The Necessity of Daily Bible
Reading by J. R. Miller from Living Victoriously. Let the word of Christ dwell
in you richly. Colossians chapter 3 verse 16.
Probably prayer is less neglected in devotions than is the reading
of the Bible. Many people who would not go
out any morning without a few moments of prayer will go forth
day after day into the thick of life's duties and perils without
reading even a verse of scripture. They feel the necessity of asking
God to keep, guide, and bless them. But they fail to realize
that it is in and through meditating on his word that God chiefly
gives his richest and best blessings. It is in his word that God reveals
himself. We cannot know what He is like,
nor what the attributes of His character are, unless we ponder
the Scriptures. We cannot learn what God's will
is, nor what He would have us do and to be, if we do not look
into His Word. There is nothing that we need
more than to hear God speaking to us every morning. This is
possible only as we open the Bible and let its words whisper
their messages to us. No matter how familiar we may
be with the teachings of the scriptures, we need to ponder
them anew every morning to keep their pure ideals and lofty requirements
ever before us, lest we allow our standard of holy living to
be lowered. A celebrated painter always kept
some purely coloured stones on his table. When asked by a visitor
why he did so, he said it was to keep his eye up to tone. When
he was working in pigments, unconsciously his sense of colour was weakened.
By keeping a pure colour near him, he brought his eye up to
tone again. just as the musician, by his
tuning for, brings himself up to the right pitch. In the same
way, we continually need to turn to God's word to keep our thoughts
and character and life up to the true standard. Rubinstein
used to say that he could never omit his daily practice on the
piano, for if he did, the quality of his playing would at once
begin to deteriorate. He said that if he missed practice
for three days, the public would know it, if he missed practice
for two days, his friends would know it, and if he did not practice
for even one day, he himself knew it. It is no less true in
Christian life that in order to keep its holy tone up to what
it should be, there must never be a break in the continuity
of the study of God's Word. If we leave off for only one
day, we shall become conscious of a loss of power in living. If for two successive days we
fail to look into God's perfect law, Our friends around us will
notice the failure in the beauty, the sweetness and the grace of
our character and disposition. If for three days we fail to
study the scriptures, to see how God would have us live, even
the people of the world will see a lowering of the spiritual
quality of our life. One of the ways the Bible helps
us is by making Christ known to us. The noblest Christian
is he before whose eyes the character of Jesus shines in brightest
splendor. Indeed, it is only when we have
clear visions of Christ that we really grow like him. It seems
to me, says a writer, That nowadays men think and talk too much about
improving their own character, but meditate too little on the
perfectness of the divine character. Christ will never appear really
great in our eyes. Unless we make His Word our daily
study, and only as He becomes great and glorious in our thought,
will our character and standard of life be lifted up to what
they should be. Many of the blessings we seek
in prayer can come to us only through the Word of God. We are
to be kept near the heart of Christ. But our master tells
us that only those who keep his commandments shall abide in his
love. In order to keep his commandments,
we must know them. And we can know them only by
reading and rereading them. We ask God in the morning to
guide us through the day. And in one of the Psalms is the
prayer, order my steps according to your word. That is, God leads
us by his word. If, then, we do not read the
words of God. How can we get his guidance? The leading he promises is not
general, by long stretches, but by little steps. The psalmist
says, Your word is a lamp unto my feet. It is not said that
prayer is the lamp, but the word. We must carry it in our hand,
too, as one carries a lantern, to throw its beams about his
feet. We pray to be kept from sin,
and in the Scriptures one says, Your word have I hid in my heart,
that I might not sin against you. Our prayers to be kept from
sin can be answered only by getting the word of God into our heart. These are suggestions of the
necessity of reading the Bible daily, as well as of praying. Neither is complete in itself
alone. We must talk to God, but we must
also listen to God talk to us through his word. We must pray
for blessings, but only through the divine words of Scripture
can these blessings come to us. you