Spending Less Time in Prayer?

I know what you are thinking:  “Robin, have you lost your mind?”  Stay with me for a few moments and hear me out.  That familiar verse in 1 Thess. 5:17, “pray without ceasing,” still holds true today.  Believe you me, I know the importance of prayer and I am a prayer warrior for personal needs and intercessory prayers for others.

What, then, am I talking about?  It is not a departure from being a person of prayer.  Do you now feel better?  D. L. Moody was a twentieth century evangelist greatly used of God.  R. A. Torrey quotes him by saying, “Mr. [D. L.] Moody used to say, ‘in our prayers we talk to God, in our Bible study, God talks to us, and we had better let God do most of the talking.’  We certainly ought to spend more time every day listening to what God has to say to us in His Word than we require Him to spend in listening to what we have to say to Him in our prayers.”

Now, you see my point.  I am not at all saying that you need to quit praying or even to reduce your prayer time.  What I am saying is that you need to balance your amount of prayer time with a good dose of Bible study.

The words every Christian wants to hear from His Lord and Savior upon arrival into heaven is, “Well done my good and faithful servant.”  The words of Scripture that haunt me and ring in my ears is 2 Tim. 2:15.  I know it is a very familiar verse, but dust it off and let the words ring true in your life as if you are reading them for the first time, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.”  This verse is written to every believer, not just to preachers.  Right out of the gate the verse gets your attention, “Be diligent.”  Get to the task and stay at it.  And what is the believer to stay busy doing?  Correctly “handling the word of truth.”  And why do you study and study the Word of God?  “To present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed.”  Notice, you approach the study of the Bible “as a workman.”

Yes, continue in your prayer life, but make sure you spend more time studying (letting God talk to you), than you spend in praying (you talking to God).  Study on!