| Bible Hopscotch |
|
| |
Sometimes my Bible reading is like a game of hopscotch. I always read my daily Psalms, but then I may hop from the Old Testament, and then to the New Testament, and then I may turn around and hop back to the Old Testament. That's what I did last night.
I always start with my Psalms, but then I hopped on over to Nehemiah.
2:4 Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. I have been getting to know Nehemiah. He was an incredible man -- so bold and so confident in his faith and constantly praying about everything. Gee.... I wouldn't mind meeting a present-day Nehemiah in a few years! Anyway, I am applying some of Kay Arthur's Inductive Bible study principles as I get to know Nehemiah. I have gone through the book of Nehemiah and highlighted every time Nehemiah prayed. Then I went back through and highlighted every time he expressed his confidence/faith in the Lord when others would begin to doubt or show opposition. It's amazing to see the big picture of who Nehemiah was and how he lived his life.
Anyway, so after doing that, I hopped on over to the New Testament. I've tried to keep up with the Tuesday night CPR group as they have studied Philippians and Colossians. I'm not where they are, but I have been studying through Colossians little by little. Last night, my study in Colossians led me to Colossians 4:2
4:2 Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving; Wow - that is exactly what I've been learning about Nehemiah. He was certainly a man who was "devoted to prayer" as the NIV version says it.
I want to be more like Nehemiah -- I want to let prayer be my very first knee jerk reaction to each and every situation. Oh, I usually pray about it -- but often it's after I tried to figure it out on my own. I want to be in a constant state of prayer - just a natural conversation back and forth with the Lord all throughout the day.
|
|