Psalm 119:147 I anticipated the dawn and cried out; I hoped in Your words. (148) My eyes anticipated the night watches, that I might muse upon Your word. John 15:7 If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.
...brothers and sisters, proper reading of the Word is surely accompanied by prayer, and proper prayers will surely issue forth from the reading of the Word. Moreover, it is also not possible to decide which of the two should be first; they must go hand in hand. When we read the Lord's word in John 15:7, it seems that we should first read the Word and then pray. But Psalm 119 …seems to indicate that prayer comes before reading the Word. Therefore, it is not necessary to make a rigid decision concerning these two matters; you just need to allow them to proceed in a spontaneous way. People have often asked me, "Brother Lee, during morning watch, is it better to read the Bible first and then pray or pray first and then read the Bible?" This is hard to answer. I have been living many years, but to this day whenever I walk I am still not certain whether I should start with my right foot or with my left. Whenever we walk, we just do it naturally without caring whether the right or left foot goes first. Please remember, it is also unnecessary for you to decide every morning before the Lord whether to read first and then pray or vice versa. Just remain before the Lord in a normal way. Sometimes after rising in the morning, you may simply pray a few sentences first and then read the Bible. But other times you may have an inner desire to open the Word and read a few sentences; following the reading, the feelings may come and then you may start to pray. These two things usually occur the same number of times and occupy the same length of time. For the purpose of illustration, let us cite Brother Mueller, who operated an orphanage in Great Britain. He was someone in the last century who prayed and read, read and prayed. In his autobiography he told us that every morning he spent some time to draw near to God. You cannot say that during that time he was only reading the Word, nor can you say that he was only praying. In his coming before the Lord every morning he gave equal attention to both reading and praying and kept both in balance. He was one who used his mind to understand the Bible and exercised his spirit to contact the Word. Furthermore, he was also one who matched his reading with praying. Therefore, he was very living and fresh, as well as steady and solid before the Lord. (c) Living Stream Ministry.
Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Lessons on Prayer by Witness Lee, pp. 11-12. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].
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