Be sure you are praying before you read the Bible. God uses his Word to answer your prayers, so if you don’t pray, there won’t be as many answers.
Pray what is on your heart and mind.
Exhaustion from adjusting to so many changes. Frustration from adjusting to so many changes. Celebration that you’re adjusting to so many changes!
Family situations. Career problems and possibilities. Faith in God instead of yourself, your opinions or your independence. Coronavirus confusion and uncertainty. Finances out of control. Feelings and emotions that you don’t understand. New decisions you are needing to make. God can handle all of these better than you can. Clear the clutter before you read his Word.
Pray about God more than yourself.
God is the “why” of prayer. Pray more because of God than because you need something.
Because God is love. Because God is almighty. Because God is your Savior. Because God is your friend. Because God will never betray you. Because God works in all things for your good. Because God answers prayer. Because God is always God.
Pray what is on your schedule.
A critical conversation you’ve been putting off. Trying to arrange the casual social distancing meet up that doesn’t threaten health but helps your stay connected.
A calendar for the day that is more crowded than makes you comfortable. Or uncomfortably at home all week working … or not working.
Pray for enlightenment.
Pray to see and hear what God wants you to see and hear from his Word. Pray for the wisdom and will to implement it. With delight as a gift to God. With love for the good of others.
Lots of experts will tell you how to read, questions to ask, how to journal and how to meditate, but we don’t often hear how to prepare to read. Do this kind of praying regularly before you begin reading God’s Word.
Some people just dive right into Bible reading. “Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown” (Mark 4:20).
With fertile soil cleared of rocks and weeds, turned over and tilled, the seeds of God’s Word are going to take root, grow deep and produce a bountiful harvest in your life.
Prayer
I love your word, God, and I know it can change my attitude, my decisions, my day and my life. You want to change me more than my circumstances. Teach me to prepare for your word in prayer. Amen.
Further Meditation
Make a plan right now. Put it in writing, just some scribbles are okay. Or send a message to yourself. Copy a friend. When are you going to start praying like this before you read God’s Word? If you already pray before reading God’s Word, are there any ideas here that can help you improve? Commit to them. Give it a date, a time and place. Soon. God bless it!