Search
Scripture Reading: Col. 3:16
Many of God's children live in poverty because they have not allowed the word of God to dwell in them richly, as Colossians tells us to do. The first cause of spiritual poverty or the first step toward spiritual poverty among Christians is poverty in the Word of God. A man who is poor in the eyes of God may read through the Bible page by page and chapter by chapter, but he will not know God's Word. He has not made any contact with God and he does not find any life in the Word. Therefore, he is poor.
There was a brother who had believed and been baptized for a year. He met an elderly Christian who asked him three questions which he found difficult to answer. The three questions were as follows:
First, the man asked, "Since you became a Christian a year ago, have you read through the Bible once?" He realized that this was a hard question. If he were asked whether he had read the Bible, it would have been easy to answer because he read his Bible every day. If he were asked whether he had spent time to study the Bible, he could also answer because he spent much time to study it. But it was not easy to answer that he had read through the Bible. He said, "I read the Bible every day." The man retorted, "I am not asking whether you have read the Bible every day. I am asking whether you have read through the whole Bible." He could not dodge the question and said, "I read it every day, but I have not yet read through it once." The man exclaimed, "You have been a Christian for over a year, and you have not read through the Bible once!" The two were silent for a few minutes. The brother said in his heart, "Lord, if you give me another year, I will surely read through the Bible at least once."
The man would not let him go. He asked the second question: "You have been a Christian for over a year. Have you prayed?" He answered, "I pray daily, and every Saturday I go to the hill to pray." The man asked again, "Since you have prayed so much, how many times has God answered your prayer? Try to remember, have you received at least one clear answer to any of your prayers?" He thought for a moment, but it was difficult for him to think of one case! He had prayed much, but he could not name one instance when God answered his prayer. He could only admit, "I am afraid not once." The man said, "You have been a Christian for over a year, yet God has not answered your prayer once!"
Following this, there was the third question: "You have been a Christian for over a year. Have you led one person to the Lord? Is there anyone who has come to the Lord clearly as a result of your preaching?" He knew that he had preached the gospel, but it was hard to say whether there was one particular person who had been led to the Lord by him. It seemed as if there was one, but he dared not say for sure. He had to answer, "No." The man did not ask any more questions but merely sighed, "You have believed in the Lord for over a year. But you have not read through the Bible once, received one answer to prayer, nor led one person to the Lord." At that very moment, the brother resolved in his mind, saying, "Lord, I will lead at least one to You this year, I will pray until I have at least one definite answer to prayer, and I will read through the Bible at least once."
From that day on, that brother had a new start. He was determined to read the Bible through from beginning to end. He counted the number of books and chapters in the Old and New Testament, and he scheduled his time. He believed that he could devote considerable time for this. He thought that he could read through the Old Testament at least three times and the New Testament twelve or fourteen times. Thank the Lord that by the end of that year, God enabled him to finish more than what had been scheduled. From that point on, he began to study the Bible conscientiously and studiously.
I would ask the young brothers and sisters in particular: How much of God's Word do you read every day? Have you read through the Word of God once? In your spiritual pursuit, it is easy to have lofty aspirations while neglecting basic lessons. If you have not read through God's Word properly from beginning to end, and if you are still skipping through it here and there, I would advise you to change your way of reading. You must have a proper plan for reading the Bible. Every day you have to spend some time to systematically read God's Word from beginning to end. In reading a book, you would not reap much benefit if you skipped through it here and there. You cannot read the Bible this way either; you have to read it systematically through from beginning to end. You have to start from Genesis and go all the way to Malachi, and you have to start from Matthew and go all the way to Revelation. You have to read systematically, according to a schedule. Otherwise, ten years will pass and you will still be very poor in God's Word.
There are many ways of reading the Bible. Reading it through sequentially from beginning to end is only one way of reading it. There is another way of reading, which a Christian should practice as soon as he begins his Christian life. This is reading early in the morning. There is one condition for this kind of reading of the Word — one has to rise up early every morning. It is another matter if you are sick and you are told by a doctor to rest. But every normal, healthy person should rise up early. When the sun comes out, the manna is gone. Many people read the Bible too late; therefore, they cannot read it well. You must catch the early morning hour to read God's Word.
