Grow Your Delight In God’s Word (Part 2) – Pray For Delight

“Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.”

Psalm 119:18

Read the others posts in this series – Post #1 Series Intro; Post #2 Pray for Delight; Post #3 Plan for Delight; Post #4 Read With Others Who Delight. Post #5 “Know God’s Delight.“ 

We Need Supernatural Help

Wanting to read the Bible, let alone understanding the Bible, is a supernatural thing. First Corinthians 2:14 says, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”

So in our own natural means apart from the Spirit, we simply won’t be able to foster a growing desire to read the Bible. We can’t do it on our own. We won’t understand spiritual things or even desire to read spiritual things apart from supernatural help, the help of the Spirit. 

Open Our Eyes

Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible, celebrates God’s Word and the help and beauty it offers to those who delight in it. My favorite prayer from Psalm 119 is verse 18, which says, “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.” I love to pray this verse before I preach and I pasted it into the header of my Google Doc Bible journal so it shows up on every page to remind me to pray for God to open my eyes to his Word before I begin to study.

For us to see the beauty of God’s Word, to grasp the help it offers us, and to celebrate the overarching story of redemption found in the Bible, we need open eyes. We are blind to the wonder in the Bible before us, so we pray to God for eyes to behold the wonder of his Word. 

Lord, Help Us

If we want to read the Bible more, we must start by praying that God stirs within us a growing desire for his Word. 

Lord, you are good so your Word to us is good. In your Word, we find hope, we find help, we find strength, and encouragement, and your great and faithful promises to us. But most of all, in your Word we find you. Father, we ask that you open our eyes so that we can behold wondrous things out of your Word. Give us eyes to see in your Word the amazing truth and effects of the gospel in our lives. Grow our delight for your Word and help us to respond obediently when you draw us to read it. Thanks for not being silent in our lives, but for speaking to us through your Word by the enlightening help of the Spirit. In Jesus name, Amen. 

Check back tomorrow for post #3 in this 5-part series, “Planning for Delight.”