Prayer for Word-Hunger

A blogging lull, I know. My writing will be revived in time.

For now, I will share with the public a letter I just wrote to my church.  I hope it is helpful to you, too!

Thanks, Brother Trent Senske, for preaching the Word today, for stoking the fires of passion to be engaging with the Word! 

I need prayer, and we all do, that we will stay hungry for the feast of the Word.  One reason I struggle with taking in the Bible is not that I don't know how to read it, but that it is a spiritual battle for my mind and heart.  Something else is always trying to pull my desire away from the Word.

So let's fight in prayer together, brothers and sisters of Coram Deo!  Let's fight the temptation to become Word-anemic, and let us pray together that we will gorge ourselves on it daily, even hourly.  (Recall Clatterbuck's excellent sermon from Isaiah 55:  "How to Feast Well").

I have been so refreshed and blessed by two excellent resources.  I can't hold myself back from sharing them with you, church family.

One is "An Approach to Extended Memorization of Scripture" by Dr. Andrew Davis.Click Here

Last year some of us memorized Titus upon Pastor Bob's steak challenge, which is only 3 chapters.  I commend to you this form of meditation on God's Word, which is useful for moms like me, who don't have as much time to carry a Bible around or to look at an app on the phone.  Memorizing has been the hardest but richest discipline I have ever done, and oh! the rewards God has returned to me in timely moments!

The little booklet is only 99 cents, and it is a quick read to inspire, to motivate, and to teach you to memorize scripture.  If you have never memorized scripture, begin by taking the assignment to memorize Psalm 1.  It is just like training for a marathon, you actually work up to longer parts by starting with the shorter.

Second, I must share with you "Praying the Bible" by Donald S Whitney, a seminary professor in KY.Click Here

This is worth a quick sit down for one hour.  It is such a helpful and powerful way to engage the Bible and to bring vitality to my prayer life!  Ever since I read this booklet I have been praying daily through five Psalms, using the helpful method he gives.

The author quotes "the godly nineteenth-century godly Scottish pastor Robert Murray M'Cheyne...when he said, 'Turn the Bible into prayer...this is the best way of knowing the Bible, and of learning to pray.'"  Through praying the Bible we use God's language and keep our minds from wandering in prayer.

Pray that we will be a church packed with people in whom God's Word dwells richly and who delight in and meditate on His Word day and night.

Your sister,
Jessica Becker