However, no one can rise up early if he goes to bed late. It is another matter if some are required to stay up late by their work. But many people have no special reason to go to bed late; they have built up the habit of putting things off until the evening. When they go to bed late, they cannot rise early. Some people are not busy at all; they just like to waste their time at night. They like to stay a little longer in the sitting room and chat a little longer, and before they know it, half an hour has passed. Whoever wastes or ill-manages his time this way will find it hard to rise up early; it will be hard for him to do anything in a systematic way. We have to develop the habit of retiring to bed on time and rising on time. Many people are very weak when it comes to the matter of rising. They cannot control themselves and cannot rise up early to touch the Lord. As soon as possible, young Christians should develop the habit of rising early. They may find it hard the first day; however, by the second or third day, they will not find it as hard. After a period of time, it will become natural to them.
One brother was determined to rise up between half-past four and five o'clock in the morning. When he woke up the first morning, it was six o'clock. When he woke up the second morning, it was six o'clock again. He was determined to get up at five. The next night he constantly looked at the clock and did not sleep well from two until five in the morning. He realized that this was not right, because when he did not sleep well at night, it was harder for him to rise up in the morning. He realized that the only thing he could do was look to the Lord. On the third night, he prayed, "God, I am going to sleep now. I commit myself to Your hand. Please wake me up at five tomorrow morning." Then he went to sleep soundly. The next morning when he woke up, he was afraid that it was six o'clock again. But thank the Lord, it was exactly five o'clock; it was not a minute late or early. From that day on and for many years, he woke up at the right time. We believe that when we truly commit ourselves to God, He will wake us up.
I am not saying that everyone should rise up at five o'clock. If you can rise up earlier, it is good. But if you have some hardship, you may need to rise up later. We do not suggest going to an extreme. We all have to judge ourselves according to our physical strength. We have to learn how many hours of sleep we need and when we need to go to bed. Then we will know when we can get up in the morning, whether it is five o'clock, half-past five, or six o'clock. We have to plan well before the Lord. Once we make our plan, we can rise up every morning according to our plan to read God's Word.
We can testify that reading the Word early in the morning is the best nourishment for our spiritual life. We can read the Bible at other times, but reading it in the morning has a different flavor to it, and it reaps special benefits for us. If we have not experienced the benefit of reading the Word early in the morning, I hope that we will start practicing it and will not miss out on this blessing.
Colossians 3:16 says, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom." We have to let the Word dwell in us. We should not only memorize it, but we should also digest it into our heart. The Lord taught us to pray for God to give us this day our daily food. We should ask the Lord to give us our daily food. Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of the Lord. Therefore, we must pray for God to give us not only physical food but also spiritual food and to teach us the way to eat this food so that we can store the word in our heart.
Our reading of the Word in the morning should be different from our ordinary reading; we should not read through it sequentially. Instead, while we read, we should meditate and pray. After reading one or two sentences, we should begin to pray. Never read without stopping. You have to pray in order to mingle your reading with prayer. These prayers do not have to be like ordinary prayers in which we say, "In the name of Jesus, amen." This prayer is a mingling of reading with praying. On the one hand, we read God's Word, and on the other hand, we speak to God through prayer. We have the Word of God before us, and we read it to ourselves as well as to God. While we are reading, we should pray. We should not read through hastily but digest the Word as we read slowly. If we do this, we will receive nourishment from the Word.
For example, Isaiah 54:1 says, "Give a ringing shout, O barren one, you who have not borne;/Break forth into joyful shouting and cry out, you who have not been in labor; /For more numerous are the children of the desolate one/Than the children of the married woman, says Jehovah." This means that the Lord can give man through the Spirit what he does not have in his flesh. When you read this verse, you should meditate on it and pray, "Lord, I am barren, and I have not borne anything. Spiritually speaking, I have nothing to give others. But I thank and praise You. I can sing because You can give to me what I do not have; You have the power."
Whichever portion you may come across, you can meditate on it and pray over it. Some people say that they do not have enough items to pray about. Actually there are enough items for you to pray about in the Bible already. Whatever you read can become the subject of your prayer. Many things in the Bible can lead you to pray, utter a praise, confess your sins, and make supplication for others.
