A few years ago I decided that I really wanted to learn to pray like Jesus prayed, and to see results like Jesus saw. So, thinking logically, I started asking God to teach me how to pray the way Jesus did. Interestingly, however, my prayer life did not seem to change. Not right away, at least. Rather, what changed is that I found myself wanting to spend more and more time studying God’s word. Eventually, after several years, my prayer life did start becoming deeper and more consistent, but it began with a deeper and more consistent engagement with Scripture.
I can honestly say that Bible study, for me, is not a chore; it’s something I have come to love very much. And when I’m not studying, I’m frequently meditating on what I’ve read. I’ll happily confess to being a Bible nerd. But I wasn’t always this way. Originally I was just a science nerd (which I still am as well), but I found that the more time I spent in God’s word, the more time I wanted to spend there, and now I agree with the psalmist when he wrote:
How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! (Psalm 119:103).
This all came out of asking God to teach me to pray like Christ. And in hindsight, it’s not hard to see why. Praying the way Christ prayed means praying in faith, without which it’s impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). But…
Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ (Romans 10:17).
This verse is part of the Apostle Paul’s defense of his ministry to the Gentiles; it was precisely because of his preaching the word of Christ that so many of them came to faith. But the statement applies more broadly to us as well. The better you know someone, after all, the better you can judge whether or not they can be trusted. But the apostles’ teaching about Christ is now our New Testament, just as their Scriptures are now our Old Testament. So spending time in God’s word: reading it, listening to it, studying it, memorizing it and meditating on it, is key to growing in faith, because through it we come to know better who God is.
This is not an optional add-on for super-Christians; the knowledge of God’s word is fundamental for every follower of Jesus. In the book of Hebrews we read:
In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil (Hebrews 5:12-14).
The author refers to “the elementary truths of God’s word” as “milk,” the food necessary for any infant to survive. But a healthy baby does not continue living on milk forever; they grow up and eventually learn to eat solid food. The “solid food” of this passage would be the more complex truths, the teachings that build on the basics. Once children are able to eat solid food they are no longer have to be fed by someone else; they can reach out and take the food for themselves. And as they continue to grow, they eventually learn how to prepare food, both for themselves, and for others.
The believers who received this letter could not handle solid food. They had not matured enough to have mastered even the most fundamental truths. In other words, they had not learned how to understand and apply God’s word. Perhaps they’d been lazy. More likely, they’d gotten busy making a living, raising their families, and otherwise dealing with everyday life. But regardless of the reason, the bottom line is that they had failed to mature. Unfortunately, that still happens to far too many believers.
So what are these elementary truths that God’s word teaches? Just a few verses later, the author of Hebrews lists them:
Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment (Hebrews 6:1-2).
Repentance, faith in God, cleansing rites (the Greek word here is baptismos. Many other English Bibles translate this as “baptisms.”), laying on of hands, the coming resurrection and the judgment of the dead. These are the things that the author of Hebrews calls “elementary,” and some of them are a bit surprising.
This is a good list to challenge yourself with; do you understand each of these subjects well enough to teach a new believer? Not that everyone will be called to teach a formal class, but any mature Christian should be able to explain the fundamentals to a friend or a loved one who is seeking. If you can’t, then, according to this passage of Scripture, you are still an infant yourself. That’s kind of sobering, but it can also be encouraging, because you already know what you need to do in order to grow up: the obvious way to master “the elementary truths of God’s word” is to study God’s word. Not only is this logical, but the Scriptures themselves affirm it:
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:14-17).
God’s word can even equip you to have a deeper prayer life, as I eventually discovered.
This is all well and good, but I can almost hear some of you out there already objecting that you don’t have time for a daily Bible study. And I have to tell you straight out, that’s not the truth. None of the apostles had any more time in their days than you or I do; they just used their time differently. And I offer this simple challenge to everyone reading this: if you’re not already spending time in the Scriptures every day, then spend fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes every day, or maybe leave it at six days a week and take a break on the seventh. And where do you get this fifteen minutes from? That’s easy. What the least important thing you do during the day? Take a few moments and really think about this; the least important thing. Is it watching TV? Playing video games? Scrolling on your phone? Whatever you decide it is, do less of that. Fifteen minutes less. Then spend those fifteen minutes reading the Bible. If you don’t know how to start, I wrote an entire article about that.
Pretty much anybody can divert fifteen minutes out of their daily activities to the study of God’s word. But most people won’t. They’ll continue doing what they’ve always done, and be satisfied with getting the results they’ve always gotten. And after ten years, or twenty, or fifty, they won’t have grown any closer to Jesus than they are right now. Don’t be like them.
But at the same time, don’t try to take on more than you can manage every day. Committing yourself to an hour a day might stroke your pride, but that’s not a commitment you’re likely to be able to keep. If studying the Bible is not something you’re already doing, I guarantee you’re going to be shocked at how often circumstances will conspire to make it hard to put in the time. You have an enemy, you see, and he will go to the wall to keep you away from God’s word. I’ve been doing this for years now, and every day, when I sit down with the Bible, I still have to pray that God will block out every distraction, and open my ears to clearly hear what he wants to teach me.
If you want to grow in your walk with Christ, there are two fundamental facts of life that you’ll have to come to an accommodation with. The first is that there are twenty-four hours in a day. No matter how urgently you need more time, you can’t change that. You will do the things that are actually important to you, and you’ll let the other things go. Notice that I didn’t say you should do the things that you count as important, but you will do them. The way you use your time will always reveal your true priorities.
The second fundamental fact is that you get better at the things you practice, and you don’t get better at the things you don’t practice. Usually, in fact, you’ll get worse, because whatever skill you might have to begin with will atrophy over time if it isn’t reinforced. Hebrews 5:14 reminds us that:
Solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
Constant use, it says. Maturity is not a class you take once and graduate, it’s a daily exercise. It’s not always exciting, although I fairly often find myself getting excited over connections I discover in Scripture. And it takes time; growth to maturity in Christ does not happen all at once, but little by little as we learn to follow him. But why shouldn’t it take time? Even Jesus took thirty years to prepare for a three year ministry. For myself, I fully expect that growing to maturity in Christ will take the rest of my life; the process won’t be complete until I see him face to face (1 Corinthians 13:12).
And it’s important, too, to understand that, even though I’m putting in the effort and the time to study God’s word, it’s still the Holy Spirit that produces the growth. Without him, I can’t even begin to understand the things of God, no matter how much I study (1 Corinthians 2:14). But I also must put in both the time and the effort. The Holy Spirit wants to work with me, not despite me (Philippians 2:12-13).
So that’s my journey, beginning with the desire to grow stronger in prayer, which lead to falling in love with God’s word, which in turn has opened up so much more. My journey has only begun; I invite you to join me.