BibleStudyMagazine.com recently interviewed John Piper:
BSM: There’s an old saying, “Familiarity breeds contempt.”
How do you keep your familiarity with the Bible from causing
you to grow indifferent to it?
PIPER: I pray Psalm 119:18 each time I go to the Bible: “Open my
eyes that I may behold wonders in your law.” I think the point of
that prayer is that there are wonders everywhere in “the law,” in
the Bible, the instruction of God. And the psalmist is aware that he
doesn’t often feel or see wonderful things as wonderful. So he asks
to see. I do as well. I’m asking specifically that I would have spiritual
eyes to see what is wonderful as wonderful. And don’t think that it
doesn’t matter that you read glorious things without seeing them as
glorious. It matters, and therefore we should plead with God to open
our eyes.
you can read the rest of the interview here
(HT: desiringgodblog)
2 comments:
Great advice. I was listening to Bruce Ware recently and he mentioned a little prayer that one of his seminary professors used to pray and that he also prayed regularly. I think this is a paraphrase, but I've made this little prayer a part of my own preparation. "Lord, open up Your word to me, and open up my heart to Your word... that I would both understand and be changed by it."
Blessings,
Simple Mann
I'm trying to make it a habit to approach God's word in this prayerful way, too. Pretty presumptious of me if I assume I can understand and apply it in my own strength.
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