Why Your Daily Time in The Bible is So Important – Part 4 — A ‘Time With God’ Audio Devotion

Truly God is good to Israel,
    to those whose hearts are pure.
But as for me, I almost lost my footing.
    My feet were slipping, and I was almost gone.
For I envied the proud
    when I saw them prosper despite their wickedness.

You guide me with your counsel,
    leading me to a glorious destiny.

Psalm 73:1-3, 24 (NLT)

Subscribe to the ‘Time With God’ Podcast

Transcript

Good morning.

Welcome to Thursday and another time with God as we stop at this time each weekday morning and just listen to God in His word, the Bible, and what he has to say to us. And in fact, all this week we’re talking about why your daily time with God in the Bible is so very important for your life.

We’ve looked at the point that God’s perspective that we get from the Bible always gives us hope.

We saw on Tuesday that God’s word gives you a basis for making life’s decisions.

Hope 103.2 is proudly supported by

Then yesterday we saw that God Himself personally meets with you and speaks with you through His Word.

Today I want us to go to a passage near the end of the Bible in the little Book of 1st John in the New Testament chapter 5 and starting in verse 13. Here’s what John writes to these people. He’s been saying a bunch of things in this book, and he says:

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

Well, this is one of those passages that you read at first time through, and you think, well, that’s hard to believe.

It’s hard to believe, but it’s true. Let me just read those last two verses again. This is the confidence we have toward God that if we ask anything according to His will, notice that that’s the key point, right? Not just if we ask anything, but if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

Now many times when we think about praying to God and we know the things we want God to do. And sometimes people will say, well, I’m claiming this verse, right? And I’m gonna ask, and I know that God is going to give me the request I’ve asked for. Well, the fact that you want it doesn’t mean it’s his will, right?

Maybe you think, well, then there’s just a catch-22 that gets God out of anything, you know, it’s either going to happen or it’s not, and we can say God did it if it was his will, and he didn’t, if it wasn’t, so what’s the point of prayer? There’s no way to know what his will is.

Well, that’s not right, is it? And the point of this verse is, the more you get to know God and the more you understand what His purposes in this world are, the more confident you will become in prayer.

And how are you going to know what God’s will is?

You’re going to know it by soaking your life in the Word of God.

Each day take a little time. Open God’s word and read it. Don’t just read the passages that you’re especially drawn to or that you love. Get a Bible reading plan and start reading through the Bible. For me, I just read a chapter a day. I start in Genesis, gradually work my way up the several years through to the end of Revelation in the New Testament.

Some people feel like, well, I want a bit of Old Testament, a bit of New Testament, and so they’ll read a chapter of both each day. I don’t know what you’re going to do, but make sure you work your way through the Bible so you learn what God’s agenda in this world is, what he’s on about. He’s the one who made this world and the people in it, including you, and he has something he wants to do in and through you.

And when you get your life aligned with God’s agenda, then you can pray with confidence and see God answering your prayers. If we know that He hears us, we know that we have the requests, and if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. So get to know the will of God by soaking your life in His Word every day of your life.

I’m John North.

To go deeper in your faith, visit AFCI.com.au.

Feature image: CanvaPro