Let me tell you a little secret!
(Charles Spurgeon) LISTEN to Audio! Download Audio
"Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Your law!" Psalm 119:18
Let me tell you a little secret: whenever you cannot understand a text, open your Bible, bend your knee, and pray over that text; and if it does not split into atoms and open itself, then try again. If prayer does not explain it, then it is one of those things that God did not intend you to know at present, and you may be content to be ignorant of it.
Prayer is the key that opens the cabinets of mystery. Prayer and faith are sacred picklocks that can open secrets, and obtain great treasures! There is no college for holy education like that of the blessed Spirit, for He is an ever-present tutor, to whom we have only to bend the knee, and He is at our side-the great Expositor of truth!
You will frequently find fresh streams of thought leaping up from the passage before you, as if the rock had been struck by Moses' rod! New veins of precious ore will be revealed to your astonished gaze as you quarry God's Word and use diligently the hammer of prayer!
"But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes-He will guide you into all truth!" John 16:13
"Every text prayed over opens a mine of 'unsearchable riches,' with a light from above, more clear and full than the most intelligent exposition." (Charles Bridges)
"A humble and prayerful spirit will find a thousand things in the Bible-which the proud, self-conceited student will utterly fail to discern." (J.C. Ryle)."
"There should be a definite asking Him to graciously anoint our eyes-not only that we may be enabled to behold wondrous things in His law, but also that He will make us of quick discernment to perceive how the passage before us applies to ourselves-what are the particular lessons we need to learn from it. The more we cultivate this habit, the more likely that God will be pleased to open His Word unto us." (Arthur Pink)