have to live on the side of truth. Our reading of scripture is pointless unless we put it into action. Reading the Bible and not doing what it says is like reading a map but never taking a trip or reading a cookbook and never preparing any of the meals. We read the scripture so that we can know what God wants us to do….so that we can do it.
TODAY’S PRAYER:
Father, forgive me for the times when I read Your Word and did not put it into practice. Thank you for calling me to obedience, not to burden me but to bless me. Show me today something in Your Word that I have neglected putting into practice. Give me the grace to help me obey you I all that I do. I ask this in the name of Jesus, Amen.