When you come across a commandment of God, you may pray to Him saying, "God, forgive my sins, for I am weak. I have not obeyed You in this matter. I do not have this thing, and I am not this kind of person. Lord, forgive me." You may think of others and confess for others. You can say, "Lord, I cannot make it. I look to You to accomplish this in me." God wants you to be faithful. You can look to Him to make you faithful. God intends that you love. You can look to Him to make you love. When you read God's command in this way, you will find that all of God's commands are actually His promises. When God gives you a command, He also gives you the strength to keep that command. If you only see God's command and feel that He is giving you a hard time by asking you to do what cannot possibly be done, you have not seen that His commands are with promises. Remember the story of the young ruler in Luke 18. He heard the Lord Jesus' word, "Still you lack one thing: all that you have, sell and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in the heavens; and come, follow Me" (v. 22), and he left in sorrow. He thought he could keep the Ten Commandments, but he could not do this one thing. He thought this commandment of the Lord was too harsh. But shortly thereafter, the Lord showed that His commandments are not merely commandments but promises as well. He said, "The things that are impossible with men are possible with God" (v. 27). Thank the Lord that His commandments show two things: man cannot make it and God can make it. Before His commandments, we have to see that we cannot make it and that He can make it. If we see only that we cannot make it, we become sorrowful. But if we see that God can make it, we will praise Him. Many times when we read God's Word, we realize that we cannot make it. Since the commandments are so severe, we pray, "Lord, I cannot make it. But I praise You because You can make it. This is impossible with man. Lord, I cannot do it. But with You, nothing is impossible. So I look to You to accomplish this in me today. Please come and accomplish this in me." If we pray this way, we will see God answering our prayer.
When we read and pray simultaneously this way and learn to read God's Word in God's presence, we will gradually touch the spirit within the Word and discover the vast difference between our condition and the spirit in the Word. For example, we may read Philippians 3:18-19: "For many walk, of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their stomach..." It is very easy for us to say that these are the enemies of God, and that their end is destruction. But it is difficult to touch the spirit of the writer of the Bible. If we read it casually through, we will not detect it. But if we pray while we read, we will read ourselves into the heart of the writer of the Epistle and see that he was full of love. One who was full of love was used by God to speak a severe word: "I have told you often and now tell you even weeping." Some had made their stomach their god. They were the enemies of the cross of Christ, and their end was destruction. This is a fact, and Paul had to write this. But while he was writing, he was full of love. It is very easy for us to speak severe words, but it is very difficult for us to have Paul's spirit. It is easy for us to be nice and speak nice words, but it is very difficult for us to speak severe words as he did. When we come to this portion and touch the spirit of the writer, we will know him as a person, and we will also know ourselves. If we do not touch the spirit when we read His Word, we will not have much feeling. But if we read and pray at the same time and our heart is turned to God and our spirit is open to Him, we will get into the Bible, and the Bible will no longer be dry and tasteless. It will be full of life-food, and while we are reading, we will be eating as well.
I hope that the brothers and sisters will read God's Word conscientiously every morning. Do not read it through quickly; pray as you read, and read as you pray. If you read this way for fifteen minutes, half an hour, or an hour every day, you will be fed and strengthened. If you eat God's Word today, you will find that the Lord is your strength today; He will carry you through everything.
In addition to reading the Word in the morning, we must also spend time during other hours to study His Word. We have to read the Bible consistently, repeatedly, thoroughly, carefully, and systematically. Only then will the word of God dwell in our heart richly.
Other than our personal reading of the Word, we can also read a portion of the Word with the brothers and sisters when we meet together. It is also a big help to memorize the Word with other brothers and sisters. We may not understand one verse, but when it is recited through the mouth of another person, we suddenly understand it. This may sound strange, but it is a fact. Once the brothers and sisters come together, they will receive light which as individuals they cannot receive. Therefore, when brothers and sisters come together, it is better for you to not gossip. You can open the Word and read it. It does not matter if you do not understand it. Either one person can read while everyone else listens, or everyone can take turns reading. Or you may read the chapter you read today, while I read the chapter I read today. This kind of reading will uncover many hidden things in the Bible.
Reading the Bible is indispensable to a Christian. Young brothers and sisters should first develop a habit of rising early to read the Word. We believe that this kind of reading is most beneficial to the growth in life; it will unlock the power within God's Word. I am afraid that many Christians have been starving for a long time. They have been starving not only for a few days or a month but for many years! Perhaps some have never eaten God's Word from the time they became a Christian; they have never risen up early to eat God's Word. It is no wonder that they are so weak! Brothers and sisters, we have to eat God's Word. In the morning, we should pray and read God's Word simultaneously. This is to eat God's Word. May the Lord deliver us from spiritual poverty. May He deliver us from any form of poverty in His Word so that we may have the word of God dwelling in us richly and so that we will receive the supply of life from His Word daily.
